Merry (hic) Christmas Everyone!

Grim 8 and More

Well it's been a month since our last blog, so firstly apologies for the delay. It's been a busy time in the run up to Christmas, but both of us are now safely off work and enjoying our break.

The picture to the left is of the six of us who ran the Grim Challenge, an 8 mile run through horrendous pits of water. We've put a video at the end of this blog for your amusement! All 6 of us completed the run, with Olive finishing the first in a time of just under 1hr 30mins! Well done Olive (again!).

The day itself was a beautiful winter's day, but the night before had been a huge blowing gale, enough to wake us up in the night, trembling with fear. Having not been brave enough to drop out, we all met up at the site to get our first view of the 'real' athletes taking part. As much as we all desperately looked, none of us could find a belly with as much reassuring girth as Ollie's. These guys were serious.

We positioned ourselves at the back of the pack, leaving the guy wearing only speedos to jostle his reduced tackle to the front. Gradually our layers of warm clothing were removed with many squeals from the girls and manly gruffs from Ollie. Our pack-man (another Oli) looked like the Michelin man whilst we were shivering in the sub-zero (almost!) temperatures. Off we went, into the mud, puddles and rivers and had a riot! More squeals and grunts the whole way round through, at times waist deep, freezing water.... with cries of "we're definitely doing this again next year!"

With our muscles rested and us safely back in our warm house, it's time to contemplate the London Marathon. Although Ollie has been turned down from the main ballot, VSO have stepped in and offered a charity place...with the equally difficult challenge of raising £1,500 for their worthy causes. Training restarts on Christmas Eve, as does the challenge of raising the funds, more to follow on this soon...

Landy News

We took Dino in for his 6-monthly checkup in the health spa of Cornwall, to get some fresh sea air and new oil. We were very pleased to hear the prognosis that he WILL make it to Australia, even if we had just bribed the doctor with a bottle of whisky! Thanks to James we're now confident with our upcoming trip to Portugal in the summer.

As of April, we will be giving James a run for his money in the mechanics knowledge stakes (!!!) as we have signed up for a basic mechanics course at Eastleigh College. We're taking Dino in for the course and hope to gain some valuable experience working on him.

A day of muddy fun is planned for Ollie's birthday on the 28th - a full day of 1-on-2 (ooer) 4x4 training at Bristol Off Road Driver Training Centre. Full pics in the next blog.

And finally, wishing old friends and new a very happy Christmas... particular mention to Nick and Chris for their recent support. Hope you all get everything you ever dreamed of in your stockings!