OK it feels like time for more pictures in daft clothes!



There were some great fancy dress opportunities recently, particularly our Penryn Halloween party, and Sam's Pirate day at school.

Here are a couple of pictures of us wearing silly gear.

The tiger face-paint was part of some activities up at Penryn College, where most of the Mums and children spent a happy morning earlier this month.



The fierce Pirate was for a fancy dress day at school.

The Pumpkin was sam's chosen gear for Halloween, we think mainly because it is Orange. He was even persuaded to wear a hat for once!

Here we see the whole (Adams?) family taking their Halloween gear for a test ride.

But finally here is a picture of Stuart our Next door neighbour also at the Halloween party - as his alter ego ("This is the real me!") Pat Slash. Now that IS scary!

An article about plain relief and relaxtation during childbirth and Labour. Katharine Graves argues that traditional methods of pain relief have significant side effects for the newborn baby, and that expectant mothers could do much worse than consider a effective modern alternative - HypnoBirthing.

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Sailing in Liguria

This rather late Blog post is mostly just an excuse to show some quite amazing pictures. We were very kindly lent a 6m yacht belonging to my cousin Henry, who has made his home in Milan these last 20 years or so.

Sam's grannys kindly looked after him for three days each so that Anna and I could get away, and we left straight after Malk and Caitlin's fabulous wedding in Norfolk. On the Monday night we stayed with Henry in his new Milan apartment, walls lined with his paintings, listened to the CD of his rag time piano music, and ate some delicious Italian home cooking. What hospitality - what talent!
Early on Tuesday we were off to Genoa Sestri by train with Henry, and got down to the boat, prepared, launched, and dropped Henry off late afternoon at the other end of Genoa to find his way home. For much of the week there was a big swell coming up from some heavy weather near Corsica, which combined with the light winds made sailing sometimes uncomfortable.
But needless to say we still had a great week, drinking coffee, eating Pizza and other delicious italian specialities, and being pretty lazy, drifting from one little port to the next along the coast. The weather gave us a couple of reading days, and I was able to finish off an internet job from a cafe in one of the villages, not bad!
But one particular highpoint came when we had just got into the small port of Ciavari, just a few miles east of Porto Fino. Looking back over our just-covered track we saw this amazine water sport / whirlwind / tornado or whatever you'd like to call it.
The thing twisted and turned and was heading straight for the coast, where we had only just been. We expected devastation, but on arrival at the cliff base the thing lost the driving force that gave it life - the warm water of the mediterranean, and it just diappeared up itself back into the clouds!
On the way back up the coast we took shelter from a rather fierce looking Thunder cloud in Genoa's main harbour, quite an intimidating place in a 6m boat. We eventually found a place they would let us moor up, and wandered the dark streets of the port city having a nocturnal look around an interesting old city.
The large ship below was one of our closer neighbours in the morning, around with hundreds of others of a similar scale. Safe to say that in Auckland, the Solent or anywhere else we have never been exposed to this amount of large shipping - we even had to negotiate a traffic jam of liners on our way out in the morning.

The run back up the coast was another unique experience. Along the whole of the seafront of Genoa there is a sea will of about 4miles long, which contains the harbour, the airport, and the whole of the city. Once you go out of one end there's nowhere to come in until you get to the other, running along parallel to the airport runway for the last mile or so. The swell had built up to about 2m during the week, which is quite a bit for a little boat with an outboard motor, but with so little wind we had to keep the sails up to steady the boat a little. Our one attempt at flying the spinnaker ended in a rapid failure with the waves bashing the limp rag of sail alternately between the mast, and a brief filling with air on the other side of the wave. Anyway along the front of Genoa the sea wall acted as a mirror, sending teh swell straight back out in parallel lines against their incoming brothers. With a 2m swell approaching you simultaneously form each side was interesting, and when the two briefly united, the boat was sent skywards with such force that once or twice our stomachs were in our mouths! (Metaphorically speaking, fortunately). For such an inoccuous situation it was actually one of the most uncomfortable rides I have had for a while, and that even includes the Fastnet in an odd kind of way.

Anyway we were soon back in the marina, off to Milan, then London the next day. Paul Richardson my old race mechanic and mate very kindly collecting us from Stanstead, and we were back at our desks in Cornwall and at work before we knew it.

The Fastnet

Well I got a second ride on the Fastnet, and picked quite a year for it. The boat was JEBA, the Benetau First 40.7 skippered by British-based Aussie John Nicholas. I sailed with them earlier in the year on the St. Helier race, but the Fastnet is a bigger fish - 608 miles long and with a bit of a reputation to live up to. There was a gale forecast and mutterings of the storm of '79, so the RORC delayed the start (from Cowes) by 25 hours just to be on the safe side.

We got away pretty well but had a bit of argy bargy crossing the line, and then nearly sailed the wrong side of Gurnard buoy - the first mark of the race, see picture.

After Portland Bill the first of the gales hit, probably up to Force 9 although our wind instruments were slightly suspect, and as we bashed across Lyme Bay, round Start point and along the south Devon & Cornwall coast, the majority of the fleet decided that enough was enough, and headed for the safety of Plymouth, Falmouth, or any other south coast port they could get into. We heard a few chatting with the coast guards on the VHF but had no idea of the scale of the exodus. There is a superb tracker programme on the official RORC site: http://fastnet.rorc.org/, which graphically shows the progress of all or any boat in the fleet, at any point in the race. The tracker is on URL: http://www.eventserver.co.uk/raceplayer/player.aspx?app=oce&event=50&typ=E You can select all the boats in the IRC1 class for example, and then watch 75% of the fleet into Plymouth the first time past!

Anyway we knew nothing of this carried on through sickness, hypothermia, waves over the bow, soggy underpants, etc. and made pretty reasonable progress to the Rock. We did better on the way back, timing our jibes well and sailing deeper then most, to pass one of our competitors and close on another.

Skipper John Nicholas at "The Rock"

Other points of interest included a whale collision at night, on the way back toward Bishop Rock, a dolphin escort for many hours, particularly once we turned down-wind. JEBA hit her all time record of 22 knots while surfing down some of those big Atlantic rollers, and of course the biggest high point of all - the rig didn't come down!

We finally made it into Plymouth at 1.30am on the Friday, an elapsed time of 85 hours 32:52, 24th overall on corrected time and 4th in IRC1. Of the original 300 starters only 51 finished. I have to thank my Sis Mary for coming out at 2am to pick me up after the race, so I could go back and sleep in a real bed, which was so very much appreciated!

JEBA rounding the Fastnet Rock.

Survival

Well we made it round the course, and sorry for not posting the results for more than a week after the event. Unfortunately we were both so fatigued from our Herculean efforts that we were unable to lift a finger to the computer keyboard before this point to write the results!

www.justgiving.com/gravesie

Those of you with sartorial leanings will be particularly impressed with the
Leukaemia CARE 'wifebeaters' in which we completed the great event.

We both got round within our target times, I said I'd do it in 44 minutes and then regretted it right up to the event, but got round in 43 minutes 09 seconds, so I'm happy with that. Anna got round in 51 minutes, having expected between 50 and 55. She battled a stitch for the first few kms and then was able to pick up the pace towards the end, apparently. Its worthy of note that the winner got round in 29 minutes 27 seconds, but he is Stefano Baldini, the Olympic marathon gold-medalist so we're not too ashamed of the time difference!

It was quite a blustery morning and not too hot, and the looming rain clouds held off apart from a light drizzle at times. It was good conditions for a run, and we started on Piccadilly at 9.35 am with 20,000 other hopefulls. It was a very good natured crowd, but took Anna and I three minutes 10 seconds just to cross the start line, so thick was the throng. Some must have taken half an hour to get going, as we sneaked up to a relatively good starting position. (We took the time into account already!). The race went along Pall Mall and across Trafalgar Square, down to the river, and along the embankment to close to the tower. A few twists round, and back to Westminster bridge. Over that and double back past Big Ben, then a few more twists before coming out onto the finish near Horseguard's Parade.

Frank Lampard: I was thankful to a tall faller who from the back of the head looked a bit like Frank Lampard (Not sure why I have an idea about what the back of Lamp's head looks like), but he set off at an optimistic pace and I tucked in behind. Anna stayed with us for a while at the start too which kept me honest. Lamps kept darting through gaps and making space, so I followed and rode in his wake for a few kms until he faded, his goose well and truly cooked, and I think I managed to get past.

Exploitation and humiliation: Anna had a similar experience close to the end of the race, when she tucked in behind a statuesque black feller with very broad shoulders but no hair - the perfect running partner in a head-wind. Having availed herself of his aerodynamic hospitality she then darted past just before the end, leaving the poor guy to taste the thrice bitter barbs of humiliation, exploitation and defeat.

Fantastic: In short, we were magnificent, and very happy to make sure that everyone knows it. And so of course were you, our dear friends and readers, who rallied to the cause of the bald, the skinny and the yellow, and chipped in such a generous sum for Leukaemia CARE in support of the run.

Musings on Mammon, Philanthropy and the Pearly Gates: If like us your Philanthropic impulses are at times - sporadic -? then this will have been a welcome chance to do a little good and put a little back. I think we can all be comforted that by our efforts we have done a little to wedge a toe-nail between the door-jamb and the pearly gates. I'm not sure that we've done enough to guarantee any permanent redemption, but a start is something isn't it, and though we now return to the pursuit of Mammon rather than more benevolent pursuits, please be assured that, should at some time in the future the altruistic impulse return, you our dear friends and readers will be among the first to know!

Drivel: So that's enough of my drivel, spam and pontification - we can put the charity-run chapter to a close here. Please remember that if you haven't chipped in yet there is still time, as the link on the web site www.justgiving.com/gravesie and www.justgiving.com/barrington remain open for some time.

Lunch: So thanks everyone for getting involved, we have surpassed our initial rather conservative fund-raising target but there's no need to stop there. I have at times been slightly overwhelmed by people's contributions and comments, and particularly from some friends who I haven't seen for far too long, as well as a few who I really only met a few times or only met recently - we are both very grateful for your support. Also thanks to those veterans of the charity fund-raising circuit: Malky, Caitlin and Bella who looked after Sam during the run and took him to see the squirrels in St James' Park, and to Angus, Helen and Robert who allowed us to shower and clean up in their flat, and then fed us a delicious lunch afterwards.

Congratulations! And even more congratulations to Helen and Angus, who gave birth to a little girl, it seems within minutes of our departure after lunch. Well done Helen, and welcome to little Alexandra!

The race wasn't on the Mall, and didn't appear to have many two year-olds in it.

Letter from Leukaemia CARE

This afternoon we are off to London for the big 10k run at the weekend, and are over the moon with the support that everyone has given Leukaemia CARE for the race. We plan to post our times and other information here on the blog next week, as well as hopefully having some photographs to show for our efforts.

The big thing to remember is that YOU CAN STILL SPONSOR US even now, even after the event, so if you haven't got a round to it yet, it doesn't matter!

But a huge thanks to everyone that has contributed already, we've nearly got to £800 between us at the moment, and hope to do better before the thing is done.

Here's the letter from Leukaemia CARE; I note you can't read it and this blog site won't display it any bigger. Anyway the point is, is says thank you everyone for contributing to a worthwhile cause!

Hope we have good news for you in our post-race posting next week.

How to donate to a good cause - Leukaemia CARE

This is a kind of test page containing a fund-raising widget - click on this to donate to Anna's running sponsorship.



And this is a similar widget for donating to Pete's running sponsorship (I should mention that this is not a competition between us!

And so to the sponsorship.......

Its hours since I sent an email round to all our friends, as well as some who we've not seen for ages but would love to. And already - thanks so much, people have put their hands up to give us a contribution!

First in there was my brother Anthony - thanks Ant you star, of course his job like mine does involve sitting in front of a computer ALL THE TIME! He was there withing minutes of my not-funny email. A special thanks already to Sarah in New Zealand - that is Sarah of the sailing in the Mediterranean post somewhere near the start of this blog. Fred, Angus, Simone and Adam another old sailing mate from New Zealand. Maybe we'll make it to £500 after all?

And on the subject here's a kind message from Adam, I'll just put it here and let you decide......

(FYI Ceasar's Palace in this context is a sailing boat)

Hey Pete

Very impressed you are going to run 10km, its been a few years since I managed to cover that distance, unfortunately I won’t be able to be there in person to throw things at you so was wondering if you could perhaps throw a few things for me… in fact if you could just arrange someone to flail you with a rubber chicken at appropriate times I would be greatful.

Will go on the website now and see if I can manage to donate a bit for you.

Have a good one

Adam from Ceasars Palace

In fact here's a nice picture of said boat skippered by said Kiwi that we took in one of our last races before leaving New Zealand, because no blog entry on any subject is complete without a picture of a yacht.

Ceasar's Palace in Auckland Harbour at sunset- possibly passing Motutapu Island (and unfortunately us on this occasion too!)

Running - OK this is a big one.

Anna and I put ourselves down to do a 10k race in London a few weeks ago, partly to help us keep fit, and partly as it was on much of the London Marathon course and it looked like fun. When we met 5 years ago we both trained for the Auckland half-marathon, and it was during some of those hyper-competitive training sessions that love blossomed!

At the time I got quite fit (and so was she - phwoarr!) and we made respectable-for first-timer times of 1.31ish on my part and 1.41ish on Anna's. So if you divide 22 km by 2 and alter the numbers a bit for our current level of fitness, I've said I'll do it in 44 minutes. I'm sure this was quite stupid of me as we're really not trained properly yet, and are relying on our general intermittent running / rowing to provide the base level of fitness required. Anna said she'll do it in 50 minutes: we're both highly concerned that we've made ourselves hostages to fortune with these bold and foolish claims.

To get in the run we had to join a charity, selected Leukaemia CARE from the list (for those that haven't already heard it to death I had Leukaemia 10 years ago and miraculously survived - Hurrah for the wonderkid!) [Some info on my old racing web site] So now we get to do the run and have committed to raise at least £150 each, which seems a bit pitiful so I put us down for 500 for starters. Eeek.

You will probably have recieved my emailed attempt at humour by now, begging for support for this fool hardy venture. It happens on Sunday July 1st starting at Picadilly, and takes us along the Embankment to the tower and back, roughly. ( Our thanks to those of you that may already have pointed out that the 1st is a Sunday, and kindly saved us from arriving on the wrong day). The race seems to be frequented by ex and current olympic champions, so be assured that we'll be nowhere near any of them. It was once won by Haile Gebreselassie, say no more.

So for more about the London 10k race please click on this link, and for more about Leukaemia CARE charity and its work please click on this one.

Sailing

I recently crossed the Channel with John Nicholas and his merry crew on JEBA - a nice new Benetau 40.7. She goes like a dream upwind (being Bruce Farr designed), and is mainly very well sailed by the experienced crew. John and his son Ben are both excellent Tasar sailors (a Tasar being one of the original fast planing dinghies which I think originated in Australia - as did they). John won some world championships I think and Ben is British Champion at the moment.

John's got a good blog going about JEBA's adventures which includes an account of the weekend's trip over to St Helier in Jersey, and shortly thereafter back from whence we came - Lymington.

I was so fried after we returned that I slept in the car in Dorset lay-by until ten the next morning, before rushing back to Cornwall to get on with some work.

Anyway please have a look at John's excellent JEBA blog here: http://jebasailing.wordpress.com/

OK I have been so slack - or busy, depending on how you view these things. Time for a burst of activity.

Burst 1 - Sailing
Burst 2 - Running

Please read on....

Come-on Truro!

Anna joined the Hockey club down here a couple of weeks ago, played for them the first time last week and they won 12-0, with Anna scoring one of the goals.

This week they were off to Dartmouth for her second game, so Sam and I went along to support, and then visit Mary (my sister) and Leon in their new house in Plymouth, stay over, and back home on Sunday via lunch with Anthony (my brother) and wife Lisa, plus Holly and Mary, Sam's cousins.

But back to the Hockey, what can I say: Dartmouth won their last game about 8-1 apparently so it looked like a real top of the table clash. Dartmouth scored first but Truro pulled it back to 1-1 during the first half. Rosie the dog also helped out by joining in with the game for a while when we got out of the car, but we managed to get her back under control before I got into too much trouble!

In the second half Truro really began to get into their stride, scoring two more for a relatively comfortable 3-1 win. Anna was voted 'man of the match' by her team, mainly for her multiple interceptions I thought, she seemed to be always the one turning over the ball from the other team and getting Truro back on to the offensive, and was a regular occupant of the most frenetic part of the action, at either end of the pitch. The Darmouth club very sportingly invited us back for lunch after the game and fed us well with jacket potatoes and chilli-con-carne, and Sam thrilled the girls with his rendition of 'Cmon Twuwo' at the top of his voice - at least once he conquered his initial shyness.

Anyway here is a typical bit of action from the game - Anna in the purple intercepting again: enjoy!

Sam's second birthday.

I feel its time for another gratuitous 'proud parents' patch, and let you know about Sam's second birthday (7th January 2005!), which occurred on Sunday. We had a real party and Anna made a very popular 'Choo choo train' cake, mainly from chocolate swiss rolls, and with real railway tracks!

We had a get together of family and friends with a great crew of other children, apart from Sam there were cousins Holly and Mary, and Louis, Henry, James, Meg, Basil and Wilf.

Holly and Mary were the only two to take up Auntie Mary's beautiful face-painting; Holly's cat-look perfectly camouflaged her against the sitting-room curtains.

Thanks everyone for Sam's lovely presents, he has been spoilt rotten and after this 11 months without presents will take much getting used to!

Our final picture is possibly the ultimate piece of clothing - Yes Sam now has a JCB digger shirt!

This week we were also lucky to catch up with our great friends from New Zealand - Nina (Sam's Godmum) and Jason, their little daughter Gracie, and her father John and partner Kate. Jason has had to fly back to NZ at the weekend leaving Nina and Gracie here for a few more days, but it was great to catch up with them, and we hope we get visits from a few more NZ friends over the coming months.

Affluenza!

This article tickled my fancy at lunch today, so much that I thought I'd share it with my friends.

The premise is that Affluenza is a virus which affects most of us in the western world, and leads to most of life's problems, including stress, depression, substance abuse, etc. etc. Please enjoy this entertaining and 'rather too true' article.

The link is here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2007/01/09/haffluenza109.xml

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Christmas in the UK. We've just had our first Christmas in England for 5 years, with my family visiting us in Cornwall, we had my mother (Granny), Auntie Lizzy, Richard, brother Arthur, and his wife Trudy (picture below). With Sam being nearly 2 it was a very exciting event. He now owns the largest fleet of trucks, diggers, and trains in Cornwall, including this mammoth digger from Granny, Auntie Lizzy and Richard. With only a few days to go before his birthday Sam now thinks you get presents every day.

We had some great walks, including Godrevie Head on Boxing day, where we saw seals, dolphins, and ponies all in a few minutes. Also had lunch at the Pandora, one of Cornwall's oldest water-side pubs, on Christmas Eve; very nice.

Yesterday Sam was very busy feeding Rosie the Jack Russell Terrier her dog biscuits by hand (we always called him 'Dog Boy' when he could bark before he could talk). As he gave Rosie each biscuit he would say "There you go Rosie", and when she had had enough he just started feeing the rest to himself. When his Mum caught him and tried to stop him the rest got stuffed quickly down his throat! I don't know where this reprehensible behaviour can have come from but its certainly nothing to do with his father!

New Year was down in Penryn with Anna's old friend Ben Lumby and a great group of people. We had one of those Murder mystery evenings, and ended up pouring some rather dodgy liqueur down out throats, an regretting it in the traditional fashion yesterday! Anyway all our best wishes to our mates in New Zealand, we hope to talk to you properly soon.