An evening of encouragement, testosterone and laughter

Well it's been a while since I've been on here, and I have an excuse..I was away in the US for two weeks and have been playing catch up with work emails and clients since then.
My friend Gillian is back from her travels, and it was lovely having her to stay for a few nights. We were able to discuss more about the plans for her to drive my car and carry all my essentials..chocolate, lip gloss, Clarins perfume and moisturiser and my ipod charger. She'll also not mind (I've told her she's not allowed to) me crying and moaning about the pain, the weather, the hills, my inability to cope and her job will be to pamper to my every whim, slap me if necessary and remind me in my darker moments of the good reason why I'm doing this!
During Gillian's stay we arranged to go through to Perth fire station to meet the fire crew who are going to join us on day 7 & 8 of the 10 day cycle. As Gillian has been travelling in countries near the equator she has quite a tan...on top of that she's naturally beautiful, and I had hoped she would ugly herself up a bit before we went to Perth - it seemed only right that I should be the pretty one, but alas she didn't..so that was annoying. Fortunately though that was the only annoying aspect of the visit. The crew were lovely and I'm so chuffed they're going to be helping raise money for SHELTER - I feel quite moved by their kindness, and excited that 7 days into my challenge I'll have their banter and humour to keep me going for a couple of days! I think it's incredibly generous of them to give up their time and days off to support this event, and I'm looking forward to having their company on those 2 days. I explained when I talked with them that I'm also raising money for the equivalent to SHELTER in Canada called, "Raising the Roof" and also for a homeless organisation in Australia called, "Swags for the Homeless". Most families have relations and friends in all corners of the world so I'm hoping that if they know folk in those countries who might want to sponsor them, then the money they donate can be used in their country by either of those 2 charities.
Next week training will start again in earnest....a village near here...do my jokes ever end?! I'll keep you posted.

"Do all the good you can,
By all the means you can,
In all the ways you can,
At all the times you can,
To all the people you can,
As long as ever you can." - John Wesley.