We're here!

Hi all,

Sorry about the delay in this first post, we've finally sorted internet access and settled in nicely. We have landed on our feet thanks to Rosemary Inglis and her contacts and are staying with our new friends, Annabella and Hugh who are unbelievably hospitable and have us well fed, rested and surrounded by dogs, chooks and beautiful English sunshine (no joke!). We are in Newbury, about 50miles west of London and only an hours drive from Henley and the rowing course.

We've taken possesion of our boat, a 2001 Empacher which may be a touch large for us (Nicole keeps disappearing into the bow), but is light, stiff and fast through the water, so no complaints. No-one will be surprised that its taken us 3 sessions so far to shake down all the problems - the boat is now almost right, we have a small rigger issue that is being sorted via Bingles and our many UK contacts as I write.

We have settled into a routine of train, eat, sleep that is probably the rowing geeks idea of heaven, certainly we're all content which I assume means we're all rowing geeks. We had our first row on Wednesday when we arrived, which surprisingly wasn't too bad, despite all the fatigue-related rigging errors (lefty loosy, righty tighty!) and Shane gearing himself appropriate for a 7 foot, 18 stone monster, needless to say his legs felt the strain.

The next morning we matched up with a US crew from Georgetown University who won the senior coxed four at Marlow regatta last weekend. They are favourites for the Prince Albert Cup, for U23 coxed fours, after recording a time of 6.24 over 2km at Marlow. We discovered the effects of jet-lag in no uncertain terms, beating Georgetown by a length on the first 4min peice, but subsequently being torched in peices 2 and 3. A handy wake-up call for us, so following that 16km session, we had a 10km evening row last night which was a much improved effort following more food and sleep. We're organising a return meeting with them in a couple of days - hopefully we'll give them a better run then.

Today has dawned bright and sunny again (I'm really not joking - the weather is brilliant) and we're having a late start. Just the one session planned for today, then we'll watch the qualifying for our event which starts at 6.30pm - very civilised. The course at Henley is nothing short of amazing - 2 fences run straight down the middle of the river, segregating the 2 racing crews from the other river traffic. The water is clear, cool and blue/green, the banks are alternately grassy or densely foliated, where they are not occupied by a country manor. Every available open space along the 2.1km course is steadily being filled with the most elaborate tents, marquees (we are talking steel framed monsters that cover hundreds of square metres), grandstands, bars, restaurants and even a shopping centre (again, I'm not kidding!). It all has the makings of the most incredible circus, reminding us all of nothing so much as the Melbourne Spring Carnival.

We'll be moving into our rented accommodation in Henley on Monday which will save us much travel time and traffic related woes. That's about it. When Bingles finally gets the video camera hooked up to the TV, we're about to do some video analysis of our last few sessions - Cindy has been busily filming kilometres of rowing (some of it even of our crew!).

Thanks again for all the messages of support, we're all busting to do well for House and all of you in Melbourne.

Cheers, Drew