Keukenhof Garden - The Finale

The last of my photos from Keukenhof Garden...

A Closer Look At Keukenhof....

Notes From Nat....

Dear Drunk-and-Misguided-But-Possibly-Well-Meaning-Bloke-Out-In-London-On-Saturday-Night

Thank you so much for coming out of your warm, cosy pub to stand on the freezing cold street, pint in hand, and yell encouraging words at us as we power walked past. We really appreciate your support but think you may have slightly missed the point of the whole exercise.... that being to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer charities. Thus, while it is fantastic that you felt strongly enough to shout "You go girls! All power to you... you are just as good as men and you have rights too!"... the sentiment may have been better placed a few decades earlier, when our mothers and grandmothers marched for Women's Equality. You did, however, bring a smile to the faces of the many fabulous men that were walking with us on Saturday night too...

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Dear Neighbourhood Cats

Contrary to popular belief, our revamped bird-feeding station has NOT been installed in the front garden as some sort of feline 'Fly-Through McDonald's'! Stop stalking those birds right now.... or I will have to break out the super-mega-pump-action water pistol!

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Dear Twenty-something Neighbour

Thanks for reminding me that I am nearly 40. While I was thrilled to have a long weekend earlier this month to get the gardening done and paint the shed, you mooched round your back garden in your PJs, nursing the Mother of All Hangovers and relaying tales of your drunken night out on the town!

I Walked The Walk...

Torrential downpours, Arctic blasts, knee-deep puddles, sneaky manhole covers and other pavement hazards, 20-deep Portaloo queues, and my faithful camera self-destructing in a puff of smoke could not detract from the awesomeness of being part of Saturday night’s London Moon Walk against breast cancer! 

Here are some of the highlights of one of the most momentous nights of my life so far....

Historic Battersea Power Station juxtaposed with The Pink Palace 
Moon City and Start/Finish Line

Ominous black clouds overhead!

So, we're waiting to go into Battersea Park for the pre-Walk build-up at 'Moon City', the queue a good mile long. Everyone is super excited and rearing to go.... there are fabulous costumes and face paintings everywhere. The theme for 2013 is 'Fly Me To The Moon' and there are stars, moons, aliens, rockets, avatars, and enough fairy lights, luminous decor and flashing bras on men and women alike to light up the dark, stormy evening. 

We edge closer and closer to the park gates.... and then suddenly, the heavens open! Torrential, stinging rain hits us like a hail of bullets....everyone is running for the Pink Palace for shelter. I think it's hailing by now, but we are safe in the enormous tent. Others are not so lucky... still trying to get through the queue...

It is time to do some more carbo loading... I have already eaten twice my body weight in pasta and sticky toffee pudding and porridge earlier in the day, but I still take the veggie pasta and carrot cake the lovely volunteers are handing out at The Kitchen.  By now the Pink Tent is full of 17,000 damp bodies but we find a bit of ground space in our allocated "holding area", and tuck in....

Stuffing my face again

Photo from Walk The Walk's Facebook page.... I am standing way back under the '2'

Jennifer Saunders (comedienne, breast cancer survivor and a huge supported of Walk The Walk) gets up on stage to give a brief motivational speech.

Jennifer Saunders flashes her 'Absolutely Fabulous' bra - yes, my camera is rubbish at long distance zooming and appears to be imploding to boot! Mini explosions every time my flash goes off....

Then it's the turn of Nina Barough (founder of Walk The Walk and herself a breast cancer survivor)....

 Nina and her Star Wars posse

Time to get the bras out!

Yip that's mine!

There is a minute's silence, to reflect on what this event is all about... raising awareness and funds for breast cancer charities. A time to remember those lost to this horrendous disease.

Hugely emotional moment.

And if that was not enough to get the tears flowing, on come the Rock Choir to give a beautiful rendition of 'Something Inside So Strong'.

The Rock Choir on stage

It's almost time to get going. There is a bit of confusion as to which group is actually heading off and where we are supposed to be, but we gradually make our way out of the tent and towards the Start.

It is positively Arctic! The wind is whipping through our see-through plastic ponchos. Teeth chattering, knees knocking, hearts racing by now....

Photo from Walk The Walk

Eager to get going - just to get warm!

Nina sees each group of walkers off

And we have lift-off! FINALLY!

London is so pretty by night!

Fabulous volunteers work though the long, freezing cold night.. marshalling, supporting, cheering us on! 

And the population of London are fantastic! Hooting horns, cheering out of car windows, shouting encouragement. Blokes hanging around outside pubs and the trendy set in night club queues clap and yell, 'high-fiving' us as we walk past! Friendly firemen offer to pose with us for a photo op...

Not sure exactly what that young fireman's hand is doing!

We walk past beautiful shop windows and lavish apartments in Chelsea, then the Harrod's Store in Knightsbridge with their 'Great Gatsby' theme.  

We see some drunks stumbling about. A road is closed off and the police are dealing with a pub brawl. There's a guy with a broken nose, blood pouring down his face. We try not to look, keep watching where we walk. Already some walkers have tripped and fallen - it is really dark and the pavements are full of hazards.  Some walkers have collapsed or pulled out - they sit waiting for the night bus, defeated. I trip over a manhole cover and almost plant my face in the pavement.... luckily I somehow manage to recover myself and save my dignity. One of my walking pals turns back to see if I am OK and promptly smacks into a lamp post!

We are near the 10-mile point and all desperate for the loo! The queues are from hell but there is no way we can last another 4 miles (or 3.8 miles* to be precise).

Frozen to the bone, we set off again - picking up the pace to keep warm and stay awake. It's now gone 3 am and tiredness is really starting to set in.

Twelve miles comes up soon and we split from the Full Moon Walkers... they still have over 14 miles to go and will be walking all through the night! I take my hat off to them - they are amazing!

The last stretch, and Battersea Station is in view, lit up with a glorious pink glow....

Crossing the Finish Line

We did it! 

Thank you so much to everyone who sponsored me, and supported me on the way, especially my two walking pals… I would never have made it to the Finish line without your highly accurate time-keeping (‘it’s 45 minutes past the zero hour’) and handy lamp post detection skills.

.............

* The Half Moon ended up being 13.8 miles (22.9 km) rather than 13.1 due to some last-minute diversions

Photos are my own rubbish attempts to walk in the dark and take photos except where otherwise acknowledged as property of Walk The Walk

Scenes From Keukenhof Garden

I'll let the photos speak for themselves...

On Boiling Bras and Blisters...

Never fear faithful readers of the male variety, this is not an ode to feminist issues (you know, the iconic bra burning images from the 1960s Women's Equality movement).... but rather 'Nat's Handy Guide to Decorating A Bra'.

In a week's time, I will be taking part in the London Moon Walk, along with thousands of other women and quite a few men, with the goal of raising funds and awareness of breast cancer issues. One of the trademarks of the Walk The Walk challenges is that all participants (men and women!) do so wearing a decorated bra.

Now I'm not the most crafty, but I do like to give things a go, and here's what I learnt in the process....


Start with the bra that Walk The Walk provide... a very nice, shiny white bra from Wonderbra and Playtex...

Attempt to dye the nice shiny white bra indigo.... following the dye manufacturers instructions to use a teaspoon of dye, a tablespoon of salt, and simmer for 20 minutes over a medium heat.

Panic when the bra turns out a blotchy, grubby-greenish-grey!

Have another go at dying the now blotchy, grubby-greenish-grey bra... this time with about one kilogram of indigo dye powder and half a tonne of salt.

Boil and boil and boil that bra! Then boil it a bit more, and add some more dye, just in case....

Realise that a lovely shade of teal is the only colour that stubborn bra is going to be! Decide that uniform teal is far better than blotchy, grubby-greenish-grey..... and that it is safest to leave boiled bras be, otherwise you run the risk of said bra disintegrating around the 10-mile mark on The Night.

Leave to dry overnight.

Convince your darling husband that he posses far better ironing skills that you do, and thereby get him to iron on fiddly, faddly little stars... reminding your darling husband that you will be modelling the bra when it is finished can work wonders!

Now for the tricky part.... sew a tassled fringe along the bottom of the bra - but not the elasticated bit as that will stop it stretching - making sure you don't sew it to your funky PJ bottoms at the same time (did I mention that funky PJ's are compulsory attire when performing any type of crafty schmafty task?)...

Et voila! Here's the finished bra.... all ready for action next Saturday night!

Hot tip from Walk The Walk: Slick a layer of Vaseline under your bra straps to prevent rubbing on The Night. Smothering your feet with Vaseline is also a great way to avoid blisters!

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I'll be sure to keep you all posted with how I get on next Saturday. In the meantime, I still have loads of photos from my recent trips to share with you....

Things I Saw This Weekend...

• A man with a floor-length dread-lock beard and a woman carrying a ginormous “Lottery Winner” style cheque at Schiphol airport.

• Idiots Abroad posing in over-sized clogs at every corner.

• Enough Gouda cheese to feed the world’s population of mice for a decade and then some!

• And a trillion, beautiful blooming bulbs of every colour at the Keukenhof Gardens.

Yes, I finally got to see the beautiful spring tulips in The Netherlands on a day trip this weekend... some of you may recall that a pesky Icelandic volcano (or more accurately, its accursed ash cloud!) that grounded flights across Europe put paid to my original plans to go Dutch back in 2010. 

It's taken me three years to get my act together and make the quick hop over on the stupid o'clock "Squeezy Jet" flight to Amsterdam, nab the Keukenhof Express bus from Schiphol and spend the day sleep-deprived and tanked up on strong black coffee and sugary waffles, but surrounded by Mother Nature at her most awesome.

Just 771 photos to sort through first before I can share some of them with you all... and there are still loads from my South African trip too. I'd best get cracking...