Snow time!

Our fundraising efforts seem to have got off the ground this week. We've all had some donations in, I was ecstatic to receive 4 donations on just giving so my total on there now is £130. We had the Body Shop at Home party on Wednesday and that raised £176 so it feels like we're getting somewhere now. Lots of people bought a lucky square in advance of the party which raised £75 and 3 of them won £25 worth of Body Shop products each. Everyone who came to the party donated £2 each for a cuppa and a cake. My husband Rich had made scones which were a big hit with cream and jam, thanks Rich :) Everyone was entered into a drawer for the evening's makeover and Sinaed was the person who was chosen to be beautified!

We also had a raffle on the night and everyone there seemed to enjoy themselves. Many thanks to everyone who came and to those who contributed before the event.

This week's walk was a little bit shorter than we intended due to the weather. It's not very common to get snow in this area and really very uncommon to get snow in March! I'm sure when the Chester and Ellesmere Port Rotary clubs organised their Spring Fundraising Walk it didn't cross their minds we'd have had snow in the run up to it. We were determined that if it was going ahead we would be taking part so headed off to Chester Racecourse for the start this morning. Flora, Angela and I were well wrapped up for 1 degree temperature when we arrived. I was wearing 2 pairs of trousers (1 under the other, not one on each leg, that would be strange!), a vest that was long enough to keep my bum warm (I really object to having cold legs and bottom), T-shirt, hoodie, waterproof, hat, scarf and gloves. We were a bit disappointed when we registered to find that the organisers were suggesting that everyone stuck to the 4.5 mile walk as some of the 7 mile route we had intended to do wasn't great due to the snow. The amount of snow around varied hugely as you can see from the photos below which show the racecourse and it's surrounding path which was pretty clear:

Unfortunately the turn out was quite poor so we weren't exactly walking with a crowd. However, it was a pleasant route and an invigorating walk out in the fresh air. The route took us round the edge of the racecourse then out and towards the city centre alongside the River Dee. We then crossed over the river and carried on along the tow path before turning towards Handbridge, back over the river and finally back to the racecourse.

We had to take the odd detour to avoid weather related obstacles:

That little stream in front of the river is where we're meant to be walking! Due to the cold we were quite glad when we made it back to the racecourse and got our entry form stamped to prove we'd finished and picked up our certificates. I'm collecting certificates to prove I've actually got off my derriere and done things!

Excuse my dreadful hat hair and please remember I look fatter than usual because I've got multiple layers of clothes on! In fact on the subject of fatness, I was very cheerful this week as I've lost 5% of my weight since joining Weight Watchers at the beginning of Feb. I'm hoping to be a bit less of a fatty by the time it's graduation in July, then lose some more before we go to Jordan. We've followed the first 5 weeks of the training programme for the trek since registering and move on to the next phase this week. For the next 5 weeks we need to do:

Day 1: 40 mins aerobic training and 3 x 15 reps strength training
Day 2: 10 mins hill/stair climbing
Day 3: 40 mins aerobic training and 3 x 15 reps strength training
Day 4: Rest
Day 5: 40 mins aerobic training
Day 6: Rest
Day 7: Trek for 4 hours

With all that we should be getting fitter and trimmer by the day!

TTFN, Pauline.