Tomorrow, Saturday June 23rd, is my first official pedicab shift. All week I have been getting ready.

On Tuesday June 18 veteran pedicabber Steve C., a.k.a "Jeeves", gives new trainees a walking tour of Victoria's old towne and Chinatown. Again, I am the oldest by a good 25 years. I take copious notes as he gives us the historic details we need to entertain and enlighten our rides, tantalizing tidbits about Capt James Cook, George Vancouver, founding father Sir James Douglas, architect Rattenbury and the Hudson Bay Company. I've written travel articles about Victoria for years and I assume there will be little new that Jeeves can tell me - but I am wrong. He points out features - like the old dimensions of Fort Victoria's palisade in the brick sidewalk up Government Street or the masonic symbolism throughout the city -- I've never seen before. I buy two books about Victoria's history from Munros books ( Victoria: Its History in Pictures; and Victoria: the Unknown City by Ross Crockford) and start brushing up on city arcana.

Brushing up on Victoria loreThis week I've gone to three noon hour spin classes at the Y  - hour long workouts on stationary cycles --  concentrating on the hill climbs in heavy gears. It stresses my cardio, but it doesn't help my confidence. My continuing struggles with steep inclines leave me more nervous than ever.

You can't buy fitness, but you can the accutrements. I drop more than $300 to assuage nerves, including mandatory items for the job:  lock, $5.00; blanket, $22; stop watch, $15.00; stiff cycling shoes, $155; new cycling shorts, $34; two Victoria history books, $48; large nalgene water bottle, $10.99; sunscreen with 60 SPF, $11; Fanny pack (which my teenage daughters say is SOO hideous and embarrasing), $24.95; guest book for riders to sign ( I hope with glowing comments So much fun. You're terrific.), $12. Total  $337.94. I am going to have to land some pretty successful rides just to break even.  I spend Thursday afternoon putting together a duotang folder of information about me and my summer blogging kabuki kabbing together with a collection of my Victoria travel stories - at least it gives people something to leaf through when I am too breathless hill climbing to tell tales of Victoria lore.

One last thing: today I measure my pulse and blood pressure at the DIY machine in London Drugs. BP 110/58 (pretty good)  heart rate  72 (yuck, too high). Starting measurements: bust 36", waist 29", hips 38"; thickest part of thigh 22"; weight 133 lbs and height 5'5". I don't expect the height to change. But everything else.. who knows? With hope, the thighs as least will get bigger.