Kickboxing Quickie!

Hi all

No pictures on this one, just wanted to give a few words on tonight as I'm still wired from it and my feet have the most epic carpet burns!

6.10 the lovely Cy - Famous for Dartington Village Stores and being a Red Belt Kickboxer, picked me up, he already had our newest Kickboxer, Matt in his massive vehicle and off we went to Plymouth!

Down the A38, off on the 386 (oh yeah baby, I know my road numbers!) to Derriford and The Devonshire! Oh my life what a massive sorted place of exercise that is!

Anyway, we went in and I saw my most favourite sparring partner ever, Joanna (I cant spell or pronounce her surname as yet, but I will) and I knew all was gooooooooood :)

So in we went into a sort of 'rough-veloured' area (I dont know how to spell the fabric name sorry! Or even what it is) and got hot and sweaty!

It was a Kickboxing Seminar to be reckoned with the lovely Sir, Mr Houston is a man that I like a lot. He does a lot of punching, lots and lots, that's what I loved about my grading, he let me punch a lot! And we did that tonight and it was so so so so good I am excited, can you tell?

Anyway, the finish was a brilliant CV circuit, me and Joanna went head to head (without cheating .... unlike others!) and sweated or wotsits off!

Anyway, the main point of this blog is that I had another epic adventure! And the best bit was Cy's Amy Winehouse joke on the way back that had no punchline, that I still laughed at!

Night all, had a fantastic night and lost a whole kilo in water :)

Pedal Mad turns into to Mad Pedal

Well hello so swiftly from the last blog! Wasn't expecting that, but to be fair, I wasn't really expecting today!
Up early after a cracking nights sleep and off to Dartington Primary School for the Pedal Mad Mountain Bike Orienteering event!

I offered to help Kris with this event back at the time of the 103 mile challenge. I wasn't going to cycle as I only had the 'green bike' at the time (now at over £22 on ebay) anyway as Kris was so epic helping us staying up all night to give us our 4am lift it was only fair I try and help on his epic event.

Fairly good turn out considering but I will be completely honest and say that the Totnes end of South Hams Martial Arts was very very disappointing. Considering we were raising funds for our clubs it was very sad indeed :(

There were some pro guys there today and they eventually won and it seems that all enjoyed the experience.
Thanks Lesley for the cheese and cucumber roll :)
The 3 and a bit hours passed fairly easily actually and the bikers came back.

We cleared up and I offered to pick up some of the markers for Kris. Thinking that it was all flat and everything from my house to the 4 I was picking up! *why?*

I set off on my new lovely mountain bike, new to me anyway, and found marker 3, the one that everyone said had been stolen! Yay! I found one! Wooohoooo!

Then the next one by the watermill, then off to the Steiner School. I missed a bit of cyclepath, rode along the road and had to go back to find the marker, this was the first time I realised I am no good with maps and stuff like that and behind the table today on van rescue mission should it be required was my best job!

Found the third out of 4 and then up the lane past the kennels and found the little rocky muddy track that the last one was up!

My gears stuck, I had to stand up, fell off twice, tried again to change gear but I think the bike needs a service! I got off and ran up the track with my bike, so much easier! haha

Found the last one, checked out the map (hmmm) and thought I could just carry on......

Long story cut short, I ended up in Rattery! 5.5 miles from Totnes in the opposite direction!
Called Kris to let him know I had his markers and that I was lost and he laughed a lot, as I would, and did!

Anyway, declined the offer of a rescue mission lift and found my own way back to Totnes in under 30 mins! Woohoo!

It was fun, and reminds me why I never just turn back around and go back the same way! It's all about the adventure for me :)

Judgement Day - Totnes in Bloom 2011

As I said at the start of my Epic Adventures blog, it's not always all about the sport and extreme challenges.
My epic adventures will come in all shapes and sizes, from one extreme to the other.

This week, on my Mum's birthday we had the judging of the Totnes in Bloom local gardens competition.

The categories were

Best Front Garden
Best Commercial Premises
Best Communal Project
Best Container/Patio garden
Best Licensed Premises

We put the forms into the paper well in advance this year and we had 38 properties within all categories to go and judge.

The 3 judges this year were our current Mayor of Totnes, Judy Westacott, South Hams representative Rob Harkness, and myself. We were going for a Radio Devon celebrity but we had to suffer me, the Chairman of Totnes in Bloom instead!
This was my 5th year of judging the competition, I think we only had about 5 gardens to look at in that first year so you can see how much our competition has bloomed! *hangs head in shame for that one*

We got on 'Bob the Bus' the town bus (very different from the Town Bike! No further comments please) and off we went hitting Bridgetown first.
Epic parts of Bridgetown, the Edible Planters at Steamer Quay. They looked so much better than the neglected planters that used to be there. The Edible Gardens in Totnes have really taken off this year and it's the perfect town for it.
Totnes in Bloom isnt about floral displays and neatly trimmed bushes but it's getting deeper!

Looking back at the photos from the judging you can see what a real effort was made prior to the judging. The whole town is improving and it can only continue to get better.

There were some funny highlights, particularly when we were in Parklands, looking at a slightly weedy, shabby little patch of garden, thinking it a little odd that the really well maintained floral display round the corner hadn't entered! Luckily the owner of the lovely garden came out to water as we walked past and we realised that we got the wrong address! Oh How we laughed! *had to be there*

David, the last Town Clerk drove the bus for us and did a spectacular job, in particular taking out a massive chunk of bank with the bus step that hadn't retracted! He drove through some pretty tiny lanes but it all went very well, oh, and the lady who was going to set her dogs on us as she had forgotten that we would be judging that day. She looked out to find 6 people wandering around her garden, must have been a shock! haha

Diana, Ann and Tony came along too for the ride and Diana caused great amusement as usual!

All in all it was a very good 'epic' experience, we judged quickly, thoroughly and it was a fair competition.

The results are now out and can be found on www.totnesinbloom.co.uk we will have a presentation evening later in the year for the winners and I'm sure that will be epic too!

Thank you for reading!

D :)