October (training ends)

Even apart from Maria, the youngest in our group at age 43, giving birth to baby number five (and moving house at almost the same time. Wow), several rather significant things have happened in the past month. The first - and arguably most significant - is that Lorraine has rather perfidiously persuaded everybody else that we are not getting any younger and therefore it makes logistical sense to do the trek in late 2009 rather than mid 2010. In one fell swoop, I have lost six - ten months of training time (and no doubt this period would have been my most productive).

The second thing was that it occurred to me I might be able to turn the whole Kokoda experience into a book, so I sent a proposal off to my publishers and got a positive response. Now all I need to do is break it to my fellow trekkers that they are each about to be given starring roles in my next literary production. And then persuade a couple of them to share their innermost secrets (or seduce one of the porters?), to give the narrative some drama.

The final thing was that I managed to lose nearly two kilos in weight by just exercising (who would have thought?), and then ruined everything by doing myself some sort of knee/cartilage injury. That's what you get for playing tennis and trying to slide across the court rather than actually move your feet. So I am temporarily on crutches, which means that soon my shoulders will be built up most impressively, but my legs will still be damn useless. Great.