The calendar assures me that it’s Wednesday today, but I’ve had such an odd week, during which I got kidnapped, that I honestly couldn’t swear to it myself! Last Wednesday saw me out for dinner and drinks with some friends that I used to work with – so far, so relatively normal, then on Thursday I sorted out a few things online and had to go to bed early because on Friday I was meant to be taking a group from the office on a charity walk up Ben Nevis, leaving at 6 am. It was in the Glen Nevis Visitor Centre carpark that I got kidnapped…

Winding back a few months here, and the exercise nutters in the office that I ferry around to charity sporting events a couple of times a year decided that they wanted to do the 5 Peaks Challenge. Each year for the past 3 years they’ve tried to go bigger and better than the previous ones, and up to now that has included cycling over 100 miles from Oban to Glasgow in 2 days, running in a relay over 70 miles from Kenmore to Glasgow in 1 day, climbing Ben Lomond (974 m / 3165 ft), canoeing across Loch Lomond (7 miles) and cycling from Loch Lomond to Glasgow (30 miles) in 1 day, and finally a few Tough Mudder events. Obviously, if you’ve got all that under your belt, the next thing you want to achieve is the insanity of climbing the highest peaks in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales (in that order) which is a total of 1038 m + 850 m + 1345 m + 978 m + 1085 m = 5296 m, which is roughly the height of Everest Base Camp, or, if you’re of a visual bent, the combined heights of Burj Kalifa, Petronas Towers 1 and 2, One World Trade Centre, Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, CN Tower, Eiffel Tower, The Shard, Shanghria Tower, Backpool Tower, Sydney Harbour Bridge, Notre Dame and St. Pauls Cathedral! Did I mention that they had to do it all, including travel of 990 miles in between by car plus a 2 hour ferry journey, in 48 hours?! The idea was that aside from the core group, people from the different offices would drop in and pop up a mountain or two on the same day.

Now originally I had volunteered for all 5 Peaks, however since this was on a work day for the first time there was something of a rush to volunteer, so I was asked if I would just drive the Ben Nevis only climbers to and from Glasgow. Then, while cooking lunch for the core team in the Glen Nevis Visitor Centre carpark (in the rain) it became apparent that one of the core drivers was dead on his feet, and so I was co-opted to do the rest of the driving instead of him, while we sent him back to his bed in Glasgow. I had left the house that morning with my wallet, phone, iPod, a book, a couple of small bottles of coke and water, a packet of Haribo and a first aid kit, so I imagine that by the time I got the train back up to Glasgow the following day, I was perhaps not as fragrant as I’d been when I set off… Still, the lady that shared a table with me on the train was nice enough not to mention it!

Here’s a little flavour of where we were:

Ben Nevis is hidden behind the clouds, but it’s in there, honest!

Looking up the valley towards Scafell Pike, they climbed this one in the dark with head torches (this wasn’t long before sunset)

Looking down Borrowdale in the opposite direction to Scafell Pike:

Snowdon is behind those clouds (are you spotting a bit of a theme here? ;o)

Needless to say, come Saturday evening, I was relaxing in a long bath before trying to catch up on my sleep, having only got at the most 3 hours since I’d got up at 5 am on the Friday (it turns out that even luxury Land Rover Discoveries are not that comfy in the front seat when you’re trying to kip). On the plus side, my mum was up visiting my gran, so she kindly picked me up at the station on the Saturday and then cooked me a roast chicken dinner on the Sunday when I finally scraped myself out of bed.

Given the events of the week, you’ll not be shocked to learn that the only sewing related thing I did was to print out the templates for the next Brit Bee block I need to make, and to ask Susan how she wanted me to do the colours!

Finishes This Week:

Nada

In Progress This Week:

This pathetic wee pile is all I have to show for the Brit Bee block:

To Be Worked On This Week:

• Recovering my sanity
• Brit Bee block fabric pull
• Writing up some patterns/tutorials I’ve promised to several people
• Maybe a little sewing…

Hope you’ve all had a great week!