Martin

Scafell Pike and Snowdon

2008-07-07T11:24:56Z

Scafell Pike

As anybody that knows the drive in and out of Wasdale is long and slow along narrow twisty lanes, there is also no mobile reception at all so no chance for a ‘live’ update to livejournal. We struggled to find a toilet stop as we approached Wasdale (which has no facilites), picking a service station without a toilet for our final stop! Fortunately we came across a public toilet as we were about to stop at a pub for a cheeky but necessary visit. We were only just over an hour ahead of the last start time for Scafell which showed that were lucky to be amongst the earlier starters for the event and that we were falling behind the pace quite badly. The weather front had definitely arrived in the lake district and showers were frequent but we were lucky with the rain considering, we started in the sun shine had a shower part way up and a bad thunderstorm with lightening and hail as we descended. The path was very slippy and there were numerous falls in our team and others near to us. There is a stream that has to be forded after a couple of hundred meters of ascent and I was worried about this given the leakiness of my boots, and reports from the practice walk that others did in bad weather a few weeks ago that reported a raging torrent, however I was relieved that the stream was low enough for me to pick my way across on boulders without getting wet socks or suffering the embarrassment of wading across with bin backs round my feet. Last time I was here it was my second walk in the lake district and even after 2 days of recovery time I was suffering from that 1st walk and I was getting blisters from my new boots, this time however I felt good and fresh with the principle difficulty coming from switching between waterproof trousers and shorts (waterproofs were too hot and sweaty on the climb but necessary when it rained). It was as pleasing as ever to get to the top and we were treated to a good view over the lake district and might have lingered for few minutes but the marshals warned us about the thunderstorm coming in an we decided to press on as quickly as possible. When the rain did hit it was on our backs which made it much better, the faces of people still climbing illustrated a certain amount of unhappiness of the conditions. My efforts to ensure my coat was waterproof with washing waterproofing did not seem effective, and the damp soon crept although my boots stayed reasonably dry. As we left the valley it was almost 10pm and the light was only just fading, and the task of getting some sleep seemed as daunting as the next climb. I wasn’t looking forward to Snowdon as I expected it to be a long and tedious climb and that I would finally start to feel the effects from the previous two mountains. Some hot pasta, chocolate cakes and a mars bar certainly hit the spot.

Snowdon.

I did manage to sleep quite well, I must have had a good couple of hours after we finally got to better roads and the Van stopped feeling like a ride at Alton Towers. I don’t remember much between the M6 and the final couple of roundabouts into Llanberis. At this point I didn’t feel particlaly enthused about the Snowdon ascent, it was more a case of finishing the job. My mood was not helped by team two arriving back at the carpark at the end of their challenge (they started one minute a head of us), it was also apparent that we were well of the 24 hour pace, and going to finish amongst the last few teams. We were the middle of the three Elsevier teams for most of the challenge but somehow the last team managed to arrive at the Llanberis car park only a short time after us, so we agreed to go up together, which I think turned out well since the additional company and social aspect livened everybody up and both teams were operating at a similar pace. The 1st hour and a half were in the dark, with head torches on (I managed to break the switch on mine somehow, but it still worked even if it was difficult to turn on and off). Everybody moans about the start of the Llanbersis path which has a steep section of road, but I found the stream of teams coming in the other direction to be more of a drag, we were not expecting a fast time so it would be a good few hours before we were at the same point. We met the lead Elsevier team about an hour in and shortly afterwards we reached the halfway hut. The 2nd half of Snowdon was the bit I was looking forward to least, fortunately we were directed to take the railway track for part of the 2nd half (presumably because the path itself is quite tricky at that point and falls could occur easily). The route was still steep but not quite as loose. By this time I am definitely starting to feel the pain, although it must have been a lot less than some of my team members that had probably reached this point of tiredness considerably earlier in the challenge. The cloud base was low, and it was damp and drizzly and I was starting to feel damp and cold with coat, hat and gloves all soaked by now and the pace not fast enough to generate a lot of heat. At one point we were passed by a lad in a t-shirt and jeans carrying only a water bottle. (I wonder what he had been up to the night before that made him want to climb Snowdon in the drizzle and early hours of the morning!)
The final part of the ascent was a pure slog, and the steps to the summit a real pain. After a quick stop for food at the top and some photo’s we soon started our decent and a slow but steady pace saw us gradually edge closer to the finish arriving as a loose band of tired stragglers rather than triumphant hero’s we still got a round of applause when we trooped into the finish marquee which we found a little embarrassing even if the applause was thin on the ground since most people had obviously been and gone already. Breakfast was more than welcome and our timing could have been a lot worse because it began raining very heavily not five minutes after we sat down. A couple of other teams arrived as we ate so we applauded them in turn (it was pretty much just us and the organisers by then) and we got our tacky finishers medals. We finished in 29 hours and 14 minutes and looking at the chart of team times it looks like we will be in the low 50’s of the ranking (out of 61 teams) which is a bit disappointing. The fastest team took a little over 19 hours (last year it was 17 and the record for all three peaks events is about 15 hours – they must have been fell runners).

I managed to sleep on the trip home, I don’t remember anything between Llangollen and the services on the M6, where we bumped into another team that had finished the event a little before us. They gave us a cheery wave as they departed. We were all pleased that we had achieved our goal of doing all three peaks, some because it meant they didn’t have to try again next year (they also plan never to see Ben Nevis again) although talk did drift to the possibility of trying again next year with the aim of doing it within 24 hours. We could do it, with a bit more hustle. Time will tell….

Ben Nevis

2008-07-05T10:08:51Z

Ben Nevis
Estimated 20 mins to wake up, get dressed and have instant porridge, but it turnout that porridge had to wait. Arrived Glen Nevis visitor centre about 15 mins before start, to find that the organisers were not quite ready, so we then faffed and almost missed our start time. The first two teams ran from the start line, which was a little intimidating but it was actually a good hour before we were overtaken by anybody. There were plenty of otherpeople on the mountain, and we started overtaking groups from another event, which felt good until we realised they were on the last mountain of a four peaks challenge.(why is it that there is always somebody going faster/higher/stronger can't even claim we were doing the toughest challenge today). After that we started to get overtaken more often by teams charging up or running down but we set a good pace with only short breaks rather than long stops The Elsevier B team passed us during one our stops. The weather was pretty good, with sun and mild wind most of the way. There were still patches of snow near the summit which presented an interesting change of path surface and could easily have had us off our feet. The summit was clear so we got views but the wind had picked up and it was very cold so we didn't linger. We met the Elsevier B team leaving the summit plateau just as we arrived, and in turn the Elsevier C team arrived just as we left. B finished first with 5:15 then us with 5:36 and C was about 20 mins behind us. We had a picic by van before setting off so we have fallen further back behind A, and I,m not sure if C left before us or not. We are on the right pace to complete in 24 hours but the next mountain may well be tough as we will already be tired and the prospect is for wet and windy weather.

3 Peaks here we come

2008-07-04T09:23:43Z

On our way

Vans, loaded. Photo's taken. Breakfast consumed. Now just a long slog up to Fort William' some 450 plus miles from our start and finish point. All being well we will be back some time Sunday pm. The weather forecast is better than yesterday's, it is certainly going to be windy (possibly gale force) but the rain is due over Ben Nevis after we should be gone, and may clear from Scafell and Snowden by the time we arrive. I don't expect to stay dry.

Late Snowdon post

2008-06-25T12:20:18Z

Busy busy busy, that has been me lately. I'm off to Glastonbury in the next 24 hours and 3P is the following weekend so it's time for a quick catchup.

My last 3P training was the weekend before last in Snowdonia. I camped at the forestry commission campsite in Beddgelert and got eaten alive my midges. It looked like I had chicken Pox, the plaque and teenage acne all at the same time. Not at good look, and a drag on the camping experience. I still managed to enjoy myself, but by getting away from the campsite rather than sitting out and enjoying the sunset. I managed two ascents of Snowdon, and wimped out of a planned third which turned out to be sensible given I was definitely running a temperature Sunday night. Saturdays route was up over Mount Eilo, Foel Gron and Foel Goch and then up to the summit of Snowdon - this route was about 1500m of ascent so counts as 'Ben Nevis'. Sunday we went up the Llanberis path following the route we will take for the event, which is about 1000m of ascent. Progress was relatively slow and we decided that we were not ready to go down the other side and do a 2nd ascent. We would have ended up leaving very late, and as it was I didn't get back to Banbury until early evening. I felt terrible on the drive back, and slunk straight off to bed so I have an excuse for my slow pace on the second day but with no further practice until the real event there is still an unanswered question as to my fitness level. I'm confident that I can do three mountains, and certain that two is not a problem but I am concerned about my pace. I also got bad blisters again, and have abandoned plans to use my new boots for the 3P and will go with my old 'not so waterproof' boots which I'm confident will not present me with any issues. A few plastic bags and judicious use of waterproofing should cope with any water events.

Last weekend featured a trip to Alton Towers for a friend’s birthday. It's been about 10 years since I was there last, and I have mixed feelings about the rides. I decided to give everything a go, and in general this worked well. Either I'm getting older or the rides are getting more extreme though, and the old rides that were there during my last visit seemed to be the tame ones. Only 'Air' made me feel nauseous, and luck was with me on Rita - queen of speed as it broke down just as I got off. I did a few of the kiddie rides with Alex, which he enjoyed immensely, asking for more, and before we knew it the park was closed and we were forced to go hunting for a Pizza Hut for tea. A mix-up when placing my order mean I had a large pizza to myself, which I couldn't let go to waste! I think we all managed to get home late. All in all a very enjoyable day, good company, good thrills and good food. Whilst I was doing this fellow 3 peakers were getting wet and lost on Scafell Pike, with the first rain for weeks in the area. Apparently the tiny stream that presented no problems to me on my ascent a few weeks ago was a raging torrent and even the most adventurous of the group failed to make it to the top due the weather and navigational difficulties. We had better pray for good weather in two weeks time, or all of our fitness training will count for naught.

Meanwhile, the tent is packed, food purchased, clothes selected and tickets found. Everything needs to be squeezed into rucksacks tonight and then we are off to the grand parents (who are looking after Alex for the weekend). The Gates to Glastonbury are already open, and tomorrow we shall be going though them.

The Lakes

2008-05-19T20:19:34Z

After a week of internet withdrawal symptoms I am back online, and faced with an update on all of my 3 peaks training. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) my GPS was playing up all week so I have no route tracks to share with you, and my camera phone took it’s photo’s at the lowest resolution possible (why oh why!) which means no decent photos to share either.

The weather though was fantastic. I was concerned that it might be too hot, but in the event this was not a problem. Anyway we stayed near Hawkshead and Coniston, in a cottage and I managed to get three walking days into the week thanks to the decision to drive up Friday night and stay overnight in a travel lodge.

Day 1 was Skiddaw, up the tourist motorway on the south east ridge to Skiddaw little Man (865) and then Skiddaw (931) before a hair raising scree decent (I’m not keen on scree) over Carl side (746) past the white stones (the name says it all) and through the village back to the car. 11km 900m. The climb was exhausting being the most intensive since Helvelyn last year, and my legs knew about it. The view and feeling of satisfaction as I ate my lunch on the top was well worth it.

After failing to get in touch with everybody else and deciding to push my luck, and find out how hard it would be to climb another mountain I found my way to the Walna Scar car park near Coniston and started up Coniston old Man (803). I didn’t intend to go all the way per say, but once I got started it felt like it would be a failure to turn round, especially as it was nearly killing me. The last 100m I had to stop every 10 paces and sit down. Fortunately the car park was already part way up the hill so the 6km walk was only 600m of ascents. The old mine works and low water Tarn were fantastic to see. No time to linger though, I had to make it back down double quick because I was now pretty late.

Day 2 included a visit to Ambleside where I invested in a new pair of boots (It almost required a mortgage), but I like it. My old leaking and squeaking boots will hopefully be relegated to reserve status. A small climb up Latterbarrow (244m) was a small start for my new boots.

Day 3, and I was joined by my brother in law for an ascent of the Scafells which we started late morning after a slow but interesting drive over the Wrynose and Hard Knott passes and other delays. It was perfect climbing weather with the sun bright in the sky and temperatures soaring. I had not recovered from day one, and the steep climb was hard work. We followed the route that we will take on the 3 peaks from Wasthead and I wore my new boots and I knew I was taking a risk, and sure enough blisters started to develop halfway up. After some running repairs we made it the top of Scafell pike (977) which was packed with walkers. We then left the crowd behind to walk over to Scafell, which as anybody who knows the area will know is not a simple as it sounds. The appropriate path down the scree slopes of broad strand, with the paths on the ground taking different routes to the rights of way marked on the map. We found the gully to climb up to Foxes Tarn, which was a surprisingly nice climb. Steep yes, but I’d rather climb up firm rocks than steep scree. I’m not sure I would have liked going down though. Foxes tarn was nothing more than a muddy puddle and then there was a steep scree ascent to the summit ridge and Scafell itself (964). The decent was west and steep scree again, and a grassy slope and then the path disappeared and the slope got very steep and hard work for 100’s of meters of decent. I would not recommend this way down. 11Km 1025m ascents and one stonking blister.

Day 6, and my legs were finally starting to feel better. I reverted to my old boots to try and protect the blister, which sort of worked. Langdale was in the top 10 things to do in our guide book so we walked up Oxendale to Red Tarn, Great Knott (696) and Crinkle Crags (859). Reading Wainwright and other guides we approached the Crinkles not knowing exactly what to expect but Steve who is into Bouldering laughed at the Bad Step and said it would probably have been to easy the easiest bouldering grade. Spurred on I climbed it also, Crinkle crags was certainly interesting. We had a long rest at Three Tarns and then ascended Bowfell (902) then down to Ore Gap, Angle Tarn Rossett Gill and a long walk back along the Cumbrian way in the sun. I realised too late that I should have put suntan cream on earlier, and the back of my legs and neck were bright red. 15Km 1100m

So four walks, over 6 days 43km 3625m, which is marginally more than the 3 Peaks total. I just have to compress it into 24 hours. But as Steve pointed out you don’t train for a marathon my doing marathons.

Camping in the Forest of Dean next weekend, plenty of hills near there so I just need to get that blister healed.

mmmmm

2008-04-28T21:13:12Z

So how far and how high is it actually?

Mountain --- Ascent -- Suggested time
Ben Nevis -- 1320 --- 4:30
Scafell pike 900 ---- 4:00
Snowdon ---- 1000 -- 4:30

Thats 3220 m or 10500ft, in 13 hours (Everest is 29029 ft High)

With minimum travel time between the mountains at 5:30 and 4:30 or 10 hours,

That's a whole hour spare!

mmm, I shall be pleased to make it never mind the 24 hour element of the challenge.

Walking in the Malverns

2008-04-28T20:37:48Z

On Sat I had time for a decent walk, my initial thoughts were to go up Snowdon, but with travel time about 3:40 hours one way, and the need to be there and back in a day ruled this out. I flirted with the Brecon Beacons at 2:30 hours each way but eventually and somewhat reluctantly decided on the Malverns with travel time of 1:30 each way. My reluctance was due to the lower height of the highest top, which at 425m didn’t seem much to brag about. However it was a lovely day and I plotted a route that zig zagged all over the Malverns with the intention of increasing total ascent and decent achieved, and timing my arrival in Great Malvern for lunch time to visit the bakeries and sandwich shops.

Started car park at Wynds point (236m)
Herefordshire Beacon (338)
Perseverance Hill (357)
Summer Hill (382m)
Worcester Beacon (425M)
Sugar Loaf Hill (368)
Table Hill (373)
North Hill (397)
Lunch in Malvern (<100m)
Worcester Beacon again
Summer Hill again
Perseverance hill again
Jubilee Hill (345)
Black Hill (308)

13.5miles 21Km 5 hours 1230m of ascents and descents

New Toys

2008-04-25T17:02:17Z

I have expanded my collection of solar battery stuff for My GPS by getting a 2nd Freeloader, a Freeloader AA charger and a clip on 150mA 1.5w solar panel also from Solar Technology called the Globetrotter. The idea is the solar panel clips onto my rucksack and charges a freeloader that in turn will charge my GPS, whilst the AA charger is there for the really big days out (such as a three peaks challenge). The AA adapter can be charged by the freeloader solar panels or can charge a depleted freeloader, and AA batteries have good storage capacities. It can also charge from USB, and I have the option of putting disposable batteries in for an emergency. I’m not sure which combination will turn out to be the most practical yet but the increase in storage capacity should see power worries become a thing of the past. My GPS has a 1100mAa battery, each freeloader has a 1000mAh capacity and the batteries I have put in the AA adapter are 2000mAh (replacing the supplied 1300 mAh). A full charge on my GPS will give me about 4 hours use with the screen off about 2/3’s of the time, one freeloader extends this by about 3 hours. (So I’ve been damn close to running out of Juice on some of my previous walks and made it back to camp with 3% battery remaining and an empty freeloader after my long Snowdon walk last summer)

I will trial solar panel, charging a freeloader battery with the AA adapter as backup. From full this should give me 4000mAh and a top up rate of about 75mAh (assuming that light conditions support 50% of maximum capability on the solar panel). As you can see the Solar contribution is minimal but I like the sustainability aspect, and I can try and be green and use the panel to keep the batteries topped up between uses rather than relying on USB.

I could also trial connecting the solar panel directly to my GPS (which you are not supposed to do but seems to work fine).

Now, I just need a walk and some Sun.

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/solar-technology/freeloader-globetrotter/

Three Peaks here we come

2008-04-23T21:51:24Z

So I have signed up to do a three peaks challenge in July for Action Medical Research. The challenge is to walk up the three highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales and fits in with my recent enthusiasm for walking up hill.

Elsevier entered a couple of teams last year to a similar event and encountered several injuries so I think I’d better take training seriously and I could do with loosing some weight after piling on the pounds over the winter.

Finding mountains to walk up is somewhat difficult given that there are none nearby but so far I’ve done three training walks to start my preparation and I’m desperately looking at the calendar for free weekends to go where the mountains are. Roll on our family holiday in the Lake district, my first aim is to be fit enough to do some serious walking in the lakes without having to ‘recover’ after each one.

Walk 1
Chiltern Hills - Fingest near Stokenchurch
This was an after work walk, and is one of the closer hilly areas to where I work in Oxford, drive time during rush hour was 50mins which left me about two hours before sunset. Lindsey and Alex were in Leicester so I had the evening free and it was sunny, windy (and thus cold) and quiet. I spent a few hour pouring over maps the night before to try and get the maximum ascent and decent into a short a route as possible. There were plenty of red kites swooping low and I startled a pheasant, several dear and a load of lambs so got quite close to nature. The area is quite picturesque although the narrow lanes made for slow driving for the last couple of miles getting there.
Ascent/Decent: 350m
Duration: 1 hour and 40 minutes
Distance: 5.1 Miles.
Steps: 7500

Walk 2
Dovedale
Another windy day, and very cold in the wind I was accompanied on this walk by Lindsey whilst Alex was with granny and granddad. Dovedale is a top walking destination in the south peak district, and you can see why it would be on a sunny day. Less so on a cold and damp day although the car park was still pretty full. We separated for the last leg as I climbed a ridiculously steep path up the side of the dale and came back into the carpark via Ilam and got stuck in congestion… Yes a large wedding party returning from the church in Ilam caused queue at all the stiles.

Ascent/Decent: 550m
Duration: 3 hours and 40 minutes
Distance: 8 Miles.

Walk 3
Leicester three peaks
The route for this was discovered on the internet, so many thanks to Sheila
http://peacockmedia.blogspot.com/2006/11/shielas-leicestershire-3-peaks.html
There’s not much in the way of climbs in this walk but I couldn’t miss the synchronicity in the name since I was in the area anyway and these are the first peaks of my training ‘program’. The day was overcast and foggy, with occasional drizzle and sodden ground which made for muddy fields and slow going in places. My feet got soaked which has made me question the wisdom of using my old, trust and not entirely waterproof old boots for the 3P challenge. Perhaps I should invest in some new boots and hope to wear them in before July.
An overcast Leicestershire does not compete with the Chilterns or Dovedale but the 12 miles were taxing enough to leave my legs stiff at the end. My boots are dry again now, but don’t smell so good!

Ascent/Decent: 300m
Duration: 4 hours and 11 minutes
Distance: 12.6 Miles.
Steps: 24400
Tops: Billa Barra Hill x2 (235), Bardon Hill (278m) and Beacon Hill (248m)

Walking in the Peak District with Steve

2007-11-05T06:32:30Z

This was my sister’s hen weekend, with Alex an honouree invitee so I had time to myself, and Steve invited me up to Sheffield to do some walking in the Peak Distict.

Driving up Friday night was more enjoyable than I expected as it’s been a while since I’ve driven off for a weekend somewhere on my own, no real traffic problems and listening to Pete Tong was fun. The evening was rounded off with a couple of pints in the local pub then the weekend consisted of two walks, from which I am slightly stiff. Steve chose two nice routes, and we did about 20 miles in total, and I calculated about 1100m of ascents including Mam Tor and Win Hill. The Weather was fantastic, with clear skys and bright sun, although each summit was very windy.

Catchup

2007-09-28T18:43:50Z

So, I haven't been around much, and not even posted about my new PC or climbing Snowdon.

Work has been manic, I already had a large list of backlogged work only for a couple of big and urgent extras to arrive on the scene. So my aim to work roughly 9 to 5 most days has been out of the window and I've been putting in some serious extra hours. So the first thing to suffer was time-consuming internet activities like face book and live journal, and once you get behind there always seems too much stuff to say quickly. But it's ok now, because I've forgotten most of what has occurred in the last few weeks.

Some stuff I remember;
We stayed one weekend at my parents whilst they were on holiday and went for a walk from Tittesworth reservoir to the summit of the roaches, which is a interesting ridge line on the southern end of the peak district. The nice sunny day saw climbers and boulder's out in force (Take note Steve), and we spend the day out and about getting back tired and weary.

I joined the Gym at work, being motivated by the desire to get fitter rather than loose weight. I think I may have actually listened to some government advice about needing to work up a sweat once or twice or three times a week. Don't want to have a heart attack in my forties if I can help it, and being fit makes walking up mountains even more fun. Early days yet so my initial enthusiasm will fade, but at least it's cheap being work sponsored and more of a fitness room than a proper gym.

Mental note to self: Make more effort to ignore the government in future.

Messed up my new PC, had to rebuild it and lost data at the same time... Not good. Also had to reinstall my IPAQ, niggly bugs in the OS I think. I will have to get the routine documented because I suspect that I will be doing it every few months.

I have found time to keep up my reading on the current financial 'crisis', ever hopeful that house prices will fall at some point. I find it all rather fascinating, and a full understanding of what is going on somewhat elusive. It's like the plot of a movie that is somewhat familiar but I can't quite work out what's going to happen next. Oh and it's a long movie, it seems to take forever for the plot to develop.

Well that brings us up to date, if I think of anything I've missed I'll be sure to add it later.

Oh and I discovered today that the work Christmas party is on the same day that I've just taken off to go and see the Chemical Brothers... I mean the xmas party is known for its naffness but for one reason or another I've never actually been to it, always been some reason why I can't go. Oh well maybe next year.

More Camping

2007-09-07T22:41:03Z

Been busy, tired and on holiday and had lots of stuff to post which all made posting too much of a chore – so I didn't. But here is a summary.

Camping in Beddgelert

Camping in Beddgelert, Spent 5 nights at forestry commission site. Lots of rain, two days a total washout. The closest we've ever been to going home early. Yet we still managed to have a good time. A unscheduled stop to let Alex stretch his legs in Llangollen turned into an impromptu train spotting session with Alex wowing the crowds by bouncing up and down excitedly at the train and waving at everybody that waved at him. I don't think he noticed it was raining.

Campsite was pretty water logged, but not that busy so we got a firm spot, visited most of the local activity shops without really finding it satisfying and we were some what frustrated to find ourselves eating in a place we have been before at Betws-Y-Coed even though it is a nice place. It is situated next to the railway station and we had the unusual spectacle of watching a local train pull off, break suddenly and then reverse back into the station to let off a wheelchair bound passenger that had obviously not made it off first time.

Purchased myself a book on local mountain walks, and Alex hit it off with the store staff who also recommended a walk to Llyn Idwal which we did and enjoyed although I was eager to head up into the peaks we were not prepared since due to logistical oversights (I forgot) we were without Lindsey's waterproof trousers and walking shoes and since it was raining and Alex was with us we didn't feel it was wise to go to far from base camp.

I did get a day to go up Snowdon, which I will post about separately. Alex and Lindsey went to the beach, and had a good time by all accounts. If you hadn't guessed we timed this day with the best weather and whilst it was not entirely dry it was pretty good.

Stopped at a Dobbies (Rock and Roll) and called into see Frances and Matt on the way back.

New PC
Got back to find DABS hell had continued in my absence, but that parcel was actually with a neighbour so built my new PC. It actually went reasonably smoothly considering I was going with Vista, with a few minor problems although I spent a while wondering why the motherboard wasn't powering on when I engaged the power before realising that it was on but that these days the CPU fan does not necessarily turn all the time and I was taking the lack of movement as a sign that it was not turning on. Shame really that I managed to trash it all a few weeks later by trying to mess with over clocking settings and breaking the raid array. Oh well up and running now thought. Typing is sooooo much faster now that i have a gigazeonboostdoubled(TM) PC. The FT webpage still loads slowly though. Actually Civ4 does run better, and Vista is ok – some nice moderate interface improvements and lots of hassle of learning new ways that things work.

Then we went camping again to the new forest, which I have already posted a bit about. We met up with Lindsey's parents for the last couple of days to explore the Watercress line nr Winchester.

Holidays over for a while now, and backlog of projects at work is a real drag.

Camping in new forest 2

2007-08-24T19:22:15Z

Relied on gps software for navigation to campsite, although we did have a manual backup around somewhere. The software does not work perfectly on my pda, and sometimes its difficult to understand exactly where we aresupposed to turn but we arrived without undue drama. Campsite is large, possibly ex military airfield with it's wide concrete roads and circular hard standings. The surround is a mixture of heather and forest, abd when w arrived the wild horses were numerous and on the roads! Campsite is gusy, and fully booked over bank holiday weekend but we found a nice spot near the outskirts with views of some tree's as well tents.

Woke exactly at 7 on friday, well alex did which meant we all did. Lovely and sunny, clear sky and quiet campsite. Spent the morning at the beach nr highcliff then explored christchurch a typical small slightly upmarket town with a picturesqe priory. For a friday afternoon the roads were pretty busy. After a shower and walk round camp site the bbq was lit and the vino opened.

Northampton

2007-08-12T21:55:00Z

Northampton was our destination, more specifically Harri, gav and Macy. Also expected were Ariel and Jo, and a flying visit from Nicky, Steven and eight week old Emma.

The sky didn't have a single cloud as we drove over to Northampton.

At times it was a little mad with three babies all together, it must have been hard work looking after me and my two sisters day in day out. Alex was pretty well behaved with few moans, he is still learning to share and Macy is now old enough to know what she wants and is not far off walking. After lunch and the departure of Nicky, Steven and Emma we drove if Salcey wood, with it's interesting and unusual treetop walk (See photo's). It was pretty high, and swayed gently in the breeze which was pretty unnerving, but not very long. We were soon back for ice creams, which was fortunate because they closed up shop after serving us. We had a fantastic curry for tea and such a portion that I had to turn down dessert. It was fantastic to catch up with Ariel and Jo after such a long time, and lovely to see young Emma and her parents doing so well. The hours flew by and it was a shame when driving home before getting too tired meant leaving.

Sunday started late, a lie in almost till 9. Alex must have exhausted himself yesterday, along with going to bed late. We all felt refreshed and went into town to get a picnic with the intention of taking a bike ride. We were a little distracted by the early learning centre and ended up getting Alex a train in the sale, and riding the escalators in M&S, until it was time for lunch, so the picnic was off but the bike ride was on.

ps. you can put that location into Google Maps to see where I was when I wrote this (note - not where I was when I posted it)

Dabs and Amtrak Hell

2007-08-12T21:39:23Z

To shorten a long story;
some of the computer bits I had on order were out of stock, and staying that way. So I canceled that order, and ordered some different bits. I chose an evening delivery which I thought would mean that delivery would be fine as I knew i would be in...big mistake. Now that I knew all the parts were on their way to me I was really excited, and eagerly awaited the courier, who did not show. Nor did he show the next evening, and on the third and final delivery evening the tracking website showed the parcel already on route back to dabs. The company 'Amtrak' made no attempt to deliver to the parcel to my address, I was furious. Doubly so when I was kept on hold for 35 minutes with no answer from the courier company on sat Morning.

at 9:30 with lindsey telling me to get a move on I had to put the matter aside, and we packed the car and set off on our sat adventure.

Solar Gadget

2007-08-10T20:40:04Z

I've been after a decent solar gadget for a while, and I've seperately had problems with the battery life of my ipaq. If I'm running the GPS, or playing music the battery will run down after about 4 hours, which is not enough if you want to be out and about walking all day. So far I've done ok. I managed to do my climb of Cairn Gorn, and monday's walk without running out of power but on both occasion I got to the low battery warning of less than 10%. I'm hoping to climb Snowdon whilst we are camping next week, and expect that to be a 6 hour walk, and the last thing I want is to run out of juice so that I can't phone for my lift when I get to the end of the walk. I was planning to get a battery adapter, so that you could attach a normal 9v battery for an emergency charge but it was one of the items dabs.com had out of stock, and the delivery date was just not appearing. So casting around I found some solar battery thingies, with various adapters and decided to get a Free loader solar charger/battery combination. It only has a capacity of 1000mah but that compares to the ipaq battery of 1200mah so should buy me an extra three hours minimum, was pretty cheap and light and came with loads of adapters including just the right thing for the awkward connector on the Ipaq. Given enough sunlight it can also power the ipaq from the solar cell, and just as importantly given how long it takes to charge up a battery from sunlight it can be charged from a USB socket so I can ensure that it is topped up before setting off for the day, and then use free energy where I can find the sun. I also have a car cigarette to USB converter so I can charge it from the car whilst camping. All in all I'm hopeful for the perfect solution.

http://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/products/solar-technology/charger/?osCsid=5a1c3a611886e369a6b14e983af5e34e

Evening stroll

2007-08-10T20:11:04Z

Monday evening seems like a while ago now, but I've been distracted from posting until now. Back on monday I went for a walk with some of the guys from work, they are doing a spot of training for a three peaks challenge and I went along for fun.

We did the Kidlington circular walk, which with an odd detour due to uncertain navigation turned out to be 11.1 miles and 18700 steps long. We covered the distance in 3 hours and 43 minutes at a speed of 2.89 miles per hour.

The gray circle represents where we work, and our start and finish location. At several points on the walk farmers had left out antiseptic foot dips because of the worries over foot and mouth. I've added a couple of pictures to my gallery, and also put them on facebook where you can see who is who.

marthall @ 2007-08-06T07:30:00

2007-08-06T06:32:40Z

Sat started off early with alex waking up godknowswhen and not going back to sleep until he was in our bed. The morning then consisted of getting up and pottering around town before going to a barbecue. We spent a very enjoyable few hours with our friends who had babies at a similar time Kelly and Sue and their families. Richard and Sue had put in a lot of effort, and there was much food. Because all three babies had lots of xmas and birthday pressies back in dec/jan we had agreed to delay the pressies to each baby till this weekend. None of the babies are into opening presents yet, but Alex looked like he enjoyed his picnic set, and bubble machine whilst Sam and Oliver both got a set of brooms, mops and dust pan+brush each which where trailed round and round the garden. All three loved running up and down the decking and creeping inside to play with Oliver's toys. Alex had such a good time he didn't go to sleep until we left, and then he was straight to sleep in the car, and didn't stir as he was transferred to cot. After an overcast start to the day the sun came out with a vengence, so we spent the afternoon in the garden.

Sunday started early as well, with time (almost) to bake a banana cake before going out to meet the family at the cotswold wildlife centre. Everyone was there, and the weather was fantastic, and Alex and ellie had their usual fun chasing each other.

My diet was pretty much out the window with excess meat + trifle at bbq, and plenty of cake on sun. Baking cakes is simpler than you might think, although that said my efforts don't always taste quite right! At least I did't snack between stomach abuse sessions! So i'm still training by appetite to expect food at certain times, over the next few days i need to reduce the portion size.

Both me and Alex wore our new croc's. Lindsey is a big fan, and loves her pair. So my pair was ordered, and when Linz found out that there a market stall had a babies version Alex was treated to a yellow pair.

lunchtime walk

2007-08-03T19:01:20Z

Took a long lunch and a nice stroll, 6 miles, 9400 steps, 1:30 mins absolutely lovely weather
Added a picture of the canal to my gallery, check out that sky.

Treated myself at tesco's to a refreshing Milkshake, tuna sarnie and fresh fruit. I'm feeling motivated diet wise. This years been a bit up and down, started the year about 83Kg, and managed to drop this to 78Kg without too much trouble, but have drifted back up to 80 since then and have had several false starts trying to get it down again. Ideally I want it to be in the region 73-75Kg. So I'm in food denial at the moment, the start of a diet is the most painful time whilst my appetite adjusts to eating less. I spent some of Wed and All of Thur feeling hungry, although it's not too bad today. I'm motivated at the moment, but I'm on holiday the week after next, which usually means treating myself to nice grub. It may be that I'm going through the pain for no reason, and will be eating cream tea's in two weeks time, but then the problem I've had this summer is too many reasons not to continue a diet. Oh well we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

The rain in Banbury falls mainly when I'm out and about

2007-08-02T17:41:04Z

Walked to pick up Alex up from Nursery after getting back from my exam, lovely day but rained on the way back. Alex got soaked, but not from the rain, the tinker unscrewed the cap off his drinks bottle and poured the contents over his lap. I've added a pic of Alex and Buggy in the rain (and sunshine)

signed up to an infant first aid course, sort of thing everybody should know so I made myself get off my arse. Most of a Sat will be lost though, just hope its a waste of time.

Qualified

2007-08-02T17:32:06Z

Passed my CCNA exam for the second time. (1st one expired years ago and I've been meaning to get it back for ages). Four more exams to get my CCNP/CCDA/CCDP back. Tedious.

Tech

2007-07-31T20:29:19Z

Reconsidered my hardware decisions

The security check proved to be a big annoyance, no matter how much I checked my profile the details are right. So why did it still get rejected? and more interestingly how was it that reconfirming the details via email was good enough to get passed the security hurdle? The details weren’t any different (in fact I cut and paste from the website profile), did they just want to make sure that there was somebody human at the other end of the email address?

Only problem is that some of the bits I want are not in stock, looks like I'm waiting till the second week in August at a minimum before I will get my stuff. Best to try and forget about it all, and then it will be a nice surprise when it turns up. If I'm checking the website every day it will probably drive me up the wall. At least knowing that there would be a delay due to stock sourcing meant that the delays due to the security issues won't be a big deal.

I find myself getting slightly excited about the prospect of getting Vista, I'm not entirely sure why since I'm sure there will be a fair bit of swearing before I get it working and I half expect at least one annoying incompatibility.

If you are interested:

Gigabyte S775 Intel P965P GA 965P-DS3P

Zalman CNPS7700-CU Copper 120mm fan

Crucial 2x1GB 240-Pin DIMM PC2-6400 Unbuffered Non-ECC CL4

Dabs Value 8600GT 256MB DDR3 PCI-E DVI

Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 2.13GHz Socket 775 1066FSB 4MB

Missing

2007-07-31T20:21:58Z

So I've been pretty busy, and thus not posted much recently. I was never going to be able to keep up the posting rate of one per day, but over a week off... It's been a mixture of being out and about, camping and Kenilworth (more later), evenings have been short with Alex generally taking ages to get to sleep and a wine box soaking up the rest of the time. Motivation has been low, and the jobs completed total just as low. I did meditate/vegetate in front of some TV, watching the start of Hero's and the 1st of a two part CSI directed by Quentin Tarantino. Hero's has been recommended to me, but I wasn't so impressed by the trailer and I watched the first two episodes without expectations. I'll reserve judgement for a while longer yet, I worry that it might be another 'lost', nice idea and I was 'into' it, but I got fed up with the snail like plot progression, and started to find it tedious. (I've stopped watching at some point in the second series). There are already a few things that irritated me about Hero's, but I enjoyed the second episode more than the first as I got used to the confusing cast of new characters being introduced.

marthall @ 2007-07-16T20:38:00

2007-07-16T19:42:02Z

So it turns out that Micro$oft changed the terms of their OEM licence agreement last year, and somehow I missed the news stories of this happening. So that nice new Windows XP licence I bought and am now using is useless if I upgrade my computer. I'm fuming. I attempted to go legal and now I'm being shafted. I believed that I'd be fine with an OEM licence because I wasn't bothered about getting support but how wrong am I. Anyway this throws a big spanner in the works because I'm not going to buy a retail copy of XP at three times the price, not when 'm likely to want to go to Vista at some point in the not too distant future. There is also the small point of the sunk costs in the OEM XP licence. As any reader of freakanomics will know the sunk costs are unimportant, only what comes next. Well what comes next is my upgrade is suddenly more expensive than I had anticipated, and I have some serious questions to ask myself about the extra investment in windows Vista.

I was expecting some swearing with this computer upgrade, something is always a pain when you perform major surgery on a PC especially using bits that might not get on together. But I was expecting to get the parts first. Anyway the company I'm buying the stuff off was still messing about with the 'security' issues, so I just cancelled the order. If I do go Vista I need to double check that everything is Vista compatible which will take a bit of time. It wouldn't be so bad if Microsoft insist on charging UK customer almost twice as much as US customers - yeah marketing costs in the UK are definitely soooo much more, and oh my god distribution is a killer... you know how much royal mail charges... I have been tempted yet again to just buy a Dell, a decent one would quite reasonably priced, not much more than twice the price for Windows vista ultimate on it's own.... But you know that I do like messing about with my hardware, and upgrading periodically. And I like to choose certain features that you just can't get on a Dell, like raid5, tweak the settings, try to pick parts that will overclock and reuse some of my existing bits.

Not worth doing anything before camping now.

Weekend

2007-07-15T12:17:46Z

Sat am, did some work to try and stay on top of some Elsevier projects, actually enjoyed doing some of it because of lack of disruptions and a feeling of satisfaction from making decent progress. Shame I didn’t have enough time on Friday to actually do the work, whilst I was actually at work. I also managed to get my emails down to a manageable level, which has taken all week, following my two weeks out of the office.

This week:

Urgent new projects that need to be finished by the end of the month = 1

Existing projects that are now urgent and need be finished by end of the month = 2

Project that I've never heard off but that apparently I've been allocated =1

Other new projects/tasks = 3

Completed projects/tasks = 2.

So 5 new projects/tasks but only two finished. Typical week.

Pm. In mood to spend money: Started researching possible upgrades to computer. Went shopping in town, caught up with comics (Hellblazer), seven months worth were waiting for me. I had two unread comics from a previous visit because they were the first two of a series, and I prefer to read them all together. So 9 months of Hellblazer to catch up. Alex picked out hula hoop from the early learning centre sale, and enjoyed wheeling it around his head, and dragging it along the ground behind him. So we bought it for him.

Played outside in the sun, Alex watering the garden in his wellies (well mostly the patio) and playing with his hula hoop, he doesn't hula but flips it over his head, carries it on his shoulder, drags it around, sits inside the ring pushing it round or carries it on his back. He's definitely played with one frequently before, probably learnt all his skills at nursery.

Sunday, a lie in. 7:50 Unusually late. No apparent reason. I went swimming with Alex, and we walked most of the way to the swimming baths. Nice and quiet in town since this was before the shops opened but we saw a lovely little 9 week old puppy, which fascinated and scared Alex in equal measures. We had fun at the pool, Alex liked splashing in the pool overflow and 'jumping' in from the side but as usual was less keen on going underwater.

On the way back we watched lots of canal boats go through the locks near the bus station, Alex waved to each boat as it went away. By the time we got back he was tired and it wasn't long till he was asleep.

Decided to go for computer upgrade, bought my current dual Athlon MP 2800's back in November 04. Going for a low end core 2 Duo, and a P965 based motherboard. Needed new RAM and a new Graphics card, wanted decent RAM but don't need a gaming graphics card so went for Corsair XMS2 6400 Cl4 and a 7600GT based graphics card. One of my main aims is for a quieter PC, my current one sounds like a hurricane due to lots of fast and loud fans so I've included a large and quiet heat sink and a few quiet case fans. It should make quite a lot of difference going from my current hot running pair of CPU's to a single more energy efficient CPU. This is also a bit of a departure for me, I haven’t owned an Intel CPU based system since my old 386. To sweeten the deal I'm also getting a new 19" TFT for Lindsey's PC to replace the bulky 17" CRT.

So all this will dent the bank balance, or it will if it all goes through smoothly. Just had an email to say that there is some sort of security issue, apparently my telephone number does not match the delivery address. This is not too surprising as I prefer not to include telephone details in online registrations.... So need to convince them that I am trustworthy, and not fraudulent. I guess they don't take history into account, since I've been buying stuff from them for about ten years, and not paid with a stolen credit card yet.