Dave and Jen For Oxfam

In a flurry of To Do lists and far too much time in Outlook, we have both wrapped up our last day in our respective workplaces before we go! While Jen’s workmates celebrate her last day in the office for the year with a few drinks after work, I find myself putting the final touches on enough content to cover my workload in my absence. With that, we are done! The only thing left to focus on now is the trip and the inevitable last minute rushing around. As I type this some family members of mine are finally flying back to Australia after being stuck in Thailand due to ongoing protests. Quite how protesters can shut down an international airport in a country so reliant on tourism as a cascade of questions for another time, but has proved another area to occupy our attention over the last few days. Thankfully some quick thinking and patience has yielded a ping-pong of alternate flights, so all appears (at this stage) to be well. As for us, it’s only two days until we fly out and even though we have no plans to visit Thailand, we keep abreast of any news that might carry-over into our own travel plans given the border between Thailand and Cambodia.

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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.

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With the rain still pouring outside, we flip the diary over and find ourselves in a traffic jam of excitement and frustration. Over the last week we have been excited to work alongside two more great sponsors at Crumpler and In2Cycles, with our frustration aimed solely at the weather. Anyone living in South East Queensland would be aware of the rather intense storms that have rolled out over the region and caused such damage in Brisbane suburbs like The Gap. Whilst the area that Jen lives in and the area that I live were largely untouched, it does put a downer on both our training and our moods as the reports of the damage continue. Thankfully the State and Federal governments have committed to providing financial assistance to those worst affected, though the usual reports of slow response times emerge whether factual or not. Whatever the case, it’s nice to see support getting out to those that need it, rather than just camera crews.

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To make the remaining three weeks sound like a longer amount of time to fundraise, we can think of it in terms of 504 hours or 30240 minutes. To make it sound like a shorter amount of time until we hit the bikes in Ho Chi Min, we can think of it as 21 days. One we are counting off as slowly as possible and one we are striking off the calendar with a daily increase in excitement. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise in terms of which is which, but we are still surprised and shocked how quickly the last few weeks and months have gone by, and how quick the next few will follow suit. Three weeks left, and we still need your support!

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One month left until we leave. We find ourselves sitting around a coffee table drinking Fairtrade tea, reading the Lonely Planet guides to Cambodia and tidying up a pile of notepad notes, text files on laptops and talking at a great pace. The previous week has been both a challenge and exciting and the next four weeks are going to be an extension of that. In more ways than we probably know.

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It’s a scene from a movie where the protagonist has been introduced, gone through some ordeal and come out the other side with a purpose, with intent, with direction, with… with a montage! If we had a montage there wouldn’t be much of an ordeal so it would simply show us riding, planning, riding, fundraising, riding, reading and, just to keep the theme, more riding. It would also be a somewhat cliché montage with one of those flipping calendars The best I could find in a quick search online was this one, which is really quite naff I’m afraid, so you will have to use your imagination. See where I’m going with this? Calendar? Time? Flipping? Five weeks to go? Five weeks to go!!

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After the ride yesterday we have our hands full with stripping the sand and salt off the bikes, reliant on the excellent Rocklube chain lubrication in simplifying the process and not laughing at the backpack and helmet strap suntan lines we have accumulated. As busy as we are there is of course always time for a countdown post and we find ourselves now 6 weeks away from flying out for our adventure. As expected things feel busier and busier but our weekend away has given us a feeling of being in the eye of the storm. More fundraising, planning and exercise await.

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Seven is an interesting number. No really it is. There are seven classes of plastics used in packaging applications. Windows 7, the upcoming Microsoft operating system is sometimes referred to as just “7″. There will be about seven people in the world who will like it. There are seven Earths in Islamic tradition. In Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise, there are seven Chaos Emeralds. Pirates talked of seven seas. Seven is the only number less than 15 which cannot be represented as the sum of the squares of three integers. Seven is the number of weeks until we got to Vietnam and Cambodia.

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As far as countdowns and numbers go, there is something nice and simple about having 8 weeks left. As far as preparations and fundraising targets go, there is something alarming and sudden about having 8 weeks left. As far as holidays go, there is something slow and distant about having 8 weeks left. As far as… okay well you get the point. 8 weeks to go.

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Nine weeks. 9 weeks. 9 wks. I typed it a few ways and all of them elicited the same excitement and trepidation. We leave for Vietnam and Cambodia in nine weeks time. At the time of writing I have managed to pick up a cold from a work trip in the previous few days and am ruled off the bike to rest up for the weekend.

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