Ok, ok, we're suitably impressed.
For more than a month, Sophia Pang did not want to have anything to do with her loved ones – not her 72-year-old mother, her husband nor her three children.
The 37-year-old Singaporean – who together with six other women was part of a South Pole expedition team from seven Commonwealth nations like Brunei, Cyprus and India – were too busy making tracks to latitude 90 deg S.
It was a team decision not to contact home from the day they started their trek proper on November 12 despite having access to email and satellite phones.
The aim: to keep them focused on the goal of reaching the South Pole.
“If we were to call home more often, we would feel homesick and that would affect our mood and morale,” said Pang, who arrived home on January 15 after more than three months away preparing for her expedition.
So the women broke contact with their loved ones to concentrate single-mindedly on the task at hand. They had some 900km to cross amid temperatures of minus 10 deg C to minus 40 deg C.
I’m sorry but I don’t think much of people like Pang. If she’s on a life-and-death quest to search for a cancer cure, then maybe it’s forgivable to cease all contact with loved ones, including that 72-year-old mother of hers.
But all this just to get to the South Pole?
Some people have got their priorities all wrong, if you ask me.