Dave and Jen For Oxfam

As a contrast to last week it is actually sunny outside with, I kid you not, butterflies flying past the window. Jen gives me a look knowing that I’m going to turn that into an attempt at referencing our excitement and nerves as butterflies in our stomach, but resigns herself to the fact that such is my want. Instead, as I arguably waste time to the sound of a clattering keyboard, she continues to draft up a checklist of things we will need to do, pack and consider with only 7 days left until we join the Oxfam Cambodia Challenge for 2008.

Last week went by quickly enough with virtually every hour of the day outside of work full of trip considerations. That’s not to say we haven’t had our fair share of relaxing, and I’ve certainly put a few hours into playing Fallout 3 in the evening last week, but there is just so much to do. We won’t stop fundraising for Oxfam Australia until the minute we get in the car and head to the airport, and we were very excited to have such great sponsors as In2Cycles and Crumpler onboard. The crew at ZeroGen have been amazing also and I would sound like an infomercial trying to fit in everyone that has donated and supported what we are doing. There is still so much to do, and we near the last yards of our target with this final week and are still encouraging everyone to get involved.

Aside from that, we are faced with an interesting time of year. We won’t get a chance to settle back into Brisbane until 2009, which is a macroscopic “wow” in terms of everything we need to finish this year. Everything we need to finish in one week. I have four items of music production to hand over in the next week, a bunch of things to finish writing for work and the various final touches on ensuring the gadgetry that we will be travelling with is minimal, secure and robust. Jen has a heap of work deadlines and the eternal quest for reducing the amount of Things in her luggage. We are both very good at packing our luggage for travel but this trip adds extra weight and volume in our bike seats, helmets and other riding gear. I’m sitting even now with the excellent Shimano SH-MT41G SPD (how is that for a product name?) shoes supplied by In2Cycles that wrap around my feet in a continued quest to break them in. I’d ideally love to use them as my only enclosed shoes for both riding and walking for the times I won’t be wearing Havianas, though they do have the slightest of a forward roll. See the dull things we are considering? Shoes. Not the amazing food, incredible people or adventures ahead, but shoes. Jen asks “what’s wrong with shoes”, but I won’t bite, having dashed with full force of my wit against Jen’s Impenetrable Fortress of Shoebox Keep in recent months.

Back to the week at hand, and it can really boil down to a mix of our own readiness to jump on that plane and the major focus of every last bit of fundraising for Oxfam Australia that we can fit. It doesn’t stop even after we get home of course, with the photo exhibition and the fact that we are quite into the work Oxfam Australia does in general. In this final week itself we work through the last parts of the overall plan and head towards the silly questions like “what book are you taking with you?”. I’ve been thinking about grabbing some Buddhist books given the area we will be going to, though as much for context as anything else. I have enjoyed some podcasts on the topic as I ride and occasionally whilst working lately, which has been a nice break from the regional history we have been reading lately.

So from Shoes to Buddhist MP3’s and books, it’s obvious that we are now happily wedging petty distractions and small excitements into the daily routine. Jen even danced with excitement today, which was something between a jig and an episode of The Wiggles. I would have joined her but I’ve long since been banned from doing The Robot. I’m sure you understand. I’m also sure you understand that I’m going to insert the pre-requisite link to donate and support our fundraising for Oxfam Australia! And with that, there’s things to do and worlds to save.