When becoming unstitched is a good thing...

In my old age (the team keep telling me I'm 30 - no respect!) I'm becoming a little emotional. Last night I began to pinch myself: I'm in Adelaide, I'm 2800km into a journey on a skateboard, across Australia! People everywhere know about the journey. People have written songs about BoardFree! We've raised nearly eight thousand pounds! Unbelievable, every bit of it. Bev Blackburn, perhaps the most talented musician I know, has the pleasure of sitting in one of my support vehicles every day, and with the help of Dim and Holly (writing credits) has been responsible for the tune flowing around inside my head. Yes, it's so beautiful it flows. I want everyone to hear this song (it's the one at the end of the Nullarbor video on www.boardfree.co.uk), it brings a tear to my eye....."moving on, I'm moving on..."

Well, soon we will be moving on. Friday, hopefully. Adelaide is a beautiful city, classy and not at all boring as most of the locals seem to think. I've become attached to this city, dangerously so, but my stitches came out yesterday - a kind English doctor told me that the wound had healed well - and although I'm not completely comfortable standing on it yet I'm hoping that Elsa and I will get back on the road this Friday.

To pass time this last week I've visited the Hindmarsh stadium a couple of times to watch Adelaide United play football (not soccer as they insist on calling it here). The first game was wonderful, not because I'd been invited into the corporate box (the hospitality was great!) but because there was a legend on the field, a Brazilian chap named Romario. Once voted World Player of the Year, Romario is getting on a bit for a modern day professional but is striving to reach 1000 career goals. I saw him score his 985th, what a pleasure! The next game I enjoyed from the closer vantage point of the stands and afterwards was lucky enough to meet some of the players. In the UK Premiership players are inaccessable to all but a lucky few, but here the players were happy to stop and chat for a good while. Bobby Petta, formerly of Celtic in Scotland, was friendly and humble. But my personal highlight was meeting 'the other Cornthwaite on Google', Robert, who plays at the back for United. Funnily enough, he said he'd been approached a few times by people asking if we were related. Just feeling welcome a football club reminded me that the sooner I get back on the road the better, it's ever so easy to get comfortable in a place when moving on involves constant excercise!

In other good news, I wiped the sweat off my brow when C1rca sent through some more shoes (I was preparing to push up the east coast in a battered pair of bare feet!) and The Magic Touch delivered a boxful of Boardfree baseball caps for the team to sell on the way - in return for donations.

So, wrapping up a birthday blog and embarking on what will be a memorable opening to my 28th year, I sincerely hope that the chasm in my heel - now the stitches are out - won't hinder progress to much in the coming weeks. An 11 day delay means an immense effort is needed to reach Sydney on December 3rd, in time for a large International Disability Day event at Sailability Rushcutters Bay. The engines are starting to purr again, watch this space for progress to resume.