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I found it quite amusing whilst we were out at sea, thinking how people come back from expeditions or having lived away for awhile and the comment is always, ‘nothing’s changed!’. Well I can safely say that I disagree!
Whilst away, as I mentioned in a previous blog, one of my best friends has been pregnant and had the baby, all before we arrived into Cairns. Alongside that, my sister in law is pregnant with my second niece or nephew as are now 6 other friends of mine with either their first or second little ones. But this isn’t all that has changed, besides the baby boom, there’s a whole heap of things that certainly since arriving back in London last week i have noticed. There are certain things that I feel like I’ve woken up from an ice age and if things move this quickly in 10months, then I’m going to need to remind myself to keep my finger on the pulse as I get older! …..
– Contactless cards; I wondered why I had a new card in the pile of post when I arrived back, as mine wasn’t due for renewal until 2018. So initially I couldn’t get onto my online accounts until I realised I had a new card. When I left I’m sure it hadn’t been that long that since we’d started using chip and pin!
– Buses don’t take cash!; So when I went to use my ‘contactless card’ on the bus as I couldn’t find my trusty oyster card, well I hadn’t realised I needed to activate it, so it didn’t work, well no dramas I thought, I’ll just pay, ummmmm think again, the bus driver didn’t take cash! Since when did buses not accept cash?!
– Putney train station is all new and improved
– Blackfriars appears to now be open (I’m sure that’s the stop that was closed for like years!)
– Doctors are going on strike; since when do those in the health service who have an ethical duty of care, end up striking?! I’m guessing something has seriously gone array in the government if they see that as their only option. Clearly I have some reading up to do.
– The new iphone 6 is HUGE! I might as well take my ipad mini around with me rather than get my upgrade, I thought phones were supposed to be getting newer and smaller?

Rant over, suffice to say the rest of life has stayed the same and there’s certain things that you just wouldn’t ever want to see change….. I mean Wagamamas for instance, Lizanne will understand my mouth watering dreams I would have in the middle of the Ocean, for a raw juice, chilli squid, chicken raisukaree & gyoza’s on the side & at the weekend I had just that! It was even better than I’d remembered :)! Saying that though, every meal I’ve had since being back on land has tasted A.mazing, obviously Aunty Marie’s pasties are still up there though ;)!

Quick update:
With all my talk of pasties I was honoured to be invited to the Eden Project National Pasty championships in March, I am unfortunately away with work so for this year I have nominated my dad and Uncle to go in my place (fingers crossed there will still be an invite for next year!). This is definitely an invite hard to beat but I’m sure my Uncle John and dad will do me proud ;)!
I start work again tomorrow and I’m excited to see the amazing progress of the team and to get back into the swing of things for Rio (less than 7 months to go!). The countdown begins….

This week I’m lucky enough to be writing my blog from Chamonix in the French Alps. I’ve always been happiest when in the mountains and Chamonix is one of my favourite places, so it is great to be out here spending a week off work. Today we had incredible conditions and great skiing up on the Vallee Blanche below Mont Blanc. Last time I was here was before the row and it feels really fantastic to be back in the mountains again. As much as I loved seeing the ocean in all its different lights during the row, I will definitely always be a mountain person, more than an ocean person.

I am here with my family – my parents, two sisters, brother in law, my younger sister’s boyfriend, and my nephew Hugo. It is wonderful spending some proper time with Hugo. He is nearly 9 months old now and it seems like a very long time ago that we received a message on our sat phone aboard Doris in the middle of the Pacific saying that he had been born!

Tonight was an exciting night as Megs, LP and I met up in London to attend the UK premiere of The Finest Hours. Looking a lot more glamorous than we are used to seeing each other we turned up at The Ham Yard Hotel where we were photographed and interviewed on the red carpet before enjoying champagne and canapés. Then we headed into the screening where one of the stars of the film Holliday Grainger told us a l ittle about the making of the film before we settled down to enjoy the drama. The film is about what is still the greatest small boat rescue in coast guard history. A crew of four set out in the 12 man coastguard boat in a huge storm to help men stuck in the stern of a tanker which has split in half. Despite loosing their compass they manage to find the ship and rescue the 32 men left on board. Watching their small boat battle through the huge waves brought back memories of the bad weather which we encountered on Doris and made us appreciate how sturdy and safe she felt in the waves. It also made us appreciate the mild Pacific weather after watching them put in the snow, rain and crashing waves without even any proper waterproofs. All in all a great evening and thanks so much to Premiere Comms for inviting us.

Love the life you live, live the life you love

Golly, since stepping onto our business class flight in Cairns it’s been a whirlwind of craziness and finally today I am headed home to Kent! This really has been an experience like no other, and it’s just so great to know that people are so interested in what we have done. Every bit of interest means another potential donation for our chosen charities and that’s where our main focus now lies to get us to 250k.

I was met at the airport by my boyfriend Will who has just been such an amazing support and we headed back to his in East London. On the tube, I couldn’t believe how stressed, unhappy or just disconnected and focused on their phones people looked. It really made me swear to myself that I don’t want to become this ever – I have definitely been any one of these people above before, but if there is one thing that the row has taught me it is to take everything stroke by stroke and control the controllables, and no matter what the situation, you will be able to face it. We have only one life, and I want to choose to love the life I live and live the life I love – and in anyway I can, live in the moment. After our media week I headed down to Bath to see my best friend. I also managed to catch up with Keith, our sports psych which was great to have a personal debrief on the last leg. Whilst Rose worked in the daytime I tried to chill, but my mind has been constantly busy since our return. How can I make my dreams of helping people to live in the moment and realise and live their own dreams and make money at the same time, a reality! If anyone has any suggestions or offers of employment in this area please do let me know meg@coxlesscrew.com

I write this blog whilst in the car driving home to Kent from the West Country with my sister Amy and I can’t believe how fast we are travelling with such little effort. In fact, it has baffled me re-entering real life how little we really have to exert ourselves to do anything. My bum is still sore, and I desperately miss the girls and the bubble that we lived in. So many people are asking questions forcing me to become nostalgic at all moments, and I stand by the fact that 95 percent of the time I just loved being out at sea. I still haven’t fully understood what we have achieved, but for now, that’s fine. I plan to roll with the waves and refuse to fully acknowledge real life for a little longer before accepting that rowing quite far away from land in a boat called Doris, is a beautiful memory.

Update: Today we travelled 125 miles by car in a three hour period. We saw a beautiful sunset across fields of green, and saw a dead fox. Looking at the English channel from land has never been so inviting – and yet, I just can’t wait to see all of my family on Sunday!

I thought I’d use my blog this week to explain what it was like to see the rest of the team again after so long.

I last saw Laura, Nats, Ems and Lizanne in Hawaii at the end of July and Meg before she headed off to Samoa in November. Although I have spoken to them all during that time, actually seeing Laura, Nats, Ems and Meg walk through arrivals at Heathrow on Tuesday was a wonderful moment, although rather surreal. The rest of our week was extremely busy with media and team commitments. It was great to be together again, although Lizanne’s presence was very much missed. One of the highlights was being able to catch up with her briefly on Skype (we took a mini tour of her flat in South Africa and met her housemates, all while we were sitting at a computer in the canteen of the offices of The Times!).

In the midst of the media frenzy, it was difficult to relax and catch up properly with the girls. It felt rather like a return to the time before we set off from San Francisco when we were running around trying to get the project to the start line. This, combined with the fact that we are such good friends that it immediately felt like they had never been away, had the bizarre effect at times of making it feel like the row never happened at all! But then at other times, I would say something and be faced with a row of blank faces looking back at me and it would really bring home to me just how long Laura, Nat and Ems in particular have been away from the ‘real world’ for. Although we were really grateful for the messages we received on the boat with updates on world news, it is difficult to keep a track of everything when you’re out on the ocean. So, over the last few days, I have (rather poorly) provided potted summaries of some of the world news from the last 10 months: the refugee crisis, Bolt v Gatlin, the junior doctor strikes, the Paris attacks, the Rugby World Cup, the new Bond film, even Justin Beiber’s comeback and “who is Jeremy Corbyn?“.

It has all been a bit of a whirlwind since touching down in the UK and there still hasn’t really been time to let it all sink in. It has been amazing to finally be at home with my family and have the chance to switch off and relax a bit. After such a long time isolated out on the ocean I have a stinking cold and my attempts to head out into the green countryside have been slightly hampered by weak legs and painful shin splints from walking on solid ground again. However the magic of being home is already working to help me feel better and we have given ourselves a couple of weeks to rest and recover properly at home before regrouping to crack on with our fundraising efforts. Who knows I may even venture back out in a boat at Marlow Rowing Club at some point soon. I am also job hunting and open to any exciting opportunities so if anyone has any good ideas then let me know! Personally I am hoping to visit schools around the country to talk to them about the row and what I have learnt from it and to encourage them to get involved in our charity fundraising as well as challenges of their own. Anyone who wants to get involved please get in touch at emma@coxlesscrew.com.

Since arriving into Heathrow and receiving such a warm welcome from my wonderful family and friends, the week has flown by with a whirlwind of amazing media and meeting some lovely people and celebs. But regardless of all the hype and the make overs, there’s nothing better than being with family. First stop for me was to head down to Overton to stay with my brother and his family for a couple of days and more importantly spend some quality time with my gorgeous niece! Isla is now 3 years old and I think I can safely say she is one of the funniest people I know. Such a character and it was so special to have her run up to me as I got off the train after being away for so long. She certainly gives a great hug!

From the first day I stepped onto Doris in San Francisco, I started dreaming of the time I would get home post row. If there were difficult times out there, one of my coping strategies I drew up with Keith our Sport Psych, was a distraction technique where I would mentally imagine the drive home from leaving the A30 to arriving at the front door. So last night when I was in the car with mum and dad and we were doing exactly the route I had envisaged over the last 9 months, once again the emotions hit me. Pulling up outside the front door, I was home sweet home in Cornwall, finally!
It was about 6pm when we got back and with the house in darkness I had no idea that unbeknown to me, my whole family were hiding inside to surprise me!

Even my wonderful Auntie Marie (famous now for her amazing pasties!) was there with a pasty for us all and mine even had my name on it!

The champagne flowed and I got a chance to catch up with my cousins and aunts and uncles before settling down in the evening to a log fire and just mum, dad and I in the lounge. Absolute bliss!

Today, mum & dad have been re-acquainted with the media when ITV Westcountry came round to our home to interview us. Note how my dad still has his slippers on! No wonder I used to be embarrassed at 14 years old when he would pick me up from an under 18’s nightclub and he’d be wearing these! Shocker! Now he’s on local tv wearing them, priceless!

If you live in the South West, then it should be being aired tomorrow (Tuesday 9.2.16) in the ITV Westcountry news at 6pm. Tomorrow I’m also heading up to the BBC studios in Plymouth where I’ll be live on the couch for an interview after 6pm also, so keep an eye out on our social media twitter and facebook for more up to date timings.

It’s our last day in Australia! Most of our unbelievably supportive parents have left, and it’s been amazing having a lovely day to ourselves. We have been catching up on sleep and swimming in the pool before we head back to England tomorrow.

This evening we will be heading down to Salt House where we came into last Monday to have a cocktail on Meg’s Aunty Linda who gave us some money to celebrate. We can’t believe that we have only been here for 6 days! So much has happened, but we’re still not entirely sure whether our feet have fully touched the ground.

A huge thank you to Queens Court and all of their staff, Shanna, Trish, Donna and Tracy for all of their amazing hospitality towards us.

See you all in England!

We’ve had a few wonderful days in Australia with our families and friends and the wonderful local people that have made us feel so welcome.

We will soon be returning to the UK and several people have been asking when exactly we’ll get in, in case they’re free to meet us. Our scheduled arrival is at Heathrow, Terminal 4 on Tuesday 2nd February at 5:40 pm. Our flight number is EYO17.

Longer blog about our time in Cairns tomorrow!