They say that if you put a group of monkeys with typewriters in a room; eventually they’ll produce the works of Shakespeare. Similarly, if you put a squaddie in a room with a set of clippers; eventually he’ll shave everything! I’ve experienced this myself as a soldier, a Potential Officer, an Officer Cadet and every rank since. I can’t really explain it, it just sort of happens.
The intent was to shave my knees from the top of where my compression stockings come to, to the bottom of my cycling shorts. This would mean the factor 50 would go a lot further, so I could take less. With fully charged clippers and not much else pressing to do; I ended up virtually hairless from neck down, with the exception of my forearms. I’m waiting til last minute to have my proper haircut, as the boss doesn’t like his officers to be skinheads, but it will be a proper US style high and tight.
Kit preparation is going well, apart from taking a chunk out of my finger whilst cutting down my camera case with my new mini-Gerber knife – it’s quite sharp! I’ve hacked away at my back pack, cut off excess strapping, repackaged food, removed food items from the packing list and borrowed a new compression sack for my sleeping system from my friend James.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKvQ7JAi6ygsOdqCyAQgXfya0P_nQOMuvt3PlrUSa-0nHMgEfDT0k5T6VmSsllYWkXrEIB-4b4rVZp6XJPuqpBO_99xV5G7gGIvcBxRQTT73okPM4QrE6UFQ1EuupASxJ2unxPIutojlRo/s400/IMG_0177.JPG) |
Everything you need for the MdS, including shaved legs. |
There has been a real surge in donations and I’ve had to start keeping notes of who’s given me cash to make the payments on my credit card when I get home. Lots of my work friends and colleagues have been extremely generous, and my friends from GPT and other business partner employees have dug deep too. I came home from the shops tonight to find a card taped to my door by Emily and Mike with a very kind contribution; I hope I get to say thank you in person before I leave on Thursday.
Training this week has been limited to fat-burning, as I want to avoid injuries and keep the weight off as long as I can before I start carb-loading and getting fully hydrated. Striking a balance between keeping all my systems going and attaining full recovery is tricky, but I’m feeling good and not too nervous yet; I’m sure that’s in the post though!
Not much to photograph so thought I'd treat you to some pics of the Saudi Horse racing
Please don’t let yourself ‘not get round to sponsoring me’ do it now, it takes less than 2 minutes to do and you will feel SOOOO good about yourself for doing it I promise. Just think you’ll be able to happily ignore all my subsequent reminders and think “he’s not referring to me”!