Runner beings

While negotiating the wet cobblestones of Wapping yesterday it struck me that I am really going to miss running when I'm on the rally. Running is what I do to unwind, it's how I clear my head, it's how I can toil up 84 steps at the station without losing my breath. Unless I spend a good bit of time pushing the cars (and that's not unlikely) I'm not going to get to go for a run while I'm away. Instead it's probable that I'll reach Ulaanbaatar with a bruised arse and a strong clutch foot. I'm also going to miss the London marathon application but I'm planning to beg someone to fill in my details for me. Anyway, dammit, I'm taking my hula hoop to Mongolia. I will beguile border guards with my entrancing hip-swinging (a.k.a. looking like a knob).

New website to add to our collection: http://www.feckinirishrovers.com

Maso has just texted me to say that shewee are now a sponsor. This brightens my day considerably - I've always wanted to be able to pee standing up. Never let it be said that I have no ambition.

visas/buy things

I'm surrounded by a stack of marking but still managed to escape for a while to pick up my Mongolian visa and drop off the application for the Kyrz Krygstan Kyrgyzstan one. So far so good.

We've got goods to sell now - the usual collection of t-shirts, hoodies, mugs and thongs at http://www.cafepress.com/feckinirish. Thank you to the long-suffering Mark for helping me with the alpha channels. A PhD in computer graphics (mine) does not enable one to use photo editing packages; a PhD in computer vision (his) evidently does. Anyway, buy things and support us - the dollar is weak against the pound so a t-shirt costs as little as £6 quid and £3.50 for post and packaging.

My mammy is throwing herself into the supportive role as Irish mammies do and is organising a womens' (she says "ladies") evening in Portaferry involving all manner of relaxation, massages, beauty things and the suchlike - go ma! The people involved have been really generous about offering their time to share their skills, so a big cheer for them.

Cheers for all the messages which currently range from "you're doing what?", "are you mad?" (short answer: yes, but my shrink just smiled and gave me the go ahead), and "I'd love to do that!" (hmmm, I remember saying that at Easter. That's how I ended up on this trip...)

Back to the grindstone

Exam week this week and I have a bunch of students to invigilate so begging letters are on the back burner for a while. A weekend of climbing was a decent break, even if I did bore Henk to death with rally tales. He very kindly sponsored me in the form of a cosy down jacket on the proviso that I never mention the R-word again. I will be the warmest girl in the desert in clothing that's designed for Himalayan ascents, but given that I was freezing my ass off in a 3-season bag in the Peak District on Friday night, I need all the help I can get.

Georgiansilver from Mudcat sent a cheque for the charities and it arrived this morning so donations are coming in. Thanks Georgiansilver, it's very much appreciated.

Dragging myself away from it

It's the first May bank holiday weekend so I'm furiously emailing off to get letters of invitation to various countries whose names I can't pronounce, then I'm catching the 6 o'clock train to Derbyshire to go climbing at Stanage for the long weekend. That'll be interesting as it's so long since I did any proper climbing that I can barely tell one end of the rope from another.

The friendly people at MOO emailed this morning to say they'd give us a pack of free photographic mini business cards. This is a lovely gesture as they're still a small web company, so hurrah for them - everyone should buy themselves some MiniCards to say 'good on yez, MOO'.


Note to self: post insurance cheque, hang out washing, leave note about watering seedlings, find climbing helmet, learn how to spell - or better still pronounce - Kyrghyzstan. The spellcheck doesn't recognise it either.

Rally fever

The world really doesn't need another blog, especially not one from me, but it'll serve to remind me of all the niggly wee things I need to keep track of when gripped by rally fever. So far I've been making more lists than I have paper and last night I forgot to go to bed and when my knees went numb at 4am I suddenly realised that if I'm like this now, then how am I going to be behaving when July rolls around.

Big news of the day: The Broken Family Band have kindly agreed to take us under their philanthropic wing and they are now Feckin' Irish Rover sponsors. I knew buying Jesus Songs would pay off. I'm looking forward to gunning the Micra through Eastern Europe with their music playing. We're taking their love to the Central Asian massive. Or massif.

Also, Goldsmiths are very excited at the prospect of having one of their lecturers adrift in Mongolia and are keen to help out with publicity. We hope to wangle a bit of a deal with them. I'm hoping that part of the deal is that I can come back to work late if Mongolia proves attractive.

Visa sorting time now. Then more emails. And more lists.