I’ve felt really happy this week. Not sure whether it’s just because the sun is shining and spring is truly up and running now.

The week started with a couple of films – firstly Eye in the Sky. This is Alan Rickman’s last outing, and also stars the fabulous Helen Mirren, although in a role that you don’t normally see her play. The film follows a UK military plot to capture some terrorists (using a drone, hence the Eye in the Sky), but the mission turns to a ‘kill’ mission, which is likely to have some devastating effects for the local civilians. It’s full of suspense and ‘what would I do’ thought-provoking moments and I can highly recommend it. We then also watched the more light-hearted Eddie the Eagle. While not outstanding compared to Eye in the Sky, it certainly had its moments and was just a generally uplifting and inspiring story. 

​We tried out a new tapas restaurant in Edinburgh (well, new to us) called El Quijote, near Tollcross. It was pretty good food-wise, but the main thing that kept me happy was the huge jug of Sangria we ordered. Alongside the Spanish dessert wine they brought us with our dessert, this takes my different types of alcohol to 27……only 3 more to go to complete one of my challenge items!

Over the weekend, I also cooked a new recipe, another Simply Cook invention of Malay Laksa. It didn't look as well presented as the picture on the recipe card, but it was really delicious!
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Monday was my Mum’s birthday, so another card opportunity, taking me up to 11. I’m going to have to get moving on some of these challenge items, as I’m nearly at half way, time-wise, but not half-way on most of the items.

Monday also saw another opportunity taken, where I volunteered to be supervisor for a Duke of Edinburgh group. Although I am now trying to get more paid work in the outdoor industry, the school were in desperate need of a volunteer, so I signed up to help. And it did pay off, in that one of the other volunteers was actually an MIC (super-guru mountaineer) in charge of hiring freelance staff for an outdoor centre in Edinburgh, so I now have 5 days paid work from him. 

During the week, I had another networking meeting, with a guy called Geoffrey Baines, who calls himself a ‘DreamWhisperer.’ He helps people to discover their unique talents and strengths and support them in following their dreams. He also blogs every day, with a doodle included.
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The middle of the week then saw one new hairstyle, of rope plait pigtails. Given last week’s step class injury, I didn’t do any new fitness classes, but I spent ages finishing another colouring picture, which I like to call An Explosion of Colour. This one tested my OCD tendencies by not having a set colour scheme for the whole picture, instead doing each little section with a colour scheme of its own. Crazy, right!?

On Wednesday night, given Matt was away with work, I indulged myself in another new film and got entirely caught up with the fairytale of Cinderella. Knowing the old Disney animated version quite well, I thought the live action version was a brilliant adaptation that really captured the magic and romance of the whole situation. It left me longing, once again, to be a Princess, and reinforced my unrealistic expectation of romance, but I really enjoyed it.

My learnings this week:
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1. Volunteering can really pay off, not just in the feel-good factor of doing some good and worthwhile, but you never know what connections you’ll make and where it’ll lead you.
2. Its amazing how ‘out of your comfort zone’ a colouring book can make you feel. Orange, next to pink! My, my……
3. Secretly, I still want to be a princess in a fairytale. 

So, 4 weeks worth in one blog post…… I’ve been very busy!

Week 21 was my Winter ML Assessment. This involved being away for a very intense week of navigation through white-out and night-time, security on steep ground using a rope, ice-axe and crampon skills and digging and sleeping in a snow hole! I didn’t tell many people I was doing it as I was scared of failing, but in fact, I passed with flying colours! I added a new type of exercise to my challenge – snow-hole digging! It took us 4 hours of hard shovelling to dig out a hole big enough for 4 of us. By the time it was finished, and decked out with battery-powered fairy lights, it was really quite pleasant.
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On my assessment, I also met some interesting people also being assessed, in particular Matt and John. Matt runs an outdoor company in the Lake District, has summited Scafell Park over 200 times in 7 years, and was great fun to be around. He was a very competent mountaineer and helped to put me at ease throughout the course. John worked for Matt’s company and was responsible for the fairy lights in the snow hole. Also a very competent mountaineer, I feel he was robbed of a pass-mark by an over-zealous assessor on his navigation. Matt and John are both married (to women), and are not, as one of the other candidates assumed, a gay couple!

My Winter ML qualification then led on to another ‘opportunity.’ Late one night, just 5 days after passing, I saw a post on facebook requesting a last-minute Winter ML person to lead a group up Ben Nevis the next day. I jumped at the chance to use my new qualification, and before I knew it, was up at 5.30am to drive up to Fort William. This day then led to 2 further days guiding on Ben Nevis the following week. This also gave me the opportunity to meet more interesting people.

Dean, my client on the first day, had just finished the West Highland Way with 2 mates (they were also interesting, but I didn’t speak to them that much, as I was mostly keeping Dean company at the back of the group.) He works in the city in London and had once done the 3 peaks, in his fitter days. Dean was ‘slow and steady’ up the mountain and we enjoyed great conversation all the way up. My clients later in the week were 2 guys and a girl from Lebanon (James, Mary and Samy) – we discussed life in Lebanon, the war in Syria, religion, politics and all those other things you shouldn’t discuss when first meeting someone.

And my final client was Aisha, a young Malaysian women. Within about 10 minutes of leaving the hostel to start up Ben Nevis, Aisha was sick. A further 100metres on, she was sick again, and we decided it wasn’t the best idea to carry on. After a slow descent back to the starting point, she then decided she felt better and could try again, so we made our way slowly up. After summiting, Aisha admitted that she’d come to climb Ben Nevis to ‘do something impossible’ and prove to her mum that she wasn’t ‘fragile.’ She asked me to record a video to her mum saying how well she’d done to summit in full winter conditions. She was rightly very proud of herself and hopefully left with a greater sense of self-confidence in her abilities. 

After a short week to recover from my Winter ML, I then joined the scouts at Lochearnhead for their mountaineering course, and caught up with some old friends, many of whom I saw at Christmas, or didn’t get much chance to speak to. However, I’m counting Mark Tullberg and Geoff Brown as ones for my challenge, as I had a long chat with each of them. I also managed a bit of ‘ninja coaching’ with Geoff on our descent, so that’s another free coaching session given.

Next came my Mum’s Wedding down in Ely, near Cambridge. It was a fabulous day, a really joyful occasion full of family, and also a chance to catch up with some very old family friends. I met Hilary Barnes, who had been my Year 5 and Year 6 teacher. She’s now very happily retired. She recognised me, but didn’t recognise my brother, who looks quite different from his school days (a few too many beers and pizzas.) I also saw Mike and Christine, old family friends who are very special. Mike was my mum’s physics teacher, so has known her since she was 11, and my Gran worked for him as his secretary. Also there were Debbie and Les, again old family friends that we used to go on holiday with, and Clare and Paul, who I remember used to have a tortoise. I also saw my Godfather, Dave Crow, a lovely cheeky chappy who makes everyone smile.

​The wedding also provided an opportunity – my Mum asked me to sing Fields of Gold. However, as there was no piano at the venue, I worked, via email, with the classical guitarist who was playing for the wedding, to get him to play an accompaniment. Given that he doesn’t read music and learns everything by ear, this was somewhat challenging, but judging by all the tears from the audience, we nailed it!

The wedding also provided the opportunity for a fantastic hairstyle, done by a professional, and some focused weight loss efforts, although with everything else going on, I only managed a further 2lbs. I also added to my alcohol count with some prosecco and white wine. And also an act of kindness: at the end of the night, my cousin Michael, my brother Matt and my partner Matt put on the song ‘Let It Go’ from Frozen and performed (rather drunkenly) along to it at full volume. To protect their dignity, I have (so far….) not uploaded it to Facebook despite an overwhelming urge to do so!

Back in the real world, I’ve managed some different types of exercise this week through my fitness classes at the gym. I’ve done pilates, Synergy 360, Step class, and I was the only person under 60 in the Line Dancing class, which was great fun!
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Finally, I’ve also completed 2 more colouring pictures in the period, and also made a new recipe (using the Simply Cook posted flavour pots) of Dukkeh Spiced Salmon. Mmmm, tasty.
 
My learnings from these 4 weeks have been:

1. Its amazing what you can achieve when you put your mind to it and have confidence in yourself. I never imagined that I would be a Winter Mountain Leader and I’m really proud of myself for getting it.
2. The warm-up part of an exercise class is actually really important. Yesterday, after missing it at Step class due to bad traffic, towards the end of class, I felt something ‘twang’ in my calf and haven’t been able to walk since. Lesson learnt
3. Even full grown men (or perhaps, especially full-grown men) love ‘Let It Go’ from Frozen.