What an awesome week!

It is shameful how little I have blogged lately.

Last week I had the privilage of attending a 3 day BIAZA (British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquaria) conference on venomous snake management and handling at ZSL London Zoo. Several of my personal heros were there giving lectures and talks and it was a thoroughly mind expanding and inspirational time, as well as a fab networking opportunity for us herpers from zoos across the country! I got some great writing advise from Mark O'Shea, who is going to do the foreword for a book about gharials I am in the process of writing, and Wolfgang Wurster advised me on items for my first aid kit while in Peru, as precaution to any allergic reactions I may have to the ant bite out there (very useful!!). I am also now equipped with first aid and action skills to deal with a variety of venomous snake bites... always good to know!!

I stayed with my good friend Chris just outside of Oxford, in his caravan (no electricity!) on his little farm, with guinea fowl, geese, turkeys, goats, a great dane (left), loads of cats, a couple of rhea and a wallabey all runing about, which was great fun. There is something rather special about being joined for a group pee by a large nanny goat while having a squat in the dark before bed!! (and again in the morning by a flock of guinea fowl!) The day off we shared after the conference we spent doing a bit of local "herping" (visiting nature reserves to turn over logs and rocks attempting to find reptiles and amphibians). We were quite successful, catching 2 baby grass snakes(top left), and later while we did PYO raspberries, Chris found a baby toad!! RESULT!!
Training update: As you may have noticed I have fallen off the wagon somewhat as regards the diet and training. Especially r.e. running, which I have decided to stop on the grounds that I hate it so much and I was knackering myself to the point where my job was getting difficult! So I figure my zoo job is going to provide me with enough stamina, strength and fitness to survive the Amazon- well I can dream! I am however still swimming twice a week and doing the crunches, pressups and weights every day.

Canoeing!

On friday evening, me and collegue Alex headed off to the Norfolk Broads for a night of camping (Alex's first time!) followed by a morning of canoeing, by way of a little Amazon training!! We spent 3 hours on the water which was thoroughly enjoyable, though I'm sure not as wild and fast as Peru will be, but most importantly, it highlighted for me a few muscle clusters in my arm that have clearly not been getting worked when I exercise, but that could do with some conditioning to prepare me for paddling. In the meanwhile I need to get one of those giant rubber bands that you stand on and then pull to tone your arms! We also paid a visit to zoo "Africa Alive", which was most enjoyable, and the best bird of prey display with a peregrine falcon we'd ever seen!

I didn't work out yesterday, but I think 13 hours on your feet working with only a half hourbreak might count in itself?!

I found out my good friend Faye who's chap runs the Cross Keys pub in Llandudno has successfully raised £200 for the cause!! Well done Faye!! What a great friend, and fundraiser.

How to donate to Action4Cancer

Welcome to any new readers/supporters and welcome back to regulars. I thought I would post up clearly the donating info since many people are still asking me!

You can give me cash or cheques in person, cheques made payable to Action4Cancer

OR

You can drop some change into a green donation box at any of the following locations:

• Shepreth Wildlife Park (education centre), Shepreth, Cambs
• Pythons Lair, Abingdon, Oxford
• The Cross Keys, Llandudno, North Wales

OR

You can go to the bank or use internet banking, paying into the following account:

account number is 81502379

sort code - 402602

make sure to reference DONATE GRACE, as my other team mates will be inputting their donations to the same account!

Thank you so much!! :)

I made the news!

I made it into the paper today! Hooray!! Unfortunately there were few bloopers I'd like to amend, incase you are lucky enough to have an actual copy of the paper; It is poor Bethyns mum who died, not Fionas, and it is me who worked at the Honolulu Zoo, not Beth!! Oops! Also unfortunately, they did not include the details on how to donate to the fund! Beggars can't be choosers I suppose...

From bullet ants to RED ANTS!

I feel I have totally jinxed myself- yesterday morning, after the night I blogged about the evils of bullet ants, at (.30am at work I got bitten by a red ant while weeding one of my monkey islands. By 11am my wrist had almost doubled in size and I spent the day unable to feel my fingers, and very woozy indeed. This morning its swollen even more and I feel rotten!!! I feel if I experience the sting of these bullet ants in the Amazon I may actually Die!

Bulldog and bullet ants

Hello! I am now back from the Bulldog Bash, which dispite the horriffic rain (andf resulting lack of motor sport entertainment due to the slippery raceway) was a jolly good time! However, 4 days of no exercise, TONS of amazing junk food in huge quantities and plenty of booze has got me feeling less than motivated to resume my healthy regieme. That said, last night I went for a swim straight after work, and had a pretty healthy dinner too. Unfortunately today though was a no exercise day (apart from the regular 15 minutes of crunches and press ups in the morning) as had a work BBQ which was also good fun dispite the pissing rain.

I very recently discovered- or rather, faced up to the fact- that I am lactose intolerant. I have known for a while that coleslaw and mayo based dips do the worst things to me, wich hard cheeses being the least offensive (i.e. not bad enough for me to avoid permanently- that would be terrible!) and I figured since I barely have much milk (just on cereal and sometimes in coffee) and when I do it is skimmed, it wasn't anything to write home about. However, I've been feeling so bad lately after dairy type things, and so much better when I avoid them, I've been getting quite excited about it (and probably boring everyone around me also!!). Today I had rice milk on my cereal and really felt great all day for it, so I can add dairy to the list of things to avoid while I'm doing my training and such, since I'm sure it will do me wonders. And for anyone who hasn't tried rice milk, I really reccommend it- it's just like ricepudding only without the bits!!

Yesterday afternoon I had my phone interview with the lovely reporter Chris, from the Cambridge News[paper]. He seemed really keen on the story, and it'll be going to print with the photos shot at work last week, in the next couple of days- watch this space!

Once again, thanks so much to everyone who has been donating, I've had so much support particularly from the lovely volunteers at Shepreth Wildlife Park, it's really wonderful to know everyone is behind me!

Here is the first installment of the terrors that await me in the jungle: Bullet ants! These are 2cm long ants with huge mandibles and a toxic bite so painful it ranks highest for their group according to the Schmidt Sting Pain Index (yes, such a thing exists!), apparrently causing "waves of burning, throbbing, all-consuming pain that continues unabated for up to 24 hours". They are named bullet ant because it is supposed to be like being shot. The locals from Nicaragua to Paraguay, where it is found, call it "Hormiga Veinticuatro" or "24 (hour) ant", because of the typical duration of pain following a sting. And this is one of the things I have to look forward to! Worth noting is that I am particularly sensitive to ant bites, even here in the UK- I even have a large scar and patch of degenerated muscle on my leg from a bite 3 years ago to prove it! GULP!

Good film, good ice cream!

My binge night was truly successful! I can thoroughly reccomend the film "Interview" and the nutty Ben and Jerry's!! And the rest did me a world of good. Last night I went swimming after work, and then had a good boogie at a Sonic Boom Six gig as they were in town. I will be having the next 4 days off as am heading down to Stratford upon Avon for the annual Hells Angels party, Bulldog Bash!!! See previous posts for a good account of what goes on there. I am feeling a bit of a veteran as have been going for 9 years now!! Will be great to let my hair down a bit and have some drinkies!! Fingers crossed for the weather, and I'll be logging back on on monday!!
G xx

Swimming Vs Icecream

Today Has been a very long, crappy and exceptionally rainy day. It wasn't just me feeling it, everyone at work (with the exception of our two cheery maintenance guys) seemed to be sufferring in some way. Perhaps its the humidity. Either way, I have been feeling so tired and lethargic (and distinctly in need of a good neck and shoulder massage, as well as a man-sized hug) that by mid morning I had decided that I would just swim after work and not go running. By lunchtime I had decided perhaps going straight to bed would be a better option, and by mid afternoon I had talked myself into an icecream binge-fest, since I recalled my sister Daisy telling me Asda was doing new flavours of Hagen Daaz for just two pounds. The same price as swimming. An appropriate swap, methinks.

By the time I'd gotten off the train and digested my cuppa soup I felt a lot better, and the rain had stopped, and I thought "you know what, maybe I'll swim after all"- and I chickened out, and returned from the shop with a DVD, a family sized bag of Minstrels (there are already just 4 of these delectable pieces of recovery food remaining), another of Malteasers, and two tubs of Ben and Jerrys. I know I've been fantasising about marscapone Hagen Daaz all afternoon, but it turned out not only did Asda not have said flavour, the tubs were all £3.50! AND there is a new B&j's flavour; "Fairly Nutty" which sound like a cross between pralines and cream and clusters cereal. At only £3 a tub it would be rude not to review this new flavour, I figured, but not without also picking up my favourite, half baked. The DVD I got out of the bargain bin was "The Interview" a re-make directed by and starring Steve Busccemi and also Sienna Miller. I shall report in the morning a review of the film, and also the ice cream!

Why am I so weak willed?! I dispair at myself. And also at my long trawling blog entries. I am so hopeless at finding the time to come online- I always have such witty entries in mind and then lose it all as soon as I get a moment, such as 15 minutes waiting for hair removal cream to do its thing- speaking of which, my skin is current;y burning, and as I have demolished all the minstrels, I shall sign off now and hit the shower...

PS: The newspaper photographer came today, was very quick and efficient, should have got some good shots of me with a boa constrictor in the tropical house at Shepreth, so I'm just waiting to do the interview over the phone with the reporter now! I hope it helps raise a few more funds!

3 days break = pain

Ok so I had a 3 day weekend last week due to a wedding and things like that and I'm ashamed to say despite my best intentions I didn't run, swim, or even do any of my usual morning workout. The result being a really miserable session of swimming and running after work yesterday!

One good think I did do over the weekend was meet up with old friend and biology teacher from school, Hilary Tunnicliffe, who does a heck of a lot of breast cancer awareness campaigning, and also used to do a lot of rowing. Her top tip was to start playing with chalk every day to toughen up my skin and prevent blisters from padlding when i'm in the jungle! She said back in the day when it was black boards and chalk in chool she never suffered when rowing, but when they brought in white boards and markers, her hands had a realy hard time! So this is something I will do closer to the event as reckon it'll only take a couple of weeks, and my hands are pretty tough and callousy from my zoo job anyway, which is good.

On saturday me and my mum did a stand at a crafts and antiques market in Hope St Yard off Mill Road. (pictured above, me and Roxy manning the stand) It was badly organised and we made lower sales than hoped for, but I did make £21 for the fund by selling a few hand made greetings cards and jewellery, so thats good. A bit more came in from a volunteer from work yesterday too, so thats great!

Today a newspaper reporter from Cambridge news will be meeting me at work to take a picture and information for an article to go in the paper, I'm hoping this will really help with the fundraising.

second day of successful running!

I really should remember to et a picture of my big red face after a run. I'm sad to say I am not feeling nearly to high and hyper as after that first run. tomorrow I will swim first and see if that makes a difference. What I can report is that although today didn't feel any easier, when I was done I was feeling ready to carry on and do some more, which can only be a good thing. Today however, as is most thursdays, the end of my week at work (I take fridays and saturdays as my "weekend"), and it has been a long one, as my swollen ankles will testify! So I am now washed, dressed in almost clean clothes (one out of three items ain't bad - not counting undies, of course they are clean- that would be gross) chilling out with my feet up and a glass of Baileys, as my reward. And because I needed to finish the ends of the bottle so I can continue with my healthy booze free stint!!

The sponsorship is still coming in, thanks everyone for your support, I couldn't do it without you

oh dear- meal out 2 nights running!

A quick confession:
Though Ihave kept up with the sit ups ans press ups and weights each morning and evening, the last 2 nights I have neither run nor swam due to old friends being around and in need of Thai, and all you can eat Chinese respectively. That is all. Hopefully tonight I will manage a run after work as the stupid swimming pool inconsiderately closes to the public at 5pm today for some reason!

A successful run!!!

Hoorah! I ran!! And swam! I'm feeling exceptionally proud of myself as did a bit of weights and also some stomach crunches last night, and today (despite my aching torso) went swimming straight from work, and then as soon as I got in I changed my togs, grabbed my sister's new dog Roxy (pictured left), and headed out to see if she was up for running- and she was! Result!! We did better than the first week plan and for 20 minutes ran for a minute and walked for a minute (instead of a minute and a half of walking- get us!). And you know what, it wasn't nearly so bad as I thought it would be! And now, finally sitting down at 9.20pm, I am topping off my day of health with a quorn "chicken" fillet and some stir fried veg. AND I had salad for lunch! Boy am I feeling smug! I also got a tenner off a volunteer at work for the kitty, and a tenner in the post from my best mate Andi. Way to go!!

I wish I could blog while I'm swimming by using the power of my mind to tap into the computer, it seems to be the only time I get where the thoughts and ideas flow... earlier on I was thinking,

Christ, this blog is going to be one boring slog of me moaning and whinging about how much I'm hurting etc, but right now I'm feeling great! It must be the endorphins. I'm not just goingtopost about my physical condition though- my trainign for the raft race will also include a lot of brushing up on my species recognition, so as I learn more about the animals I may encounter and how long it will take for their venom to take affect if I get bitten (!) I will share my findings right here.

a bit of a slow start- thanks George!

The aching of my pectorals is beginning to subside now my body is accepting that I will be doing pressups every morning! Due to the initial aching I've been going steady and just doing girly (from the knee) ones, but today I did a set of 20 with a set of 10 manly (from the toe) ones followed by another set of 20 girly ones, and I began sit ups today aswell, so I'll see if my stomach is sore later!!!

I set out for a jog on friday. i was quite psyched up for it, and to help keep me going and so I would look less of a prat I took my sisters dog George with me. Not such a great idea as it turned out. We did a brisk walk and when we got onto the common, I started running (training plan suggests 20 minutes of running for 1 minute followed by walking for a minute and a half to begin with). George began limping badly so, feeling bad for him, I checked out his legs and shoulders (nothing wrong there) and turned for home, at which point he began running in the homeward direction! Thge little bugger was feigning injury to avoid running!!! We continued on our way and unfortunately the main field I wanted to run around was full of tents for the Cmbridge Folk Festival, so I knew it would be a nightmare as the nosy french bulldog would want to investigate the interior of each tent, so we went up to the top of the field where there was more space, and I could let him off the leash. I began running again, and about 50 yeards on, turned to see George had come to a halt, and then turned around to take himself home. I sprinted after him, clipped him onto the lead and gave up, but not before dragging him around a circuit of the front field of the common so he would know he hadn't won. So all in all a bit of a failure. I'm going to try again on monday (it's the monthly reptile and bug meeting tonight) and go alone I think!