I am in love. Hopelessly, helplessly, but ecstatically in love. The last time I wrote about such things in the pages of The Irish Times was from the Athens media village at last year's Olympics, when I fell under the glorious spell of a Greek god delivering the bedsheets to my room, writes Grania Willis
Alas, it was only under his spell that I fell, but this time I know it's true and undying love, although possibly unrequited. The object of my affections has, so far, failed to declare any similar feelings, but that could be because I haven't found the function key on my HP iPaq that allows it to express itself verbally. Sad but true. I am in love with a pocket PC.
As if an attempt on the north face of Everest wasn't sufficiently challenging, I agreed to keep in touch with the outside world by means of regular columns in The Irish Times. But achieving that from the heights of the world's largest mountain is almost as daunting as Everest itself.
Hewlett Packard came racing to the rescue when ConneXions PR put out feelers for help on the communications front. The small but perfectly formed HP iPaq, along with a foldable bluetooth keyboard and the neatest little HP digital camera, were proffered, and I accepted them greedily.
Little did I realise I was embarking on a love affair of such proportions. Me and my iPaq are joined at the hip. It comes everywhere with me and I'm only just beginning to understand all its little nuances and complexities.
THE ONLY TIME the iPaq leaves my side is when I'm training for the physical as opposed to the communications side of the Everest challenge.
My days prior to departure started at 5am. After a hasty breakfast, I headed from my Dublin northside home to Riverside Fitness, next to the Abbey Theatre, for one of the tough cardiovascular sessions devised for me by sports physiologist, Carl Petersen, of Peak Centre Ireland.
An enforced five-week break in my training while recuperating from a torn hamstring meant that the intensity of those sessions had to increase dramatically in the past few weeks in a bid to fine-tune my fitness for the big hill.
Despite my injury, I missed out on a trip to the cryotheraphy centre in Poland with rugby players Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy, but the hamstring was sorted with physiotherapy and I was able to give up the pool training at Dublin's Markiewicz Leisure Centre and return to the gym and the hills.
Apropos of the hills, Peak Centre Ireland had a second major input into my training, with five sessions a week on the Go2Altitude system. These were about the only times in my day that I was able to really chill - apart from an episode in a Tesco freezer, of which more later - as all they entailed were sitting watching DVDs for an hour, wearing an oxygen mask while a machine delivered ever-lower levels of oxygen in five-minute stages.
Athletes have been using altitude training for many years to build up the elevated red blood-cell count that delivers oxygen round the body much more efficiently. Marathon runner and fellow Peak Centre regular Jimmy Phibbs has already notched up three personal bests since starting on the Go2Altitude system in February.
Altitude training is obviously equally beneficial to mountaineers and I am now acclimatised to heights of well over 6,000 metres, which should stand me in good stead for the ascent to our 6,400-metre advanced base camp in a couple of weeks' time.
Before leaving Dublin, I was also schooled in the important art of wooing an iPaq. Brendan O'Brien, of Sord Data Systems in Sandyford, took on the unenviable task of training me in the use of all the HP gear.
Linked wirelessly to an RBgan inmarsat satellite unit, courtesy of Esat BT, my beloved iPaq will allow me to speak to the people of Ireland. Quite literally. Not only will I be able to send stories and pictures home via a satellite 22,000 miles up in the sky, but I will also be broadcasting over the airwaves on the Gerry Ryan show.
In the interests of research, I put my new relationship through some pretty severe tests. Forget meeting the mother. Try spending an afternoon together in minus 21 degrees to see if you really are compatible.
Suitably frigid temperatures - now that does sound like meeting the mother - were provided by the freezer in Tesco at the Merrion Centre, where Brendan and I, decked out in some of my seriously cosy north-face gear, hunkered down for an afternoon last week.
After a trial like that, I can definitely say that the iPaq and I are a match. I wouldn't go so far as to say we thrived in the freezer, but we got through it and were still speaking to each other at the end. And so were Brendan and I, although hearing wasn't too easy through the downy insulating layers of the north-face hoods.
AS FOR NOW, I'm sitting writing this under an umbrella on the sun-drenched rooftop of the Hotel Tibet, overlooking the frenetically busy city of Kathmandu. For the moment, I am miles from the stresses of both the office and big mountain-climbing.
There was plenty of stress en route though. Wednesday, departure day, started at the usual ungodly hour with a final mega-session at Riverside Fitness, followed by my last visit to Peak Centre Ireland and then on to Sord Data Systems before dashing back home to complete the packing.
I'd done most of that the night before and had mistakenly come extremely close to putting in three sleeping bags and no down suit for summit day. It would certainly be something different to be able to claim the first ascent of Everest inside a sleeping bag - schoolday sack races spring to mind - but I opted for the more traditional down-suit approach instead.
Climbing gear and clothing for 10 weeks, including extreme-weather kit, isn't light, so it wasn't too surprising when the BMI check-in person informed me at Dublin Airport on Wednesday evening that I was double the luggage allowance. It was a surprise, however, to be told that this would cost me €420 in excess-baggage charges.
We took some time out for a photo session before returning to the fray, by which time there was a new person on the check-in. Before I had a chance even to begin arguing my case, friends Jenny and Carmel had taken over. They returned from a visit to the BMI desk to say that the man in charge had not only waived the excess baggage charge but had upgraded me as well.
It was a flying start to the biggest challenge of my life and I can only hope that the omens continue to be favourable. I have a gruelling 10 weeks ahead of me, but things have kicked off in style and, by the time you read this, I'll be in Lhasa, preparing for the trip to base camp in the shadow of the biggest mountain on earth.
Grania Willis will report twice a week from the expedition, starting in The Irish Times next Tuesday, April 5th
The Grania Willis Everest Challenge 2005, supported by The North Face, Sord Data Systems, Peak Centre Ireland and Great Outdoors, is in aid of the Irish Hospice Foundation and the Friends of St Luke's Hospital. Donations to the fund can be made to The Grania Willis Everest Challenge, Permanent TSB, Blackrock, Co Dublin, account number 86877341, sort code 99-06-44. Visa card donations to 01-2303009