Thank you to our donors

Thanks again to all those who donated prizes for last night's trivia night. We were inundated with gifts. And thank you to Katya for arranging the display boards.

In case you can't read the names:

CBD Energy
Rescue the Future (call 0408 774 406 for solar panel installation)
NSW Golf Club
Random House Books
Mick Guthrie Art
Rockport
Lacoste
Ben Sherman
Speedo
Bardwell Valley Golf Club
T&G Flowers, Horsley Park
Tigerlily
WM McNeil
mu wellness & healing
Angelhair, Roseville (call 02 9880 8088)
Perfect Potion
Cellarmasters Wines
Oyster Bay Wines
Vintage Cellars, Abbotsford
Diageo
Beauty Visage, Abbotsford (call 02 9713 6500)
Harry's Toys, Rosebery
Kids Coupons
Bandit Tree Care Machinery
Beverly Baker
Cathie Harrison & Ros Meagher
Bowermans Office Furniture
Gary & Sue Sadler
Dana Clarke (call 02 9519 1811 for massage)
Jessica West
Sea's the Limit Aquatics
Sid Pohorille (call 0420 245 143 for professional horticulture)
Ben Egan
Trish Durlacher
Benn Robinson

Thank you.

My new favourite website

Or not, given the current forecast...

http://www.windguru.cz/int/index.php?sc=96593

Planning a swim in Dover next weekend and it might be a little gusty.

While I'm away

Here's some information on how to keep track of where I am:

http://www.ais-doverstraits.co.uk/

This is the link where you can follow the swim by GPS satellite tracker. Click on the link to Satellite 3 (Anastasia.) You'll all have a better idea of where I am than I will.

And I'm not sure what we've unleashed here but John has taken to this tweeting thing. Updates here whenever he gets a break between feeds:

http://twitter.com/swimfacilitator

Yikes - what swimming the Channel is all about....

Check out this footage from this past week in Dover....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9vEe1l_KYQ&feature=player_embedded

Looks like just getting in the water will be the major problem.

But it's not all over yet....

We still have our major auction item which has been listed on ebay:

1.5kW SOLAR GRIDCONNECT SYSTEM - fully installed in the Sydney Metro area.

If you've been thinking about installing solar panels this is a great time to do it. This is a top-quality German-made solar panel system with a 25 year warranty on the panels and a 10-year warranty on the inverter.

The value of this item is $6,000 but the system will have paid for itself in 3 years and after that it's all profit.

The auction finishes on ebay this Friday - 3 September - at 2.30pm. Please contact me if you have any questions about it but this is a fantastic package.

Thank you very much to CBD Energy (www.cbdenergy.com.au) for donating the system, and Rescue the Future (call 0408 774 406) for providing the installation.

Fun-draising Trivia Night been and gone....

And now I just have that little thing called a swim to do.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all who came along last night, who gave to the cause, who generously donated prizes, who snapped up bargains at the silent auctions. I really hope everyone had an enjoyable night. I think I finally managed to enjoy myself at about midnight!

The final tally for the night.... drum roll.... $5,503.45. WOW! Brilliant.

I was utterly remiss in my 'thank yous' last night by omitting to mention the wonderful ladies who helped me pull it all together. So thank you to Bev, Alice, Katya, Georgina & Suzy who gave up their time and efforts to make it all happen.

Thank you also to Paddington RSL, and Reta & John at Trivia Magic.

The story of Inspire's Founder on Australian Story

Find out more about the story behind the organisation I've chosen to support.

Inspire’s founder JACK HEATH on Australian Story - Monday 30 August at 8.00pm on ABC1
Australian Story also airs online: www.abc.net.au/iview and Saturdays at 12.30pm on ABC1.

Driven by personal tragedy, Jack Heath abandoned his political ambitions, to confront a crisis affecting young lives.

Inspire's founder, Jack Heath, was a diplomat and key prime ministerial adviser. But the murder of a close friend, followed by the suicide of a young cousin, led to an emotional breaking point that forced him to confront his own repressed childhood troubles. Seeking a more meaningful life, Jack shocked his family and friends by turning his back on a promising political career to establish an innovative not-for-profit organisation that’s committed to supporting and inspiring young people, reducing youth suicide and eliminating the stigma of mental illness. This is the Inspire Foundation.

“When I look back, I’ve been through a lot of pretty traumatic times. I’ve faced demons. And in the course of that, I’ve stumbled upon what I feel now is my life purpose... helping young people face their demons and actually get to a better place.” - JACK HEATH

When Inspire’s flagship program ReachOut.com was established in 1997, Australia had one of the highest rates of youth suicide in the western world. Over the past decade, suicide among young Australians has declined significantly. This is the story of how Jack’s personal commitment to the cause helped contribute to this reversal – and his aim to replicate Australia’s success internationally.

Tune in to Australian Story on Monday night.

$5,000 and counting

We've just passed the $5,000 mark in donations. What a fantastic result and we've still got Saturday night to come.

Thank you, each and every one of you.

But back to fundraising....

We have another auction item listed on Ebay, this time a NSW Origin jersey signed by the game 3 squad of the 2010 series. Again, kindly donated by Margie McD.

Back to swimming

After all the stress of trying to organise things for the trivia night next Saturday, it was some relief to get back in the water this weekend and just swim. I had a beautiful three hour swim on Saturday, and a two hour swim on Sunday.

Saturday's swim had tricky bits as the wind was a howling westerly and it was only when we hugged the beach that we had a bit of shelter. It wasn't too bad for me in the water but it was pretty difficult for Margie on the surf ski.

The water was crystal clear, felt about 16.5 degrees (although someone told me later it was 15.5 degrees) and as we hugged the cliffs round to Freshwater, I had the most incredible swim over the beds of sea grass - what a beautiful spot. Thanks Margie.

Sunday was a chilly two hour swim at Balmoral, accompanied by (a slightly hungover) Anna. What a woman.

MLA Social Club Morning Tea

Recently, the social club at MLA organised a morning tea to raise funds for the Inspire Foundation.

A beautiful spread of carbohydrate-laden goodies was put on by Alice, Anna, Mel, Peta, Jean & Phoebe, so thank you, ladies, for your efforts.


(Sorry the picture isn't great but I took it on my phone.)






Anna also made this great Inspire fundraising box. Thanks Anna.

Entry was by gold coin donation and we raised $174, which was fabulous.

Auction items

We've received some fantastic items for the fundraising night and I'm very grateful for all the support.

In order to reach a wider audience for some of these items I've listed them on eBay. Feel free to send the links on to anyone you know who might be interested.

Listed to date:

- Half Wallabies / half Italian rugby union jersey - signed by David Campese and one of only 100 ever produced. (Kindly donated by the beautiful Margie Mc.)




- Fremantle Dockers guernsey, signed by the full 2008 squad. (Kindly donated by Reebok.)

Stay tuned - more to come.

Windy Wales article

When John's golf club (NSW) wanted to mention my upcoming swim in its quarterly magazine, I thought it was going to be a mention in a sidebar. I didn't realise I was going to get a double page spread! And you don't need to read much past the title - it says it all, really!

The golf club has been incredibly generous, including donating a round of golf for four people as an auction item at the trivia night - worth over $800. A big thank you for the support.

Click to increase the size.

Fun-draising Trivia Night - 28 August

Let me know if you would like tickets or to book a table of ten. Look forward to seeing you there!


Click to increase the size.

A big thank you to Karen Fox for her fantastic work on the invite.

Greater training weekend

If last weekend was a great swimming weekend, this one would have to be superb. This was my big push at training – 7 hours on Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday.

I couldn’t have been luckier with the weather. We've had weeks of seemingly endless rain and, sure enough, I woke up on Saturday morning to hear the rain drumming down on the tin roof. Rain doesn’t bother a swimmer but it makes for an unpleasant day for the paddlers.

Fortunately, by the time we all gathered down at Shelly Beach in Manly at 7.30, the rain was drying up, the cloud was rising and the sea was as flat as I could have hoped for. I had been nervous during the week as a rogue nor’easter had washed in some dreaded bluebottles, but a couple of days of westerlies looked to have blown them away again.

James Goins had always wanted to swim from Dee Why to Shelly Beach so I convinced him that Shelly to Dee Why would be just as much fun and we set off together, with Margie and Millie paddling alongside. James and I first met a few years ago when we swam 10 km at Penrith Regatta Centre, practically alongside each other the whole time, so we’re happy swimming at the same speed.

The water was beautifully clear and we could see the bottom most of the way apart from when we were quite a way off shore. We had a Shark Shield on one of the kayaks, which came in handy when Margie saw a 4-5 ft bronze whaler nearby.

The swim past Curl Curl to Dee Why, along the headland, was absolutely beautiful. The scenery was very similar to that on the South Head swim – cliffs on one side and rocky boulders on the bottom.

James swam in to the beach at Dee Why, where his wife, Nicolee, was waiting to pick him up. It had been really lovely swimming with him (and the conditions were much nicer on the way up to Dee Why than they were on the way back, so he enjoyed the best of the swim.)



As I swam back to Manly, James and Nicolee made it up to Dee Why headland to take some amazing pictures – nothing I’ve ever seen quite captures the wonder and beauty of ocean swimming like this picture does to me, although this is possibly because I know I’m the almost invisible dot between the two kayaks.

It was a pretty tough swim back along the headland, particularly when we reached Curl Curl beach. As we came round the headland we were about 800 metres offshore and the strong westerly wind was whipping into us. We headed over to the headland at Harbord to try and take some shelter from the wind beneath the cliffs. Once there, the conditions settled down again, but it was a tricky swim over there straight into the wind chop.

It was a four hour round trip to Dee Why and back. At Shelly Beach, we topped up the drink bottles, Millie packed up her kayak to go to work, and Margie and I headed off to the northern end of Freshwater and back, hugging the beach most of the way. There’s a beautiful rock shelf off of the headland at Queenscliff which I’d never swum over before. That lap took another two hours, so there was only one hour left, which we filled with a swim up to North Steyne and back. I started to feel a little tired physically at about 6.5 hours, possibly because I knew the end was close, but mentally I was fine the whole time, quite content in the knowledge of what I had to do, and not particularly cold either (the water was probably 17.5 – 18 degrees, so I only shivered for five minutes after stopping for a feed but was quite warm the rest of the time.)

I was pretty tired on Saturday evening and a bit sore in the shoulders. I think we covered about 23 km. Margie and Millie were incredible – to offer so many of their weekend hours to watch me plod away in the ocean is amazingly generous.

Sunday morning and it was time to do it all again, this time down at Coogee for a change of scenery. Millie was paddling again, with John in the other kayak, and Anna swimming alongside. Incredibly, while I felt a bit stiff, as soon as I got back in the water, my arms just kept moving like they knew exactly what to do and nothing was hurting.

Again, the weather was beautiful – the sun was out and the sea was pretty flat. We headed up the coast to north Bondi and could see the bottom most of the way. There were plenty of Port Jackson sharks around, some gropers, and lots of fish. It was spectacular. It was a 3 hour round trip to Coogee, where we re-filled the drink bottles. I was having an absolute blast out there – the conditions were magic.

For the second lap up to north Bondi again, Anna was in the kayak while Millie and Chad swam alongside. As I headed across Bondi Beach over to Ben Buckler, the westerly was blowing pretty strongly and it was head on. It was a tough stretch across the beach and took quite a bit of effort. On the way back across the beach, I started to feel pretty tired mentally. I had a bit of a whinge to my kayakers: "I’m feeling a bit tired." "Yeah, whatever," they said, and just kept on paddling. Right, no sympathy to be had there then.

I had forgotten to order some more of my beloved Maxim powder so my drinks were fairly diluted in order to try and stretch what I had out over the weekend, and I could feel I didn’t have enough carbs in my system as we headed back down the coast to Coogee. Fortunately the swell and wind were behind me. Anna had a spare carb gel on her kayak so I got that down and it gave me a bit of a boost.

Just past Waverley Cemetery, as we reached the headland to Clovelly, I noticed the fish beneath me swimming very quickly in one direction. Usually, fish amble along in different directions and the only time they all swim like that is when something is after them. I looked around for a diving seabird but couldn’t see one. On I swam, noticing more and more fish swimming quickly under rocks. Whatever it was they were swimming away from was behind me. I noticed the kayaks stayed very close to me on either side; I didn’t stop to ask them what they’d seen. Afterwards on the beach, I mentioned the mental fish to John and he said that just off Clovelly he saw a ‘large grey shape’ nearby in the water. Thank goodness for the Shark Shield.

When we reached Coogee beach, I had been in the water for 6 hours 21 minutes (less 7 minutes on the beach to top up the drinks halfway) and covered about 19.5 km. I felt great – I hadn’t been too cold, too tired or too grumpy. The last 5 km had been a bit tough, but if that happens 10.5 hours into my Channel swim then I can cope with that. It’s all a matter of pushing that wall further and further away with each swim.

My support crew – John, Millie, Margie, Anna & Chad – was brilliant. John was really the only person who hadn’t had a choice about taking part in the weekend; everyone else volunteered their time without me even having to ask. As John said at the weekend: “Your friends are amazing.” Yes, they certainly are.