Never give up (even on 2800 calories per day) - Day 92
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Never give up (even on 2800 calories
per day) – Day 92 Only 611
nautical miles left (this sounds better than 700 land miles)! It now looks
“do-able” – so much so that we have all booked our flights so that we can
welcome them to dry land; to the land of comfy beds that don’t move; to the land
where 3 meals a day can be savoured and “energy input” should equal “energy
output”. I now have another fear to add to the list – that they will be
more interested in the chocolate we have promised them on arrival than in their
friends and family!! I will need to keep reminding myself that, having cut
rations from 5000 to 3500 and now a further cut to 2800, this may be an
acceptable physiological response. To explain a
little more about the food regime, their meals had been cut to 5 per day (i.e. 5
delicious bags of dried food). Now the 5th bag is put aside
each day – apparently this has become a ritual of long lingering with their eyes
as they examine this beautiful object and then, with one swift movement, it is
added to their “extras” pile. A surprise homecoming present will have to
be a meal bag which has been framed so that they can hang it on their
walls. I am impressed with this excellent training whereby they are
learning to manage needs, urges and immediacies – things which are increasingly
difficult for a generation brought up in our “24/7; have it all now; instant
gratification society.” I am sure that adding the word “disciplined” to
their CV’s will be fully justified. So we now
have an eta (expected time of arrival) which is around the beginning of
August. Since flights have become increasingly full we have had to trust
that the weather will not play any more big tricks on them – something we know
is unpredictable but the danger of full flights and not being there was getting
too worrying. If they do get held up again, and if all the families have
had flown home again .... no, that will not happen because JJ are under strict
instructions not to diddle around anymore!! In the
meantime you can hear another audio blog between Sonia at the Maidenhead
Advertiser and Jamie having just come off his rowing shift. Click on the
link below. If you listen
and then judge whether you think they will make it. Roy |