An emotional but wonderful trip to Devon

I am back in Maidenhead after the trip to Devon. Leaving was a really hard hard thing to do after returning to our special place and leaving Richie's ashes there. Its been a really strange few days with emotions going all over the place. Ill start with Monday.

So Monday afternoon I went with a close friend to collect Richard's ashes from the funeral home. I hadn't collected them before as for some odd reason had been too scared to. I rang the funeral home that morning to let them know I was coming. The lady on reception refers to Richard's ashes as they are actually him which I find really strange. For example when they received his ashes after his funeral they rang me to say "Richard was back with them" - I just found that bizarre. So anyway, I rang up to advise them I was coming across that afternoon and the lady tells me "That's good Ill keep Richard close by". Odd odd odd!! Anyway I picked them up and was very shocked by how heavy they were, I don't know why I expected them to be light - I guess I had not thought about that and was more worried about the emotional response to collecting his ashes rather than the physical one (if I carried him around too much I was gonna get repetitive strain injury!). After picking him up (oh man I'm at it now, but I suppose its easier to type him or Rich that Richard's ashes etc) I headed home. It felt weird bringing him home but not in a bad way, it was weirdly nice. Getting to walk around the house that he built for us and didn't get to see finished.

Dave, my part time lodger, was down that evening as was joining us in Devon. Dave and Rich had spent a lot of time together in his last few months when Dave first started staying with us. Dave "The Angel" (not a nickname I had given him btw!!) had given us a lot of practical help - doing the electrics for the extension and helping me out with runs to the hospital when I was tied up with work or the kids. But had also helped a lot emotionally as well - getting Rich tipsy on a variety of different whiskies for one and in the past six months being there for me to shout and scream at when I have bad days! Anyway, I'm digressing again, so me, Dave and Rich sat out in the garden on Monday evening having a few glasses of wine - each one toasting the big man and his wonderfulness.

I went to bed that evening with my hubby for the last time (does that make me weird?) and even though I only slept for a few hours I slept really well. I woke early the next morning and thought it was best to get up and keep myself busy by getting everything ready so I wasn't running around like a mad woman with the kids and school runs etc. But as soon as I got out of bed I had a massive emotional wave pour over me and just broke down crying. I guess when we had Richard's funeral I was in a massive bubble of shock and disbelief and it had never really sank in, but now it was and having to say Goodbye to him again was bringing all the pain and sorrow that this awful thing had happened to him back. The rest of the morning was a bit of a blur. Friends started to arrive as we were driving in transit and I dropped the kids and their stuff off with Zoe (I didn't take Bec and Harry down with me, I had sat down with Becs and explained what I was doing and that I thought it was best for her to not come this time but we would go to the spot later in the year, plus with Harry how could I explain that all was left of his beloved Daddy was a pot of ashes).

The drive down was fairly painless, bit of traffic but nothing too bad. Plus Dave had his foot down trying to catch up with Kat and Lisa who had left a little earlier than us!

We got to Preston Sands beach in Paignton a little after 11:30. Mum, Dad, Julie, Josh and Georgina where already there as they travelled down the evening before. We had to wait about an hour for Katy to catch up with us so we chilled out on the beach and had a paddle (yep it was freezing!) and kicked a football about a bit. The weather was not that great, overcast and a little bit chilly - having said that we would all run into the sea I was guessing that Richie would want to make it a proper challenge for us to prove our commitment! Once Katy arrived we moved a little closer to the shore line and stripped down to our swimwear ready to dive in! Before we ran in I played If I Ever Leave This World Alive and we all downed a shot of Tequila after toasting Richie. As we did this thankfully the sun came out, however the sea was FREEZING! But we all ran in and got right in (even Lisa and Kat who wouldn't even get in a nice swimming pool on a boiling hot day in Madrid so hats off to my girls!). For me the combination of an empty tummy mixed with Tequila and cold water created an exceedingly sick feeling, especially when I then got a mouthful of sea water - yuk! We stayed in the water swimming about and stuff for about ten minutes before getting out of the sea to dry off and head onto Berryhead.

Driving into Brixham and along the Berryhead road to the hotel was another emotional wave for me, the last time I had driven along there had been with my Dad, sisters, Bec, Harry and Katy in the back of a limo - all in our PJ's drinking Champagne and excited about getting hair and make-up done for the big day.

We parked up at the hotel and organised checking into rooms etc then sat out on the terrace and had some lunch. The views are amazing:-

We had some champagne and made more toasts to Richie. We also looked through the wedding photo album and remembered back to this time two years ago.

It was then time to climb down onto the rocks and scatter the ashes. When we got to the right spot (checking wind directions etc as didn't want any comedy ashes disasters that you see in movies, although Rich would have loved that).

I had another song played - Who Knew by Pink. As I unscrewed the lid of the ashes I felt my whole body shaking and started to have a massive panic, what if this wasn't what he wanted? I could hardly go back and collect them up again. My Mum just held me and reassured me that this was the right thing to do. So I started to pour and the tears were pouring down my face. I could hear everyone else crying too. It is hard to describe how devastating that moment was and also at the same time how lovely it was. The sun was shining and as the song finished all you could hear was the gently sounds of the sea lapping the rocks and shore line - it was a very beautiful moment. After a few minutes everyone headed back up to the hotel and left me with Mum, Dad and Julie. The four of us hugged, cried and cried a bit more. I then asked them if I could have some time on my own. As they climbed back up I climbed down a bit more and sat with my legs in the sea trying to take it all in and I just couldn't. One of my friends bought me a glass of wine down so I sat there for a while with my wine before heading back to the hotel.

Shortly after that Mum and Dad had to head home with Josh as Dad needed to be at work early the next morning. It was hard saying goodbye to them and equally hard for them to leave. Craig and Jackie also headed off as they were staying across in Torquay. The rest of us had a few more drinks on the terrace before getting dressed for dinner.

The hotel had arranged for us to use a private room for dinner so we all got dressed up in proper evening wear (Rich use to love getting his tux out!) and headed to the Library suite for our meal. More champagne and toasts to the big man. For most people it wasn't a late night - it had been a long day with lots of travelling, emotional stuff and alcohol!

Wednesday morning was awake fairly early with a slight headache and very dry mouth! So I headed down to breakfast for lots of juice and cups of tea! We didn't need to check out until 11 so I climbed back down the rocks and sat down there for about 20mins. The fresh air and sea breeze was making me feel more human! I went back to my room and had an hour snooze before getting up and showered. Those of us that didn't need to head off early met out on the terrace. I took my last climb down the rocks and checked out the rock pools!

We then headed to Torquay to have lunch in what was mine and Richie's favourite restuarant down there - its called the Pier Point and does fab pizzas and a really good home made garlic dip - yummy!

Driving away from Berryhead was awful, I really wished I had planned to stay a few days longer. But we have all agreed that we will make the same trip on the same date every year and regardless of the weather still all dive into the sea baywatch style!!

Back to BerryHead

This coming Tuesday (23rd June) would have been mine and Richie's second wedding anniversary. I have decided to use this date and the location of our wedding - BerryHead in Devon - as the place to scatter his ashes. Deciding what to do with Richie's ashes has been a major brain ache for a long time. Burying them didn't seem right at all, and neither did keeping them cooped up in an urn at home or in the garden.

So next Tuesday myself and some friends and family are off to Devon for what will be the hardest trip of my life. At the moment it feels like I have to say goodbye to him all over again.

The plan for Tuesday is that we are all going to meet on Paignton beach, have a shot of Tequila to the tune of If I Leave This World Alive and then all run (Baywatch style of course!) into the sea! We will then drive onto the Berryhead Hotel for lunch before climbing the rocks and scattering Richie into the wind and sea.

It may seem strange to do something so difficult at a place I love so much, but this place is full of happy memories for me and Richie - it was the views we fell in love with and thus why we got married there. It was the place in the world we wanted to move to when we were older, and I hope when my time comes someone takes me and scatters me there out to sea to find my Richie again.

Cyprus

I took Harry and Rebecca to Cyprus for a week last month.


I thought it was about time that I bit the bullet (so to speak) and take them on a holiday. I say bite the bullet as I guess the thought of being away with them and being the single Mum was a bit daunting.

My first mistake was booking a package deal without knowing the airline carrier - booking confirmation advised it was easyJet!! Great! I hate flying at the best of times and a budget airline did not fill me with confidence! I didn't realise that they do not provide seat allocations or anything, its basically like getting on a bus! Again not a problem unless you are flying alone with two children! Luckily as Harry is under 5 we got priority boarding and managed to get onto the plane fairly quickly so were all sat together.

The flight was quite a bit different from my previous flight to India (Emirates business class!) and I spent the first five minutes wondering where the stewardess was with my take-off Champagne! Lol!!

The flight was ok, and even Harry was fairly well behaved (despite needing to pee every ten minutes! No fear of DVT on a flight with Harry as you are constantly up and down to the loo!).

Our hotel was in Larnaca, so just a very short transfer from the airport by taxi. We had a great room on the ground floor over-looking the pool. The sun was shining so we were set for a great holiday in the sun!

The first day was spent with the children jumping in and out of the pool and eating as much ice-cream as they could! The following day, the Friday, Harry seemed a bit subdued and not quite himself. By lunchtime it became apparent that he was unwell and was complaining of ear-ache (something that fills me with dread as I have had problems with my ears from the age of 5 and therefore feel very bad for anyone with ear-ache, one of the worst places to have an ache!).

This quickly escalated and Harry was screaming as it hurt so much. I therefore arranged a taxi to take me to a local private hospital to have Harry checked over. Luckily Rebecca had made friends with two girls and their parents agreed to look after her whilst I took Harry to the hospital.

The taxi drove at crazy miles an hour, which for once I was comfortable with as Harry was so upset I wanted him to be seen as soon as possible.

We arrived at the hospital after about 15 minutes and Harry was seen immediately. A doctor came and cleaned out his ear and flushed it out - apparently there was a big build up of ear wax (yuk!). Harry was screaming the whole time and asking the doctor to stop hurting him. As a Mum having to watch on it was horrible. I think I was crying more than Harry. Once it was all done the poor little guy look very pale and scared, but was relieved to leave the hospital. We headed back to the hotel and picked-up a prescription on-route for some ear drops.

The next day Harry seemed almost back to normal and was begging to go in the pool. So we splashed around in the shallow end as I didn't want him to get water in his ears after yesterdays drama! However later that afternoon he was crying saying he was unwell again. This time I asked the hotel to call a doctor out to see him. The doctor luckily arrived very quickly and after checking Harry out confirmed that he also had an ear infection. He then kindly went out and collected anti-biotics and dropped them off at the hotel for Harry.

By the following evening the anti-biotics had kicked-in and Harry was back to his usual mad-self!

The rest of our holiday then followed quite a nice gentle routine. We would get-up in the morning and have some breakfast. Harry and Becs would then go to the hotel's kids club from 10am to 12pm. We would then play in the pool (with the majority of the hotel kids!) before having some lunch on the beach. More swimming and jumping in the pool before kids club again 4pm til 6! Kids club times where great - I would laze by the pool with my book and a glass of wine (bliss!).

The end of the holiday was a little disappointing as I would definitely miss the sun and time with Becs and Harry. However, I was looking forward to getting home and having a grown-up conversation with someone who didn't always question why I was away solo! (Oh is your husband joining you for the second week was the usual lead into people being nosey about my situation!). However all in all it was ok and definitely not scary so Harry and Bec can breath a sigh of relief as I will be taking them away again!

No Guarentees!

So, am back after the big 3 peak challenge! Despite me saying that I would get up and down all three mountains despite my toe injury I'm afriad I only managed Ben Nevis and 3/4 of Scafell.

I flew up to Glasgow Wednesday morning and worked from our local C&W office. We picked up the mini-bus with the rest of the team aprox 7pm at Glasgow airport and headed up to Ben Nevis. The drive up to Ben Nevis was amazing - great views around Loch Lomond, very beautifull and will definetly go back in more relaxing circumstances! We arrived at our bunk house around 10pm and had a quick bite to eat and couple of drinks before heading to sleep in the lovely bunk beds (The Lowry it was not!).

As we were not starting until 5pm on the Thursday we spent the day in Fort William, grabbing a deluxe Morrisons breakfast first thing and then sat in the park enjoying the sunshine (yep it was very very sunny and I think I may be the first person to get burnt by the Scottish sun!).

5pm we all began the decent up Ben Nevis.

The views on the walk up where amazing

It took me three hours to get to the top of Ben Nevis - as we neared the summit there was a lot of snow every step forward I slipped back 2 which was very frustrating!

Myself and two others reached the top first, we waited for about 20mins for some of our party to catch up with us but we got so cold we started heading back down. We met up with 2 other crew members a short distance from the top and they continued on as we headed down.

Coming back down was really painfull on my toe - every step forward my toe was hitting the end of my walking boots which was far from pleasant! And as we hit the rocky parts I knocked my toe quite a few times. It therefore took me nearly as long to get down Ben Nevis as it took to get up!

Getting to the bottom was very emotional, but also very proud! There where a few points where I thought I wouldn't be able to do it!

Once at the bottom it became apparent that one of the guys we had passed near the top was in trouble. He had injured his knee and could barely walk, luckily another member of the team was with him but was having to half carry him most of the way down. One of the drivers started to make his way up to give them some assistance. Luckily all where safely down but it took another hour and a half so we were quite behind time as we set off for Scafell.

I managed to sleep really well on the drive to Scafell and kept my foot raised hoping that the swelling would go down by the time we arrived.

We got to Scafell at aprox 8am. This time just 6 of us headed up. Scafell is a much shorted climb that Ben Nevis but its a harder climb as steeper. Unfortunatly the weather was not on our side as it had been when climbing Ben Nevis. The weather was awful, raining and very windy.

The stones were very slippery walking up and it soon became apparent that this was not just down to the rain. There were lots of National Trust workers replacing a lot of the path - apparently when the path was originally laid the stones were put in the wrong way up which is causing the stones to be more slippy. The path up Scafell was also very narrow and with the wind there were times I thought I was going to be blown off the side (even a sturdy girl like me!!).

When we were aprox 3/4 of the way up I decided that I couldn't continue - the wind and narrow path was making me feel unsafe and I was really worried about the climb down with my toe. So myself and 2 of the team headed back down and 3 others carried on - although they also turned back shortly after due to the conditions etc.

It didnt take too long to get down and luckily I had the shoulder of a team member to help me down and managed to not knock my toe as often as the way down Ben Nevis.

Once we were all down and back loaded into the mini-bus we set off for Snowdon. I knew that I wouldn't be able to climb this one. My toe was described as a beacon of red light that the guys could use to guide them down Snowdon later on! We arrived at Snowdon at 5pm - so therefore would not be hitting the 24 hr deadline.

3 of the team headed up. The conditions here were also bad. The cloud level was very low and it was raining. There were a lot of pen aople hanging around waiting for people to get back down - one group had gone up at 9am that morning and were still not back!

I think it was aprox 10:30 when our three got down to the bottom and we packed up again and headed for home.

Getting home and sleeping in my own bed was bliss! Waking up Saturday morning I realised that I need to take myself to A&E to have my toe checked out as it was not looking pretty (photo at the end of this blog, its gross - u have been warned!). My friend Paul drove me across to Wexham and I joined the queue to see a doctor.

The doctor took me straight into theatre and anaethatised the toe (which fyi injections into your big toe really hurts - I guess because toes are quite bony with not much flesh), it took 3 injections to numb my toe up. She then pierced the nail to release the blood trapped underneath - gross but a relief at the same time. Luckily she managed to save the nail but it wouldn't be looking good for a few weeks so it looks like no sandals/flip-flops for me this summer!

So I would like to say a massive thank-you to everyone that sponsored me with this challange - and also apologise for not completing all of it. I am going to return to all peaks and do them again - but rather than rush it over a 24 hour period I am going to do it over a weekend and enjoy the climbing and the views.

The famous toe, pre and post treatment:-

3 Peaks and the god damn hoover!

So tomorrow is the day when myself and the 3 Peaks team travel up to Scotland ready to begin the 3 Peaks challenge this Thursday at 5pm. Cast your minds back to the last fundraising initiative I had - the Dorney Lake 10K........... And you will remember how I stupidly twisted my ankle in my heels the evening before the race.

No, no, I haven't done anything that silly this time. However, have been doing a little spring cleaner in the house this evening (cleaning therapy is my bizarre 'Monica' tendency as my friends like to (affectionately!) refer to). Anyway, whilst carrying it down stairs I have managed to drop the big lump of a thing on my big toe - D'Oh!!

Its very sore and looks like it will be nice and black ready for the decent up Ben Nevis!

Ow well, I guess I am not happy with just a 'normal' challenge, I have to add an injury factor into the mix as well.

Anyway, whatever the bruised toe, weather, conditions etc bring I guarantee that I will be up and down all 3 of those mountains as whenever I feel like stopping I will think of my big brave man and keep one foot marching in front of the other. Either that of hop on the back of one of my team mates!!!

www.justgiving.com/mrbaldy

Sammie x

Mistakes

You're going to make them. A mistake is the best way to learn.

Learning is our goal. We want to learn fast and big. Therefore we want to make lots of mistakes and big ones.

Answer: Don't make the same mistake twice!

Richard Wildman

Dancing by Richard Wildman

Most people are rubbish dancers. Very few are good. Main problem and what makes the worst dancer is the worry that other people think that they can't dance. Kettle calling the pot!

Be bold. Get out there. Like any skill you get better with practice (or think you get better with beer!)

Plus sides - If really crap then you get to meet people who comment, you got to get better and you get to learn about walking your own path and ignoring people with nothing useful to tell you. You learn to be bolder.

Or find someone truly awful and dance next to them!!

Richard Wildman