Day 057 > Monday 28 October > Tang Jung Resort, Dun Gun, East Malaysia

Thought of the Day

Imagine not having been on a beach in 9 years or not having gone swimming especially when you both love sun, sea sand and swimming. Since his accident, Mike has not been on a beach, but looked onto them from the safety of solid non sandy ground. I was determined from the very beginning that I would get Mike on to a beach and in for a swim. I have this joke with him - that we would do angels in the sand and water (that means lying back and moving your arms up and down as if you were flapping your wings) And today we did it. Jon and I chair lifted Mike out of his chair and carried him down to the sea where I sat with Mike in the shallow water and supported him with my legs while the waves crashed over us, God there is nothing more incredible in watching someone getting so much out of an experience. Without sounding like a total sop, I felt really lucky to be sitting with Mike holding and supporting him in the water. It was great to see him smile so broadly and say - I am back, I am back on the beach! It may not seem a big deal from the text of a website but it was. I love the sea and I just can not imagine not being able to swim or walk along a beach. Yesterday Mike watched all of us jumping around and playing in the sea while he sat in his chair on the grass, not even on the sand because the sand was too soft for his chair. And though we had a great time all of us kept looking back at him as he was watching us wanting for him that he could be involved and not left out. There are so many things that we can overcome and change and I think we nearly feel we have left Mike down when there are just things that we can't change or make better. So it felt great that today though Mike could not feel the sand between his toes, because he has none, he certainly felt the magic of the sea on his back.

Day 058> Tuesday 29 October > Kula Lumpur, Malaysia

Thought of the day!

Here we are again in the back of a van travelling the 6 hours to KL where we begin work again tonight at 8.00pm. Isn't it typical but the day when you just begin to feel you are unwinding you have to wind back up again and give it socks? The last three days have been so fantastic. We have laughed so much and been utterly ridiculous. It has been a long time since I have seen everyone in such great from and by last night as we were walking back from our barbeque on the beach listening to Miles £1 Bee Gee CD purchase he got from a night market which was playing on our idea of a ghetto blaster - Miles' talking book player we had begun to unravel. For me however my greatest mode of transport challenge awaits me tomorrow and I am nervous! The challenge is to race around the KL Grand Prix circuit in a Lotus Elisse. IN theory, this is magic. IN practicality, since I am, not allowed drive, I do not KNOW how to drive. That means I have not go a rashers how to use a clutch, break and accelerator. Seeing maybe one challenge but getting the car started and changing gears is a hell of a lot more of a concern. To that end, driving lessons were set up for me during my stay in the Tang Jung resort. That is, I have had tow driving lessons - each a half an hour long tutored by the most patient Captain Mock. My first lesson was in a van and the second in a Peugeot saloon! To get this into context let me say - the lessons consisted of me going 200 yards forwards and then 200 yards reversing and trying to get to 4th gear. Now to advance from that situation to a race track in an expensive sports car is like asking a one legged person to go from crawling to Olympic sprinter in an hour! To say I am petrified of screwing up the car is an understatement but if Mike can ride a camel I can crash a car with style!

Day 059 > Wednesday 30 October > Singapore

Proton Formula 1 Pace Car
Lotus Elisse

Thought of the day
Learning to drive on the Malaysian Grand prix formula 1 track makes your first real driving experience out of this world. There are times in my life when I have had adrenaline pump unofrgivingly through my body - when I bungee jumped or sky dived and God it feels incredible! But today that same totally addictive buzz was mine again after driving 5 laps of the Malaysian Grand Prix formula one track tipping a top speed of 150km an hour only aided by the navigation skills of a very brave Mike! I have wanted for so long to drive, to control a vehicle of my own, to feel and sense speed at my finger tips, to know that I was totally responsible for myself and today I got that chance - a once in a life time opportunity to do something that so few people get to do, let alone a partially sighted person, but more importantly one that has never driven before in her life or had to change a gear! I will have to admit however that I was scared witless this morning as I was last night. As much as I wanted to taste and live the experience I had been so worried that I would screw up - that I would crash, muck up the car, not be able to start it, not be able to stop it and totally make a fool of myself fin front of the Malaysian media! Driving is something that just about everyone can do - even Mike and when I told people that were organising the event that I did not know which pedal was the break and which one was the accelerator, they just gasped in amazement. Or maybe that was fear! I chose not to learn to drive, once I had been told that I never would when I was 17. I knew that my desire to drive was far greater than my rational approach to safety and the risk of me not being able to resist temptation if I had the skills to drive would have been too great. My father and Fergal often comment on the fact that it is altogether a good thing I don't drive as I think they would fear for my life due to my reckless love of pushing limits. Looking at the challenge today, in an unemotional, detached and factual way - two visually impaired people, one completely blind the other partially sighted raced each other on the Sepang race track. One of the two had never driven before. The other can see nothing! Those facts would make you either roar laugh, run the opposite direction, think someone was pulling your leg or that you needed a hearing aid! The thing is that not only did Miles and I race each other but Miles drove his car at 200km an hour! I really believe that because I was so nervous before doing it I got even more from achieving it. I carried out a life long dream - I drove and I drove fast!

Magic moment of the day
Realising I was driving! It struck me as went down the straight of my second lap that I was driving, that I, me myself and I was driving - clipping corners, making those wonderful screeching sound of burning rubber, just that I was driving, I wasn't sacred at all, I just wanted more, wanted to go faster, and when I finished I just wanted to jump up and down, until I fell down with the sheer thrill of it all. Today I did better than sticking to the rules - I broke every one of them and loved it.

Hiccup of the day
Driving behind Miles. A tip of the day here. When a totally blind man drives ahead of you, put your foot down, find the accelerator - and get ahead of him or get as far away fro him as possible, otherwise you will either find yourself nearly crashing into him or having a far to real game of bumper cars! Not only does this utterly freak your co pilot to the point of speechlessness but it is hardly the best way of securing the trust of others as to your capability and the potential of future driving opportunities. And I can tell you, I would like to think that my driving days are only beginning - well that is what I like to tell myself though I as I say this I can hear every friend of mine silently grab their keys and shove them well out of my reach!

Day 060 > Thursday 31 October > Singapore

· Tram

Thought of the day
Feeling like a crock! I finally had to give in - go to the doctor! I am one of these ridiculous individuals that avoids going to the doctor until I have reached the point of bubonic plague or the dentist until I have lost every tooth in my mouth. This morning was a bubonic plague morning - or at least it felt like it. Over the last few days I had noticed a rash under my right arm which had started to get sore. As I am not one to survey my armpits in the mirror I just thought it was something minor until yesterday when I found it hard to even move it and Mike grimaced when I lifted my arm!

What I had thought to be a minor scrape had turned into something far more evil! The whole of my underarm was covered in water blisters filled with a very dodgy colour fluid which were weeping and multiplying - no wonder my arm was sore. So this morning when I realised that not only was the pain so acute but the fact that I now looked like I had the mange I decided to get it sorted.

Frankly I was mortified seeing the doctor as I looked like I had some form of leprosy with my dodgy underarm, peeling sunburn and a bite on my leg that had turned into an engorged abscises. Rightly so I got a ribbing for not looking after myself and not coming to the doctor sooner and left with a diagnosis of acute skin Candida, a promise to act more promptly in future, anti biotic cream for my gross leg and hideous underarm and feeling like the most unattractive female on the planet! The worst thing about my latter concern is - I have to speak at a black tie thing tomorrow night and my dress is utterly sleeveless and since I speak with the hand movements of a robot on speed, meaning armpit exposure to the audience I foresee a potential problem.

Magic moment of the day
Singapore slings in Raffles hotel. Our host charity took us out this afternoon for the obligatory Singapore Slings (or Raffles catapults as Miles has nicknamed them) and afternoon tea at the infamous Raffles hotel. I have to say we were all quite happy to sit back, sip our cocktails, eat our cucumber sandwiches with crusts cut off, followed by scones and jam knowing that it was cold, wet and miserable at home! Smug I know, but there you have it, we never said we were perfect. Sitting in the warm evening heat in the stunning old colonial surrounding of Raffles knowing that all we had left achieve today was to go on a night Safari was something to feel good about and thoroughly appreciate.

Hiccup of the day
Still being up at 4.00am. Well, served me right for being smug! It is 4.00am and we are due up in 3 hours. Tea and scones already feels like the last century. I am just about to fall into bed after a hellish encounter with the failings of technology! My plans for an early saunter into bed fell around me when a call from Ireland requested photographs ASAP for a Sunday newspaper. Rational explanation that getting onto the internet was proving impossible, that the high resolution requirements for the photographs was going to mean spending hours due to limitations of available technology just didn't cut the custard! Instead excessive flirting with the receptionist to allow us access the very closed business centre saw us seated for 2 and a half hours with laptops, temperamental A drives, battery failed digital cameras and inexplicable corrupt discs to try and reach the deadline! Not sure how, but we did and I am now fit to vomit I am that tired! At times I utterly despair at the fact we are now so often held to ransom by the increased expectations that our advancing technology now imposes! I have got to get some sleep!

Day 061 > Friday 1 November > Singapore

· Duck Boat
· Kayak
· Tri Shaws

Thought of the day
Where does Singapore get its relentless enthusiasm? It is so striking how enthusiastic and positive the people of Singapore are. Like the Thai and the Malays Singaporeans are so friendly, warm and welcoming and seem to have boundless amounts of energy. On the Duck boat today (an amphibious vehicle that goes both on land and in water the Dublin equivalent being the Viking Ship) this was never more evident. As with the night before when we did the night Safari, the guides oozed limitless sing song friendliness and love of their job!

In our sceptical nature the team looked on in amazement totally bemused. But no matter how we tried to resist it we too were taken in and energised enough to dance around the Duck boat, blowing our plastic duck whistles which we had been given on boarding, to the ever repeating Duck jingle which had initially grated on every nerve. I don't know what it is about Singapore people but their warmth is infectious. When we got on that boat this morning, we were really not in the mood for the Disney World "Have a nice Day Sir" approach to life. An hour and a half later you could not shut us up form laughing , bouncing around and singing that dumb song word perfect if you don't mind - it was scary. I think you would want to be one very negative individual not to be uplifted by the attitude and vibe of Singapore and its people! At times I think we have so much to learn.

Magic Moment of the Day
Tea with the President. It is not often in your life you get to have tea with a president and first lady! Today at the request of the President and his wife we had a very memorable afternoon tea. Dressed in our now fading uniform, unmistakably designed for men leaving a woman feeling like a baby hippopotamus, with hair still damp from our Kayaking on the Singapore River we met the incredible relaxed and welcoming couple. Miles and I still high from our driving experience chatted on about our burning of rubber while Mike bragged about the fact he now considered himself brave after being my co pilot. Whether it is the fact that over the last two months we have spoken and met so many types of people from all walk of life, much to the surprise of onlookers, we chatted and joked quite ireverelantly about kissing the blarney stone, the fact that behind every great man there is a great woman and who needs diets when the food is so good. It was a really enjoyable hour and after we scoffed every decrusted sandwich and piece of cake we left happy and high - the boys off to crash Tri Shaw and me to find a dress that would not expose my oozing armpits for the night's gala event!

Hiccup of the Day
Speaking as dinner is being served! I really don't get the way they run charity events in Asia. Surely if you want to engage people into donating money or partaking in an auction or raffle you should seek their full attention. Tonight as with Bangkok we had to speak as dinner was being served and eaten. Mind you, from the moment we sat down until 11.00pm endless courses of food appeared one by one on our table - one equally as delicious as the next so I am not sure that there was ever an opportunity to speak without some level of eating and plate clattering being carried on in the background. But speaking at the best of times is difficult, let alone when you feel the only feed back you are getting is the clicking of chopsticks. What was worse about this situation was that Mike for some very unexplained reason was very nervous about speaking tonight! After watching Robin and Miles struggle to be heard over the chomp of chow Mike was just not able to speak! In my mind Mike has enough to deal with and being nervous about speaking should not be one of them especially since he has endless experience. Whether this lack of attention is a cultural phenomenon or not, public speaking is hellish even for the most experienced of speakers. It is strange, but I could not get over how protective I came over Mike and how annoyed I was with the noisier elements of the audience. Therefore without much thought I jumped into Mikes position to speak on the stage, brought up a glass and a piece of cutlery and began speaking by bashing the fork on the glass and telling the audience that whether I could see them or not was irrelevant I could hear how rude they were being. I have to say I even amazed myself let alone everyone else.

Taking the roaming Mike and shaking like a leaf I wandered and tripped in and out of the tables saying anything that came to mind. How I managed not to break down and cry I am not sure but what I do know is that Mike spoke after me to an impeccable quiet audience and when I wrapped up you could hear a pin drop and the very appreciative applause was evidence to the fact that the risk I had taken had paid off. As we came down from the stage I saw Mike's face beaming at me. He had overcome one hell of an obstacle and done it so well. That look of relief and accomplishment in his eyes made it worthwhile! I can not get over that in a mere eight weeks how much these men have come to mean to me and how I know that I would do anything for them - even if it meant risking making a fool or idiot out of myself. The speaking tonight was hair raising and for the first time in a very long time I can understand why in a survey of things that most people fear the result evidenced that 90% of people stated that public speaking was their greatest fear.

Day 062 > Saturday 02 November > Singapore

· Wheelchair vehicles
· Dragon Boat

Thought of the day

A test run is always advisable. This morning we found ourselves in Singapore Polytechnic where the students had done a project designing three unique vehicles using wheelchairs as a base element. Each of the vehicles was designed with a specific disability in mind. In the case of Mike's mode of transport it was a wheelchair with hand pedals; in Miles and Robin's case the wheelchair had been designed in the fashion of a bicycle and side car, while my vehicle, the best of them all was fashioned on a stand up electric scooter. Our challenge was to race the modes of transport around a circuit and to return to the Polytechnic triumphant and glorious. In my case this was not going to be a problem of any description - I mean accelerating a little electric scooter like thing poses no problems and requires minimal effort! In the case of Miles and Robin, navigation was the only concern as Miles insisted on cycling, mind you, having achieved 200km in a lotus Elisse on a race track this was hardly something we could argue about. But it was poor Mike whose circuit proved less successful. The polytechnic boasts some of Singapore's best young engineering and architectural graduates, a team of which had designed Mike's chair. Firstly his lack of stomach muscles and the height at which he sat in the chair meant that his arms had to work incredibly hard to propel him forward but when his chair started loosing its bits Mike was nowhere to be seen. First the hand pedal fell off. Then the chain and finally the wheels! It was like watching moving disintegration. Therefore the final third of the circuit saw Mike back in his own wheelchair and speeding downhill to the finish line, leaving us for dust and arriving triumphant to the sounds of Chariots of Fire. His disintegrating mode of transport gives a whole new dimension to the expression "when the wheels fall off" and when asked by the media what he thought about the design of his vehicle he replied simply "a test drive would have been quite good"!

Magic moment of the day

Speaking at Singapore Polytechnic. After our wheelchair extravaganza we did a motivational talk to 600 of the polytechnic students. After the previous nights struggles speaking at the forum was fantastic. There are times when it works and there are times when it doesn't and today was one of those times when not only were we communicating well but the audience were hearing and understanding what we were trying to say. Around the world in 80 ways is about trying to carry a very strong message that goes so far beyond attempting 80 modes of transport, so when we communicate with people effectively, when we engage them enough to have them question us, or laugh with us there really is nothing more satisfying. The students were a total pleasure to speak to. You could hear them absorbing and trying to understand what we were saying. I think it still amazes people that we are all so self deprecating and flippant with each other and our varying disabilities. It is amazing to feel a room start to follow you, to sense them becoming comfortable and intrigued by what you are saying as you bring them on your own personal journey for that hour. Mike, Myself, Miles and Robin all speak so very differently. It never ceases to amaze me how easily and naturally we compliment each other in the same way it still amazes me that four strangers have gotten on so well without knowing each other. It could have been so different. We all took a highly emotional risk agreeing to travel 3 months with people we barley knew and to live in their pockets 24 hours a day, and to rely on them, to perform with them, to be engaging with them. I think that our achieving of real personal acceptance of each others flaws despite the downs, tiredness and difficulties has made the story far more than an adventure around the world and it is that that I sense people feed into when we speak!

Hiccup of the day.

When it rains in Singapore it pours! You can control many things, but the weather, even in sunny Singapore can let you down. Once we stepped inside two dragon boats our mode of transport to the Life without Limits event the first drop of rain fell and fell some more. We arrived to open the ceremony like drowned rats and in my case shoeless and trying to hide my bum as when my trousers get wet they are see-through - hardly the picture of professionalism! But if we thought that the rain was heavy out on the water we were very naïve - the best was yet to come! Half an hour after the opening ceremony was over; we experienced the very wetness of tropical rain. The rain drops as well as being enormous and heavy fell in torrents that seemed endless. But the great thing about tropical rains is that you don't get pneumonia if you get caught in them. Though for the event the rain meant a complete disaster and wash out I just could not resist the opportunity to stand and revel in the warm soup like rain and feel the accompanying cooling of the air wash away the sweat of the morning. Dancing in rain puddles and feeling warm is one of those things that makes you feel free, free and unchattled by age and responsibility, just wonderfully silly and happy!

Day 063> Sunday 03 November > Singapore

Access 2.3 dingy sailing boats

Thought of the day
Will someone tell me what the thing is about eating Italian food? We are in Asia, a place where the food is absolutely delicious and like every other country we have visited, our hosts seem to think that eating Italian would be a great treat. It has become one of our in-house team jokes that no matter where we go Italian is always the menu - even in Egypt, Thailand, India and South Africa and all we want to do is eat the indigenous cuisine. We have considered that there must be some serious Italian phenomenon spreading through the world that we have not heard about but if we see another slice of pizza I think we will crack up!

Magic moment of the day

When you are away from home for a good length of time, in my case, today 63 days exactly it is wonderful to catch up with someone from home even if it is only for a really short time. I met Cathy Ledwidge a collage friend of mine with her husband Mathew this afternoon and it was like stepping back in time. Cathy and Mathew had moved to Singapore over a year and a half ago and the last time I saw them was on their wedding day - 31st October last year. You know a friendship is a strong one when no matter how long the time has been since your last meeting you just pick up where you left off and slip back so easily into the way you were! Just kicking back and shooting the breeze for a few hours and not even noticing time go by was so fantastic and felt so alien considering the last 9 weeks. I realised that none of the team have had any personal time or space for themselves. We have acted and thought and operated as a group, so much so, that you nearly forget to think how you as an individual feel or what you may want. Sitting and talking with someone who knows me so well, someone to whom I do not have to explain things to, was really fantastic. Over the few hours I felt like Caroline, or Casey as I am better know, outside of this trip emerge from my 80 ways role. We talked about the trip yes, but as part of many other ridiculous and serious conversations and I realised how much I have missed home but also how much I have pushed away thoughts of life outside this trip because to do otherwise would be both exhausting and pointless. I also realised that though this trip has been challenging, I am really happy and feel that we have and are accomplishing personally a lot more that we thought we would. Talking to Cathy, an objective onlooker made me realise all the things we have done over the last few months and how amazingly this trip has been despite all the rollercaosters. But mostly spending time with Cathy made me realise how much I miss her at home. Thank God the world has become so small and if we can get around the world in eighty ways a trip or two to Singapore will just be like walking in the park!

Hiccup of the day

Getting Mike to come ashore! This morning we took to the water again, this time in association with the federation for disability and sports. Each of us were given a chance to sail a Access 2.3 dingy which is a small sailing boat especially adapted for people with disabilities. It was a fantastic morning bobbing along on the sea in beautiful sunny weather in the most comfortable sailing boat I have possible ever sat in, let alone the easiest boat I have ever sailed. The boat is made of fibre glass and about the size of an optomist with one sail. The person sailing sits right in the middle of the boat on a canopy type seat with legs either side of a joy stick which acts as a rudder. These boats are apparently uncapsizable and thus balance is not an issue for someone like Mike hence once Mike got on the water it was impossible to get him to come off it. The sense of independent movement and freedom and doing something that he had done in the past, before his accident meant that Mike was more than happy to while away his Sunday sailing. Regardless of endless calls to come back to the pontoon Mike proceeded to ignore us all until he was well and truly ready. Quite right too - why spoil a perfect moment?