Bleeding, Booting, Courses...

The blood we give as individuals is precious, despite the corny taglines of
TV adverts and poster propaganda found in hospital corridors your blood is
Amazing and very valuable to you but it's even more valuable to someone
Else. I'm not going to lecture on this because the truth is people that want
To give will give, you've had years of opportunity and now it's easier than ever.
I give blood regularly and believe it is one of the few completely altruistic acts
You can engage in today. Find out everything you need to know at -

http://www.blood.co.uk/

Go on bleed for someone.



Boot Camp with Charlie Wall and friends. A successful event with a lot of
Panting and muscle making. A stunning morning at Cherry Hinton Hall Park
With a fantastic turn out of 26 participants and one Mike Power from Optimise-
Fitness providing professional massages. Without having met the troupe before
It was difficult to guage what kind of level we were working with and to what degree
We could beast them. Turns out they were all very good, and enjoyed the pain even
Giving requests for less rest breaks and more cardio!... Well next time I personally
Will be shouting the pain into them and making sure the feel something a little more
Punishing (Charlie, Amy and Ed - I'm targeting you, so be prepared...)

All in all it was a very fun morning and we were pleased to have met such a great bunch of people, Both Tom & I are hoping to stay in touch and keep you updated with our progress on our all our challenges. Just a quick note; The Prize of an official Oar Raisers T-shirt went to the person that worked the hardest and deserved it the most - Well done Lavinia for completing the whole session in wellington boots and still smiling at the end!...

http://www.purplefitness.co.uk/

http://www.optimise-fitness.com/

This weekend The Oar Riasers were in Gosport, a small and interesting place between
Southampton and Portsmouth. Arriving on Friday evening and staying at a place called
Jim & Joan' B&B (thank you for being so friendly and accomodating). Saturday involved a full day of First aid at sea and Defibularator training. Highly intense and vey interesting, Remarkably easy to use and hugely important!... People that have an electrical heart failure have a 5% survival rate without a Defib but getting one in time can increase chances of survival
To 50%....!!!

Sunday was our VHF radio course and exam to get the license. I think we both underestimated just how hard this test would be. I for one was sweating and very anxious about the exam, something I am normally quite good at and capable of as I am - this was tough. Both Tom & I spent the day learning the theory and proceedures, having practical experience with the radio sets and going through all kinds of scenarios. This was a lot of fun and very interesting - people think as long as you know the phonetic alphabet that using Radio comms would be easy…
It's not, and there are specific proceedurs and protocals for good reason. Finally after a day's training we sat down to an exam sheet on opposite sides of the room we nervously picked up Our pens. The examiner went through our papers together a little while later and the suspense was agonising… I hadn't felt like this since my finals at uni. Torturing us that bit longer the examiner made a few disconcerting grumbles as he looked over things, finally delivering the lines -
" well, you've both passed" Extatic I felt relief that I hadn’t let Tom down and I think that feeling was returned in Tom for me…. What is weird is that we both only got one question wrong and bizarrely it was the same one!... Two courses down we were homeward bound and very pleased with ouselves, progress comes in all kinds of ways right now and this was brilliant!..

Stay tuned folks.