where art collides

Featuring Neil McRae in the second video

On the phone to Vodafone. At the end of Feb I signed up with them and cancelled the next day for reasons discussed in this previous post – nothing terrible. Just didn’t work out.

Unfortunately I’m now getting threatening letters from their accounts dept asking me to cough up almost £400 in cancellation charges. Their system has broken in my case. The latest threatening letter took 5 days to arrive and gave me 14 days to pay the balance.

I called them up. Their automatic answering system didn’t recognise the mobile number they had given me. I eventually got through but the guy said I was a business customer and I had called the consumer number – it was the number they gave me on the threatening letter.

Eventually I was passed on to their business types who said it looked as if there had been a human error made the last time I called and their system was expecting me to return my phone before agreeing to cancel. I had a sim only contract!

So now the refund process is beginning again and takes 3 working days. Bear in mind this is Easter Bank Holiday weekend so the three working days will take me to Wednesday at which point it will have been 13 days since the threatening letter was sent giving me 14 days to pay.

Talk about cutting it fine.

So this morning I tidied up a few work bits and am now focussed on prep for Llanberis. My new North Face Base Camp duffel bag (Black XL) has arrived! I have also procured a Deuter Futura 32 day bag from GoOutdoors. This was reduced from £110 to £99.99 and I had a 15% off discount voucher. However I searched for the best price and good old Millets were selling it for £77 (down from  £110) so, good to their word, GoOutdoors matched it and knocked a further 10% off. Result.

Also bought a compass, some blister plasters and another pair of socks. I’m pretty much ready for Snowdonia now though unsure as to how the mountain climbing is going to go 🙂

Took John to his sax lesson and had a beer at the Taphouse whilst waiting. Nice chat with Charley who is now a new friend on Facebook. She is in one of the videos below.

Tonight it’s Will Farr School for the 6th form reunion and prize giving. 

Together with trying out new boots

New left boot had its first tryout today walking back from Coops’ having left the Citroen there. Socks weren’t as thick as the ones I’m wearing on the walk. I wore different ones on the way back down and they were more comfortable. Time will tell if the fit is right.

Picked up some penicillin to sort out the tooth abcess. Hopefully. Still giving me gyp. Got home to discover that I had run out of google drive space for trefor.net. I have two accounts and have a TB of space on the other one. I transferred everything over yonks ago but lots of stuff still left on trefor.net. Spent most of the morning sorting that out. I now have no images on trefor.net.

This afternoon ordered a Macbook Pro with bells and whistles. Whilst I am an avowed Google fan the Chromebook has had a few unresponsive moments of late. This could be because it needs more RAM/performance. Although the Mac is expensive I’ve finally been convinced that it’s the right thing to do, still using the Google ecosystem. It will also allow me to properly edit movies. I’m not sure that the world is yet quite there for cloud based video editing.

This evening Tom and i set going an ad for our Anne’s Vans vw campervan rental site – 25% off if you order before the end of March. It’s costing a bob or two but you have to speculate to accumulate and there’s no point investing in the van without some corresponding investment in marketing. Tom’s experience at the BBC is proving to be very useful and he basically designed the ad. We shall see how we get on.

Tom is in the Isle of Man at the mo with dad. Good bit of bonding. He flies back on Thursday and is joining us in Llanberis on Friday.  Still a few bits and bobs to gather before the off and we need to sort out what we are doing about food, when but there is still time.

Pics from today’s walk – typical Lincoln sights plus a few miscellaneous extras. Used the Fitbit for the first time – currently registering 13,240 steps.

Durham bound

35 min swim this morning then home for a bacon sandwich. Could have done another 10 mins before the pool session finished but have a lot to do today so had things on my mind.

Arranged to pick up a prescription from the dentist tomorrow morning. No time today as off to Dirham to pick up Hannah. Before I go I have to book some tickets for Julian Clary gig in October for Anne. They go onsale at 10am so this bit of diary is just filling in some time before that happens.

Also paid the car insurance for the “new” Peugeot. Received a “payment overdue” letter on friday but I hadn’t noticed the first bill when it came in.

Just before I set off a parcel delivery arrived. It was a Fitbit surge sent to me by Fitbit themseves to use on the Coast to Coast walk. Really good of them to do so and the device is already on my wrist acclimatising (I haven’t worn a watch for decades). I will report back on this.

The drive to Durham is a bit tedious. A few 50mph stretches. I only have two more trips to do with Hannah as she is now home for Easter with only one more term to go. Arrived at around 13.10, slightly delayed due to road works. Picked the girl up, waved goodbye to her mates and then stopped off at a garden centre for lunch – the pub we had chosen wasn’t open.

We then headed for Richmond and the Alt Berg shop to sort out my boots. Ended up buying a pair one size up. They gave me a substantial discount fair play. The lesson is that when purchasing boots in future I’ll have to go for a size 10 and wear two thick socks on my right foot (size 8). For the moment I have two different sizes of boot. At least it should get me through Snowdonia and then the coast to coast.

garden centre trolleys

After we got home I popped out to GoOutdoors to buy another Berghaus fleece – last day of the sale for the specific fleece. I had one on the walk yesterday and was very impressed. Very good wicking properties. Got the last one and then headed to the Morning Star for a swift un before dinner.

Charlotte arrived today and we had a nice dinner (without Anne who is out at Craft Creations) before she and Joe themselves headed out to a pub quiz at the Widow Cullen’s Well pub.

Whisby here we come

Last weekend I had the pleasure of walking to Woodhall Spa with son Tom. It was an 18 miler and we were both fairly pooped by the end of it. Today son Joe came with me to Whisby Nature Reserve. We walked mostly off road to get there and clocked up 10 miles. It took us 3 hours 45 minutes so we (I) don’t appear to be getting any faster. My left foot is still giving gyp. I fear that it will take the next size up boot to sort it. An expensive decision which I will make tomorrow en route to pick up Hannah from Durham.

The photo illustrates the problem. My right foot is size 8 and you can see from the insole that the toes don’t come anywhere near the front of the boot (which is  9 ½). The left foot on the other hand is a size 9 and after the foot has swollen a little when walking (which is normal) you can see that the toes are very near to the front of the boot.

Otherwise after a hot bath I am far less stiff today than last week, bearing in mind the walk was 8 miles shorter but even so it shows that the body is slowly getting used to the exercise. I am looking forward to the day when the boots are perfectly moulded to the feet and I am able to walk up mountains with nonchalant ease.

The other success today concerns some of the purchases I made yesterday. The bottom of my Berghaus fleece was dripping wet. Initially I thought my camelback must have been leaking but now I think this is the merino base layer and the fleece working together to “wick” away the copious amounts of perspiration I am still generating whilst walking. It’s working really well.

We were somewhat later setting off today than I had planned and in consequence arrived at Whisby for quite a late lunch at around 2.20. Anne picked us up shortly after 3pm fair play.

After a nice soak in a hot bath we got an enquiry for Anne’s Vans through the Camperbug website. Fingers crossed eh?

Now I’m just whiling away some time before the roast pork dinner is ready. I will be on gravy making duty as usual.

Pylons rehearsal at our house

The toothache is back. This time it isn’t sensitive teeth but one specific tooth that is very sensitive to the slightest touch. I can feel the gum swollen at its root. Currently drinking whisky whilst watching Wales v Italy.

Also got to get going on the next Anne’s Vans facebook campaign.

A couple of extra bodies in the house after Joe went out last night. Phil Gale kipped in Tom’s room and Troy on hte settee in the TV room. Presumably Phil bagsied first.

Swung by GoOutdoors to buy some gear. Bought a great Marmot hard shell, couple of merino base layer, a Berghaus fleece, merino buff, Tilley hat and a pair of kecks with overtrousers. That’s most of what I need now sorted.

On the way home in popped into Coops’ to book the Citroen in to get the warning message sorted. Something to do with the “filter”. Anne is driving it over Easter and we don’t want any “incidents”.

At home I was sequestered to pick up Joey the Pylons drummer and his kit from Dunholme. The cheese and onion sandwich set my tooth going again! It doesn’t like anything in contact with it.

The Pylons are now just setting up. Hope they have a long practice as they are at least an hour into the setup and I don’t yet hear any music coming from the front room. They were good at the Extravaganza last night fair play.

We are off to Jezzer’s tonight to watch England play France. England have (unfortunately) already won the 6 nations and this is for the grand slam.

Strains of music emanate from the front room…

paracetamol deployed as a precautionary measure

I think I’ve just avoided a hangover this morning. Rich, Will and I headed out after our meeting. Started in the Morning Star, went on to the Lincoln Taphouse and Kitchen and thence to the Bronze Pig before ending up back at the Taphouse. Martin arrived from Stockholm half way through the meal.

This morning I still feel drunk and walked to Tesco to get the sandwiches in for lunch. At £14.50 it must be the cheapest LONAP board lunch we have ever had. That’s Lincoln for you.

I also seem to have picked up a sensitive tooth overnight. Hopefully once the alcohol has worn off and my body gets back to normal it will go away.

Today my Facebook timeline is filled with pics from Timico staff on their way to Cheltenham to the Gold Cup. Timico now sponsors the race. Expensive but a very large amount of exposure on the back of it.

Very productive LONAP board meeting. Dropped Will and Martin off at the station then back for a swift beans on toasts with sausages before heading to school for the Extravaganza. John was playing the sax in a jazz band and Joe made an appearance with the Pylons.

Home now having dropped Joe, Phil Gale and Troy down at the West End Tap. Nanight.

Guinness seems appropriate

Popped down to see Coops to see how he was getting on with the vw. Not started yet but am now putting the pressure on as we need to see some progress before the Norton Lodge wedding fair.

Back home for a bit then out with Joe to see Ajax re the walk and then down to the in car audio place on the high street via Fosters butchers on monks road where a pound of spicy lincolnshire sausages and a wodge of dry cured bacon was procured.

At the audio place we opted for a set of speakers and a DAB enabled radio with bells and whistles and paid a £50 deposit.

Rich rang whilst we were there. He was already at our house so Joe and I hot-wheeled it home to start my LONAP meeting.

We are now having a slight break whilst we wait for Will to turn up.

It’s the Bronze Pig tonight and also it’s St Patrick’s day so a Guinness or two before hand will probably be consumed. Be jaysus.

Btw featured image is of a row of brown bins – they stretched the whole way along Wragby Road.

back from Harrogate

Pleasant start to the day having breakfast with Anne. We had a reasonably nice suite at the Holiday Inn. She has now popped off to the shops and to “do” Betty’s Tea Room again and I am at Convergence Summit Nowf, again. It’s a quiet second day – not really worth having two days of it and apparently this is the last one that they are doing. Next year it will be just the one show in Birmingham.

Had lunch at an Italian Restaurant near the hotel with Colin, Hayley and Alex Kinch. Colin very kindly picked up the tab. I had a spicy pizza (as usual). Not particularly ring burning but hey…

Then skived off, picked Anne up and we were off by 2.30, home by 4.30. John was having his saxophone lesson with Colin (Dudman). The house needs heating up a bit.

John and Joe both off to Jazz Vehicle tonight. Tomorrow I have Rich from LONAP coming up for a pre board meeting, out for dinner in the evening and then the board meeting on Friday.

Initial feedback on the mods to my left boot are favourable btw. Will only really find out after the walk on Sunday whether it has worked.

Hale’s Bar

Anne and I went off to Harrogate for a night. I was speaking at Convergence Summit North and manning the ITSPA stand. The plan was to meet Phippo for early doors and then head back to the conference social whilst Anne and he went for a meal. We met in Hale’s Bar – oldest pub in Harrogate and still illuminated by gaslights.

I got back to the room before Anne! We had “started early” at the show by blagging some champagne of the UKFast stand 🙂

Dinner was mass produced fish and chips and a few other “Yorkshire” odds and sods. A good time was generally had. Big thanks to Guy Miller of TalkTalk business for the ticket to the bash.

Pics here

Vids below

Coast to Coast donations for Cancer Research UK begin to rise

Coast to coast donations for Cancer Research uk are on the up. But first I picked Joe up from Newcastle today. Had a bit of a result I think as i called in the AltBerg boot factory enroute. The first guy that served me said there was nothing they could do re my “rubbing toe”. However an older more experienced chap took me under his wing and applied a bulge to the bit of the boot where my toe rubbed. I am optimistic that this will sort out my problem. If it needs a bit of a tweak then I can return when I head back north to pick Hannah up next monday. I will find out in Sunday if it has worked  we are off on another walk.

If you are in the market for some walking boots don’t buy them from a local shop. Take the effort to go to the AltBerg shop in Richmond. They are the best walking boot outlet in the world – I am not exaggerating here. There is nowhere better equipped.

The plan on Sunday is to walk to Whisby Nature Reserve for lunch. It’s around 8 miles. We can then walk around the reserve, 4 more miles perhaps, and decide whether to walk home with Anne available to pick up some or all of the party.

When we got home John was in bed feeling a little below par. He had been to Leeds on a school trip despite complaining about being unwell before going to school. Unfortunately his complaints fell on deaf ears. Perhaps we should listen to him next time. He recovered enough to accompany us to Bibs ‘n Ribs for dinner. It was great having Anne and us 4 lads around the table. Only Hannah missing. She is working hard in Durham. We will all be in Llanberis for Easter.

Before the meal Joe and I headed to The Lincoln Taphouse and Kitchen for a couple of swift uns. Tom had a BBC conference call and John was in bed.

Last night btw I published the Coast To Coast event page on Facebook. This has resulted in around £245 worth of for Cancer Research UK donations in the first couple of days. The game is on.

If you fancy donating the JustGiving page is here. Trefor.net Coast to Coast Sponsored Walk event page here.

Featured image is me ‘n Joe with Lewis at the pub.

walk from Lincoln to Woodhall Spa

Beautiful day today. Tom and I set off from the house at about 9:10. It was a walk from Lincoln to Woodhall Spa. It started off cool but actually warmed up as we went along. I had taken a full camelback of water and it just about lasted the trip to Woodhall Spa.

Most of the walk was along the cycle path next to the River Witham. No Hills but today was all about it endurance and been able to walk the 18 miles. We stop for a break at approximately every hour And had lunch on a picnic bench at Bardney lock.

I took a few photographs but there were lots that I hadn’t been able to react quickly enough to And the phone probably wouldn’t have done a good job of recording them anyway. I’m thinking a heron landing, a couple of swans flying past. That sort of thing. Lots of swans along the way on the Water.

We finally made it to the Mall pub at approximately 4 o’clock. We had rung Anne and told her that we would be about an hour earlier than planned. I had built in some contingency to the time. And arrived at 4.30, Just in time for me to finish off a pint of Timothy Taylor’s landlord.

I did have a little problem with the RunKeeper software on the way. I accidentally stopped it once and then had to reset The phone because it was locked up  I lost some of the data. This meant I don’t have a contiguous map and record for the whole day’s walk but it doesn’t matter, it’s not that important at this stage of the game. What does mean is that I have to think about how I can accurately record the coast to coast walk without having to faff around with a phone and losing data. The three separately recorded walks have fed into MyFitnessPal and recorded the fact that I burnt off 3000 calories today which is a good result.

At 18 miles today’s walk is still short of the longest day on the coast to coast but it is good progress. We just have to be able to string 12 of them together on consecutive days. It will be next Sunday before I can do another long walk due to work commitments this coming week plus picking Joe up from Newcastle University. The following weekend however we will be in Llanberis for a few days which should be a good opportunity for training, especially up the mountains.

We’re home now I’ve had a bath and a beef stew and am recovering on the settee in the TV room. Aches and pains but actually not as bad as I was on Thursday after my 12 mile walk. My biggest concern now Is my left foot. The toe next to my little toe is rubbing and getting blisters.  the clearly is not quite enough room down there. The real nuisance is that there is plenty of room for my big toe which is the biggest in there and the one you would think that would be the limiting factor for whether a shoe fits or not but reality is the problem is that smaller toe.

I’m going to see what GoOutdoors people may have to say – recommendations re stretching the boot for example. Timpson at Tesco may be able to help but I suspect I may have to buy a second pair of boots another size up to accommodate the foot. Expensive but there may not be another way around it.

Stay tuned…

Pics here

Vids below

Check out the Coast To Coast sponsored walk page over at trefor.net.

England v Wales

It’s Saturday 12th March and it’s big match day. England v Wales. I have to say I’m quite excited about this one. It could go either way. The bookies favourite is the home team – the English are always a bit on the optimistic side when it comes to this sort of thing but hey…

The news this morning is that I couldn’t find my specs when I got up. No surprise there but this time I had to go downstairs for my other pair. Anne found them natch. On her side of the bed so I’d never have found them meself 🙂

Chucked out a load of old stuff this morning including the green waterproof coat I bought as a student and wore when hitchhiking to Greece. Element of sadness there but you have to be tough – no point in keeping it. Haven’t used it for decades and and about to replace my existing waterproof with some new technology in advance of the Snowdonia trip.

This is how the day is panning out:

• Cooked breakfast
• Trip to Tesco for a few supplies and to fill up the Citroen
• Back to do one or two jobs – not too many mind you
• Pick Tom up from Newark Northgate – he arrives at 11.43 and is bringing his old bike for Anne to use
• Stop off in the Bailgate to buy some spicy Lincolnshire sausages from Curtis’. They are a find
• Spot of lunch
• Amble up to the Morning Star at around 3.30 to warm up for the match.
• Get picked up by Anne who will have swung by the Modern Tandoori to pick up a takeaway curry
• Eat curry
• Fall asleep on settee

How about that then? Featured image btw – my golf shoes anf rugby boots (not worn for a few years now but you never know…)

Coast to coast preparation walk – longest yet

Up early and felt good after yesterday’s knackering 9 mile walk. Today’s coast to coast preparation walk is a 12 miler so wasn’t sure what to expect really.

Out ot the pool as usual (when I’m in Lincoln and it’s a weekday) and did 35 mins of up and down water pushing. Not many in and so had the lane to myself for a while. Then a girl/woman got in and started putting me to shame. She did at least two lengths to my one. I didn’t mind. There were only two of us in the lane and we didn’t get in each other’s way. Makes a change from some of the larger ladies who get in towards the end of the lane swimming just to “warm up” for the over fifties session after 9am. Most of them are faster than me but hey…

Stopped off at the coop garage over the road to Yarborough Leisure Centre to get some bacon. A must to accompany the eggs I bought whilst out on yesterday’s walk.

After a leisurely cooked breakfast (tomato, 3 mushrooms, 2 slices of coop back bacon and a lincolnshire sausage from Curtis’ on the George Foreman Grill and 2 poached eggs – 400 ish calories ) I nipped out to buy a merino wool base layer from GoOutdoors. They didn’t have my size so ended up buying a Berghaus long sleeved synthetic base layer. Figured I could wait for the right size merino job. Also picked up a couple of lightweight fleeces for a tenner – can’t go wrong really – and an orange plastic survival bag. I’ve been looking for a roll up hiking mat for witting on when stopping for a rest out and about but can’t find the right product. Decided that a survival bag would do instead and funnily enough it also doubles up as a, you got it, survival bag.

Perfect weather for a walk today and didn’t use the waterproof jacket although I had it in my day bag. Instead settled for the base layer and fleece just purchased and warm lonap fleece to go over. Wasn’t massively happy with the pace of the walk but after making it to the top of south common through all the mud I picked up a second wind, abandoned any thoughts of providing an excuse for cutting short the walk and persevered.

Walked past RAF Waddington and stopped for lunch in Waddington village, sitting on a bench outside the graveyard. This was opposite a Budgeons store so nipped in to top up my water supply, also purchasing some lucozade sport and a bag of energy pills (also known as rolo chocolate sweets.

The walk back was uneventful and I was very pleased with myself for creating a new personal best of 12+ miles. It took 5 ½ hours which is too long but that may partly be attributed to hurty feet (still). I’m expecting that the more of these walks I put in the less the feet will hurt, partly because they will get used to the hammer and partly because there will be less weight on them.

Day off tomorrow due to the England Wales rugby match although I may spend some time in the gym. Tom and I will be in the Morning Star with the boys and Anne is picking up a curry on her way to pick us up after the match. Yay 🙂

Weight loss to date is 10.7Kg btw. Featured image is a rotting tree trunk seen at the top of south common on the coast to coast preparation walk. Below is map of the walk route.

pics here

vids below

Trefor.net blog post on coast to coast walk preparation.

purchased eggs en route on my 9.5 mile walk

This walking lark is a back breaker. I have to keep at it. Today I did another 9.5 miles. It feels as if I should be doing it more quickly but towards the end my feet hurt and my back aches. I guess it’s just a question of keeping at it.

It took 3 hours 50 minutes including a tea break stop and lunch at RAF Fiskerton. Didn’t know that was there. En route past Cherry Willingham I walked alongside an old chap who had done the3 coast to coast to celebrate his 70th birthday 5 years ago. Not bad. He did the same schedule as I am planning.

Before the walk I also did 45 minutes in the pool so all in all it’s not been a bad day for exercise.

The arrival of spring was definitely noticeable along the way. It was manifested in leaves budding in the hedgerows. Today was also warmer than yesterday and I was kitted out for the cold so towards the end had to take off my coat as I was boiling. I may have to start wearing my summer walking trousers. Tomorrow.

I was also able to take advantage of the opportunity to buy some eggs in Reepham. Left £2 in an honesty box for the dozen they had left. Looking forward to trying them out for breakfast tomorrow. Fresh eggs make all the difference. I noticed that one of them had been cracked from rough handling in the rucksack but looks like the sack is still intact so it may be ok.

Passed a high security workplace in Fiskerton called Primetake. I googled it. They make “precision  ammunition” amongst other things! Pics in the album linked to at the bottom of the post.

The other thing I noticed were signs indicating compulsory purchase orders for land along the route of the planned Eastern Bypass. It was all pristine agricultural land. I realise that people have been campaigning for the bypass for years but when you are walking along in the countryside it does bring it home to you what devastating effect these roads have on the environment. Fields with birds will be replaced with cars hurtling along at 70 miles an hour.

I got home, had a quick shower and zoomed off to pick John up from school. Before leaving the house I noticed a £394 cancellation charge invoice from Vodafone. This is wrong and I called them up – I cancelled within the cooling off period and it was because they were unable to provide me with a working sky sports mobile app for the oneplus2. I think it is going to be ok – the girl said there shouldn’t be a problem but you never know with these big companies and automated systems.

Back now in the conservatory the birds are in full song in the back garden. Another sign of spring. The forecast for Easter isn’t good though. Ne’er cast a clout until May is out!

In other news I was on BBC1 yesterday. A pure fluke being filmed for some programme as I was walking along the street in London (Aldgate to Kings X). Several people spotted me and dropped me a line on Facebook. Screen grab below the vids:)

Pics here

Vids below

ark wanted

The fun thing about writing a diary is that you can write anything you like. I’m not quite at the stage of revealing all my most intimate secrets and innermost thoughts but at least I am free to express myself any which way I like.

On this occasion you might have guessed it is raining. This post, really, adds to the body of historical data that will tell interested onlookers from the future that the weather was inclement. There may even be studies that analyse the cause and effect of future events and find that one in particular stemmed from someone slipping on a wet pavement and banging their head. In Lincoln. Who knows?

One thing is for certain and that is not only is it wet but it is also cold and I am disinclined to go walking today. I have been swimming and may well opt to head for the gym at lunchtime. There is a reason for this. Anne has her friend Sarah the new trainee vicar’s wife, and her two young kids coming to lunch. Time to get out of the house methinks.

Now when I attracted your attention to this post with an enticing title mentioning Noah I wasn’t being entirely straight with you. Yes it is raining, a lot, but that rain isn’t yet of biblical proportions. Had it been so I’d imagine that Noah would have had to have started building his ark yonks ago. Nowadays we do have faster more efficient construction methods but you still can’t build a boat that will house two of every animal in the world particularly quickly.

Such a project would need serious long term planning. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was a 20 year effort. Just imagine the logistics of finding two of everything and then keeping them somewhere whilst the ark was built. Just building the dry land accommodation would be a massive project in itself and not particularly politically correct. Some of the animals may even go extinct whilst they were waiting.

So. This entry seems to be straying from the straight and narrow when it comes to diaries and verging on the fictitious, which I know is not what you are after in a diary. A novel ok but not a diary and I’m not sure I will ever write you a novel.