Marina Duvnjak

Well its been 10 days now, and things are starting to settle down a bit!!  The bike is good, getting used to it!! I quite like it!! I LIKE IT ALOT!!!

I have moved into my own room now too!!  Its pretty good I get the sun in the morning and it warms it up for the day!! yusss!! Although its apparently getting warmer I’m still finding it a tad cold!!   Like I said last time the house is maaasive!! so its pretty easy to dissapear and have your own space if you wanted to, at the same time its wicked talking shit in the lounge (no computers allowed in there, which is not a bad idea)

The permanent residents in the house are Helen and Stef (they’re married, Helen’s a rider and Steff is team manager), Toni (my kiwi teammate from last year), Louise (Ozzie girl who does not stop smiling). At the moment we also have 2 Canadians that wil be here for another 2 weeks, and an American guy who’s here for the next couple of weeks too then moves on to Italy or somewhere!! …. Then there is a girl Bex whos from England but for now we are not sure how long she’s with us for….   Sounds like alot  I guess but its acatually not bad at all, there are 12 beds here so plenty of room!!
We have a few routines in place…. Like Monday is pretty much an easy coffee/recovery ride, cleaning day, massages and team meeting… oh and the most exciting of all GROCERY SHOPPING!!!!!!!! yaay seriously its the highlight of the week!!    We get to go to the slightly bigger town and its pretty fun!!  There is a food group for the house where we pay a certain amount for food and then each person is on cooking duty one of the nights, that includes cleaning up too!!  So it works out ok for now!!! 

 I was on a mission to find a rice cooker!! You know the ones with the lid that seals shut and you can put a tray inside above the rice and you could steam the veges too…. well do you think I could find one ANYWHERE??? Hell no!!  What a mission!! If I asked anyone about them they looked at me like I was from mars!! Its so common back home I though eveyone would have one!!  But anyway problem solved now, our mate Benny (he’s the mechanic for High Road) has come to  the rescue, found one in Holland and Im getting it this weekend!! oh soooooo stoked!!

The town here is tiny!! I can’t remember if Ive mentioned that already! But compared to like Limoux last year its totally different.  There is no actual “square”  to meet for coffee or hot chocolate its just a road that goes through the town and if you blinked you’d miss it….. so its fair to say you gotta find ways to amuse yourself!! My teammate Jenny (Irish gril) was so bored one day she decided to open a bank account…. hahaha .. and since NO ONE’s in a hurry round here, she said it killed a good 40 min!! Nice!!  I hope I dont have to resort to that…

The roads round here and apparently most of Belgium are contrete…. so all you hear and feel is tu dum, tu dum, tu dum…… tu dumm…..!!! Something to get used to I guess. I wil never whinge about the big chip/seal back home… promise…

Well, have a got a wicked story for you guys!!  I finally got everything sorted back home! Packed up the flat and moved everything into mamas garage!! God bless her! Paid off my bills, got some money sorted to tie me over for a wee while and said my goodbyes!!  Off I went…..

Well the first part of the plane trip was bloody awesome, I know some poeple that knew some people heheh!!  (Chris, Rob and Gabriella you guys ROCK!!!!)  we got the meeeeanest hook up!! Kayte (a fellow rider that happened to be on the same flight) got to travel FIRST CLASS!!! Oh my god can you imagine 2 broke asses, sipping away on our OJ’s in fancy shmancy glasses!!  Our own lazy boy chairs that fully turn into a bed!! Duvet and nice pillow 3 course meals, this table ting that folds out and they put like a table cloth down for ya!! what the!! heheh…  when we boarded and Rob told us to have a seat but we couldnt settle in just yet…. Kayte and I were like figers and toes crossed, that someone wouldn’t come on in the last minute and bump us back to our seats!!  Oh I had sooo much fun!  Like little school girls!!! ha

Anyhow!! So the rest of the flight went pretty smooth, pretty much the usual over the top security measures in LA, then Heathrow more waiting and about 35 hrs later I arrived at my hew home for the next couple months!!  Its MASSIVE!!  The town is called Tielt-Winge, and im not too sure if its a town, or village/street…. but it exists, and we live here!! So far everything looks the same to me! I’ve been out on 2 rides and would not have a fogiest idea what direction we were heading but im sure with time i’ll be sweet!! 

The house has like 5 bedrooms and at the moment  we have 10 people staying,  Im in same room as my kiwi team mate Tones and and Ozzie Louise!! I got the top bunk bed!! Its not too bad, havent fallen out yet!! and the a pretty cool set up high ceilings so its not too cramped when u lying in bed!! 
Pretty wicked actually, like the bathroom’s like the size of my room back home!! big kitchen dining….  I like it!! i like it alot!!

Decided to take it easy for the first week!! Its freeeeezing!! We got pretty cool kit! pink, white and black! Looks wicked when we’re all out riding same bikes, helmets and everything!!  Thank god they provided some warm booties and gloves! Its like 2 degrees… well prob more like 5….   But lucky no rain yet!! 

Righto I’m staaaarving…. off to have some lunch! Hope everyone’s cool and hear from ya soon!!