Paddington Bear, beloved by many children and adults too, comes from darkest Peru and I now have my very own Paddington. He was given to me on December 13th last year by my dear friend Elaine, one of the sensational six who will walk the Inca Trail in May.

Her intention was I believe, to inspire me further for this walk, which he does. He also makes me smile as he is rather sweet and he is a good reminder of my need to regularly write my blog.

As any of you who have visited my blog know there have been times of feast and other times of famine. I have often considered giving it up entirely as I find it hard to commit to writing it daily when there are so many other pieces of writing that I need to do. Something keeps me in there and now I have found the answer which is to use the blog to record the preparation and training for the Inca Trail.

I am now rather excited about the whole thing and see great benefits. For those of you interested in walking there will be lots of tips and inspiration. For me there will be a lot of learning as I review what is working and what might not be. Any challenge has lessons around planning, determination, motivation etc. which can be translated to all areas of life and as a lot of the training will be with my fellow walkers, I am sure there will be fun and stories too.

So visit regularly, send messages and comments and life some of this with me. As for Paddington, well he will be going to Peru too of course but I think he might get carried - it's all right for some!