Air travel and TRAC update

Check this link out first. Koalas aren't know to be great drinkers.

Farewelling one of my work mates yesterday since she's off to Canada for 6 weeks, we got to talking out air travel. The topic was especially centred around what sort of person you get to sit next to on a long haul flight.

Me, I always go for the aisle seat and am very quiet the entire trip..no imposing myself on my neighbour and I hope to get a similar response from them. However the conversation this time was really about having to sit next to someone who overflows the seat...something I've never had to endure. But I was able to recount something I'd heard on the radio a coupla days ago...

This lady had rung in with a tale about a trip she had with (I think) Easyjet..a low cost airline. She is BIG and whenever she flies she chooses what she expects will be a less popular flight so as to be able to have an empty seat next to her. Anyhow this time she realised that the flight was filling up and so rang the airline, explained the situation and bought a second ticket to ensure she'd not be squashing anyone.

However when she got to the airport she discovered that the ticket clerk had given her one seat at the front and the other seat at the rear of the plane!

My training is going along well considering the overload the weather and TRAC is putting on my system. This week I have been trying to decide which day would be best to have my burgeoning nervous breakdown as I battled TRAC, my increasing clinical workload plus orientating and mentoring 2 brand new, new-grad Physios on my ward

TRAC update..we are now on the last day of the first week and already we have some hefty front runners who have bolted beyond Sydney (800+km) and are closing in on Queensland. Since there are floods in northern Queensland I've been telling everyone that for them only swimming will count this week! (giggle giggle). My team is not allowed to win (moral dilemma..can't win what you've organised) and clearly wouldn't anyway, cos I'm not sure we've even left Victoria (<400km)

I was talking to someone whose mother is a primary teacher and who asked if there was any copyright on the idea (no) as she thought it'd be a great thing for her kids to do..around Victoria with projects along the way at various locations eg gold in Bendigo, fruit in mildura, bushrangers in Glenrowan. The older classes will run it and all the school will take part.....

I've had the first nomination for a spot prize of someone whose breakfast was the first of many cola drinks and who never exercised...she's given up the fizzy brekky and is now exercising......now THAT'S one of the things we were hoping to acheive. The other was to encourage ALL the staff to pull together/bond rather than what usually happens which is bonding in separate departments/wards.

However we have learned many lessons along the way..one of which is keep it VERY simple..if we EVER do this again there will be no restrictions at all in what exercise can count..either that or it will be limited to walking running or cycling. By allowing sports and some gym classes to count we've included more people but made it more complicated.

Last weekend's results

Here are the results from last weekend's TT:

A Grade 1^st 30.58, 2^nd 31.05, 3^rd 31.07

B Grade 1^st 33.18 2^nd 33.35 3^rd 33.56

C Grade 1^st 37.09 2^nd 38.03 3^rd 38.58

D Grade 1^st 36.38 2^nd Liz Randall 36.46 3^rd 37.47

Looks like I'd have been better placed in C grade, but to be fair..maybe others were not going flat out since they had 2 more races ahead of them, whereas I was going straight home.......1st place in C grade was a ~?40yr old female. The winner and 3rd place of B grade are both going to Austria too...they are, I think MMAS 7 age group, so around the same age as me. Checking out the differential of times between MMAS7 and WMAS7 (ie 60-64 yr old) in the Worlds TT race last year, the guys run at 3-4 minutes faster that the women.....

Things are hotting up here at home, with Alex flying out tomorrow. He goes by domestic flight to Sydney first then on to Warsaw for a month's worth of training camps and lead up races to the World MTB Orienteering Championships being held in Poland at the end of August.

Yesterday he weighed his bike bag on the wheelchair weighing machine at work; it came in at 17.3kgs. Flying with BA he is able to take 1 bike bag (as sports equipment) and 1 case. Sadly they wouldn't allow me 2 bikes cases so I'm doomed to a round the world trip. I'll have 1 case with 2 bikes in, minus pedals and seats/seat posts, which'll clock in at a shade over 23kgs and a second bike case with wheels and clothes in. OR I can put a bike in each case with the wheels and etcs in the bigger case. Whichever way I go, I'll start packing this weekend after the TT race on Saturday, with the TT bike in the bigger and also safer case.

I've always admired people who don't get as stressed as I do prior to travel and who manage to look elegant as they front up to the flight. Despite many, many flights across the globe, I always look like a stressed out wreck.....which is reality, 'cos I always am a stressed out wreck!

I have quite a few funnies from my travels....the year I won both the World Masters RR and TT, I got on the plane at Heathrow and promptly fell asleep, only to be woken by applause. When I asked what that was all about my neighbour told me the captain had announced that on board was the World Masters Road Champion!!!!!! doh..my big moment and I missed it.

Another time while in the lift at Heathrow, a Brit asked me what on earth was in my huge double bike case and I said in a confidential whisper.... "It's the ONLY way to travel with children".

Or the last time I went to Austria, on arrival at Salzburg airport when replying in German to the customs question..what's in that bag...I said Radfahrer (cyclist) rather that Fahrrad (bicycle)!!.......

I just hope NOT to repeat the time I left my aero helmet at the security scanner in Melbourne and only realised just before boarding.....now that WAS a time when I boarded in a sweaty, stressed out state. As a result of that episode, I now count my hand luggage every time I move.....