wierdness

Well I don't quite no what to say, I got back from D of E on Sunday evening.

It was an emotional roller coaster as expected, unfortunately more of a downward one that a positive. It all went quite wrong and was truly the hardest thing I have ever done.

There where also a few moments where my anxiety just took hold completely and I just felt utterly awful, all of these involved being off balance, high up, with gusting wind and generally terrified, unfortunately my anxiety didn't go back to a manageable level once I reached the ground, so I was not only pushing the physical limits of my body (weird bones and all) but also really on the edge of my psychological limits, and of course I couldn't actually tell anyone that, or explain and there was nothing they could do to help anyway.

If I'm really honest I very nearly quit many times, I didn't think I could get through it, I don't want to sound like a complete idiot here but I only really kept going because I was determined it wasn't gonna beet me and I didn't want the rest of the group, particularly my tent partner to fail because of me (unfortunately I think that nearly happened anyway, thank god it didn't)

So I was going to blog for ouch about the whole experience, right now I don't feel I can, even though I/we passed it feels like we failed, its all very complex but a lot went wrong.

shopping

Well I got some interesting news last week, DofE is back, we have at last found an assessor, we are going in approximately 2 weeks. one problem my walking boots have holes in!

Today said walking boots where placed into the bin, and a small ceremony took place, they where my first walking boots, I wore them constantly when I first got them. It took me a long time to find them, my feet are so strange to find a pair of decent comfy walking boots was a challenge, but there they where.

But as time has passed they have grown old, been scuffed and scraped, coated in inch thick layers of mud, paddled in the sea, been on huge hikes and little walks down the bay. they where reliable sturdy and above all comfortable.

That was until recently due to there repetitive hard use, they developed holes on the inside, right by my little toe, this then resulted in me developing(HUGE) blisters when I wore them for short periods of time. Then due to there age as time went on they became less and less water tight despite various attempts to reproof them wet feet still prevailed.

I had tried once before to replace them but that particular shopping trip came to no great ends. I could not find any that worked for me and my feet, so today I left the house to go to find some new ones, which I needed desperately with slight apprehension.

I arrived at the store, had a look tried one pair one, they where too narrow, then tried the next and they fitted like a glove! It was a purely shocking experience I had warned the assistant that this was likely to be a long job, but it wasn't they where perfect.

so I now have a beautiful new pair of Hi-tec Meridian eVENT walking boots in brown, and can I just say I would really recommend them there great!