Beautiful sunny day. Unfortunately I’m going to be sat in the car for 7 hours but it is one of those duties I don’t mind doing – taking Hannah back to Durham Uni. This time it’s for the last time!
It’s a slightly longer trip than normal as we also have to swing by Joe, a mere 30 mins or so further north in Newcastle, to drop his gear off. He went Friday evening to go to a music rehearsal on Saturday.
Had a bacon sandwich with glass of milk for breakfast. We are nearly out of HP sauce, a situation that will have to be watched closely.
The car is turned around and ready to take the luggage once I get the go ahead.
I’m anticipating that by the time I get back from up North the lawn will have miraculously mown itself and there will be a delicious roast lamb dinner awaiting my arrival.
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Made it to Newcahstle, delivered some stuff to Joe including his bike, and went to the Moulin Rouge Cafe & Grill for lunch. The kids doubted my judgement but when tasting the food became converts. If you need somewhere to eat in Newcastle go there.
Dropped Joe off in town for a jazz rehearsal and took Hansk to Tesco metro in Durham. Over an hour later we had filled a trolley, taken Han back to Grey College and set the coordinates for the Morning Star for a quick pint before going home.
I’m now watching Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 with a glass of Carlos 1 brandy.
Said I’d give Anne a hand moving some stuff in the attic today. She seemed to think that meant straight away after breakfast and for a prolonged period of time. I figured I’d ease into the day. Ah well. There’s always Sunday morning for the easing. Sunday is when I normally reserve for doing jobs whereas Anne indulges in her hobby of going to church at that time (“it’s not a hobby Tref it’s a way of life” :).
Down to two kids at home now and tomorrow back to one.
Last night I met Coops, Ajax and Jezzer in the Prince of Wales for early doors. Coops had been at it since 3pm as the police had been round telling everyone in Great Northern Terrace to evacuate the area. A digger had gone through the main gas main. The whole of Lincoln was gridlocked because of the road closures. Took Anne 20 minutes just to get to the bypass – taking Joe to Newark Northgate.
Had a v pleasant few beers with the lads before being picked up by (the lovely) Anne and coming home to the paella I had prepared earlier. Perfect timing really.
Today has started wet. It’s normal.
Peugeot loaded up to go to the tip. Had to draw the line at emptying all the eaves. There is still some junk there but it mostly would involve a crawl to get it so my view is that if it isn’t in the way let it stay there. Also the whole point of an attic is to be able to store things up there. If it then gets shifted to the eaves then it isn’t particularly accessible not in such a good environment.
Webs has now taken Hannah to pick up Lois. Hannah is taking Lois for a surprise birthday treat at the Branston Hall Spa. Fair play.
We still have to shift stuff to one side of the attic so that Darren the plasterer can get at the walls when he comes in on Tuesday.
Been reading lots of online accounts of the coast to coast walk. Not found one yet that describes the bit of the walk from Rosthwaite to Patterdale in one day. This looks like toughie with two ascents. I found an account by one Dutch guy who only made it to Grassmere by 2.50 and decided to get a taxi the rest of the way. It would be a shame if that was the case for us. We need to do the whole shebang.
Brightening up out – it’s normal 🙂
It’s Grand National day today. I have a list of gee gees to bet on from the family. It’s the once a year bet. The kids expect me to put the money down but expect to keep any winnings themselves!
No winnings.
Lasagne for tea. Bath and early night. Up north tomorrow.
Featured image is of flies stuck to the band I put around the pear tree to try and stop mites getting up and causing yellow leaves again.
After a busy day yesterday it’s back to the Lincoln home office today. In fact it’s Lincon now until Tuesday 19th April at which point it starts to get busy.
Joe goes back to Newcastle this evening – a couple of days early because of a band rehearsal. I’m taking Hannah, and Joe’s stuff, back on Sunday. In the meantime it’s off downtown again to get Hannah’s mobile contract sorted. She isn’t on a good deal.
It’s a bright sunny day if a little crisp this morning. I’m sat in the conservatory with the door open to the garden and the birds tweeting away in fine form outside. It’s a good time of year.
Had a cheese, ham and onion toastie for lunch. Was starving even though I didn’t go swimming today. I’ll be back in the groove next week.
Getting to grips with tidying up the NAS box. The phone picture backup software Sweet Home has been backing up the pics in the wrong place – it takes absolutely ages to move files around because the amount of data is so large – 2.38Gig of photos in December alone plus vids.
Featured image is my new dual screen desktop setup. Vid below was taken downtown before the shops opened.
I have an ITSPA Council meeting, postponed from March due to the clash with Convergence Summit North, fwiw. Now heading South on the 07.30 out of Lincoln Central. There is only one station in Lincoln mind you, not counting North Hykeham. There used to be a Lincoln St Marks, which was the station I arrived in Lincoln at for my post university job interview. They knocked it down to make a shopping centre and no Beeching in sight!!
I like these ad hoc days out in London although today I will be kicking my heels this morning as the Council meeting isn’t until 2pm and I get in at 9.26. I had thought I’d arrange something to do but didn’t get around to it.
Under these circumstances and with no takers on the offer of a cawfee I normally head to the British Library and do some work in the caff there.
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Have arranged to meet the heir at his office for 11.30. Tom works at the Beeb. An early lunch in the BBC canteen beckons. Gourmet food no doubt surrounded by celebs. Ah the life in the full eye of the media.
Having put out a notice of availability the offers are now coming in thick and fast with dan Winfield offering to show me around Techhub at Old Street. He just missed out. Techhub is just a load of open plan office space anyway as I recall but hey…
The walk to Broadcasting House takes 30 minute according to Google. I will have two hours to get there so a pleasant stroll through the streets of London is in prospect. It’s a nice enough spring day. Best time of year.
The train has stopped at Stevenage. We are now en route again.
Note how these diary entries reflect real time. You are reading it after the event but the idea is to give you the effect of being there as it happens 🙂 Cool huh? I could take it further by putting timestamps in with the sentences but really am not that bothered. You will have to settle for the mix of words, written and spoken, and images still and moving.
Got to the BBC to find loads of kids queuing to catch a glimpse of 5th Harmony – a pop group apaz. Also paps outside Tom’s office to catch Amanda Holden, a celebrity!
Had lunch with Tom and Ubered it to the ITSPA council meeting. Arrived 30 mins late – I thought it started at 2pm but actually it was 1pm! Ah well.
That’s it for today.
Featured image is of an abandoned car on the pavement outside Euston Station. More pics here.
Didn’t go for a swim this morning which is not good as it burns loads of calories. I’ll never be an Olympic swimmer. I’m the slowest swimmer in the pool anyway. Even the whales go faster than me (non politically correct statement on which I won’t elaborate). Just woke up feeling comfortable so decided to skip the pool.
Had a great night’s sleep. I often wake up at around 2am but not last night. Means you are totally refreshed in the morning. I’ve even gone so far as having a shave! Wotsthatallabout? Thought I should look good for any piece to camera this morning:)
John is going into school today to do some coursework. I think it counts towards his GCSE. Presumably it’s a controlled activity – they used to do coursework at home. Anne would know, being a pro. The others are still in bed and it’s quite nice to get some quiet time in the office before it’s taken over by swotting students.
They both go back this week. Joe has come to the end of his Easter vacation and is catching the train (1st class!) on Friday so as to go to a band rehearsal on Saturday. He is in a lot of bands. Hannah is being chauffeured by yours truly on Sunday. She is going back 2 weeks early to get some work done. Hannah is a very hard working girl and will succeed. This is the run down to her finals.
Nice bit of carrot and coriander soup for lunch made by the fair Anne. After lunch I replaced a broken coat hook in the back porch. We had also decided to have a clear out of coats because there were so many there. Anne did hers first and put back the ones she wanted to keep. Used up 6 out of the 8 hooks available! I therefore had to be fairly selective with mine which is fine.
Did a bit of research for the tracking app for the coast to coast. Think I’m going to stick with the Runkeeper paid version which allows you to broadcast your route progress live on their site. I’m also going to become an Ordnance Survey subscriber. This gives you access to all maps online and also lets you track your route. Their live sharing feature isn’t ready yet though but I like the idea of having a plot of our route on a more detailed map that Runkeeper will be able to give.
With Runkeeper I will also be able to pin images to the route.
Popped down to the station with Jose to pick up some tix. On the way back stopped at the Cardinal’s Hat for the first time then up the hill to see Nige at the Taphouse to get Joe’s tenancy agreement witnessed. Nige gave us a lift home where we cooked a fajita type dish and then settled down to watch Paris St Germain vs Man City in the quarter finals of the European Cup.
If you are thinking of heading off for a UK based holiday you could do worse than a VW campervan hire from Anne’s Vans in Lincoln. Anne’s vans is our new VW campervan hire Lincoln business.
The idea came about when last summer we tried to hire a vintage VW campervan but couldn’t find one for love nor money. Every one was rented out for the season. This gave us the idea of buying our own van and hiring it out when we aren’t using it, which is most of the time.
The van is looked after by our friend Dave Cooper from DC Automotive and is kept in dry storage in his garage in Lincoln. It gives us peace of mind knowing that the van is well maintained and in top notch condition for both our own use and that of customers.
Our first van is called Betty. She is the first of perhaps a stable of vans that will grow as the business expands. Betty has been completely restored over a period of 3 years. She was stripped to bare metal and rebuilt from there up. Her colour scheme is the original paint job used when she left the factory.
Whilst the base vehicle has been kept to its original spec no expense has been spared on the interior which reflects the height of VW campervan luxury. There is even a porta potty that can be a life saver when caught short in a campsite the middle of the night. Everyone will understand the after effects of drinking lots of wine and beer whilst gazing at the sunset over a beach.
Check out the Anne’s Vans website for more info and to keep up to date with the VW campervan news.
Btw we did think of calling the website something else. I have the domain name vwcampervan.hire but whilst this might be good for SEO purposes actually the business is my lovely wife Anne’s and the name Anne’s Vans is far more personable. Also check out the Anne’s Vans Facebook page. If you are searching for “VW campervan hire Lincoln” then look no further.
I do declare it is raining again. This is fine. It is after all April and totally expected. In fact if it was August it would be totally expected but we put up with it in April because that is when it is supposed to rain.
I am in the conservatory as usual but this morning with the doors open to the garden. I’m enjoying the fresh air whilst I can before any offspring turn up and complain about the cold.
This morning I’ve been for my swim (40 mins) and had brekkie (bran flakes, banana and raisins) and am now settling down to write some blog posts. After that I’m going to do some anne’s Vans marketing. Anne herself is painting the lobby area by the back door. It’s the one room that has hitherto stayed untouched in her Forth Bridge-like decorating endeavours. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
Later Joe, John and I went into town to sign them up for EE phone packages. £16.49 for 16GB each – they were on Tesco mobile £10 for 750MB. Not useful in this modern comms world. We bought some bread and ham in M&S for lunch, fwiw.
This afternoon I’ve spent sorting out some travel. Trains to London for Anne and I to see ELO etc. Also looking at a train to St Bees on Sat 30th April for the start of the coast to coast. It’s a 6 ½ hour journey. I’m pontificating on which to catch. The decision making process is influenced by price (£37 – £65) and the number of changes – 3 or 2. Also I don’t want to get there too early. There is absolutely bugger all to do in St Bees.
Ajax has said he will take my kit so all I need to do is carry the day bag. Even the drive is 4 1/2 hours! I will wait to see what Tom is doing re travel before booking.
It is less than a month away now. I’m feeling a lot more confident than I was a couple of months ago. Ajax’s knees are knackered so he hasn’t been able to do any training for the walk. Looks like Im getting 8 ish hours out of the Fitbit btw – with GPS enabled. May fit the bill after all.
Featured image is of the replacement Gopro housing latch next to the waterproof housing. Arrived today. Gopro are a good company. Resolution was swift and satisfactory.
Booked on the 11.44 from Newark Northgate arr St Bees 17.55 btw – via Newcastle and Carlisle.
Back at the coal face today, or the excuse of one. Got a few things to sort out for the next trefor.net Exec Dinner. Also bought a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. Didn’t think I’d be buying another Samsung phone but this one is waterproof, has notionally the best camera and seems to come top of all the ratings so needs must.
Now spending time downloading all my apps.
Also thinking ahead to Isle of Man holiday dates. Am thinking of heading across before the main party to spend a few days with Dad. I like being in the Isle of Man on my own. Always do the same things but it’s a winning recipe. Peel is one of those timeless places. Not much changes. It’s a working fishing port and whilst it does get tourists they don’t really dominate.
As I write four of us kids are sitting in the conservatory either revising or tapping away at one’s laptop (ie me). There is vociferous birds song in the back garden highlighting the fact that spring is in full flow. We are even starting to think about the first BBQ of the season. How about that? Come to think of it i will have to find a pair of shorts, hidden away over the winter.
Just paid John’s subs for the cricket club. £35 for a family membership – 2 parents and a John. Very reasonable. John will be late starting to play this year due to his GCSEs. The Lindum CC is in a very handy spot for us being just down the road. It is very pleasant to go and watch john play on a warm summer’s afternoon and take in a couple of cold ones whilst doing so.
On a similar sporting note John has his name down in the ballot for Wimbledon tickets this year. When he first started playing at the Eastgate Tennis Club we seemed to have success every year and saw some good matches. Recent year have seen a lean spell but this year could be more promising – you had to register online and apparently not many from Eastgate have done so. Fingers crossed eh?
Sat in the kitchen easing into the day. Anne is making a Mediterranean pork casserole for this evening ready for when we come back from the Norton Lodge Wedding Fair. We are taking Betty there to exhibit.
In the meantime I’ve consumed a bacon sandwich (prepared on the George Foreman Grill) and a second cup of tea. Our teapot typically holds 3 cups but Anne normally bags the second one from the first pot so now I’m downstairs on the first cup of the second pot, fwiw.
Playing with my new Macbook Pro. I’ve had a basic driving lesson but I should spend a little time checking out all the keyboard shortcuts.
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We “did” the Norton Lodge Wedding Fair. It’s fair to say that it was a quiet one. Very few punters. You only really need one order to make it worthwhile but reality is that we aren’t going to be attending wedding fairs week in week out. We got some useful market data re pricing and it also helped us to decide that the main thrust of the Anne’s Vans biz is going to be online bookings for weekends and weeks away.
Lots of pics and vids that I’m going to try and turn into a promo vid, once I have them moved off Anne’s iPhone.
On a different note it has been a beautiful spring afternoon. T shirt weather, especially out of the wind. Grass needs cutting.
Met Terry and Rob in the Morning Star for a short Adforesight meeting then home for a very nice pork casserole (fair play).
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Now a quiet night in. Just getting dark at 8pm. A little wind in the trees at the end of the garden. Silhouette. Very light grey sky. Delicate branches dark. Might have a bath.
Good day walking with the Sheffield crowd. Went up Winhill. Left them at 5ish as they were about to continue. I had a 2 hour drive home so quit at a sensible time. Thence to the West End Tap for a swift couple with Anne and Joe. It was Gary Summers’ birthday and he had a few of the old MEDL types up including Debbie Robinson – was great to see her.
Picked up a beef curry & fried rice from the Newport Arch on the way home.
Busy busy busy day. April Fools today. Anne off out with her old uni mates to some far flung place called Saltaire. I spent the morning doing admin, paying bills, trying to find the IMEI on my Oneplus 2 (on the box – good job I kept it), picking up flowers from the Arbour for Sunday’s Wedding Fair at Norton Lodge, taking Hannah t the station for her weekend away in Manchester, taking Joe to the Daltons’ for a first meeting on this summer’s Joefest, cooking tea (prawn thai green curry) and sitting with Joe and John learning how to use a Macbook Pro and designing a flyer for Sunday.
Also saw John the dentist again re the abscess and the news is he has given me some stronger antibiotics. If these don’t work the choice is a) live with toothache, b) have the tooth out or c) root canal treatment and crown (£500+).
Hopefully the penicillin will work this time!
Also picked campervan Betty up in readiness for Sunday. No April fools jokes of note btw.
Breakfast at Pete’s Eats then set off in an Easterly direction. Cheshire Oaks was a waste of time and we made it back at 3.15. The Peugeot is not a comfortable seat for a long distance drive. The information pack for the coast to coast has arrived as has my new Macbook Pro (which can wait until tomorrow). Joe and I met with Nige in the Taphouse for a swift one early doors then home for a chilli con carne and tbh, a bath and bed.
Great day on the hills above Beddgelert with Joe. Weather held off until we were comfortably ensconced in the bar of the Anglesey Arms in Caernarfon. Ended up doing 6.5 miles of difficult terrain with a 1000 ft elevation climb in just over 4 hours. We stopped whenever we felt like it.
I had originally considered climbing Moel Siabod from Capel Curig. The temperature at the top was going to be around 1 degree celsius today and the 800 metres climb looked as if it might be a bit on the uncomfortable side. In the end we opted for “Llyn Dinas and Cwm Bychan from Beddgelert” which seemed to give me the optimum combination of scenery, climb and distance.
It ended up being an absolutely lovely walk where I got the quite steep bit of the ascent in relatively early and could then enjoy the rest of the day. The views were stunning and the silence notable. Most of the walkers were going the opposite direction to us which proved to have a far more gentle climb to it but i was glad we stuck to the “guide book”.
On our way down we encountered a group who had a couple of people somewhat on the large side. They didn’t make it to the top but turned around and headed back down the same way they had come.
The sun shone for most of the walk and was actually good enough to wait until we got to the top before giving of its best and on the way down we were able to remove our waterproofs which were there today mainly for their wind-cheating capacity.
Today I took the GoPro with me. It has a waterproof casing and I’m kind of leaning towards using it as the main coast to coast camera and just using the phone for the runkeeper app. Once it is mended that is.
We arrived in Beddgelert after a lovely walk alongside the Afon Glaslyn and hit the Conway Cafe (?) for a cream tea. There were some Americans on the table behind us where the son (early 20s) seemed decidedly unimpressed with the area. From the sound of it he was after Windsor Castle et al. Huh!
Met Rhys at the Anglesey Arms, popped in to Morrisons for some supplies and home for a snug night in. We are cooking pasta and tomato sauce with choritzo, bacon, mushrooms and chilli.
Thunderstorms in the night plus lots of chesty coughing. Didn’t make for a good sleep for either of us. Also a phone call on the mobile at 11.55pm! Wtf? Looks like it may have been an enquiry for Anne’s Vans but can’t really tell due to the non-functional screen. Had a couple in the mail & via facebook when we got up which is good.
Anne’s car has sleet on it so it does look to have been a stormy old night. The main body of the party goes home today leaving just me n Joe. We are off to Bangor for a couple of beers with Rhys tonight. Hitting some old stomping grounds.
The rest of today we will do some sightseeing methinks. Tomorrow is much the better day for weather and therefore for walking. Am thinking of finding another climb roughly equivalent to yesterday’s killer. Having studied the Wainwright book this morning the walk to the halfway house is the same as the first big climb on the coast to coast on the second day. The third day has two such climbs so the more of them I can get in before hand the better. I can only imagine that they will get easier 🙂
I’m going to take the gopro out with us today. Get some pics and vids maybe. They don’t automatically upload but beggars can’t be choosers. I felt at a loss without the phone camera yesterday. On the other hand it gave me time to concentrate on the walk. I’ll have to find the right balance for the coast to coast. Choose my spots rather than take pics of everything of mild interest. I think things of mild interest are important but sometimes you have to prioritise 🙂
Set off for Anglesey notionally to look at the Anglesey Sea Salt shop (10 times quickly?). Just something to fill in a bit of time before Charlotte’s train at 13.36. In the end we didn’t have enough time for the tour so we just bought some salt, as you do. Then swung by the shop at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyllllantysiliogogogoch where Charlotte bought some Welsh Cakes for her ma & pa and I bought a solar powered VW campervan shaped garden light for £15. Thought it might be a good competition prize for Anne’s Vans.
Having dropped the lass off at the station Joe and I went to the pier for lunch, or so we thought. Having forked out a quid for the parking and braved horizontal freezing rain we got to the caff, a few hundred yards at the end of the pier mind you, to find that it was closed on Tuesdays!!! Had to settle for lunch at the Tap and Spile – what was the Garth – is nothing sacred?
Picked up some patent cold remedies in Tesco and then headed to Nant Peris and the Vaynol Arms which unfortunately was also closed until 5pm. Ah well. Home now. Warm. Bit of a nap maybe? Catch ya later 🙂
Final prep for our walk today. Headed up the Llanberis Path to Snowdon. We won’t go all the way up as the weather is not good but at least for the moment it isn’t driving rain as it has been over the weekend.
Rhys and family are on their way over for an 11am meet. Was originally planned for 10am but that was a bit ambitious so I called (using Anne’s phone) and pushed it back.
Bit of a cold but ah well. It never deterred Mallory, presumably.
Had a nice roast beef dinner last night with the 6 of us around the table, Tom having left for London. As usual with fan assisted ovens I couldn’t get the timing and temperature right so the joint ended up being more towards well done than rare. I’ll never get that right.
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Seven of us, me Anne, Hannah, Joe, Charlotte, Rhys, Iwan and Elen, set off shortly after 11am. The uphill bit was a total killer. The downhill bit was tough but not the same level of killer. We stopped for a cuppa at the Halfway House which rejuvenated me somewhat and I was able to soldier on to above the snowline. We had been told by a warden not to go further than the bridge at Clogwyn Station, the penultimate train stop. Tbh it took an effort for me to get that far. No way was I going to make it to the top with a particularly steep bit yet to come. The warden also told us it was a 35 minute walk from the Halfway Caff to the Clogwyn Station. This was bull and must have assumed a high level of fitness. For me it was a good hour or more – see the table in the featured image.
As it happened the spot we turned around at corresponded with the highest point I have to climb to on the coast to coast so i’m not too unhappy about it. The map suggests this is 780 metres. Fitbit said 2,267 feet elevation gain. This is probably right as we didn’t start at sea level.
At least I’ve now climbed the highest climb on the coast to coast. Wouldn’t do me any harm to shift another 10Kg in the next month aka the weight loss so far.
The video was taken by Charlotte from the turning point. My phone is kaput. Still managed to upload my Fitbit data when I got back. I assume the fitbit Surge can still talk to the phone app.
The biggest problem I have with the Fitbit is that today’s walk used up all the battery when in GPS tracking mode. 5 hours isn’t good enough. I’m going to need a whole day. The Fitbit Surge was very generously provided to me by Fitbit themselves. I’m going to continue with it for the moment but largely without using the GS function.
Does anyone know anyone senior at Garmin who might want to comp me one of their watches for the coast to coast? Runkeeper will still do the job with an external battery boosting the phone. Once I have a working phone. The Oneplus 2 isn’t particularly reliable for this though and periodically freezes.
We ended up at Pete’s eats where I had a pint of tea, haddock, chips and peas and a couple of bottles of welsh cider. Huge portions – Anne finished off my chips!
