Preparation for Machu Picchu: July

The best snippet of news I have to share is that my physical training steams on - I've established a regular gym routine, and, in an atypical turn of character, have even managed to adhere to it.

That's the best snippet of news I have to report. The rest is rather depressing (or, if you're me, just plain terrifying).

Over the past few weeks I have learnt that:

- Anything more than three-pound weights results in me pulling my pea-sized muscles

- I am a 28 yr old with a 60 yr old left knee

- Each workout needs to be preceded and followed by large sized meals. Consider it bribing myself to move

And next week, ladies and gents, is our first little 'test'. Off we go, next weekend, hiking in the Catskills. Not quite the conditions of Peru, of course, but enough for me to see if my body can propel itself lumberingly up a hill with a pack on the back.