Ah Lisa, for God’s sake...

Did you ever get up at 2am on a Sunday morning, after a curry dinner and about 3 hours sleep, put on a head torch, head up a mountain and spend 3 hours walking around a bog?

Training has definitely ramped up! We had a great weekend – met our guide Gerry, lots of the people we’ll be travelling to Kilimanjaro with and the famous Pat Falvey! We were treated like royalty for the weekend, bogs aside! If this is anything to go by the trip to Kilimanjaro is going to be fantastic!(Here we are with some of the group that will be coming with us- Gerry our guide (far left with the hat!) will have to put up with all our moaning and groaning, but he assures us he'll be able for us!)

Saturday morning we headed for the Gap of Dunloe, walking across Strickeen before scaling the heights of The Chimneys (see above!). After an afternoon of clambering around on The Chimneys we were feeling a bit more confident in our abilities. But I hadn’t quite realised the horror of getting up for a night walk and it was all recriminations at 2am when the alarm went off... It was definitely all Lisa’s idea! (The head torches complete the outfits I think- if anyone has a wedding they're going to and want to borrow them, just let us know!!!)

We marched along, like little ants, watching each other heels in the dark until the sun came up over the lakes around 5am and for a short while the soggy boots, the hunger and the exhaustion were forgotten! So now we’re totally prepared for summit night on Kili, allegedly.

(Still alive after the sun came up, with our guide Niall (far left) keeping us on the straight and narrow: only one fall each under our belts, Ciara's being slightly more spectacular landing her knee deep in a bog hole!)

So now there’s HEAPS of kit to buy, LOADS more training to do and a small matter of fundraising to keep us going on the side. Next stop the Wicklow Mountains on 9th/10th July – maybe we’ll see you there!

Ciara and Lisa

PS: See you all Saturday for "Spring Into Summer"!!!

Hurling Training

Went to see the little guys at hurling training last week- talking to them all about the "Spring Into Summer" event we're having this Saturday. Not surprisingly, they were slightly more interested in playing hurling than listen to me go on about Spring Cleaning in Summer!!!



It was a miserable drissly Friday night, but the trainers were out in force as usual wowing us with their dedication!

Everyone's looking forward to this Saturday when we'll be asking you to get into the Spring Cleaning spirit - even though it's Summer! Clean out your wardrobe and bring your old clothes to Amber or O'Donnells garages in Mitchelstown any time on Saturday and get your car washed while you're there!

All proceeds go to coaching in the local schools- hope to see you there!



Lisa

Football Training

Last Friday, Ciara and I went to see the U6, U8 and U10's train in the Mitchelstown Football Pitch- it was a gorgeous evening and perfect conditions for training, but we both forgot our football boots!!!

So we had to let the professionals at it, and try to keep out of the way while all the trainers and kids got down to work getting ready to be the stars of the future!

Trainers included Sean Keane (in the photo above) giving instruction and advice and it was great to see so many out on the field.

It was all action and a great chance for us to see the reason for all the climbing and fundraising.

We talked about what we're doing and explained why (but forgot to take photos of that!). And also talked to all the little warriors about the upcoming events, such as the Spring into Summer event happening on the 2nd of July, where you'll be able to get your car washed and clear out some wardrobe space by donating any old clothes to us. Stay tuned for more details.

Anyway, I think the lads teached us a few things about football (see James Flynn above) and hopefully when we visit the hurlers they'll be able to give us some more skills!

Lisa

A musical FEAST!

What a night - unlike any event I've ever been to, other than maybe a Scor competiton, it started and ended with a tin whistle...!

Our first official fundraising event, Mitchelstown Music Marathon kicked off at 8.30pm with little Michael Vincent on the tin whistle, who's obviously taking after his Dad. Then hurler, footballer and vocalist Killian Roche took to stage before Shout rocked An Bodhran.


We had a special treat - an acoustic performance from The Loaded Kings, which completely stole the show and women were swooning all over the place!!! Check out their facebook page where you can listen to their new single, recorded in UL. (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Loaded-Kings/340195726947)


The McDarragh's rounded off the night in style, 'fresh' from another party in Ballygiblin and ended the night with a lively set. Everyone then danced the night away to DJ Justin Finn - I'm not sure how he managed to have a playlist that appealed to everyone from 9 to 90 - AMAZING! We were very privileged to have GAA legend Pat Fox in attendance - Pat was really supportive of the efforts the clubs have been making to develop training and coaching and he spoke to all the children on the night and gave them lots of advice so hopefully we'll see the benefits on the pitch all over the summer!


A very special mention to Dave from An Bodhran and DJ Justin Finn - total legends, meeting all our ridiculous demands and still being total gentlemen for the whole day and night.

Ciara

The Town Comes Together

I’m definitely running the risk of becoming a commi-teeeee girl... I don’t often describe meetings as excellent but last night we managed to get the Ballygiblin/Mitchelstown Juvenile GAA, St Fanahan’s Camogie Club and Ladies Football together to broaden the support base for the fundraising initiative and most importantly bring together all the people involved in training and coaching the children of the town! I’m told this doesn’t happen very often!!

Another exciting development was that our Mini Kili climb of the Galtees is coinciding with the Mitchelstown Food Festival on Sunday 28^th August (http://www.mitchelstownfoodfestival.com/) so now you can Climb & Dine in style that weekend in our little town.

I’ve got TWO hot dates this week – Thursday night I’m meeting the children and parents of St. Fanahan’s Camogie Club to tell them all about our adventure and on Friday night I’m meeting the U6s, U8s, and U10s footballers in Mitchelstown – can’t wait! Loads of cute pictures to follow...

Ciara

But what’s it all for?

Initially this was just a drunken idea between friends (well on my part anyway!) – something Lisa had always wanted to do; something big to mark my 30th birthday. Unfortunately we hadn’t really considered my Dad’s powers of persuasion at that stage...

The more he told us about the work of Mitchelstown/Ballygiblin Juvenile GAA club, the more we

felt it was something we’d love to get involved with. They’ve already done so much this year to put professional coaches in each of our 3 local primary schools and have HUGE plans for next year.

When we heard that our climb could potentially raise the funds required to fund that training for a WHOLE year we couldn’t believe it and signed up!

The club has almost 200 members aged 5-17 but of course the trainers in schools are for all the

children of the local area. We’re planning to trip to one of their training sessions soon to tell them

about the climb – should be fun!

Ciara

Planning the Launch

As the 11th of June draws nearer, the planning intensifies- so last night's meeting was full of talk about tickets, posters, and a few questions like "Lisa, what exactly is a blog?"...

Now while I'm not going to give away who asked me that, I will tell you that they're in these photo's here:You can see we're all hard at work! All's going well with the planning, thanks to the support of the whole Juvenile club along with the Junior clubs and also the Ladies Camogie Club. Posters are being distributed on Friday and Saturday so you can keep your eyes peeled for them. Anybody looking for tickets can get them in The Bodhran but you can just pay at the door on the night too!

Our inspection of The Bodhran was great last night- we have to give a shout out to Andrew in The Bodhran who's being hugely supportive of the event- so thanks Andrew!

See you all on the 11th in the Bodhran at 8pm!

Lisa