Today two weeks I’ll be on Day One of my Kilimanjaro climb! I’m nervous and impatient now; really I just want to get started. Going into the office every day and trying to work is really bothersome. My gear is lying in a little mountain of its own at the end of my bed, my rucksack is on standby, my local chemist has been cleared out of its malaria and altitude sickness tabs and I JUST WANT TO GO NOW!
It’s too late for anything but action. One way or the other (and I reckon it’s going to be the other) I’m going to climb this thing. I have a feeling it’ll be stubbornness that’ll get me to the top, but whatever gets me there I just want to start it now and waiting around is not something that’s sitting easily with me.
Before that though there’s all the stress of wrapping up everything in work and making sure everything is prepared for my absence (even though I’ve close to zero interest right now). There’s also the stress of squeezing every last cent I can from friends and acquaintances for my charities. (Speaking of which, if you’re up to nothing this evening jump in your car and come up to Shebeen Chic on George’s Street in Dublin for my final fundraising gig. Or throw me a few quid on mycharity.ie)
And of course there’s one other thing I can’t forget about – being chief bridesmaid on August 6th.
Anyone who remembers the start of this column will remember Emma Jane, who first suggested climbing Mount Kilimanjaro but then pulled out after getting engaged, choosing to direct all of her money on a nice day and lovely honeymoon instead of climbing about three vertical miles. It’s none other than this Emma who’s getting married next week!
To be fair to her she’s been very good throughout the engagement, with no bridezilla moments. And I know she’s very jealous of me heading off to Tanzania a couple of days after her wedding. She’s been nothing but supportive, but it’s her latest suggestion that’s been her greatest and reminded me again why we’re friends.
Her wedding ceremony is in Kilkenny and is at the slightly later than usual time of 4pm. So what has she suggested we do to fill the day before the main event? Hair and make-up? Nope, that shouldn’t take long. Nails and lounging about in our fluffly white personalised bride and bridesmaid robes? Nope. She’s suggested…climbing a mountain! Everyone else thinks we’re a bit mad, but we’re planning to assault Mount Brandon on the day before putting on the gúnas and heading off to get her married. At a mere 951 metres it falls short of Kilimanjaro’s 4,600 metres, and I’m sure the champagne we’re planning on bringing up Brandon won’t feature on Kilimanjaro. But it’s a great idea, will surely be a great memory and fingers crossed will kick off a month of successful mountain climbing for me!
Lollipop
Sponsor me
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_headstrong
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_simoncommunity
Follow me on Facebook
http://facebook.com/lollipopversuskilimanjaro
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Plea....se
I said in my last post that life is good. Well life is not good today. I'm having a nightmare day in work; I haven't been running in over a fortnight because I've been saving my hips for Kilimanjaro (although I have been doing some hyper-fitness stuff - more on that in a minute) and I've had to cancel a fundraiser in Tullamore. Sad faces all round!
You guys can't do anything about my bad day in work unfortunately, which is a bit of a shame. (Unless you own a company that's looking to hire someone who likes chatting to people and maybe doing a bit of writing, then get in touch!)
You can't really do much when it comes to my hip problems either. Oh and speaking of, the short story when it comes to them is this: they're sub-standard and pounding the streets is nothing something they're cool with. I thought of suing my parents for making me that way but I reckoned they might counter-sue for all the grief I've given them over the years. Then I decided to just get on with it, so I started doing a bit of hyper-fitness. You should Google it - it's great. It looks like a bunch of exercises children would do. At my first session in Dublin's Phoenix Park on a warm Sunday evening the instructor warned me people would probably look at me and wonder why exactly I was sweating so much. And they did. But it's amazing - it's simple yet really makes you work and you know all about it the next day! I've also taken up badminton again, which is proving to be another good fitness session. It's a shame they've gone and changed all the rules since I played last, and also that my game has deteriorated so much it makes me swear like a fishwife on the court (although I manage to keep it under my breath now!), but overall it's a positive thing.
But on to the bit you can help me with - the cancelled fundraiser. I had planned a party for all my Offaly friends, but my hostess with the mostest had to cancel due to a very heavy college course-load. I wasn't actually that stressed when she broke the bad news because fundraising is stressing me out big time. However I don't want to see my charities going without, so if you'd be so kind as to donate a couple of quid online by searching for Laura Ryder on www.mycharity.ie I'd really appreciate it and my charities would too.
I'm looking forward to being in a better mood next time, promise!
You guys can't do anything about my bad day in work unfortunately, which is a bit of a shame. (Unless you own a company that's looking to hire someone who likes chatting to people and maybe doing a bit of writing, then get in touch!)
You can't really do much when it comes to my hip problems either. Oh and speaking of, the short story when it comes to them is this: they're sub-standard and pounding the streets is nothing something they're cool with. I thought of suing my parents for making me that way but I reckoned they might counter-sue for all the grief I've given them over the years. Then I decided to just get on with it, so I started doing a bit of hyper-fitness. You should Google it - it's great. It looks like a bunch of exercises children would do. At my first session in Dublin's Phoenix Park on a warm Sunday evening the instructor warned me people would probably look at me and wonder why exactly I was sweating so much. And they did. But it's amazing - it's simple yet really makes you work and you know all about it the next day! I've also taken up badminton again, which is proving to be another good fitness session. It's a shame they've gone and changed all the rules since I played last, and also that my game has deteriorated so much it makes me swear like a fishwife on the court (although I manage to keep it under my breath now!), but overall it's a positive thing.
But on to the bit you can help me with - the cancelled fundraiser. I had planned a party for all my Offaly friends, but my hostess with the mostest had to cancel due to a very heavy college course-load. I wasn't actually that stressed when she broke the bad news because fundraising is stressing me out big time. However I don't want to see my charities going without, so if you'd be so kind as to donate a couple of quid online by searching for Laura Ryder on www.mycharity.ie I'd really appreciate it and my charities would too.
I'm looking forward to being in a better mood next time, promise!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Life is good!
As I write it’s the end of a great day! I was woken ten minutes before my alarm this morning by a phone call. Normally this is a bad thing. A very bad thing. In this case however it was a great thing – the call was from my co-climber Adam in Australia, telling me he had booked his flight to Kilimanjaro. So now we’re definitely going! He also needed some calming down, as he’s nervous as hell of a long haul flight to somewhere he’s never been before.
Groggy with sleep compared to his early evening/nervous energy, I coached him through exactly why a long haul flight was no big deal and globe hopping the most fun thing ever.
Getting out of bed was no problem after that – we were going to climb Kilimanjaro! Yeah!
On my walk into work I had an attack of nerves myself though – what if I couldn’t do it? What if I wasn’t able to climb the mountain? One quick conversation with Australia later all was ok – Adam’s going to make sure I make it up the mountain, and I’m going to make him fall in love with random travel. Sorted.com!
Arriving in work with a new sense of purpose, I decided at lunch time to sort out my visa and jabs. As far as I know you can get your visa at the airport in Tanzania, but it’s slightly cheaper and it involves no queues to do it by post now so post it is. Fingers crossed I haven’t forgotten a flight I’m due to take over the next fortnight or so. If I have I won’t be going; my passport is currently on its way to the Tanzania High Commission in London.
Jab-wise I’ve fished out my little yellow book that shows exactly what I’ve been vaccinated against in the past. My Kilimanjaro guide mentioned only a yellow fever vaccination – which I have – but I’m going to err on the side of caution I think and go with whatever the good people in the Tropical Medical Bureau tell me to when I go to see them in a couple of days.
I spent the last half hour in work looking at Kilimanjaro blogs. The old hips have been playing up and I haven’t done as much as I should to find an alternative path to fitness. I hate the gym, and when I made paltry attempts to join the trainer I spoke to recommended a hyper fitness course he’s doing outdoors instead. Which sounds nice, but I’ll believe it when it begins – it’s been in the planning stages for quite a while now it seems! I’m comforted by blogs though – yes, climbing Kilimanjaro is tough, but it seems I have as much chance as making it up as someone who has run a bunch of marathons. More chance actually, because super fit people tend to go faster than is recommended and wear themselves out. “Pole pole” (“Slow but steady”) is the phrase of choice on the mountain apparently, and I know already I can do that!
In fact, I’ve decided from now on to chill out, do what I can and stop worrying. And that goes for everything from fitness to fundraising. I’m going to do what I can, but make sure I continue to enjoy life all the while and not get wound up about preparations.
And so I ended the day off in as nice as way as I can think – a two hour walk on the beach in Dun Laoghaire culminating in 99s from Teddy’s. Life is good!
Groggy with sleep compared to his early evening/nervous energy, I coached him through exactly why a long haul flight was no big deal and globe hopping the most fun thing ever.
Getting out of bed was no problem after that – we were going to climb Kilimanjaro! Yeah!
On my walk into work I had an attack of nerves myself though – what if I couldn’t do it? What if I wasn’t able to climb the mountain? One quick conversation with Australia later all was ok – Adam’s going to make sure I make it up the mountain, and I’m going to make him fall in love with random travel. Sorted.com!
Arriving in work with a new sense of purpose, I decided at lunch time to sort out my visa and jabs. As far as I know you can get your visa at the airport in Tanzania, but it’s slightly cheaper and it involves no queues to do it by post now so post it is. Fingers crossed I haven’t forgotten a flight I’m due to take over the next fortnight or so. If I have I won’t be going; my passport is currently on its way to the Tanzania High Commission in London.
Jab-wise I’ve fished out my little yellow book that shows exactly what I’ve been vaccinated against in the past. My Kilimanjaro guide mentioned only a yellow fever vaccination – which I have – but I’m going to err on the side of caution I think and go with whatever the good people in the Tropical Medical Bureau tell me to when I go to see them in a couple of days.
I spent the last half hour in work looking at Kilimanjaro blogs. The old hips have been playing up and I haven’t done as much as I should to find an alternative path to fitness. I hate the gym, and when I made paltry attempts to join the trainer I spoke to recommended a hyper fitness course he’s doing outdoors instead. Which sounds nice, but I’ll believe it when it begins – it’s been in the planning stages for quite a while now it seems! I’m comforted by blogs though – yes, climbing Kilimanjaro is tough, but it seems I have as much chance as making it up as someone who has run a bunch of marathons. More chance actually, because super fit people tend to go faster than is recommended and wear themselves out. “Pole pole” (“Slow but steady”) is the phrase of choice on the mountain apparently, and I know already I can do that!
In fact, I’ve decided from now on to chill out, do what I can and stop worrying. And that goes for everything from fitness to fundraising. I’m going to do what I can, but make sure I continue to enjoy life all the while and not get wound up about preparations.
And so I ended the day off in as nice as way as I can think – a two hour walk on the beach in Dun Laoghaire culminating in 99s from Teddy’s. Life is good!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
We're all in the mood for a melody...can anyone help me out with that?
A quick fitness update to start this week – it’s been a while since I’ve written about it. I’m in the middle of sorting out an alternative to running as my staple workout because my hips have started to give me a bit of grief if I overdo it! It kind of makes me laugh, having bad hips at the ripe old age of 28. However, I have to work with what I’m given, so all I can do is get as fit as I can some other way, and make sure not to have injuries by the time I leave for Kili.
In other news my first fundraising gig is this Friday in the Sugar Club on Leeson Street in Dublin and I’m nervous nervous nervous! I’m petrified nobody will come and the gig will end up costing me rather than bringing in money for my charities. I have a horrible little nightmare vision of me dancing all by myself to cheesy 90’s dance tunes. Argh! It mightn’t be the best marketing plan ever, but my plan this week is to spam everyone I know with emails and texts begging them to come along! If you’re in the Dublin area or fancy a trip to it this weekend (Friday, June 11) the details are this: 90’s cover band “Pump Up The Jam” play all your 90s favourites from 9pm in the Sugar Club. The cover charge of €10 goes to my charities once you get there before 11pm, so, em, please come along!
I’ve also just made preliminary arrangements for a fundraising gig in Shebeen Chic on Dublin’s Georges Street in July. It has the cutest gig space in the basement, and management seem really cool. I had a quick meeting with a fantastic drummer friend of mine called Seb from Argentina yesterday, and he’s off persuading two bands he’s in (one rockabilly, one rock) to do the gig for a couple of pints from me as I write.
The main thing I want to do this week though is ask for a big favour. I’ve been offered a great venue in Tullamore on short notice – June 25. I’ve been scouting around trying to put together a cool line up, and already I have two great acts. I need a headline though. Ideally I’d like The Dirty Blagards to headline, but Steve Mooney packing off to Lanzarote at the start of this year kind of scuppered that one before it even became an idea! Almost as ideally I’d like The Whisht to play, but while they’re willing they’re not able – they have another gig scheduled for that night.
So the favour I have to ask is this: do you know any musician or band that I could ask to headline? Or are you a musician or part of a band who could help me out? If so I’d love to put together a great line-up over the next couple of weeks and give Tullamore a cracking night out and a chance to support my fundraising efforts.
If you are my headline act or know of an act that could be, please email me on lauraryder@gmail.com – I’ll love you forever!
Sensei Michael says: “Your attitude always determines your altitude”
He’s getting good at this, hey?!
Until next week,
Lollipop
Sponsor me
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_headstrong
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_simoncommunity
Follow me on Facebook
http://facebook.com/lollipopversuskilimanjaro
In other news my first fundraising gig is this Friday in the Sugar Club on Leeson Street in Dublin and I’m nervous nervous nervous! I’m petrified nobody will come and the gig will end up costing me rather than bringing in money for my charities. I have a horrible little nightmare vision of me dancing all by myself to cheesy 90’s dance tunes. Argh! It mightn’t be the best marketing plan ever, but my plan this week is to spam everyone I know with emails and texts begging them to come along! If you’re in the Dublin area or fancy a trip to it this weekend (Friday, June 11) the details are this: 90’s cover band “Pump Up The Jam” play all your 90s favourites from 9pm in the Sugar Club. The cover charge of €10 goes to my charities once you get there before 11pm, so, em, please come along!
I’ve also just made preliminary arrangements for a fundraising gig in Shebeen Chic on Dublin’s Georges Street in July. It has the cutest gig space in the basement, and management seem really cool. I had a quick meeting with a fantastic drummer friend of mine called Seb from Argentina yesterday, and he’s off persuading two bands he’s in (one rockabilly, one rock) to do the gig for a couple of pints from me as I write.
The main thing I want to do this week though is ask for a big favour. I’ve been offered a great venue in Tullamore on short notice – June 25. I’ve been scouting around trying to put together a cool line up, and already I have two great acts. I need a headline though. Ideally I’d like The Dirty Blagards to headline, but Steve Mooney packing off to Lanzarote at the start of this year kind of scuppered that one before it even became an idea! Almost as ideally I’d like The Whisht to play, but while they’re willing they’re not able – they have another gig scheduled for that night.
So the favour I have to ask is this: do you know any musician or band that I could ask to headline? Or are you a musician or part of a band who could help me out? If so I’d love to put together a great line-up over the next couple of weeks and give Tullamore a cracking night out and a chance to support my fundraising efforts.
If you are my headline act or know of an act that could be, please email me on lauraryder@gmail.com – I’ll love you forever!
Sensei Michael says: “Your attitude always determines your altitude”
He’s getting good at this, hey?!
Until next week,
Lollipop
Sponsor me
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_headstrong
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_simoncommunity
Follow me on Facebook
http://facebook.com/lollipopversuskilimanjaro
Saturday, May 22, 2010
I won’t have to lie now if I ever apply for a job in Event Management!
You may or may not know this, but I have an extremely long finger. I have used it for a variety of things in my life thus far. All of those dull things I can’t work up the enthusiasm for? I just put them on the long finger. My life plan? It’s there too. My short-, mid- and long-term goals? Oh yes, they’re mostly housed on the long finger too. My argument is that I prefer life when it’s less goal oriented and more impulsively going with the flow, but I sometimes do wonder how I get any work done at all.
I don’t mind telling you it hasn’t been easy working with the same long finger since I decided to take on Project Kilimanjaro. I mean if I’d been blessed with long legs for example, that would have been one thing. I could’ve taken on Kilimanjaro in a few strides and be back down in time for tea. But nope, instead I’ve been given distinctively average length legs, and just one dratted long finger.
So now I’ve filled you in on that, I hope you’re impressed when I reveal this week’s news: I have arranged my first fundraiser! And as a bonus I’ve even started thinking about a second one (although that’s mostly because someone called me about it and started putting ideas in my head, so I haven’t had to do much actual work on it so far).
But back to FUNDRAISER 1! It’s all happening in the big smoke (not far away from you wherever you’re reading this now what with all the lovely M roads the European Union helped us with over the last decade or so) on Friday, June 11. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…Italia ‘90!
The whole 90’s night seed was sown when I was in Galway for the weekend with Ruth O’Brien, another ex-Offaly Indo staffer. Holding out for as long as we could before going out (the wallets wouldn’t have it any other way), for some random reason a 90’s song was dug out of the Internet archives. As far as I can remember it was Snow’s “Informer” and it lit up candles none of us were really aware we held for crap 90’s tunes. But requests came faster than we could play the songs and we all threw ourselves into the music. I haven’t seen any of us look as unashamedly ridiculous dancing before or since.
From that second it was decided there was nothing for it but to have a 90’s night for my first fundraiser.
And so, some organisation later here it is! Everything is happening in the Sugar Club on Leeson Street in Dublin on Friday, June 11 – get there before 11pm and the €10 cover charge goes to my charities. (Get there after 11pm and I’ll be giving you the evil eye all night because my charities won’t get a penny!) All the best 90’s tunes will be played by live band “Pump Up the Jam”.
Any soccer fans out there will know that June 11 is also the start of the World Cup. Which World Cup do we all love to remember here in Ireland? Italia ’90 of course! So come along in your Kappa zip-up tops, your tracksuits with popper fastening down the sides, your Spice Girl boots, your hair in a pony tail on the side of your head, your old Italia ’90 gear – let’s all look tragic and have an excellent night!
Sensei Michael says: “Techno, techno, techno, techno!”
Sing it Michael!
Until next week,
Lollipop
Sponsor me
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_headstrong
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_simoncommunity
Follow me on Facebook
http://facebook.com/lollipopversuskilimanjaro
I don’t mind telling you it hasn’t been easy working with the same long finger since I decided to take on Project Kilimanjaro. I mean if I’d been blessed with long legs for example, that would have been one thing. I could’ve taken on Kilimanjaro in a few strides and be back down in time for tea. But nope, instead I’ve been given distinctively average length legs, and just one dratted long finger.
So now I’ve filled you in on that, I hope you’re impressed when I reveal this week’s news: I have arranged my first fundraiser! And as a bonus I’ve even started thinking about a second one (although that’s mostly because someone called me about it and started putting ideas in my head, so I haven’t had to do much actual work on it so far).
But back to FUNDRAISER 1! It’s all happening in the big smoke (not far away from you wherever you’re reading this now what with all the lovely M roads the European Union helped us with over the last decade or so) on Friday, June 11. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…Italia ‘90!
The whole 90’s night seed was sown when I was in Galway for the weekend with Ruth O’Brien, another ex-Offaly Indo staffer. Holding out for as long as we could before going out (the wallets wouldn’t have it any other way), for some random reason a 90’s song was dug out of the Internet archives. As far as I can remember it was Snow’s “Informer” and it lit up candles none of us were really aware we held for crap 90’s tunes. But requests came faster than we could play the songs and we all threw ourselves into the music. I haven’t seen any of us look as unashamedly ridiculous dancing before or since.
From that second it was decided there was nothing for it but to have a 90’s night for my first fundraiser.
And so, some organisation later here it is! Everything is happening in the Sugar Club on Leeson Street in Dublin on Friday, June 11 – get there before 11pm and the €10 cover charge goes to my charities. (Get there after 11pm and I’ll be giving you the evil eye all night because my charities won’t get a penny!) All the best 90’s tunes will be played by live band “Pump Up the Jam”.
Any soccer fans out there will know that June 11 is also the start of the World Cup. Which World Cup do we all love to remember here in Ireland? Italia ’90 of course! So come along in your Kappa zip-up tops, your tracksuits with popper fastening down the sides, your Spice Girl boots, your hair in a pony tail on the side of your head, your old Italia ’90 gear – let’s all look tragic and have an excellent night!
Sensei Michael says: “Techno, techno, techno, techno!”
Sing it Michael!
Until next week,
Lollipop
Sponsor me
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_headstrong
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_simoncommunity
Follow me on Facebook
http://facebook.com/lollipopversuskilimanjaro
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Meet the Mentor - lollipop versus kili diary #3
Here it is Michael - your Offaly debut!!
Meet the Mentor!
Maybe it’s because he’s on annual leave and I miss him in work (but I seriously doubt it) or maybe it’s because I promised I’d give him his newspaper debut in this column, but this week I’m going to introduce you to my Kilimanjaro mentor Michael!
Michael is a colleague of mine; we both work in a Dublin office where the only climbing necessary is up an excuse for a flight of stairs. I met him in late 2008, and because he was almost as new to the company as I was we were both lumped with working over Christmas. During that week we watched a few movies (fingers crossed my boss hasn’t taken up my invitation to keep up with this column on my blog – suffice to say my job is not to watch movies), ate a few chocolates and found out we both liked to travel.
A few days and New Year resolutions later we had both decided we were beginning 2009 on a month-long healthy note. He gave up smoking, drinking and eating rubbish and took up the gym. I’d never taken up smoking in the first place so I decided I could skip the gym bit once I chucked in some walking. My housemate Gillian joined in with me and we went through January complaining daily, patting ourselves on the back for our efforts at least twice daily and getting our housemate Martin to tell us how good we were for not eating chocolate or drinking every evening in front of the telly. Actually we didn’t even make it all the way through January. We decided about two thirds through it would be disrespectful not to celebrate Australia Day, so January 26 saw us in The Woolshed on Parnell Street drinking VB, warbling “Waltzing Matilda” and talking to Chads, Brads and Lances.
Michael went about his month a little differently. He graduated on January 31 with flying colours…and not only continued into February with the healthy thing but bumped it up by signing up to climb Kilimanjaro in September.
Cutting a long (and boring – getting fit doesn’t make for the most interesting yarn ever) story short, he basically got super fit, successfully climbed Kili and loved it.
And I swear not two months later my friend Emma Jane independently suggested we do the same.
So, partly because I’m in awe of Michael (I like to set my standards low when it comes to choosing heroes, being in awe of people etc), but mostly because I think anything he can do I can do better, I agreed. Not exactly with gusto, but I agreed.
Since then Michael has somehow become my motivator/fitness guru/personal Hitler (depending how I’m feeling on the day). We got off to a bit of a rocky start when he wrote out a January fitness plan that included a potato ban and adding minutes onto running times before I had either gotten my breath back or congratulated myself enough on my jogging brilliance, but since he’s realised (ok, I told him) that I respond best to praise we’re getting along famously!
We hit the Wicklow hills for a four hour hike a few weeks ago to ease me into the idea of slopes, and more importantly he’s helped me get from being able to run two laps of the square next to my house (which takes all of four minutes) to being able to run a 10km road race and still feel I could do more. (Now this is starting to feel like an Oscar acceptance speech!)
I’m leaving the final few words to Michael. He’s asked as a special request to be known as Sensei Michael, and I’ve agreed to it for a week if he comes up with cheesy pseudo-sage phrases I can tack onto the end of this column for a laugh.
“Getting to the top is only halfway.”
Indeed…
Until next week,
Lollipop
P.S. I know I said last week this column would have details of my first fundraiser. Put June 11 in your diary and I’ll tell all next week!
Sponsor me
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_headstrong
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_simoncommunity
Follow me on Facebook
http://facebook.com/lollipopversuskilimanjaro
Meet the Mentor!
Maybe it’s because he’s on annual leave and I miss him in work (but I seriously doubt it) or maybe it’s because I promised I’d give him his newspaper debut in this column, but this week I’m going to introduce you to my Kilimanjaro mentor Michael!
Michael is a colleague of mine; we both work in a Dublin office where the only climbing necessary is up an excuse for a flight of stairs. I met him in late 2008, and because he was almost as new to the company as I was we were both lumped with working over Christmas. During that week we watched a few movies (fingers crossed my boss hasn’t taken up my invitation to keep up with this column on my blog – suffice to say my job is not to watch movies), ate a few chocolates and found out we both liked to travel.
A few days and New Year resolutions later we had both decided we were beginning 2009 on a month-long healthy note. He gave up smoking, drinking and eating rubbish and took up the gym. I’d never taken up smoking in the first place so I decided I could skip the gym bit once I chucked in some walking. My housemate Gillian joined in with me and we went through January complaining daily, patting ourselves on the back for our efforts at least twice daily and getting our housemate Martin to tell us how good we were for not eating chocolate or drinking every evening in front of the telly. Actually we didn’t even make it all the way through January. We decided about two thirds through it would be disrespectful not to celebrate Australia Day, so January 26 saw us in The Woolshed on Parnell Street drinking VB, warbling “Waltzing Matilda” and talking to Chads, Brads and Lances.
Michael went about his month a little differently. He graduated on January 31 with flying colours…and not only continued into February with the healthy thing but bumped it up by signing up to climb Kilimanjaro in September.
Cutting a long (and boring – getting fit doesn’t make for the most interesting yarn ever) story short, he basically got super fit, successfully climbed Kili and loved it.
And I swear not two months later my friend Emma Jane independently suggested we do the same.
So, partly because I’m in awe of Michael (I like to set my standards low when it comes to choosing heroes, being in awe of people etc), but mostly because I think anything he can do I can do better, I agreed. Not exactly with gusto, but I agreed.
Since then Michael has somehow become my motivator/fitness guru/personal Hitler (depending how I’m feeling on the day). We got off to a bit of a rocky start when he wrote out a January fitness plan that included a potato ban and adding minutes onto running times before I had either gotten my breath back or congratulated myself enough on my jogging brilliance, but since he’s realised (ok, I told him) that I respond best to praise we’re getting along famously!
We hit the Wicklow hills for a four hour hike a few weeks ago to ease me into the idea of slopes, and more importantly he’s helped me get from being able to run two laps of the square next to my house (which takes all of four minutes) to being able to run a 10km road race and still feel I could do more. (Now this is starting to feel like an Oscar acceptance speech!)
I’m leaving the final few words to Michael. He’s asked as a special request to be known as Sensei Michael, and I’ve agreed to it for a week if he comes up with cheesy pseudo-sage phrases I can tack onto the end of this column for a laugh.
“Getting to the top is only halfway.”
Indeed…
Until next week,
Lollipop
P.S. I know I said last week this column would have details of my first fundraiser. Put June 11 in your diary and I’ll tell all next week!
Sponsor me
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_headstrong
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_simoncommunity
Follow me on Facebook
http://facebook.com/lollipopversuskilimanjaro
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
All Fundraising, No Fitness - lollipop versus kilimanjaro diary #2
They've demanded a pic, so from now on I get my ugly mug in the paper too! As you'll read below, fitness has taken a back seat this week (but I have an excuse!). I have been for a slow short jog both today and yesterday though, and plan for a long one on Thursday, so things are still ticking over. Anyway, week two below - enjoy!
Former Offaly Independent reporter Laura (Lollipop) Ryder is waving goodbye to her couch. She’s giving up the sedentary lifestyle for one big reason – to climb the world’s highest free standing mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, this August. As well as pushing herself to her physical limits, she’s also pushing to fundraise for two very good causes. You can keep up with both journeys in this column every week.
Fitness has taken a back seat this week; it’s all been about fundraising. A work trip to London with only hand luggage and no room for runners no matter how I arranged and re-arranged my bag put paid to any strides in the fitness department. And though I gave myself a shock when I thought this first, I really missed jogging! Coming from a high of finally running 10km last week to nothing this week left me strangely drained of energy.
Or perhaps my tiredness is down to the organisation skills I’m having to get to grips with as I put together my first fundraising gig.
When I decided to raise money for charity in tandem with getting fit to climb Kilimanjaro I also decided my fundraisers would be events people would gladly pay money to go to, aside from the charity aspect. While I’m still totally behind that idea, it’s hard work! At the moment I’m putting together a 90s night in Dublin, finalising dates for a party in Tullamore, starting to think about a gig with a few different bands (if any bands reading are interested in taking part give me a shout!), and even debating trying to put on a roller disco as well as the inevitable table quiz and raffle! Putting my own money down to confirm these gigs when I can scarce afford it what with having plane tickets and climb packages to pay for definitely feels like putting my money where my mouth is! Any marketing skills and friends I might possess will be truly tested as I twist arms so events are well attended and I see good returns on any investments I make, because it’s not just me who will lose out if my fundraisers fail; it’s charity too.
Which brings me neatly to the subject of my chosen charities.
Deciding to raise money for charity is easy. Deciding what charity exactly is much harder. There were countless charities I could have chosen, all of them worthy. In the end I settled on two.
After thinking long and hard I narrowed down the areas I couldn’t not support to homelessness and mental health, and from there to the Simon Community and Headstrong specifically.
I live in Rathmines in Dublin now, and on my half hour walk to and from work in the city centre every day I see about ten homeless people. Most of the time they make me feel desolate and sad. Sometimes they annoy me. All times they make me want to do something more than just give them a bit of spare change. And I know the homeless people I encounter on any given day are just the tip of the iceberg as much as I know that by myself the difference I can make is limited. So I want to add a lump sum to Simon’s pocket. As a nod to my midlands links, I’ve decided that two thirds of all money raised for Simon will go to the Midlands Simon coffers.
On to Headstrong, last year I randomly sat in on a talk about suicide prevention given by its founder Tony Bates. It had such an impact on me that I wrote him an email the next day to tell him so. I’ve also known enough people with mental health problems to know that it’s quite the problem in Ireland, and any of us could be affected at any time. Most adult mental health problems can be traced back to teenage years, and it’s this age group the Headstrong charity works with. To be honest I just think any organisation that works to promote good lifelong mental health deserves support.
Details are below if you’d like to support either charity, and all donations are much appreciated.
Until next week,
Lollipop x
Sponsor me
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_headstrong
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_simoncommunity
Follow me on Facebook
http://facebook.com/lollipopversuskilimanjaro
Former Offaly Independent reporter Laura (Lollipop) Ryder is waving goodbye to her couch. She’s giving up the sedentary lifestyle for one big reason – to climb the world’s highest free standing mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro, this August. As well as pushing herself to her physical limits, she’s also pushing to fundraise for two very good causes. You can keep up with both journeys in this column every week.
Fitness has taken a back seat this week; it’s all been about fundraising. A work trip to London with only hand luggage and no room for runners no matter how I arranged and re-arranged my bag put paid to any strides in the fitness department. And though I gave myself a shock when I thought this first, I really missed jogging! Coming from a high of finally running 10km last week to nothing this week left me strangely drained of energy.
Or perhaps my tiredness is down to the organisation skills I’m having to get to grips with as I put together my first fundraising gig.
When I decided to raise money for charity in tandem with getting fit to climb Kilimanjaro I also decided my fundraisers would be events people would gladly pay money to go to, aside from the charity aspect. While I’m still totally behind that idea, it’s hard work! At the moment I’m putting together a 90s night in Dublin, finalising dates for a party in Tullamore, starting to think about a gig with a few different bands (if any bands reading are interested in taking part give me a shout!), and even debating trying to put on a roller disco as well as the inevitable table quiz and raffle! Putting my own money down to confirm these gigs when I can scarce afford it what with having plane tickets and climb packages to pay for definitely feels like putting my money where my mouth is! Any marketing skills and friends I might possess will be truly tested as I twist arms so events are well attended and I see good returns on any investments I make, because it’s not just me who will lose out if my fundraisers fail; it’s charity too.
Which brings me neatly to the subject of my chosen charities.
Deciding to raise money for charity is easy. Deciding what charity exactly is much harder. There were countless charities I could have chosen, all of them worthy. In the end I settled on two.
After thinking long and hard I narrowed down the areas I couldn’t not support to homelessness and mental health, and from there to the Simon Community and Headstrong specifically.
I live in Rathmines in Dublin now, and on my half hour walk to and from work in the city centre every day I see about ten homeless people. Most of the time they make me feel desolate and sad. Sometimes they annoy me. All times they make me want to do something more than just give them a bit of spare change. And I know the homeless people I encounter on any given day are just the tip of the iceberg as much as I know that by myself the difference I can make is limited. So I want to add a lump sum to Simon’s pocket. As a nod to my midlands links, I’ve decided that two thirds of all money raised for Simon will go to the Midlands Simon coffers.
On to Headstrong, last year I randomly sat in on a talk about suicide prevention given by its founder Tony Bates. It had such an impact on me that I wrote him an email the next day to tell him so. I’ve also known enough people with mental health problems to know that it’s quite the problem in Ireland, and any of us could be affected at any time. Most adult mental health problems can be traced back to teenage years, and it’s this age group the Headstrong charity works with. To be honest I just think any organisation that works to promote good lifelong mental health deserves support.
Details are below if you’d like to support either charity, and all donations are much appreciated.
Until next week,
Lollipop x
Sponsor me
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_headstrong
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/lollipop_kili_simoncommunity
Follow me on Facebook
http://facebook.com/lollipopversuskilimanjaro
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