Episode 4 – Drama of packing the bags

Let’s call this the packing day! I decided to pack at one of our other crew member’s places. Even though I was supposed to hit his place at 7am, even at 8am, I am in my room staring at my cupboard full of clothes wondering what to be taken. Everything at this moment seemed so overwhelming.

Result – Six big bags of clothes!

I had a list written in the book of Pitta – not mine. How convenient!

So I finally reach there at 10am and pretty much idled (let’s say idling) till around noon staring at the pile of clothes I brought in.

I was acting such a newbie while someone seemed to have gotten it all together. I think this where as a girl, you look for attention being so helpless. Little bit of attention never did any harm to any independent woman – or so I think.

So I follow instructions – 2 sets each for trekking and nights. Pretty much threw all the clothes on the bed and started putting them together. For a light traveler who I usually am, this whole exercise seemed so overwhelming for many reasons. First – it is not just travelling. Second – So many new clothes: Fleece jackets, thermals, gloves, etc…

What was funny was that it took us some time to figure out which book to take (which in our imagination would be later used to spend our evenings in the heated lobbies while we wait for our food – now turning back, time spent on that was such a wastage)

And my bag is filled up (60L bag).

We step out for a while to get our rest of the vaccinations - Hepatitis A&B.

When we headed back home, guess who had the greatest of the ideas – our fitness fanatic.

DRESS REHEARSAL – I know it sounds funny but at this point, how we looked in all these clothes mattered. (until later we realized that we barely washed our bodies for days). So we wear all the layers of clothes and lie down, sit, dance around and pose. Life is good!

And tired us – end up falling asleep!

Everything at this point, I call a beautiful mess in more than one way and I am loving it.

Next up… I cook chicken from garbage using expired milk

Episode 3 – We get famous: interviews in papers!

Who would not love to be famous? I am sure none of us thought or really wanted a paper to interview us on the expedition that we were about to go on but looks like the word has spread out and given this is one of the very few commercial base camp expeditions initiated, this was IMPORTANT!

So we get a phone call from a well-known media company requesting for an interview and guess who said YES in one go? All six of us!

It is very common in any group that you have few people who are great spokespersons and some so not and we also had the same split. So it was fun trying to prepare ourselves on who is going to talk and who will keep the mouth shut.

We picked Coffee bean on one very sunny morning to get the interview going. All six of us dressed up – well not all because some decided to turn up in shorts (You know who you are) were ready for the interview. We picked the upper floor smoking area to ensure there is no disturbance.  

The interview started and we all got comfortable with the questions but not with the millions of clicks the camera man was very focused on.

I decided to get coffee and got few iced lattes which was later told my our famous group critic that it was so inappropriate for a morning meeting :D It should have been hot coffee it seems. I admit that comment was so right given that the reporter and the camera operator seemed so not impressed with the coffee.

The interview went well and we parted our ways anxiously waiting for the paper articles during the weekend.

Post article critic

·         The articles were out and we looked pretty. We liked the Sinhala version better than the English one.

·         Camera-man picked photos from facebook of Summit madness group where none of us were present – We even wondered if we would be sued by those who were in for using it without permission.

·         The article called our group critic a fitness fanatic which all of us thought was funny because it almost meant that he was a gym instructor in profession (at least my mum thought so)

·         Girls were there “sitting prettily” in his own words. We were offended!

·         Apparently you need a “special” watch, a bag, shoes, and lamps for hiking. Summit madness any comments?

·         And we (the group) apparently listens “with so much respect” to our leader – Dayan Sameera :D:D Say it again? (only we would know how many times we didn’t listen to him)

Well what do they say?     Don’t look a gift-horse in the mouth!

Free publicity Squad :P

Next Episode - Drama of packing the bags..

Episode 2 – TrailSL video effort

While we trek, we decided to create awareness for something that we all believed as individuals. We wanted to support TrailSL through creating awareness. So a video was expected from the group describing the same and why we do this.

Trust me, after so many efforts, we got one poster out which talks about it but then we were asked to provide a video for TrailSL. This is when the tough work came to play. Given we had two photographers (did they call themselves so? well not really. They had a good eye), one critic and three beautiful ladies J, the task became more difficult than it should be. From picking a place to record to what need to be said to the lighting was a new decision to make. It wasn’t easy with 6 individuals who had their own opinions.

 

 

So our first spot was Viharamahadevi park. Guess what? We ended up doing a fancy mannequin video instead of the trail video. Then decided to go do shopping. And check out

Unsuccessful attempt 1!

We had lists created for our shopping and we were just ticking off one by one by now. Mine and my shopping partner’s list went up to 4 pages for each one of us J (Guess who was the creator of the list)

Usual dinners and hanging out follows this routine which usually ran up to 2-3 am. Who says life is not good when you don’t get things done?

Result is next day – a leave!

We try again on the next day at “The Paddington”. So our “cameramen” bring their sophisticated cameras and fix them and lighting is set and we repeat our lines just to find after few attempts, the mic has not been working or the lighting has diminished. Well, we didn’t fail at ordering good food and consuming it though.

 

Unsuccessful attempt 2!

Next day we go for our last attempt. Record videos of our own self (selfies) and send it for compilation. As you thought right, it was a messy affair. We finally couldn’t get out a video for this before we left.

Unsuccessful attempt 3!

Good news – We got our visas sorted today J

What else happens? Another day was wasted on shopping trying out everything possible that might stop us from freezing to death.

Next episode – We get famous: interviews in papers!

 

Episode 1 – We stormed, normed and was ready to "rock n roll"

 

It was all about getting the team together. We were six strangers who had equal fire in them to climb the beast. It didn’t take us more than couple of weeks to storm, norm and to be ready to perform. If I say that we didn’t have ego clashes, misunderstanding, and anger management issues (and even jealousy at times – may be my observations were off in this case), it would be wrong. We had all this to deal with but each day we passed by really made us a little family who started looking out for each other (and we still do).

 

The days were all about training ourselves harder. Each weekend was an early morning meeting in Mount Lavinia beach to drain ourselves for 4-5 hours just jogging in the sand. At points, we questioned what we were doing. Those push ups in sand makes your wrists just break! Well I guess beyond our questioning point, we knew that we all wanted one thing. We were all so tough headed in that way to achieve our goal. So the weeks went through hiking , cardio, more cardio and more knowledge sharing on the weather, gear, etc.

Our sleep spots were train stations or inside trains when we had to save money for our trip without spending them in hotels. Life was getting interesting by the day.

 

Finally we had our gear list together. We shopped. Late night shopping. Some of us seemed so good at picking up, fitting them, take pics and “social media” them. But poor souls like me had real trouble getting distracted every minute and ending up buying unnecessary outfits. Thanks to the favorite human beings around, they made sure I get what is needed in tact.

In fact my first shopping date was this! The longest ever. We shopped for almost 10 hours. Dinner and then home J

 

 

 

 

She loves you undone!

Undone , she is!

Scars of past wounds;

Sharp edges from a broken heart;

Once you'd wonder, it was broken many times apart:

Dried tears and bleeding wounds not healed;

Makes her who she is..

Her love comes from deep within and not on outer face;

She loves the most uncomforting things;

You never seem to explain;

She tries to see you past your imperfections;

Yet love fiercely for who you are;

She is undone in so many ways; so are you in your world afar:

She is fierce in her emotions:

Let it be love or care

Let it be commitment or loyalty

Let it be being ambitious or work hard

creature of extremes - is she!

She will see you through the dark times

Caz she has been there herself:

She will see you through the good times

Caz she has so much to share in herself:

She will cheer you when you need that pat

Caz she knows that she could raise you up:

She will be the biggest support and be that sport you dream of

Caz she knows that she could be the wind beneath your wings:

She will be that cheerleader you need

When you lose your chill pills apart.

So, favorite human being of hers,

You get to decide where you stand in front of an undone woman:

who is all in to accept you undone;

Will you stay to see her be complete

Or

Leave her incomplete?

Stronger than yesterday

Tears fall down her cheeks;

caz you hit a sensitive place in her heart;

she is fragile in many ways; she never says no if you may ask:

she loves big and she hurt herself big; It's her in many ways you see;

She cares for you so much and she dreams of you big;

She appreciates you and she is fascinated by you;

She feels right when she is with you..

Weak is not the word to call those tears that run through her cheeks;

She has lived and survived those tears since she was a kid;

That is how she let go of her pain;

That is how she stands tall and strong today;

They soak her cheeks, they mess her make up;

They swell her eyes and makes her look weak (in your eyes);

I wish you knew the strong woman in her;

and how she lets go of everything that hurts her;

she will cry rivers of tears when you hurt her;

she will cry herself to sleep when she is hurt;

that is all she knows of letting go; caz no one has stood by her to wipe them away;

So may be you should stop; stop judging her - for the tears that fall down her cheeks;

She ain't weak- that is all she knows;

May be its you who can show her- that the world can be without tears any more:

May be its you who gives her that confidence - being strong no longer requires tears;

May be its you she is looking up to - to draw that strength she sees in you:

May be she is stronger in herself when you hold her tight and show her the world..

May be you are her "stronger than yesterday" flame!

Passion, it is !