In Need of a Saturday Movie?

Looking for a movie this weekend?  No Man's Land, 2001, academy award best foreign film....

No Man's Land

From Absolutely Health and Beauty-you can run with BAFTA winning actress Juliet Aubrey this October in London.

ABSOLUTELY

HEALTH & BEAUTY

A Wo m a n for Women
BAFTA-WINNING ACTRESS AND SOUTH LONDON LOCAL JULIET AUBREY TALKS TO ABSOLUTELY ABOUT WHY SHE’S RUNNING FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Juliet Aubrey
has one of those faces which you immediately recognise but can’t quite
place. That is until someone points out the countless programmes she’s been
in and you instantly kick yourself. You see, Juliet
has been on our screens
for over twenty years,
giving a BAFTA-winning performance in Middlemarch in the nineties, playing evil Helen Cutter in Primeval
in the noughties and most recently the Countess of Warwick in the BBC’s historical drama The White Queen. Today, the south Londoner is training for a 10k run to raise awareness for Women for Women, a charity which works to support socially excluded women in war-torn countries across the world. Here she tells us why she’s getting involved...
Absolutely: You’re running 10k for Women for Women International this month. Why have you decided to support this charity in particular?
Juliet Aubrey: My involvement began with Women for Women about two years ago after my sister died. She had campaigned and fundraised for them for some time and had
been responsible for getting a group together to bring awareness to people in the UN about violence against women, particularly in East Congo. I met some of the representatives for Women for Women at her memorial service and it felt like the right thing to do, to carry on the work that she’d left us.

Abs: So how have you carried on this work?
JA: This month I’m running the My Step Her Stride race in Regent’s Park. It’s a 10k run to raise awareness for the charity. We’re looking to get 100 runners together, so I’m hoping people will sign up!
Abs: How are you training for it?
Any tips?
JA: I’ve been up in Northumberland running on the beaches there,
as training on sand is great for endurance. I do run normally, but it’s going to be tough as I’ve never run 10k before. I’d be happy if I did it under
an hour.

Abs: On a separate note, you’ve just finished filming The White Queen for the BBC. It’s been said that the series is being axed...
JA: There was never an intention to make a second series so no, it's not been axed.
Abs: Would you do another period drama?
JA: Absolutely, I love learning about periods of history which I didn’t know about before. At the moment I don't have anything particular in mind, so I’ll wait and see. You know as soon as you read a script whether you like it or not.
Abs: How much research
do you have to do for a
period role?
JA: As much as you want; as much as you feel comfortable doing. There’s that old saying, ‘You don’t know a person until you’ve walked a million miles in their shoes’ so I try
to find out about the time the character was living in and what it was like to be alive then.
Abs: You live in Herne Hill. What’s the best thing about living in south London?
JA: There’s so many green spaces
in south London and so many bars popping up. And Brixton is so vibrant, full of new bars and cafés, and there’s always music in the street. I’m a big south London fan.
Women for Women are looking to get 100 runners in the 10k My Step Her Stride race on 6th October. To join Juliet on
the run, visit womenforwomen.org.uk/ mystep to sign up.

Guest post from Walid

Part of any adventure includes overcoming all of the obstacles involved.  In my own personal opinion, it is not adventure if those obstacles aren't to a high degree, personal in nature.  For me, personally, I suffer from an irrational fear of heights, which is not uncommon, though it is uncommon in those people who choose to scale the worlds highest mountains.  I derive a great deal of personal growth from facing head on my irrational fear and "possible shortcoming" to achieve my goal.  

Colleen suffers a similar irrational fear, though it is harder to put a name to.  The adventure she chooses give provide the same effect, or result, as a persons irrational fear of heights, but are derived from a variety of sources.  For example, during a triathlon, there should be no reason why Colleen, who is a wonderful swimmer, a decent biker, and an excellent runner, should have any more to worry about than any other triathlete, and yet, prior to an event she is riddled with deepest fears and anxieties for weeks.  As her husband, best friend, and confidant, it took me a while to understand this and I realized that is simply as irrational as my own fear of heights, and for her surmounting each challenge has much less to do with the physical difficult than with the psychological one.  It is for this that I have so much respect for what she is doing.  

Overcoming physical challenges, whether it is forcing the pedals around when your legs burn or putting one foot in front of the other while running is relatively easy.  The hardest part of a really true and honest adventure is overcoming the psychological because that digs deepest into your own personal shortcomings as an individual and requires the most courage.  One has to be courageous to admit his or her own fear.  One has to be courageous to jump into water with 2,000 people, when, for whatever reason that has been keeping you awake and occupying your mind for weeks.  

The purpose of Colleens adventures and blog is to raise awareness for women who have endured things that majority of us can't even wrap our own minds around.  How does one continue to put one foot in front of the other, or get out of bed, when faced with some of the challenges or past experiences that these women have endured.  Clearly it is a psychological struggle on a Herculean scale.  It requires facing ones own fears, being honest, having the courage to reach out for help and digging into the depth of ones own strength and integrity.  What Colleen is doing in the sporting realm, or that of adventure, is worlds apart in intensity but similar in principle and we have a lot to learn from her and those women who she has chosen to represent in this year.  

Maybe one of the most important things we can take away from this year, and these challenges, aside from the awareness to the injustice in this world, is that a drive for self improvement through awareness of ones own psychological limitations and the desire to overcome those makes life both richer and more rewarding.  I'm not proud of my wife because she can run, bicycle, or swim any giving distance, I am proud because she chooses to do things that make her scared, uncomfortable and anxious.  She chooses to believe in herself even when her mind doesn't want to....

Are you looking for a fun marathon in the upcoming meal?

Check them out here!

For those of you in Portland!

Attention Portland area supporters! Run or walk with hundreds of other women as you train together with Foot Traffic Women's Academy this fall! This all-women's running and walking training program prepares members to complete a 10K or a half marathon. Program starts Sept. 14th. Foot Traffic will donate $40 of every half program registration and $20 of every 10k program registration to Women for Women International! Simply use code "WfWI" when registering! Visit the link below for more info!


read about it here!

Marathon du Medoc

For the challenge of September we were once again joined by our friends Angus and Lucy.  (With whom we completed the 3 peaks challenge in January.  

Since last seeing them they've had a bit of excitement in their lives themselves; Angus successfully summated the north face of Mount Everest and they are expecting their first child next month.  

The Medoc Marathon is slightly different than other marathons for a few reasons.  There is a costume theme-this year the theme was science fiction.  Additionally we ran through 50 chateaux with wine tastings at 30.  Along the way chocolates, sandwiches, cheese, oysters and ice cream were offered.  

Marathon day we were up EXTRA early for hair and makeup.  Thanks to amazon and sephora we created our avatar costumes with the final addition of a spear.  (Which we ran the whole marathon with)

After hair and make up we were on the shuttle bus waving good bye to Lucy who would meet us later with Pepinot.  

Dismounting the bus we were greeted by star trek, star wars, super heroes, aliens, and even a few of our avatar cousins!

The marathon started out in a rush of costumes-8500 people taking off towards the first wine station.  (At kilometer 7)  

We felt amazing the first half, and around the second I began hurting.  With walking, a wine tasting, and a bit of stretching we carried on.  

The final portion of the marathon was PAINFUL.  (And according to Walids garmin watch we actually ran 43 kilometers vs. the 42 marathon distance.  

All in all it was an excellent adventure...how often do you have an opportunity to run with the most famous characters of science fiction??

Crossing the finish line we were presented with a rose, medal, backpack and a bottle of wine.  Finding Lucy very quickly we headed for a glass of wine then back to the hotel to begin the removal of our blue body paint.  

Thank you all for following and your support.  Certainly during this marathon if I had not had it I may have been tempted to call it a day after the half way point.  

Lucy, Pepi, and the bump.

Morning bus ride for Avatars. 

Typical marathon start? 

Sci-fi friends.  

When Avatar met the Ironmen

Pre race acrobatics show . 

Angus overtaking superwoman. 

First wine stop at kilometer 22. (My only wine stop during the race)  

Another chateaux and wine stop.  

Until the race report...

A photo until the race report.

Marathon du Medoc

Photos to follow later today.  A video montage of our marathon. (At the 3:44 mark you can see us receiving our medals and our friend Angus gives a thumbs up to the camera)

Check out the video here!

September success-marathon du medoc

Successful marathon in Medoc!  Quite the adventure running with 8500 people with 80% following guideline if science fiction fancy dress!  

Our team of Avatars are off to bed and I suspect we shall sleep well between our wine tasting and early start!

More photos to come!

Double your donation until September 30th!

A generous group of supporters has offered to match every gift raised by WFWI now until September 30th, up to $200,000!

Follow this link to show your support!

Medoc

With the marathon coming up this Saturday in Medoc we are all having our final training runs!  Hoping the weather forecast that predicts rain for Saturday is wrong!  Not fun to run a costume marathon in the rain!!

Diana Nyad

So inspired by Diana Nyad who made history today with by successfully swimming 112 mile swim from Hemingway Marina in Cuba to Key West, Florida breaking the previously held record by 35 miles.

This was her 5th try which begin Saturday morning and continued through the weekend.  She is an inspiration for many reminding us to never give up on our dreams.

To learn more about Diana Nyad click here.  

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo

Are you interested to learn more about Kosovo, a country where WFWI is located?  I recently read this book that shed light on the Kosovar people.  I would love to hear your opinions!

From Publishers Weekly

Huntley's husband volunteered for an American Bar Association project in Kosovo to help create a new legal system in the fall of 2000, the year after NATO bombing had ended. With trepidation, Huntley decided to go, too, enrolling first in a crash course on the teaching of English as a second language so she'd have something to offer. On arriving in Prishtina, she volunteered at a language school and started keeping this diary. Her (mostly Albanian) students became her personal connection to everyday life in Kosovo; this diary, where she recorded her impressions, became her way of sharing Kosovo with the world. There are the usual funny details of life in a foreign country, e.g., the laboriously translated menu that offered "chicken buttocks on screwers." Before long, however, her students' stories take center stage: how they survived the Serb roundups, tortures and killings. As a taxi driver explained, "Some men are hard as stones." Teaching supplies are scarce, so it's serendipitous that the one American-language paperback that Huntley came across is a copy of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, which she photocopied for a reading club she started. Initially leery-"God knows this country doesn't need anymore [sic] macho"-she was pleased to find her students responding to the strength and endurance of Hemingway's protagonist. Huntley and her husband returned home in April 2001, but stayed in touch, largely via e-mail, with their Kosovar friends. Huntley's journal not only shares their stories, but reminds readers that by volunteering, people get back more than they give.

Check out the book on amazon.com.

Coming soon to Boston...

"A show of strength by Middle Eastern Women Photographers"

Coming soon to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. For those of you in Boston, I would love to hear about it if you make it!

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/a-show-of-strength-by-middle-eastern-women-photographers/?_r=5#/1/