The quickest 6 weeks of my life just went by...

I just had the most amazing 6 weeks of my life. I stopped having time to blog/email/barely FB but it was actually refreshing when usually I spend most of my life on a computer. It made me think even outside work so much time is consumed looking at a screen when we should be having REAL experiences. I will now be re-living the past 6 weeks through my computer for the next year... well hopefully not because this year will be filled with LOADS more : ) A new adventure this time based in Sydney.

Instead of writing an essay I am going tell my East Coast travels in pictures....


Leaving Sydney on the tube - very very very excited!













Cairns harbor. Unable to swim in the sea because of the crocs!!! But there was a lagoon that all the party animals hung out on in the day time.












Cape Tribulation - such a beautiful
tropical beach.










Below are some friends we made including Vanessa, a crazy, very good fun Irish girl and Marco who we said goodbye to 1000 times as we kept bumping into him all down the coast!

Heaven must look like this...

Just got back off the Atlantic Clipper where I stayed for the past two nights visiting the Whitsundays. It is truly the most beautiful place. Whitehaven is what my idea of what heaven must actually look like. As soon as I get my photos on here you will understand and if you have seen them you will agree.

We took a 9hr Greyhound bus to Arly Beach and Stayed for the night in Magnums backpackers. Our hut had 6 other northern lasses in it. Very friendly but one had 250 bedbug bites on her!! nice. We got on the Clipper at 2pm and it sailed (ok motored) over to the Whitsundays. There was 53 of us on board. It was a really lovely boat and our cabins were pretty roomy, plus we got a duvet so I was about to have my best nights sleep I have had in 3 weeks. We had all meals provided which was a blessing especially as there was a brilliant cook.

All travellers would have heard of 'The Goon' basically cheap boxed wine that tastes rank. But everyone drinks it so time to get stuck into it as well. Feels like we are back at uni sometimes. There was then lots of card games played and music on the top deck. We have learnt a brilliant card drinking game called 'The ring of fire' I can't explain now but is great for a big group.

Next day we were up early and spent the morning on Whitehaven - beautiful beyond words. Then we went snorkeling obviously on a different part of the Barrier Reef. We saw a huge Turtle loads of fish - parrot fish - so pretty loads of fish big, small. Then got back to the clipper and they attached a huge water slide to the boat - so much fun. Like Green Bank Pool in the old days but I didn't get told off for going head first!!!

Last night there was an erotic story writing competition. I love a competition and I love creative writing so I got stuck into it. Last night they read all the good ones out and for a moment I thought oh no mine was so bad that they weren't going to read it, but he saved the winning story till last and it was mine ha ha. So funny, the crew said they felt slightly arousied reading it so it had to win and I got the prize money of a whopping great $30. There is an after party tonight with the whole crew - can't wait.

Oh aaaaaand One of the crew called Rhyan has just got a job in Neighbours and starts in 5 weeks so I already have his autograph and a photo with him - he said I was his first fan!!! So there is no way he will forget me!! Neighbours fans will understand . . . sisters back me up here!

Off to meet these 2 lovely dutch girls in the lagoon, Scott and I met them at beach Olympics, one of them is an events manager and she said I could have a career in it if I wanted!

Speak again soon xxxx

ps and we saw dolphins last night 5 of them played around the ship for a while. So cool.

CAIRNS!!

I am finely finding the need to use this blog site again. I could attempted to write everyone personal emails which I would prefer but my Internet time now has a limit plus the sun is beckoning for us to be out side!

Having a fantastic time. Scott and I are now certified divers now! The first two days were in the classroom and pool doing lots of skills tests videos etc. It was very intense, had to take a lot in in a short space of time. Then at the end of day 2 we had the theory exam. There was 7 of us and we were aloud to take as long as we liked, after about half an hour the rest of the class had finished and gone home and Scott and I were still there half an hour later ha ha., to the point the instructor woman who was a patronising cow said to us not to worry, there's nothing wrong with being slow!!! We thought this comment was hilarious but she then thought we weren't taking it serious enough! Anyway we scrapped through and passed.... we are designers what do you expect!

Spent the last two days in the Great Barrier Reef and it was absolutely amazing sooooooo fantastically amazing. We saw all the fish in finding Nemo.... even a shark although it was the size of my arm! Not scary at all. We saw a huge turtle which was amazing. Scott touched it's back so I did then got told off, even though the instructor was flinging a sea cucumber around like there was no tomorrow. I really don't think she liked us. Then yesterday we had this really cool Korean instructor called Ray, he was so enthusiastic about everything and we completed our PADI withe him and it was high 5's all round. Plus he thought Scott and we so natural we were aloud to go out by our selves on the last dive. We were slightly apprehensive as we seem to get lost quite a lot generally let alone under the sea. But it was really good, a huge sense of freedom in a new world. We found our way back fine.

The hostel we are in at the moment isn't the best and this morning just as we were checking out a cockroach fell on my head!!! Not impressed but we are heading to mission beach on the Grey Hound bus at 12pm then booked into do a sky dive on Scott's birthday on the 24th Thursday plus we are staying in a hostel called Scotties!! So it was as if it was meant to be.

We have made friends with a couple of Irish and English and an Aussie girl who are doing the same thing. They said Scott has to wear his birthday suit to do his sky dive ha ha... Can't wait for the sky dive, 14,000 feet and we land on the beach it's self.

Got to go, miss you all loads xxx

My training partners name is now pain!

Well pain was always there waiting for the opportunity to step up and now coincidentally just as Julia has chosen a new path I have found a new level of pain… the kind you get that makes you feel like you’re going to pass out or throw up! But that’s a 500m sprint for you and the name of this game. Training at Elmbridge is good and it’s just what I needed to make this winter a positive one. Elmbridge canoe club is a fantastic place; with plenty of talent, the Thames and great coaches. It makes working hard that bit easier and so far I am happy with the improvements I have made here.

I am very excited about the year ahead and although Julia is already missed and the reason I have got this far, I know that this is for me regardless of my environment or company. Even when I’m not sure about stepping out of the door in the ice, sleet, rain, snow, wind and floods; I just have to think about how lucky I am to be training every day and how much I enjoy pushing myself to new limits and striving to improve in the boat and in the gym.

I will endeavor to keep you updated on my progress on Julia’s blog if you care to follow the second sisters continuing journey in the world of sprint kayaking!

Goodbye Kayaking

It has been far too long since I have written but over time I have made the decision to give up kayaking. It was the hardest decision I have ever made and took a long time to realise that I couldn’t go on any more. I had a lot of doubt in my mind for a long time and this started to make training a constant battle. When I was training 3-4 times everyday it just made me very unhappy. I can’t stand the thought of giving up, but I was burnt out and felt mentally drained all the time. Maybe if there had been a sharper progression curve I could have thrived off this but I think it is one of the hardest skills to master in the world as an adult and I would like to see Rebecca Romero take on the Sprint Kayak challenge.

My sister Antonia on the other hand is still extremely motivated and to be honest was always slightly better than me at the sport. I found this very hard to deal with as well, because she’s my younger sister. I have always felt I should be better than her and although I did come to terms with it, when you are training in a pair most of the time you are either first or last.

Antonia has now moved to Surrey and is living in Kingston-on-Thames and training with Roland Lawler at Elmbridge Canoe Club. Roland is a leading GB coach who guided his son Ivan to 5 successive world championships. Our original plan was for me to move there too, however after completing a couple of grueling training sessions I knew that I couldn’t do it anymore!

I do feel sorry for letting people down who believed in me but I am very lucky to have had the opportunity to give everything and see how far I could take it. I couldn’t have done that with out the support of my family and friends. I don’t regret spending 18 months training full time, it was a brilliant experience and I have far more respect for every athlete who invests the time it take takes to train at that standard.

I will always do sport because it’s in my blood and would go crazy with out it. At the moment I am running a lot with Wells Harriers. I aim to do a triathlon at some point this year or any sporting challenges that come my way.

I have recently made another decision of moving to Australia. It is something I have always wanted to do and now I really want to do something for myself. I am lucky that I love my career in Graphic Design and want to pursue this in Sydney. Half my family live there so feels like a natural move to make. Also I haven’t forgotten about the Iron Man competition I saw on Coogie Beach – an exciting goal that isn’t 4 years away!

I have a lot of respect for Antonia, training is her life and she loves leading it this way. Antonia never questions the amount of training even when she is really exhausted, she just gets on with it. She is doing really well at Elmbridge and is around the right people to enable her to see how far she can take it. Antonia is going to write the next installment on her progression.

Thank you to everyone who helped me pursue an amazing dream especially those who helped coach me. Andy Maycock, Matt Brown, Ivan Lawler and to the BCU who lead me on this adventure and introduced me to a very good friend Naomi who has been a kind of mentor through out.

Fast track slow track by Antonia

Fast tracking myself has been a challenge that is nigh on impossible, as to do something quickly you need to miss out the mistakes which take up time by learning from the best in the game. The best people in the game are few and far between in this country. Sprint Kayaking is a minority sport and as I have realised by training at nearly every club in the south, the place to be for the fastest improvement is London. All serious canoeists travel to London to train, to get the depth of competition required to gauge how good you really are. What purpose does it serve to be the best at your local club if you turn up at a national competition only to be thrashed and ultimately humiliated? This issue is compounded by the technical nature of sprint kayaking and that most clubs don’t have dedicated coaches. Sprint kayaking is the most technical sport I have attempted to master. I never would have thought to be the case, but even months after learning, I had only just scratched the surface. All my fitness, strength and power, hours in the gym and on the lake counted for very little when a chubby 14year old girl effortlessly moved passed me, while I thrashed and fought my way through the race. She was technically sound and that is what is required in the first instance to move a sprint boat fast.
It is evident now that we have taken a slow track in the way we have progressed in the sport; not in time but in relation to the number of sessions we have done. We haven’t started canoeing like most with one session a week; we have thrown ourselves into it with complete commitment and enthusiasm. Typically training on the water five times a week and land training including specific weight training, running, swimming and cycling seven times a week from the start. This is where we have gained momentum and improvement at a greater rate than the typical canoeist and also why I feel like my input hasn’t yielded the results that I set myself a year ago. My targets were inline with the athlete being coached on the fast track programme and even with the quantity of training in place, without the quality of coaching and expert knowledge we have not been able to attain the results we were aiming for. However in this year I have markedly improved my paddling, strength and fitness and by taking the route with a big detour we managed to gain a strength in character, confidence and self belief that cannot be given to you by a coach. However it is now time to go to London to get some decent coaching and combine strength and fitness with technique to see if I have what it takes to make a boat go faster than anyone else.