TUESDAY, 16 SEPTEMBER 2008
Reading these blogs you’d think my husband gets a lot of stick from me? At the present moment Jono Walker is an Ironman widower, but he is also: a cook, a cleaner, a portable sawmiller, a butcher, a bike mechanic, a chauffer, a farmer, an artisan sausage and bacon maker, a farmer’s market chairman, a father, a fencer, a carpenter.
I’d thought I give him an opportunity to talk about, what it’s like living with an Ironwife!
“Apparently I’m the supportive one. I do remember Sarah saying she could only do this with my full support and she obviously caught me at a weak moment. That was in winter 2007 and I haven’t really seen much of her since. That of course has some huge advantages; the boys are now very independent, we can fry sausages, bacon or scrambled eggs every night of the week and I’m free to make as many mistakes as I like on the farm and in the butchery. When she’s drifting off into Triathlon land with that glazed expression I just have to lean over and whisper sweet nothings like “Carbon fibre…. Neoprene” or “Gel filled saddle..” It’s worked very well financially too; I carefully engineered a thorough guilt trip for Sarah when I bought her an excruciatingly expensive bike, so when a few months later, my Land Rover broke down she felt a whole lot better by allowing me to buy a brand new replacement. I also feel I need to remind her at frequent intervals how self indulgent and entirely selfish this whole escapade is, she even spent our tax return on the air tickets. But it’s nearly all over now, which is a good job because she’s a bag of bones and I have a whole list of jobs for her to do on the farm in her retirement…
Having said all that though, the boys and I are very, very proud of her and will be cheering her on with enthusiasm and gusto on October 11th, so long as we can do it sitting down and in the shade!”
Reading these blogs you’d think my husband gets a lot of stick from me? At the present moment Jono Walker is an Ironman widower, but he is also: a cook, a cleaner, a portable sawmiller, a butcher, a bike mechanic, a chauffer, a farmer, an artisan sausage and bacon maker, a farmer’s market chairman, a father, a fencer, a carpenter.
I’d thought I give him an opportunity to talk about, what it’s like living with an Ironwife!
“Apparently I’m the supportive one. I do remember Sarah saying she could only do this with my full support and she obviously caught me at a weak moment. That was in winter 2007 and I haven’t really seen much of her since. That of course has some huge advantages; the boys are now very independent, we can fry sausages, bacon or scrambled eggs every night of the week and I’m free to make as many mistakes as I like on the farm and in the butchery. When she’s drifting off into Triathlon land with that glazed expression I just have to lean over and whisper sweet nothings like “Carbon fibre…. Neoprene” or “Gel filled saddle..” It’s worked very well financially too; I carefully engineered a thorough guilt trip for Sarah when I bought her an excruciatingly expensive bike, so when a few months later, my Land Rover broke down she felt a whole lot better by allowing me to buy a brand new replacement. I also feel I need to remind her at frequent intervals how self indulgent and entirely selfish this whole escapade is, she even spent our tax return on the air tickets. But it’s nearly all over now, which is a good job because she’s a bag of bones and I have a whole list of jobs for her to do on the farm in her retirement…
Having said all that though, the boys and I are very, very proud of her and will be cheering her on with enthusiasm and gusto on October 11th, so long as we can do it sitting down and in the shade!”