I was about to start this blog by saying “It’s been a busy week in RAG world!” But then I felt a bit of Déjà vu, and yep that was how I started the previous blog (check it out here) so it’s come to my attention that every week in the RAG world is a busy week – there’s always something going on!
This week however, started with a real RAG buzz; the signups for Bike to Berlin. It’s an amazing challenge, as the name suggests, you cycle from Leeds, to Berlin! It’s 600 miles over 8 days, and last year it raised over £24,000 which absolutely incredible, both me and my boyfriend thought we were up to the challenge, so decided to be ready to register on Monday the 22nd.
Now, if you were one of the lucky few who managed to buy your registration online then you must be chuffed! I say this because I was sat there, on my laptop at 8:50am, refreshing my page to buy my ticket as soon as they became available at 9am. By 9:01am, a little message came up to tell me that the tickets HAD SOLD OUT. I have to admit, I was confused; 46 places all sold out within a minute? So I hung around for a bit and then a post came up on the Bike to Berlin Facebook page saying the website had crashed and we could buy our tickets from the RAG office at 9am the following morning.
As I finished getting ready and putting my make up on, I found myself smearing my Clinique foundation in lines across my cheeks; RAG office, 9am, challenge accepted. That night I even made myself a celebratory cheese and marmite sandwich to take with me (it was definitely my housemate’s cheese but I thought the occasion called for it…)
I left the house Tuesday morning at 7:40am, yes that’s right a whole hour and 40 minutes early! As far as I know, I was the second person there, who knew the Union didn’t open until 8:30am? I took the opportunity to run to Tesco’s to get cash out, but when I returned the first and third people weren’t there. Luckily (and very kindly) someone came back to tell me they’d found another way to get in, turns out I was the thirteenth person there.
After a bit of a wait (during which I read some Machiavelli for my module) I finally made it, and yes there were still tickets available! However… I wanted to buy two, one for me, one for the boyf. You can’t buy two tickets, but it’s not over – I put us both on the waiting list! Let’s just say my cheese and marmite sandwich was more of a comfort sandwich than celebratory.