Be different, Be positive and Go Big

A thought struck me today.  It is almost 4 months until the start of the race!

Now that's not long, and it's a long way to go!

Fundraising wise we are doing okay.  We have passed the £2,000 mark, but it is still a fair way to £10,000 - and let's hope we can do better than that.

Training-wise, having leapt forward, it now seems to be getting tricky again.  It seems like hard work and slightly less enjoyable recently.  I often think that all this training would have been great fun with Ian, and that fact irritates me.

At times like this it is always worth considering how Ian might have gone about things, and so I herby give you a few snippets from a few emails that Ian sent me, word for word. This should give you a flavour of the man (if you didn't know him) and will surely put a smile on your face if you did.

Oh - After great thought, I have had to sensor one bit of it by cunning use of the letter 'F'.  I would like to post you the last email that I received from Ian but it really would be a random nonsense of jumbled F's and code - so I won't.  It is very funny though.

Here we go...

3 April 2006 - Proposed night out in town at a real ale pub:

"Uncle Fluff will be there. There's nothing more amusing than asking for any form of drink in the Lamplighter that doesn't come in a 13,000 year old silver casket, have froth on the top and resemble the strainings from the devil's jock-strap. Call me fussy but to be honest I can't bring myself to order a pint of 'old shitstain' just to fit in with the locals. I always go in there and ask for Babysham, just to see the look on the barman's face.

Might even try Nick the Greek's Jedi mind trick (to be spoken in calm tones whilst waving the right arm in a Jedi-like superior manner): by denouncing that "We don't need to pay for those drinks". Priceless.

Anyway, see you all there, unless you won't be there, in which case I bloody well won't.

Don't bother responding to this email as I don't get to check my hotmail emails very often and I'll probably just delete it anyway.

Atko"

13 March 2007: A thank-you from me for dinner at the Atko's

"Bonjour, aloha, hello please

Even more stoked now that you came to see us when you were over. How's tricks me old whizz bang?

Atko's a bit stressed at the moment - plagued with work, training is knackering, the club is driving me chicken-oriental, and I've started studying. Weather's beautiful though, so I don't really care.

Up yours"

30 May 2007 - another night out in town:

"It's not often I speak up, as I thoroughly enjoy watching all the banter from afar - unless Al starts spouting, in which case I feel that it is my responsibility to remind him of his effeminate side.

Nevertheless, BIG RESPECT to Russ for getting his dFFF out of his doughnut and coming out to play. Gutted that I can't be there - I will be representing the Island, our national pride, and the future of international democracy at the Island Games in Rhodes. Ie giving it large in Faliraki.

Atko the self-professed legend"

So there we have it.  Be different, Be positive and Go Big.  

Simple really.