A touch rugby victory!

Gidday,

We won 6-5 last night in a very tense & exciting match. We did well considering; we are in division 1, most of the guys in the opposition played rugby for the Reading first team, & we also played one extra girl for the whole duration of the match! It means that, for this week at least, we are second in the league. That will probably all change next week because we play the team who beat us 8-4 in the grading game 2 weeks ago.

This week has flown by. I've been battling with a cold the last couple of weeks, but I finally seem to be getting the better of it. Just over a week to go & I get 1 week off for half-term. Then it's only 3 & a half weeks till my Summer holiday!!! My South America plans are coming along nicely... I fly into Quito, Ecuador on July 4th & have 2 weeks travelling by myself & making my way down to Lima in Peru. I meet Will there, & we have 3 weeks exploring Peru & Bolivia before flying home from La Paz (the worlds highest capital at 3660m above sea level!) on August 8th. We wanted to walk the Inca trail, but unfortunately there are no permits available until late August. This was despite me enquiring 3 months in advance which is the recommended time in the high season. Permits are limited to 200 per day, but that includes porters & cooks/guides etc. as well as the actual trekkers. We will probably do the Lares Valley trek instead. It is still a 4 day walk which takes you to Machu Picchu, & you still get the altitude with 2 passes over 4000m. Unlike the Inca Trail, this trek takes you through lots of small traditional villages, so it will be interesting getting more of an insight into traditional Peruvian way of life. Realising that Summer is so close, I'd better actually start some serious training, otherwise the trek will be a nightmare at that altitude!

Better go, I could use an early night. This weekend is my friend Claire's birthday & Nicola is coming over to stay the weekend at mine. The plan is a BBQ at Claire's, then hitting the big smoke of Reading town... No doubt you'll hear more about it later...