The first blisters!

Tuesday morning was yoga and we are working on a very short stretching routine that I can do when I take my 10 minutes break, and a longer evening routine evening routine to stretch all my muscles. Yoga is ideal as most stretches are done sitting or lying down and this will be perfect in the very low  tent that we will use during the crossing.

Although narrow and very low, these tents are going to become our home for 3 weeks and we also will have to cook in them. I must admit that I have never slept in a tent, let alone in freezing temperatures, but this will change as I am about to start my training week in Norway and will sleep in a tent during the week to get accustomed to the arctic conditions.
In order to get my back used to the heavy weight of the sled, Nick Knight suggested that I walk with a heavy backpack, so I went to the park on my roller-skis with 10 kilos on my back and took plenty of water (a first) and a snack. My aim was to do 2 x 50 minutes stints. Hyde Park was full of people strolling and this makes roller-skiing difficult, especially the sudden changes of direction and hard breaking!! All was fine, I got a huge blister under my toe, probably due to the extra weight. 
But, as I will probably have to do many many times during the crossing, I had to focus through the pain and keep my objective in sight. Giving up is not really part of my vocabulary and it is certainly not a blister, however painful, which will make me turn back.  
On Wednesday after lunch, I tried to rollerski with a 20 kilos backpack (I upped it up in the morning to get my back stronger), but my blister was prohibiting me to do so, and as needed to go get some items for Greenland, I went shopping with my backpack. I decided that it would be better to try and heal the foot until Saturday so that I could train pulling my sled in Norway rather than arriving there a cripple and finding it very difficult to concentrate! Thanks to the people at Ernest Jones who made me an unbelievable deal on a sports watch when they heard that it was a charity trek.

In the evening I had to shake off my "extreme mother" look of ponytail, gym and training clothes, and do my hair, put on some make up and a dress, swap my trainers for heels to attend a beautiful Children in Crisis fundraising event at the Roof Gardens. The Duchess of York very kindly sat me at her table, next to her lovely daughters and I had a great time. Antonia, Lucy and the whole Children in Crisis team were there, as were many people who donate their time, expertise and money to this wonderful cause. Many people donated generously, but I feel that it was way below the money which could have been raised by such a prestigious crowd. I still cannot understand how one can live an unbelievably privileged life of luxury like the one we live in in London, with the best schools, doctors, and sports activities on hand for our children, and not feel inclined to make a small pledge of £100 to fund some programs which will forever change children's lives for the better! But I strongly believe that life is a give and take, and the amazing thing is that if one goes to visit these really poor families, they will happily share with you the little food they have, they will give you warmth and friendship without counting, and they are really teaching us a lesson about what living in this world is about!