Cliche but true :) It's 6.12am and I've just had a very early breakfast. We don't set off until midday but I woke up around 5 and gave in an hour later and got up. It's weird being up so early but exciting too. I'm starting to believe we are going now but really I think it will only sink in when we're at the airport. I have mostly packed and my rucksack isn't too heavy for now! Just need to add in final few toiletries and camera etc.
We will arrive tomorrow morning in Beijing around 10.30am or around 3.30am UK time. I need to work out how I'm going to take my tablets to avoid mucking them up, hopefully it won't prove too tricky. We have a 4 hour stopover in Paris but this should pass fairly quickly then an overnight (China time) flight. We'll have to try and sleep as much as possible on this, I suspect after such and early start I won't find that too hard!
After a one night stay at The Peking International Hostel we will head back to the airport to meet up with the rest of the group then the adventures will start!
It all seems a bit more real now, the nerves are kicking in! I don't expect to be able to update my blog in China but rest assured I will update when I'm back and chronicle the journey. So long :)
Friday 25 June 2010
Thursday 24 June 2010
Take off!
Eeek tomorrow is take off day. It still hasn't really sunk in that I am going to China tomorrow but I'm hoping it will soon.
The last 2 days have been very busy and I can't afford to relax yet. I have managed to buy everything else I need (I think!) now I just need to pack it all in my rucksack and hope it fits :)
The last 2 days have been very busy and I can't afford to relax yet. I have managed to buy everything else I need (I think!) now I just need to pack it all in my rucksack and hope it fits :)
Tuesday 22 June 2010
Work- done!
Final preparation for the trek can begin in earnest now that I have finished work. I managed to finish a couple of days earlier than planned which will be a huge help. Hopefully I can finally fight off this pesky tonsillitis and get organised. I still have a lot to do but now I've got more time to do it :)
Sunday 20 June 2010
Final weekend before the trek...
went in a flash and I'm just as unprepared. Admittedly a bout of tonsillitis has not helped especially when I was supposed to be spending the majority of the weekend shopping, packing and sorting when I actually just wanted to stay in bed! I did manage to do some things like get my hair cut and do a bit of shopping for holiday clothes so all was not lost.
On Saturday I went down to Haddington to get my hair cut and coloured for going away. It really needed done as it was getting really long and untidy. It will be interesting to see how my hair copes with the humidity in China, I expect it not to. I was going to get my hair dyed darker than usual to attempt to blend in a bit more in China but decided against it and went with red, I'm going to get stared at anyway so why not? I also met up with some of the girls for lunch at the Tyneside afterwards which was lovely. I really started to feel like I was going away for the first time when saying cheerio to them and also after I had popped into another friend's house on the way home and was waved off. David and I went for dinner at night to David Bann's which was really lovely. I was starting to feel a bit woozy by the end of the night but enjoyed our meal, I would recommend it for sure.
I managed to have a bit of a lie in in Sunday but my silly tonsils woke me up before too long so I got up and pottered about a bit and made more lists of things to do and buy. If only the shops had been open I could have bought some of these things but being a Sunday then don't open until 11 :( Since it was Father's Day my sister and I were going down to Spott to visit Dad so we set off around lunchtime via the Fort where I managed to buy some shorts, a skirt and blouse for China from Next. In truth I haven't actually looked at them again and I was feeling pretty dreadful so they may be of no use at all!
Dad and I went for a short walk in the afternoon around Spott which was lovely. It was so warm though we couldn't go very fast. We still covered a few miles and my legs were pretty wobbly by the time I got home, I think I underestimated the tonsil effect on my energy levels! After dinner we set off back to Edinburgh and I had a very early night, must be on top form for the trek!
On Saturday I went down to Haddington to get my hair cut and coloured for going away. It really needed done as it was getting really long and untidy. It will be interesting to see how my hair copes with the humidity in China, I expect it not to. I was going to get my hair dyed darker than usual to attempt to blend in a bit more in China but decided against it and went with red, I'm going to get stared at anyway so why not? I also met up with some of the girls for lunch at the Tyneside afterwards which was lovely. I really started to feel like I was going away for the first time when saying cheerio to them and also after I had popped into another friend's house on the way home and was waved off. David and I went for dinner at night to David Bann's which was really lovely. I was starting to feel a bit woozy by the end of the night but enjoyed our meal, I would recommend it for sure.
I managed to have a bit of a lie in in Sunday but my silly tonsils woke me up before too long so I got up and pottered about a bit and made more lists of things to do and buy. If only the shops had been open I could have bought some of these things but being a Sunday then don't open until 11 :( Since it was Father's Day my sister and I were going down to Spott to visit Dad so we set off around lunchtime via the Fort where I managed to buy some shorts, a skirt and blouse for China from Next. In truth I haven't actually looked at them again and I was feeling pretty dreadful so they may be of no use at all!
Dad and I went for a short walk in the afternoon around Spott which was lovely. It was so warm though we couldn't go very fast. We still covered a few miles and my legs were pretty wobbly by the time I got home, I think I underestimated the tonsil effect on my energy levels! After dinner we set off back to Edinburgh and I had a very early night, must be on top form for the trek!
Charity Challenge Updates
The emails from Charity Challenge just keep coming thick and fast now. One came late last week to inform us that a stretch of the Great Wall we were supposed to be completing is currently closed for a rumoured development of some sort so instead we are completing a different but equally challenging stretch of the wall and the schedule has been altered slightly. We have been assured that the new section we are tackling is just as challenging and just as scenic, this is good to know.
Another came though this week with the details of lodgings we will be staying in whilst completing the trek. At the end of each day we are transported to various lodgings along the way for a well earned rest and hopefully a good nights sleep! It looks like they are pretty basic but clean and comfortable which is the main thing. Our luggage is being transported for us between these lodgings so that all we have to carry whilst trekking is our day sack. This will mostly be holding sun cream, lunch, waterproof coat (just in case!), camera and water and probably a few snacks.
We also got through an email with our joining instructions. Lynsey and I arrive in Beijing a day earlier than our fellow trekkers so we will have to make our way back to Beijing Airport on Saturday 26th to meet up with our challenge leader and fellow trekkers before being transported to out first lodge at the start of the trek. We will leave from here on Sunday 27th and start the trek. We will then trek for 6 days before heading back to Beijing for a Peking Duck banquet and then a two night stay before we set off on our own adventure that has yet to be planned fully!
At the moment we are planning on travelling to Shanghai, Xian to visit the terracotta warriors and then down to the River Li area before making our way to Hong Kong for a couple of days before our flight home on 19th July. Very exciting, only 5 days to go!
Another came though this week with the details of lodgings we will be staying in whilst completing the trek. At the end of each day we are transported to various lodgings along the way for a well earned rest and hopefully a good nights sleep! It looks like they are pretty basic but clean and comfortable which is the main thing. Our luggage is being transported for us between these lodgings so that all we have to carry whilst trekking is our day sack. This will mostly be holding sun cream, lunch, waterproof coat (just in case!), camera and water and probably a few snacks.
We also got through an email with our joining instructions. Lynsey and I arrive in Beijing a day earlier than our fellow trekkers so we will have to make our way back to Beijing Airport on Saturday 26th to meet up with our challenge leader and fellow trekkers before being transported to out first lodge at the start of the trek. We will leave from here on Sunday 27th and start the trek. We will then trek for 6 days before heading back to Beijing for a Peking Duck banquet and then a two night stay before we set off on our own adventure that has yet to be planned fully!
At the moment we are planning on travelling to Shanghai, Xian to visit the terracotta warriors and then down to the River Li area before making our way to Hong Kong for a couple of days before our flight home on 19th July. Very exciting, only 5 days to go!
Friday 18 June 2010
Tonsil Trouble
Argh! After a week or two of feeling poorlyish I woke up with a severe sore throat on Wednesday night. I had gone to bed really early as I felt pretty dreadful and woke up at 1am extremely confused and unable to swallow with any ease. Usually this wouldn't bother me too much and I would just put up with it but the thought of being ill in China pushed me to make an appointment with the GP. Amazingly instead of the usual 2 week waiting list I managed to get an appointment this morning and after a 10 second inspection of my throat was told I had mild tonsilitis and immediately given a week long course of Penicillin to take. This will run until the departure date for China by which time I'm hoping they will have gone down and I'll be feeling much better. Talk about bad timing! I have to take 2 tablets four times a day, a total of 2g penicillin/day! Just another few pills to add to my daily quota :)
I picked up the remainder of my prescription for going to China today, this pile in the picture will do me for the 25 days we are away, 125 in total!
Wednesday 16 June 2010
Lists and Plans
Only just over a week to go and I still feel so unorganised! Training has gone to pot a bit, I've only been for one swim and a couple of walks this week, as I've been feeling under the weather so I'm just going to concentrate on big walks now pre-trek and maybe a gym visit or two next week to get some stepper work in when I'm better. I hope it clears up before I go whatever it is!
We have been trying to plan what to do post-trek and decided we should try and organise a few more things before we go so we have some plans in place. Lynsey has managed to source a great looking hostel in Hong Kong, which is where we fly home from, so we have decided to book that and enjoy our last couple of days there. I am looking into hostels in Shanghai and Xian now as well as transport options for getting around. The best option seems to be trains for long journeys. There are 4 different classes of seat varying by price quite significantly! The top price is for soft sleeper which is basically a bed in a 4 person cabin, this is quite expensive for China and almost the same as a flight! The next option is hard sleeper which is a bed in 20 person cabin in a three tiered bunk, this is about two thirds the price of soft sleeper. The third option is soft seat which is even cheaper and would only be good for short journeys and the fourth is hard seat which is about half the price of soft seat but is basically a padded three person bench, doesn't sound great! It looks like the best option would be the hard sleeper for overnight trains and most probably the soft seat for shorter journeys of a few hours or less. We are hoping to organise some tickets when we arrive in Beijing next Friday for after the trek as we have an English speaking travel desk at our hostel.
I have managed to actually tick a few things off my list this week though! I have all of my prescriptions and medication needed for the trip, a money belt and also currency on order from the travel agents. I have ordered 350 yuan, which is only about £43, but will actually cover a fair amount in China. Our hostel for instance is only 50 yuan per person, just under £5. I don't want to be carrying around a lot of money anyway and my discreet money belt would not be so well hidden under my clothes if it was bulging with cash :)
My list still has a lot to tick off but I am at least finding some more time in which to do things, result!
We have been trying to plan what to do post-trek and decided we should try and organise a few more things before we go so we have some plans in place. Lynsey has managed to source a great looking hostel in Hong Kong, which is where we fly home from, so we have decided to book that and enjoy our last couple of days there. I am looking into hostels in Shanghai and Xian now as well as transport options for getting around. The best option seems to be trains for long journeys. There are 4 different classes of seat varying by price quite significantly! The top price is for soft sleeper which is basically a bed in a 4 person cabin, this is quite expensive for China and almost the same as a flight! The next option is hard sleeper which is a bed in 20 person cabin in a three tiered bunk, this is about two thirds the price of soft sleeper. The third option is soft seat which is even cheaper and would only be good for short journeys and the fourth is hard seat which is about half the price of soft seat but is basically a padded three person bench, doesn't sound great! It looks like the best option would be the hard sleeper for overnight trains and most probably the soft seat for shorter journeys of a few hours or less. We are hoping to organise some tickets when we arrive in Beijing next Friday for after the trek as we have an English speaking travel desk at our hostel.
I have managed to actually tick a few things off my list this week though! I have all of my prescriptions and medication needed for the trip, a money belt and also currency on order from the travel agents. I have ordered 350 yuan, which is only about £43, but will actually cover a fair amount in China. Our hostel for instance is only 50 yuan per person, just under £5. I don't want to be carrying around a lot of money anyway and my discreet money belt would not be so well hidden under my clothes if it was bulging with cash :)
My list still has a lot to tick off but I am at least finding some more time in which to do things, result!
Sunday 13 June 2010
The Final Countdown
Wow under 2 weeks now until take off, I truly can't believe it has come round so quickly. It hardly seems any time since we first planned this but it is in fact almost a year ago!
Thankfully after a few days of feeling under the weather I am now back to normal and am looking forward to the next couple of weeks' training and preparing for the adventure. David has drawn up a Charity Challenge Timetable for me which as really helped me focus on what is important and when I can fit it in!
Today I was meeting Lynsey for a training walk so I put on some of my new kit and set off. It didn't take long for the rain to come on but at least I know my boots, trousers and jacket are waterproof! I had my new craghoppers trousers on, it was a bit too cold to zip them off to the knee today though. We hopped on a bus up towards Blackford Hill which involved getting a bus to my usual stop for work, it was weird walking past it up to the Royal Observatory which I hadn't been to before. I've actually worked just down the road from it for six years so it seems a bit silly now.
We managed to orientate ourselves pretty well and certainly had a good workout. The views from the top of the hill were stunning and it was worth the trek for sure. We decided to avoid going down a somewhat dodgy looking staircase down the side of the hill, it had no rail for starters, and headed off in search of another way down which we found and ended up at the Hermitage Centre near the Braids. Neither of us knew it was there! After a quick look round we headed down the road to Morningside and went for a coffee in the Yellow Cafe to chat about China and recover!
Thankfully after a few days of feeling under the weather I am now back to normal and am looking forward to the next couple of weeks' training and preparing for the adventure. David has drawn up a Charity Challenge Timetable for me which as really helped me focus on what is important and when I can fit it in!
Today I was meeting Lynsey for a training walk so I put on some of my new kit and set off. It didn't take long for the rain to come on but at least I know my boots, trousers and jacket are waterproof! I had my new craghoppers trousers on, it was a bit too cold to zip them off to the knee today though. We hopped on a bus up towards Blackford Hill which involved getting a bus to my usual stop for work, it was weird walking past it up to the Royal Observatory which I hadn't been to before. I've actually worked just down the road from it for six years so it seems a bit silly now.
We managed to orientate ourselves pretty well and certainly had a good workout. The views from the top of the hill were stunning and it was worth the trek for sure. We decided to avoid going down a somewhat dodgy looking staircase down the side of the hill, it had no rail for starters, and headed off in search of another way down which we found and ended up at the Hermitage Centre near the Braids. Neither of us knew it was there! After a quick look round we headed down the road to Morningside and went for a coffee in the Yellow Cafe to chat about China and recover!
Tuesday 8 June 2010
Final Round, over and out!
Yesterday I had my last vaccine before I head off to China. It was the final shot of three of Hep B and it felt pretty good to have them over and done with, for about 30 minutes!
After the excitement of the quiz and a bit of a late night I had to get myself to the surgery for an 8.30 appt with the nurse. It's only a 20 minute walk so I strolled up there. The actual shot was ok, just a bit of a burning sensation in my arm and as I received my vaccine booklet I was feeling ok so I walked the rest of the way to work.
On the way I flicked through my vaccine booklet and found it to be very interesting, with useful hints and tips, pictures and most importantly a record of the vaccines I have received and a timeline of these. 
By the time I got upstairs to my office I was feeling decidedly dodgy and after a few looks of concern from my colleagues and a few quickly typed emails I decided enough was enough and I had to come home. Typical that the last jag I got hit me the hardest! I seem to have had a fairly bad reaction to it which surprised me a bit as the previous two doses hadn't made me feel too bad. I made it home anyway, flopped into bed and after a few hours sleep felt slightly better but now had a throbbing arm to contend with! Not a great day...hope for better tomorrow :)
On a lighter note that's all my vaccines done with. If I can face it I can get boosters for Hep A and B in one year and potentially have life long protection which is probably worth it to be honest. Might be a good idea to book a day off next time though :)
After the excitement of the quiz and a bit of a late night I had to get myself to the surgery for an 8.30 appt with the nurse. It's only a 20 minute walk so I strolled up there. The actual shot was ok, just a bit of a burning sensation in my arm and as I received my vaccine booklet I was feeling ok so I walked the rest of the way to work.
On the way I flicked through my vaccine booklet and found it to be very interesting, with useful hints and tips, pictures and most importantly a record of the vaccines I have received and a timeline of these. 
By the time I got upstairs to my office I was feeling decidedly dodgy and after a few looks of concern from my colleagues and a few quickly typed emails I decided enough was enough and I had to come home. Typical that the last jag I got hit me the hardest! I seem to have had a fairly bad reaction to it which surprised me a bit as the previous two doses hadn't made me feel too bad. I made it home anyway, flopped into bed and after a few hours sleep felt slightly better but now had a throbbing arm to contend with! Not a great day...hope for better tomorrow :)
On a lighter note that's all my vaccines done with. If I can face it I can get boosters for Hep A and B in one year and potentially have life long protection which is probably worth it to be honest. Might be a good idea to book a day off next time though :)
Monday 7 June 2010
Quiz Night II
Last night we hosted our second quiz evening and it was a cracking success. As we had managed to compile an impressive array of donations to our raffle prize fund we also hosted a raffle which everyone kindly bought tickets too as well as paying to take part in the quiz so we managed to raise £202 in total, fantastic!
Our evening started at 5pm when I met Lynsey at The Outhouse to set up the room. We accumulated our raffle prizes and displayed them on a table in the corner. I have to say they looked extremely impressive. All in all we had tickets for the Rocky Horror Show at the Playhouse, a pair of tickets for the Lyceum, a pair of tickets for Edinburgh Rugby match, a pair of tickets for Hibs match, two spa passes for the Scotsman Hotel, gift vouchers for Pizza Express, Debenhams, Asda, a bottle of Bolanger champagne, Chambord liquer and Hotel Chocolat chocolates. Amazingly they were all kindly donated to us which was even better. I'll try and upload a picture. We decided to ask for £2 per ticket or £5 for 5 in the hope that most people would buy 5 and it seemed to work :) I think because we had such amazing prizes and there was a reasonably high chance of winning everyone dug deep and we sold £102 of raffle tickets.
In the end 20 people came along to take part so we had 5 teams to make it more interesting! We were sort of strict on numbers per team as we had 6 bottles of wine kindly donated by Lynsey's parents as first prize for the quiz so it worked out quite well as most teams were of 4 or 5 so everyone would win one. David had kindly written all of the questions and was quizmaster once again and he did a brilliant job. The questions were just about the right level, everyone got some but not every one right in each round so it was a close competition. Lynsey and I took part just for fun more to pass the time as there were 5 rounds plus a picture round during which we went round the room to sell raffle tickets. Everyone dug deep and purchased tickets which was great. As the quiz drew to a close and the winners were announced we thanked everyone for coming and drew the raffle. Lots of cheers and some very happy winners including Stephen, a Hearts fan who won the Hibs tickets!! They will be put to use though by his Hibs supporting nephews!
Everyone who could stay moved downstairs so Lynsey and I tidied up and counted the money and came to a staggering total of £202 which has pushed our fundraising through the £1000 barrier, yay! Everyone was so generous, we feel extremely grateful.
It was a great night and a great way to finish off our fundraising before embarking on the trek. Not long now...
Saturday 5 June 2010
Under 3 weeks
It's now less than 3 weeks until we board the plane to Beijing, it hardly seems real. I've not had the busiest week of training, other than walking to/from work but I guess it's better than nothing. In an attempt to make myself feel less guilty about this I went to the shops today to continue buying my supplies for the trek. I have most of my clothes now, just need to get more socks and a few more t-shirts so I thought I should me a start on the suggested kit list. After a 15 minute visit to Boots I came out £40 lighter and laden with rehydration sachets, water purification tablets, blister plasters, insect repellent and a padlock amongst regular everyday items like toothpaste. Not my regular shopping list by any means! I'm hoping that by taking as many precautions as possible, with the purification tablets for example, I won't get sick during the trip. I've never had to worry about contaminated water before so I'll need to be super careful especially with my medications. I can't afford to get sick and then worry about retaking them or not as I'm sure I'll have plenty of other things to think about that are much more fun.
There are still several items that I need to buy but I feel like I've made a good start. I just need to keep plugging away at my list now to avoid any last minute rushing around!
Tomorrow we are hosting our last fundraising event before the trek, hope it's a success!
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