It's on...

Today's Trailwalker inspired track:
Here comes the rain again ~ Eurythmmics

Today's Trailwalker inspired quote:
If you want to forget all your other troubles, wear too tight shoes.  ~The Houghton Line, November 1965

The Soundtracks are truly remixed and finally we are ONE!!! Oh, yeah the whole team is in town and we are getting ready to rock and roll. Loudly. Are we AME-ONA or HARE-ONA??? We'll see. Our dedicated fans will know Nat always brings the fog & Trace the rain but Erin is our sunshiny sparkling member. I have no power whatsoever, so we are kinda hoping fog, rain and sun will just all equal happy cloudy time or something like that. The current Trailwalker forecast looks partly sucky with a high chance of miserable and an approaching front of what on earth are we doing.... But we remain ever hopeful that this weeks' Friday evening NKH weather man will have to apologize profusely to the nation for making everyone take out their brollies, when in fact it didn't rain a drop and was the finest, most comfortable day ever.

So back to now. Nat arrived on the coldest April day in 50 years which dumped some 20cm of snow on the course.  Fabulous. Bring on the plastic bags. This is not boding well for the new shoes Tee and I had to buy last week because after 100's and 100's of kms the old ones decided to cark it a week before the event. Soles fell off. Brilliant. But we do have several back up options. Firstly we're hoping our highly technical application of super glue all over the old shoes will hold. Our fingers remain stuck together, so things are looking good in the adhesive department.  But probably in all likelihood, knowing us, things will come apart rather quickly. So we'll revert to plan B, the wearing of the new shoes. Totally broken in after a good 5 minute walk around the block. Plan C will bring out the old bit of sponge my 93-year-old Nan sent us to assist with any foot trouble, blisters, hot spots. How's that for upstairs? Genius. Plan D involves my dear tap shoes or my white-boot roller skates, if I can find them. 

Unbelievably the car is almost packed and ready to go. We have more food than our local Costco, which for most families of 6 would last at least 2 weeks. For us, if we were lost in the mountains....ooooooh, a good hour at most. I may wear a skirt, still pondering. Nat has nothing to wear. Look for the nude Soundtracker on the day. But thankfully 3 of us have rain wear/suits direct from our local Konan Store. What's not to love about Konan? Gortex it's not, but for this little jaunt it is 100% polyester all the way, baby. And just to make sure the very stylish ensembles truly deliver on all their waterproof promises we enacted our very own myth-buster scenario late Saturday evening, when we had our first full team shin-dig. This may have been somewhat fueled by at least 4 carafes of red wine and a seemingly endless supply of bubbles. Lovely Erin, now affectionately know as Wet Spice, took one for the team, got herself fully decked out in her hiking wear avec gators and full rain suit and then got in the SHOWER to test the waters. Really. Verdict...100% super dry. Waterproof, yes. Baka-proof, we are not. There was laughter.

And there is video proof, of not only that famous shower scene but most of the afternoon/evenings' shenanigans. We will post it soon. A work in progress, tentatively titled "How to Trailwalking: the pre-partay..." As a teaser get ready for more street dancing, some inspired cinematography, and a stop at the Whoppee T-shirt shop, which was thankfully closed and in an alternative universe saw us all deported from Japan. After all, we could help ourselves for free even though their store signage said...and I quote...for real..."Don't ever call us". It was an evening drenched in all things literal not in the least that mullet-in-headlights, arthur-fonzarelli's-been-cloned version of Total Eclipse of the Heart. My goodness this has been a fun trip.

So the team is ready to go. The trail mix is packed. Quick side-trip...the biggest Loser Finale in Australia just finished, Lisa won (what a star) and Hayley was so amazingly awesome. We will so be there for you next year Hakka, front row for sure...Back to the Trail...The stockpiles/suitcases of food from every corner of the globe have been zip-locked.Thank you families. There are treats and bbq's planned - rain, hail or shine. We have a banner kit. Yes, there will be magnificent signs. We're working on the playlists and re-thinking the rain gear...seriously. Marnie and Emma are on the same page. Yes, we have a manual. We have lists. Post-its and a really cool wind-up light thingy. 2 tents and binoculars. Oh, the Navi doesn't work. We printed out a map. We have more first-aid supplies then Seattle Grace and Mercy West combined. We've got handmade soups, smoked apple bacon and tofu FAKON for the vegos. Marnie makes yummy pikelets. We have a DVD player, our pillows and blankets, a hairdryer and a crate of Moet. There are surprises and bad costumes and a tremendous amount of excitement and trips to the loo. We are almost on our way and we cannot wait. We will do this.

 

Thank you soooooooooooo much to all our recent generous and totally unexpected donors. Lots of love and hugs to Yuri, Tanni, gorgeous Geigy, Janie F, Robin, Micheal & the kids. 

We walk in all weather for you. Rock around Friday.

 

2 days, 7 hours and 24 minutes until TRAILWALKER 2010!!! ... Hopefully we'll be sober by then.