How can you tell a bar is friendly?.... The nuts are Complementaty

Complements are wonderful things - nice to give and even better to receive (if they are honest and sincere). Recently I have found myself being on the giving side of things more and more (most unlike me). This is mainly due to my involvement in the cricket coaching of Team Hillary.

With David and Simmo living out of London it has been left to Glen and myself to get the teams cricket level up to scratch for the big day - Which We Will Win. It is a task that I have really began to enjoy and after only a few net sessions the improvement shown in some of the team has been massive. This is probably best illustrated by the fact that Tenzing no longer regard us as a complete push over.

On the weekend however I did receive a complement, it was not directed solely at myself but to all the members of the team that are attempting this world record attempt. It was given by many members of the public that noticed our efforts on Saturday morning. The complement was then bought home by the Chairman of the Lords Taverners, who was pleasantly surprised that a group of people from our age group had put so much time and effort into a project such as this.

As always a big hand must go to Kirt and Wes for all the hard work that they have put in, however I feel that it is time that everyone should start taking pride in what is taking place and there personal invlovement in it.

I have also found myself becoming heavily involved in the fitness side of the expedition. This at times can be a very deflating task, with some sessions containing very few participants. Bugging people to get fit and pestering them to come along to sessions is not something that anyone enjoys doing but it needs to be done. Therefore pestering emails will be coming out in the new year (be warned).

The more involved in the project I become the more I enjoy it and the more I enjoy it, the more involved I am willing to become (see where this is going???). This is a credit to the people that I am dealing with on a daily basis and is my final complement for this blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On a side note I had a very enjoyable weekend, spending almost all of it with people from the Everest project. I will not bother to recap it as all the info is already out their. Please read Tooves' and Glen's blogs for all the details. To increase the accuracy and add some more information to each blog:

Tooves': I am not his bunny and the dismissals he is talking about is are a dubious LBW and a catch (caught 50 metres over the boundary - maybe 150 metres at altitude).

Glen's: I beat the bearded wounder in the Grim Challenge, however we all lost to a real cricketer. Mr. Chris Read finished in 01.03.42 and who says you do not need to be fit to play cricket?????

Right I am off to Vienna to eat some schnitzel. Thank you come again.