Simon, a Social Work colleague of mine, somehow managed to convince me that joining a rowing team for a Fun Regatta at the Hereford Rowing Club would be something I desperately need to do before I die.
So, 4 practices (1 of which I forgot about...oops), sore arms and butterflies in my stomach later, on Saturday I balanced precariously in the boat in question in order to compete for eventual branding of most-ridiculous-American-sounding Rower of the Regatta. To his credit, Simon was correct. I had a very good time. I rowed with Steph and Rhiannon (who are admin support from the office) as well as Claire, a friend of Steph's. And of course Simon sitting in the front of the boat steering and screaming at us. Yay! So, we won our first race and were on a roll... In the above video, we're the boat on the right. And we won by like 2 feet. Very close race. By the way, apologies for the resolution of the images. Cell phone video cameras are not exactly great for distance shots, I suppose...
When it came time to race the older-women-in-stripes team, Simon totally steered us into a tree on the bank. Guh. So we lost, but as you can view if you wish, we TOTALLY gave them a run for their money considering we had to disentangle ourselves from a tree. If not for the tree and bank, we would have raced for the title and prize. Alas. We're the boat on the left in the below video. In both, I am the front rower in the yellow t-shirt.
We were the all-female boat; the all-male boat from the team included Sean the Psychologist (green), Richard the OT (blue), Geoff the Senior Practitioner Nurse (yellow) and Mark the guy without a formal title (white). Simon is in the front of the boat (orange and blue). They lost horribly and appeared to flail even worse than we did. It was totally hilarious. They took their losses fairly hard, though. It's too bad we didn't get to race them, 'cause if we did we would have kicked their asses and I would have had something to lord over them come Monday.The race had started off rather ominously as well, with the first boat of the day tipping straight over when the rowers tried to start. It was totally brutal to watch. They managed to tear half the boat off during their dunk and rescue. And they were really miserable and everyone was taking pictures of them. Schadenfreude, anyone...? Then, at the end of the day, there was a collision when one boat ran perpendicular into another and punched a hole straight through the hull. You could see pieces of wood floating away from that one. The crunching sound was also painful to hear. According to one of the organizers, prior to this year they haven't had as much as a pair of wet socks at the end of the event... So, to conclude--well worth the big purple and black bruises that appeared today as a result of my legs banging against the seat tracks. I didn't even know that I was doing it, and initially thought it was just dirt. LOL.
This week we're preparing for our trip with Daniel. I have ended up having to go and do a visit with just outside of London, so we're actually heading out on Thursday instead of Friday. We pick him up at Heathrow airport at 11:30 on Friday morning and make our way to a hotel for him to crash in and then fly out of Luton airport bright and early at 6:30am to head to Rome on Saturday. Yay! I am so totally, completely and utterly psyched about this. It's gonna be great. We're in Rome for 4 nights at the Tiber Village Campsite and Hostel which has a pool and is in a secluded area, perfect for Daniel. Then we're on to Barcelona for 2 nights, staying right downtown. And then we're back to London for 1 night, staying in Greenwich and ensuring a stop at The London Eye. Never in my life have I looked forward to a holiday as much as this one.
Oh, also, because I am apparently lazy and forgetful the Holland postcards haven't actually been posted yet. Sorry about that. They should be on their way before we head off, though.
What Mike didn't mention in his 2 posts about Amsterdam is that we both came to a teeth-clenching realization on the bus (stupid 'Engineering Works') from Birmingham Airport to Birmingham New Street how we need to immediately improve our budgeting and finance management skills re: European travel. Granted the Amsterdam trip was only booked a few weeks before we went, but in just over 48 hours we managed to spend the equivalent of $1,200 CAD. Yes, yes we did. So I'm actually glad we took that trip so that we know to watch ourselves this time around. Neither of us had really thought about the finances until we were looking for change for sandwiches and realized we only had 2 Euro left. Talk about violently sucking in breath. This time, we're savvy and also on a budget.
Hope all is well back there. The weather here has been gorgeous for the last couple weeks, well into the 20s throughout the day and supposedly it will remain comparably nice until we head off on Saturday morning. The bright sunshine which has made me so happy. But, the air smells bad all the time right now as the farmers are busy 'spreading muck' according to Alan. Ick. Rome and Barcelona are both supposed to hot while we're there, so hopefully we'll get some not stinky hot winds to warm our faces.
For now, I am off and likely won't post again until we return on the 22nd.
BTW, Is everyone else looking forward to Brit Brit's inevitably disastrous performance at the VMAs as much as I am? 9pm Vegas time--I look forward to recaps over tomorrow morning's breakfast.
OMG! The goats are here! Gotta' go.
XOXOXOX to y'all!
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