Dave and Jen For Oxfam

As mentioned in this week’s countdown post, Squishy is starring in his own timelapse video. As a result of the muffins Jen baked for her workmates, and my hunger for said muffins, Squishy and I hatched a plan. A very good plan. The plan consisted of pretending we needed to “trial a timelapse for the trip” with, of course, Squishy and a muffin. I will let you in on a secret: Squishy didn’t actually eat the muffin. I did. And I got crumbs on my camera. So without further ado, presenting the one and only “Squishy Eats Muffins”.

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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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Put me in front of a keyboard, define an audience and watch the word count click over to maximum. Somehow I managed to turn a post about Jen baking muffins into a reflection on Major Donor support during the current instabilities of the financial world. I blame the smell of so many sweet baked goods for the verbosity in earnest. All I really needed to say was: Muffins!!! How good are muffins??? Jen’s lucky workmates get to eat muffins all this week, if this batch is anything to go by. This is her tongue in cheek (or possibly “crumbs on desk”) response to an amused conversation about little old ladies and cake stalls. They might have to be quick though, as a certain Squishy spied in the photos below has a decidedly hungry look in his eye. A look I know well…

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Yesterday is a day about things we did not actually do. We did not go for a full day’s ride on the Gold Coast. We did not take photos of the beautiful beaches and esplanade. We did not film anything at 24 frames per second. We did not soak up the sunshine and the fresh air. At no stage did we take a break to rest, eat a banana and recite some kind of pleased utterances about this or that. We didn’t even plot our course on GPS and utilise the Google Maps and Flickr API’s to publish these to the website. Yesterday was nothing like this. Yesterday blames Saturday.

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To salvage the remains of a weekend spent in airports and on a very long and boring train journey, Jen and I returned to Brisbane with the aim of dumping bags on the floor and hitting the bikes for a quick ride. The quick ride quickly became our first time on a path we had previously discussed as a possible training route. Namely, New Farm to West End and back. This ride, which we have mapped online, travels mostly along the various floating platforms and riverside walkways that hug the Brisbane river. The weather at this stage seemed clear overhead. At this stage.

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What is a new blog without a “Hello World!”. This is our first post out of hopefully many that offer an insight and a personal record of our involvement in the Oxfam Cambodia Challenge in 2008. The name of the site hopefully sums up the basics as far as two people with a passion for the work of a charity and an excitement for one of their most intriguing fundraising methods. Dave and Jen for Oxfam. Just add mountain bikes, humidity, the chance to change the world, adventure, video cameras and a small stuffed cat. Don’t worry, you will all get to meet Squishy, our mascot, later. For now, please bookmark the site, add it to your RSS feeds, check out the work of Oxfam and help us support the Oxfam Cambodia Challenge!