EASY STEP TO DYEING YOUR BRA!

I fell at the first hurdle, you have to have some rubber gloves (I have never possessed a pair of rubber gloves!). I have since done a straw poll with some of my friends and they all have rubber gloves - I now feel a little inferior/let down - why hasnt anyone told me about having to have some!).

Not one to be beaten by the lack of a pair of gloves(!), I just got on with it 'gloveless'.

Tom and I were now no longer speaking .............. He said I shouldn't have used the bowl he uses to clean the windows with (I would normally use a cloth!), and there were about 4 buckets in the shed (all full of spiders) I should have been using, I suggesed he use those to clean his windows with!

Hands full of pink dye I realised I needed some salt (well you would wouldnt you!), so I had to speak to Tom after all - he moaned as he spooned in 4 tbsp (is that table spoons / tea spoons or soup spoons as Tom was using - I thought it best not to say anything AGAIN). I continued to stir for 15 minutes and then left for 45 minutes. In the meantime I was trying to cook the sunday lunch and had to put the timer on for the first 15 minutes of cooking time (at my age you need the timer as I usually forget what time I put it in the oven). Tom assured me he would know when the 45 minutes for the bra deying were up (we were speaking again, by then!). But he wasnt going to put his hands in that pink stuff and that would be up to me. By this time, the pinger on the first 15 minutes for the sunday lunch had gone off which meant I had to turn down the oven temperature, but my hands were full of pink dye as I was just in the middle of a "stir" ......... who was going to turn the oven down? Tom was in the other room watching the Grand Prix, I didnt really know what he was going to say to me when he came in (althought I could imagine!). Boldly going where I didnt really want to go, I shouted him and asked if he could just 'pop into the kitchen', he did happen to mention he was watching the grand prix, but I said it was desperate. The oven was turned down a few degrees, I smiled, he said 'what'? .... could he please put on the timer for 45 minutes ........ all I can say, is that I am glad United beat spurs yesterday !!!

The timer pinged - 45 minutes was up - at least the meat was well on its way to be cooked, but the bras had been in the bowl too long (Tom had forgotten it was his job to tell me when the 45 minutes was up, because he thought he had set the timer for that, I explained the timer had been set for the meat).

I couldnt fnd the instructions for the dyeing because they had been thrown out in an earlier 'discussion' I had had with Tom. I remembered something about having to put the bra(s) into some cold water, but where was I to put the luke warm redundant pink water - we now had a lovely pink sink (it is normally white). Quickly getting out the jif I was scrubbing the sink when Tom came into the kitchen to see if there was anything he could do to help, I did say everything was under control, I don't know why - but he didn't believe me!!!! He spotted the now empty bowl (yes, you know the one, his favourite bowl for washing the windows) which just had 2 pink bra(s) in and was a lovely shade of pink - he looked at me and said in typical Victor Meldrew style 'I don't believe it'!!! As you can imagine a few harsh words were spoken and he left the room. The pinger then went off again, which meant the meat had to be checked, I couldnt ask Tom to come back in the kitchen again, could I ?

Needless to say, we did get to eat our Sunday lunch and the bra(s) are now a beautiful shade of pink ready to be decorated next weekend.

..... and now for the walking news, we completed our 20 mile walk in 5 hours 15 minutes - the highlight of the day was eating our bacon butties and tiffin whilst sitting in the foot passenger ferry going from Sawrey over to Bowness ....... perfect !

Look out for bra decorating tips next week !.

Jude x

WE CAN'T GET OVER ..........

.........the weather! What a glorious week!

The good news is - our bras have arrived - along with our numbers (not too sure where we are to put these as in theory we will only be wearing a bra and tracky bottoms !!). We immediately "dashed" off to to purchase some items to decorate the bras with. Pink feather boas are the order of the day. We have to dye our bras first - so I have bought some 'electric pink' dye - I havent decorated a bra before, but I feel sure it can't be difficult, can it !

We have also received our 'registration' for the Star Walk in Kendal on the 9th May 2009. Fortunately for this event we don't need to docorate a bra and we just have T-shirts to wear. The star walk is a week before our marathon so we are using this as part of our 'training'. We are hoping to finish in a decent time and then have an easy week on the run-up to the 16th.

We are doing a 20-mile walk next Saturday (25th April). The plan is for Paul (Joanne's husband) to drop us off at Mum's in Hawkshead. She is going to supply us with a bacon buttie each (and some tiffin). We then plan to walk to the ferry at Sawrey. This was the plan, but I have just read the local paper and the ferry closes this weekend for its annual, well, not exactly annual, but 5-year service (I wish my car only had a 5-year service, it would be much cheaper). There is still supposed to be a ferry for foot passengers, but its about 5 miles from where Mum lives, so don't really want to walk there to find we can't get across the lake! (Mum will have to be on standby to come and collect us). Anyway, hoping we get over on the ferry, its onto the Crook road towards Kendal, but we are going to take a left turning towards Burneside over the bypass and then pop into Burneside, over to the shap road and then head our way back to Natland - easy peasy. Tom is on standby at some stage of our walk - he said he will bring us drinks and a sandwich - I think he thinks we are just going for a picnic!

Of course, this time next week we will have done it (I DO sound confident don't I!).

Did you know that walking (or running) a marathon is 65% mental and 35% physical..... no neither did I...... until I started to train for this marathon.

Thats it until next week, apart from - I thought Ronaldo's goal last week was superb and I hope they win today.

Over and out - Jude xx

EASTER WEEKEND

Good news on the fundraising front - we have now reached £500.00 - half way there. Thanks to everyone who has contributed.

No walking this weekend - we are 'resting'.

Jude x

Levens Park

THE WEATHER IS GLORIOUS

What a brilliant week. The weather has been great. We walked last Sunday. We were out for a couple of hours and it was glorious. What a difference the weather has made. I actually want to go out at night!

We went for a 16 mile walk yesterday (Saturday), for those of you who live locally, we walked under the Helm along to the Station Pub. We continued to Mealbank (is that the right spelling !), I didnt even know the place existed - but it looked very nice. We eventually arrived in Burneside and then walked back into Kendal and came back to Natland via the canal. No more walking now until Monday (thank goodness).

We are only doing an hourly walk Monday / Tuesday and Wednesday and then 'resting' over Easter weekend. Suits me down to the ground ....... do you get the feeling I am not quite as enthusiastic as I was !!

Joanne and I have also received confirmation we will be doing the Kendal Moonwalk. This year it starts at 9pm (instead of midnight). Its a week before our event in London, so we will use this as part of our 'training'.

Thanks to everyone who has sponsored us - our total has moved to an impressive £460 - well on its way to our target of £1000. Once again thanks to everyone who has sponsored us both and to all your comments - although some are a little sarcastic !!

I may even manage to get some photos published next weekend (Easter). We went round Levens Park last Sunday and managed to get some photos of the deer.

See you next week and lets hope for more good weather.

jude xx