Too many bridges to cross

I really need to stop relying on my brain as my calendar. It’s running out of disc space and isn’t retaining stuff like it once did.

I was supposed to be visiting my friend in jail on Sunday morning, but I forgot I’d registered to do the Seven Bridges Walk. The Cancer Council holds the walk every October, with thousands of people ambling 28km through some of Sydney’s most scenic locations – and across seven bridges – to raise funds for a cancer-free future.

I did the Seven Bridges four years ago – well three bridges of it – and haven’t ventured back since.

But my Saturday walk mates convinced me to give it another go this year. They did all seven bridges last year, which is pretty impressive.

When we got to the three bridge mark, I was ready to pack it in again. But we stopped at a groovy little cafe in Rozelle called Le Coq for a coffee and then I managed one more bridge before calling it a day.

We still walked about 14km, so not too shabby. Though my Facebook feed is full of hardy friends who toughed it out and did the whole shebang.

Unfortunately, it was too late by that point for me to head over to Silverwater for afternoon visiting time at the jail, as I was due at a World Jump Rope Championships meeting at 3pm.

The qualifiers and their parents spent about 90 minutes ruminating on whether it was really necessary to be there for the whole nine days of the competition, which includes an open tournament (for the skippers who came 4th to 6th in their events), the junior masters (for 12-14 year olds) and the masters (for skippers 15 years and older).

The youngest wants to be there for every single second, but I sensed a certain reluctance on the part of most of the parents for their children to do the same. The torture of being in a sweltering outer ring suburb of Shanghai for the last Worlds is still very fresh in many of our minds.

The head of Skipping Australia will have more details for us soon, as he’s currently in Canada helping nut the nitty gritty out.

As for jail, I’ll need to book a visit soon, hopefully for next weekend.

After the skipping meeting I headed north for one of my beloved roast dinners with DD at the Four Pines.

I had the overnight pork, which was its usual delicious best. DD also discovered a bottle of my favourite Rose under the stairs – Sandalford. We sampled it on our trip to Margaret River a few years back and he orders a case every now and then. But last time he went to place an order, they told him they’d run out.

Gasp! No! We were very sad as it is very, very delicious.

So we savoured a glass from surprise bottle together.

And now the working week begins again. It will be punctuated with things that I am not looking forward to doing, such as a visit to my local Medicare office – there goes a few hours – and a trip to the dermatologist with the ever-allergic youngest.

How’s your week looking?

Song of the day: Simon & Garfunkel “Bridge over troubled water”