'Row, row, row your boat'

Last weekend i had the immense privilege of coxing the 'Woman's eights head of the river race' on the Thames. It was without a doubt THE most terrifying, but most fulfilling moment of my short coxing experience.

For those of you who don't know what it entails, the race is a 7.5 km (15k there and back!!) international competition along the river Thames. It follows the route of the Oxford/Cambridge boat race but instead of just two crews, the river is littered with over three hundred woman's boats. Its a logistical nightmare but an incredible experience. 

For you to get a flavour, heres a short clip from the Thames rowing club this year: 

As the cox, i am the feisty lady steering and motivating those poor exhausted woman in the boat and, trust me, by 6km rowing against the Thames' choppy waters those girls were tired.

Our day started at 5am. It did not start particularly well. In my sleepy state i grabbed a bag of raw bacon out of the fridge, instead of my sandwich! I felt very silly come lunchtime when, instead of my lovingly prepared chorizo sandwich, all i had to eat was raw back rashers that had been sitting in the sun ha!

Nonetheless, after very nearly missing our taxi we made it to the station and started the long journey to the river. Typically, the whole victoria line was out of action so after some nifty iphone route-planning, we finally made it to the WRONG boathouse where all our boats and coach nowhere to be seen.

We assumed that at this point, all our misfortune would have been used up and went about rigging the boats for the race. Unfortunately, no one connected the two wires that connected the microphone to the speakers. Cue some very panicked fumbling about in the boat moments before the race was due to start, and some very difficult marshalling.

Despite all the set backs, my girls raced beautifully. Here they are in all their glory:

Copyright: Jet photographic, Cambridge.

(and there's me, in my bright pink waterproofs and some bedraggled wet hair!)

Amazingly, we managed to complete the course in 25mins!!! And jumped up nine rankings in the process. (thats a big deal!) I honestly could not be more proud of these ladies and their dedication. 

We rowed home completely unaccompanied. There were no marshalls and no instructions, just the calm abandoned waters of the river Thames. Naturally we sang disney songs and took it in turns dropping out of the stroke to eat mint cake. 

 Heres a glimpse of our journey home:

Unfortunately, we couldn't rest for long. Saturday night marked the end of the woman's racing season and so we had to scrub up in record time to attend Boat Club Dinner. For the most part it was a civilised affair, with profiterole swans and plenty of port.

Excuse the iphone quality. Blame a very drunk captain of the boats.

However, soon the lack of sleep and wine caught up with us and our night descended into this. It was unfortunate, but somewhat inevitable ;)

Following in my husband's footsteps...

The man is a builder by trade, and a pretty awesome one too i might add. 

Well today in honour of his skill sets, i built an igloo.. yes sir! It was pretty damn impressive too.

(even if it was a little wonky and a little triangular)

 

[[haha please ignore the hat and red face, it was far too cold!]]

Whilst my friend Becca and I got on with this beauty, the boys amused themselves rolling an extremely large snowball.. 

I had been a little bit of a cynic about the snow. Cambridge had been pretty mild so I was totally prepared for the forecasters to have got it wrong. Then, between 20.30-21.30 last night, Cambridge got blanketed.. 

And what are you to do in that situation? Well, a late night college wide snow ball fight and then sledging down castle hill on canteen trays was our answer. It was awesome.

A great day.

The title says it all.

Steve was unable to come up and visit me this weekend (boohoo, stupid snow!!) and so i put my man-free weekend to good use..

I have spent most of my afternoon at a lovely vintage clothes fair hosted by my sweet friend Hannah. She is a member of my university's Barnardos committee (http://www.barnardos.org.uk/) and they put on this amazing event to raise charity for the cause..
There was live music, vintage board games, tonnes of clothes for sale or swap, tea and home made cake.. seriously right up my street!!
Best of all, they asked to use our wedding bunting and table cloths for the decor.. it was SO lovely to see it being used!!

Here are a few pics:

I LOVE vintage clothes, but vintage clothes and my bank balance are not really on speaking terms. However, i managed to pick up some bargains. A blazer jacket, a skirt, dress and lace top for the incredible price of £5.50! Now this is the sort of vintage i like :)

I then came home to even better news... my brother in law proposed to his lovely girlfriend today!!.. in Bruges, the old romantic. Super super excited for another Bacon wedding.