Brecon Weekend - 09/01/10

Well we should have been training in Snowdon, but that was cancelled due to the dreadful weather and not being able to get up there - so Gary arranged for a hard training session in the Brecon Beacons followed by team building at Jacquie's in St Fagans with us all staying over in her house and camping in the garden. I by now had got Angie's bad cold and cough and could hardly speak, but still did my best so opted to sleep in a nice warm bed - Gary, Alan, Diane, Karen, and Jacquie decided to test their sleeping bags by camping in tents in the garden - Brrrrrr!!!  Had a fab meal in the Post Office - fab restaurant, followed by partying at Jacquie's for some until 5.15am in the morning - It was fun at the time but not when you have to get up by 7.30am as HTV were coming to film us - silly!!!  We then did another training session and more filming up the Garth - boy I was glad to get home!!!  See us on the HTV news on youtube!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq0-GGpofvg
 

Snow Training in Wenvoe - 06/01/10

Couldn't get into work last Wednesday had heavy snow and had already bumped my car so asked my boss if I could work from home to which he agreed - thank you Robert.  During my lunch hour (honest) my kids and I and Angie and her daughter and friend went sledging - well we were supposed to be walking as well which we did a bit of but to be honest not much!  We had fun anyway and it was excercise!!

Final walk of Jan's Xmas walking week - 03/01/10

Jan's final Xmas walk was another one to the Garth - i had missed 3 of her walks - Brecon, Sugar Loaf and can't remember the other one - but hats off to Jan and Jacquie they had completed all 7 walks!!!  Me, Diane, Jan and Jacquie did this one as others had colds etc etc.

Walking with best friends - 02/01/10

Decided not to go to Brecon with the rest of the group as we'd had more snow the night so chickened out of driving to Brecon and Angie was still unwell.  Roped my best friends into going for a long walk through Dinas Powys to Michaelston Le Pit then back up through Dinas Golf Club - not a bad 2 hour walk, and Nick had designed it so we went up all the hills she could find but her poor dog Rosie could hardly walk at the end - she's 12 years old and not too good on her feet anymore - sorry Rosie!

More training - The Garth 30th December

Ang wasn't well so I went on another training session of Janet and Jacquie's Xmas week of walks,without my partner. This time to the Garth as the snow had been bad in Brecon so we decided to have an easy day - Jacquie said we had to walk slowly the way we'd have to on Kili - so it took us nearly 3 hours and Karen Dell'Armi who is normally slower than the rest us we were telling her to slow down!!! - She loved that! Anway me, Jan, Jac and Karen had a laugh with Janet running up the final bit of the Garth and then insisting we went up and down yet another hill - thanks Jan!

Abseiling Fundraising Event

Jacquie and Gary organised an abseiling event with the Celtic Manor - Entrants had to raise at least £100's worth of sponsorship to enter! We had over 30 entrants and foolishly after Jacquie saying casually to me that all Kili ladies could do it for the cause so to speak and me being me thinking that if everyone else was doing it I was going to have to part take in it - I wasn't convinced it was the right thing to do as I'm very afraid of heights and drops! My husband however had decided on a drunken night out with the boys to do it and had raised £120 worth of sponsorship so I thought that if he could do it so could I - When Angie then rang me I told her I was doing it as all the Kili girls could do it she said that she'd do it too despite her being afraid of heights!  Well we got to the Celtic Manor and inspected where we were doing it which was on the roof garden at the Celtic Manor and Gary had set up scaffolding and a ladder - we looked at it and the drop it entailed and I said to Ang "I don't think I can do it"  She said that if she was doing it I was doing it and you don't argue with Ang!! We then found out from Jacquie that in fact it was only us and Cerys from the Kili group that were doing the abseil  - Gary and Liz who also were doing Kili had done it but were seasoned abseilers and had organised it so didn't count!!!  We raised approx £5K so it was an extremely worthwhile fundraiser - Well done Jac, Gary and Liz!

Walking in the Snow - Brecon Beacons - 29th December

Part of our Christmas Training Walk week that Jacquie had organised!  We drove to the Beacon Beacons in the snow - got to the Corn Du car park and it was snowing hard - had a team meeting should we go or should we return?  No we're warriors - we went - me, Angie, Jacquie, Jan, and Di - It was slippery and in blizzard conditions -it was cold, very very cold!  However there were surprising quite a few hardnened walkers doing it!  We were 3/4's up the pass to Corn Du/Pen-y-Fan almost being blown backwards and visability extremely poor when we were told by some walking coming back down that it was too treacherous to go any further as the weather conditions were too poor, so we decided to go back down the track and be sensible for a change.  We should have had a sledge as it would have been easier, we all slipped and fell a few times, but got back down safely!  Decided we deserved a drink at the hotel down the road and nearly stayed there!!! It was so picturesque!  Great experience for Kili due to the extreme weather conditions and we know we can do it now (I hope anyway).