Well, it's been a pretty hectic week and I've met some amazing people.  On Wednesday I was in Lechlade.  As I've now lost nearly 3 stone I thought I would take all the clothes that no longer fit me, and some other stuff too, to sell at the clothing exchange 'Isabella'.  When Maggie sells your things you get 50% of the price and I thought I could put this towards my fundraising.  Well, a lot of the clothes I had collected weren't appropriate (jeans, t-shirts etc), but another lady suggested a charity shop in Faringdon - there is another branch of this charity store in Lechlade called the Book Cave.  This is where I met Steve Cox and Alison.  They were both absolutely lovely and I wish I'd had more time to spend talking to them as they both had loads of advice for Kilimanjaro and my other challenges.  They very kindly took the 5 bags of clothes to the Farringdon branch for me.  Thank you Steve & Alison X.

I have now also purchased what must be the worlds most expensive sleeping bag !!! I had done my homework and knew what I needed, so off I trotted to Cotswold Outdoors in South Cerney - I love that shop - the staff are wonderful and really know the stock.  So I took their advice too and am confident that I definitely won't be cold on any of the challenges !

Thursday morning I got my Yellow Fever jab and the certificate - I won't be able to get into Tanzania without it... and my passport arrived back from the Tanzanian High Commission with my Visa in place - all set to go now...

I did some of that 'work' stuff on Friday and taught an Appointed Persons Certificate to a really fun group of 8 - wish I had them for a longer course as it was a great day !

The Eastleach Fete was on Saturday. I ran the Hoop-La stand and also took a game called Bottle Stand (I'll explain that one another time - remind me !).  My neighbours' Neice and Nephew (Sarah and James) helped me and I couldn't have done it without them ! It was a fab afternoon and we were lucky with the weather - it was sunny but quite windy and everything needed extra 'tying down'.  May I also just say that the sausages for the BBQ were from Sam Wade and were ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS !!!!

I was the First Aid cover at the Siddington Village Fete and Steve Dark (my friend Sally's Husband) came with me so he could observe.  He is a new St. John Member and will be through his exams soon and out on the road too - plus I like to have a 'Crew-Mate' !  It was a great fete but the weather wasn't too favourable - bit of a miserable day.  Chatted to the PCSO's on duty - Angie and Mike.  Laurence & Jackie Llewellyn-Bowen were there too - they both looked fabulous and they participated in the whole thing, which was really nice !

I was going to write this last night - but that kind of got away from me... The Victoria Inn in Eastleach was having a Karokke (however you spell it) night and it was a blast...!!! So, better late than never - let's see what this week brings...!

Till soon, Abs x