Let the good times roll...

DAY 2

There's one thing I hate about British fields...the gates! We climbed over many a gate, I assure you. However, they're easier to tackle than the Maltese rubble wall. Therefore, I'll stop complaining. And anyway we learned to make gate-crossing fun by kissing the person who passed after us on the cheek after each gate. Awwww...

The most significant part of the day was undoubtedly the first challenge. Troy (see picture above) made us walk the final stretch to our location with our arms in the air and finally also standing on one foot in a line (still with our arms in the air). It was tough because it was bitter cold and I had no gloves on. When we got to put our arms down in the end I couldn't feel them!!

That evening we got to Watford (Geri Halliwell's hometown) and had to get ourselves ready in an hour to go out again. Something which became routine to us. We made our way to WALKABOUT (http://www.walkabout.eu.com/home/venues/london/watford) for our next challenge...KARAOKE. I won't reveal much but I can say it was an interesting night. However, in memory of good times I can say it was the honorary night when the FREE BOOZE BAND was born (named after all the free drinks they gave us each night) and the night I visited my first British club, OCEANA (http://www.oceanaclubs.com/watford/). This club is so cool and has got different bars and one main arena. Thanks to our UK fanwalker friends, John and Sinead, who showed us round their usual clubbing spots.

DAY 3

This was the day I realised that wearing heels after walking 15kms is not the brightest of all choices. Nevertheless, I did wear heels on various nights leading to a sprained ankle incident on the night of the Europe Music Awards, but I'll tell you all about that in later blogs...

The third day was actually sunny and bright and we walked along the Glade River (canals) to Hemel Hempstead. We also had a hilarious piggyback challenge. The fact it was so funny was because the person being carried and the carrier's body ratios varied in size. You had some people with tiny body frames carrying much bigger fanwalkers on their backs. The falls and laughs were countless.

Day Three was also October 31st, aka HALLOWEEN. Our evening challenge was the hair challenge. Lots of clever hair designs were created and everyone put on their best Halloween outfits. The party was held at this house by the side of the canal known as THE BOAT (very original name, I know). I was a little homesick that night for some reason but after I heard Michael Jackson's THRILLER (which I had been waiting for all night) then I got into full party swing!! Celebrations continued till the early morning back at the hotel.

DAY 4

The morning after the night before. Scary. Somehow, we managed to roll out of bed, grab a bite to eat and start our walk to Aylesbury. A few canal side scenes and a trust challenge later, we got to our destination all pooped out only to find a horrible dormitory/sports centre. The hall I slept in actually had 14 beds for guys and girls. You could see that the toll of walking and hard nights partying was taking its effect on us. Some people were getting cranky and didn't want to go out for the evening's challenge. However, it turned out to be one of the funnest challenges...DISCO BOWLING!! I was in the Sex Pistols team so we had to dress up like the group. Other teams included the KISS team, ELVIS team, P!NK team, MICHAEL JACKSON team, THE BEATLES team, PUSSYCAT DOLLS team (or Amy Winehouse, I'm not so sure) amongst others. We really had some team spirit going like never before. We were becoming more than just friends...we were becoming a family...the FANWALK FAMILY.


(to be continued)