Yasmin and Jenny

22 August 2009

Final two team members, Yasmine and Jenny

Yasmine and Jenny, what shall I say about two exceptional young ladies who never stopped laughing, even when the going got tough and making the team laugh, We all love them very much. Yasmine and Jenny did not know each other before this trip.

Both are students, Yasmine is studying at University and wants to be a doctor. Jenny is studying at University languages, French and Spanish. They can both speak three langue’s, English is their third language! Moreover, both enjoyed speaking to Emmanuelle, - remember I told you she is French, - in French or did I forget to tell you, never mind.

Yasmine, oh Yasmine. She is so full of life, like Jenny, that no matter what she was asked to do, whether it was looking after me, unloading the van, putting up the tents, cooking a meal, Yasmine, and I might add, so was Jenny, was up to the task.

Yasmine, out of the two girls and with them both only been 21 yrs, I can call them girls, Yasmine was the mad one. You would have to have been on this trip to understand what I mean. I will share with you one magic moment I shared with Yasmine; I just hope she does not mind. It is the second Saturday, I am bushed, we are at the campsite just outside Lockerby, we had all been feed and watered, it is night-time, around 10.30 ish, beautiful bulls in the next field, the sky was clear and I was on my stretcher. Got the picture? Yasmine took me on my stretcher to the edge of the campsite, only a couple of yards, not to see the bulls I might add, “ I thought you would like to see this she” she said and told me to look up at the sky, tipping the head of the stretcher down so I could see properly. I have very little movement in my neck…On either side of my view were small trees, which framed my picture to perfection. It was a view of a sky full of stars. We have light pollution in Newcastle, which she knew about so to see the sight of a sky full of stars is very rare… Yasmine then pointed out to me the different star clusters. A magic moment not caught on camera but ‘caught in that little box in my heart,’ see girls I did remember. Thank you Yasmine for that magic moment.

Jenny. Gentle Jenny. If anyone should be a nurse it is Jenny…Everyone tells her but that is not what she wants to do…How would you describe someone, and Jenny I hope you do not mind me saying this, who dealt with a problem I had which could have effected the time it was taking on the road, and subsequently the challenge.

I had a problem with always wanting to wee at every stop we made. I started to get a complex about it because it took up valuable time on the road. We latter on discovered that drinking coffee at each stop may have something to do with it and so I only had water and had coffee as a treat at the end of my days run.. except one day near the end, another stroy, this journey is full of stories, I also felt very nervous at the start of the days run, like any one would, so part of my routine before I got out of the van was that I would have a wee, even if I had only had one ½ hour earlier… I would want a wee nearly every time I saw the red van. Made me think, if I am not careful, every time I see a red van I will want to wee…Anyway I started to get a hang up about this, and Jenny reassured me that me wanting a wee so often was not a problem. This relaxed me. I weed less. Meant a lot to me Jenny. I am not to sure if I have explained that right. As with all the team, with all my funny ways and diet, I never felt a burden or a nuisance,

The other thing I loved about the girls was our girly talks….what is said between girls, stays between girls…Ah ladies..

Yasmine and Jenny found they had so much in common that it became uncanny to the rest of the team. They loved the same kind of music. They had been to the same rock concerts. Their love of langues and both played the piano. Both are at university. They are both well travelled. The way, as a team they looked after me was next to none, I am not down crying the other team members because they are all brilliant, but with these two, they seem to know what the other was thinking so did not need to speak to each other... Very uncanny. They also had a love they shared, Alan, remember Alan, he was one of the drivers…He would sit with them and talk to the early hours. I can remember shouting at them in a campsite to shut up; it was 2 am…Oh to be young again!

I could write more, but you will have to wait for the book if I can find a publisher. I have a ghostwriter working on the synopsis and we will then present it to a publisher…

There you have it, the team…What about me, someone else can write about me…