Walking from Fountain Abbey

31 December 2006 09:54

Today I am walking from Fountain Abbey which is a National Trust propety and deer park near Ripon.

The roads leading to the abbey from my Cottage were fantastic, I've not enjoyed myself on a bike so much fur ages and that is dispite the wet roads.

I arrived at 09:20 for the 10:00 start but when I arrived I found a text message saying that breakfast was running late and that they were aiming to get to the abbey for 10:20 - d'oh

In the end everyone turned up by about 10:45 so we didn't get walking until about 10:50 and the problems didn't end there.

The route we were walking was also the route being used by a charity run which would have been ok if not for the seven stone foot bridges which could only take 1 person at a time.

In order to get across without holding up the runners we had to wait for a gap and then run across the bridge which given most of us had heavy boot's, bags and walking sticks was a very funny sight. Funny but slow, with 15 of us waiting to cross like that I reckon we only covered about 2 miles in the first 1.5 hours.

The poor diane fell over in some very nasty looking mud and got caked in it

It was 1 problem after another for the whole walk but it was alot of fun.

Categories: Personal_

Arrived in Yorkshire

30 December 2006 14:27

I've arrived in Long Marston and I am now unpacked and ready to meet up with the Ramblers in Harrogate.

After unpacking I made myself some Sweet and Sour Noodles which I managed to then drop all over the living room floor. I think I managed to clear up the mess well enough to not be noticed by the owners.

The weather is grey and really really windy, I think that is the forecast for at least the next few days. The walking should be interesting.

Obviously there is no Internet correction here so I am going to keep writing these notes on an almost daily basis but I will only send them out every few days via my mobile.

Categories: Personal_

Meet Up in Harrogate

31 December 2006 07:42

After checking in to my cottage/flat last night I went into Wetherby where I brought Some OS maps of the area and then went on to Harrogate to meet the others.

It took ages to find the hotel, the Aston on Franklin Mount, only to find the hotel closed. Bugger I thought. It turns out the hotel had staffing issues and so all the guests had been moved to a sister hotel just around the corner.

With an example of incredible deductive reasoning that would have put Sherlock Holmes to shame I found the hotel within 10 minutes of realising no one was staying at the Aston. Ok, so I ran into Jane and she told me the hotel name and street, and detailed instruction on how to find it :-)

Once everyone had found the new hotel we went into the town Centre and ate at La Tasca which was very nice and I got a voucher for a free bottle of wine which will be really useful for me - There is actually a La tasca in Cambridge so maybe I'll get to use it with Matt, Nicola, Martina and Ginny.

At the end of the evening I came back to my flat which is on the edge on the Marston Moor battlefield where hundreds if not thousands of people died in 1644. The night was dark and windy and the rain was lashing down and I was kept awake until 3am by a spirit who tried to communicate with words and images with means that I don't fully understand.

It was very spooky but a lot of fun :-)

Categories: Personal_

That's Christmas Done for Another Year

29 December 2006 20:15

I'm back from visiting my parents over the Christmas period.

I got back home yesterday afternoon and since then I have been washing clothes, tidying the house and getting ready for my New year holiday which starts tomorrow.

I got money and so cool pressies for my Birthday and Christmas.

I've just shaved my head because it was getting a bit long and I am about to have a shave so I can pack my shaving kit ready for the morning.

Categories: Personal_

Oh dear, I'm 30

23 December 2006 22:46

Somehow 30 years have managed to sneak past me, I could have used today to reflect on my successes and failures and try to decide where I want my life to go in the next decade or so but that seemed like to much hard work so watch who waits to be a Millionaire instead.

I travelled down to Orpington in the morning to see Nan & Grandad and Mum where we all went to the Garden Center.

Then I followed mum back to her house in Burgess Hill.

Categories: Personal_

hmm, toastie warm & a Meal at Matt's

21 December 2006 09:59

On my way to Matt's house last night as last meal before everyone goes on holiday type of thing, I went into Cambridge and I finally brought myself a scarf.

My neck is now nice and warm although I do find that my visor is misting up a little because I have blocked all the ventilation from the bottom of the helmet, this is really only a problem below 40 mph since above that speed the 2 eye brow ventilation holes can provide enough air to keep me seeing clearly - the solution is obvious, never slow down.

At Matt's we had pizza and watch The Garden State which Nicola brought with her, the film was much better than I was expecting, it was quite funny in places and yet quite a nice little love story as well.

Categories: Plasmon_

Fredwatch, Day 2

20 December 2006 09:12

I found Fred missing this morning and I'm very concerned for his safety, as you all know, the icicles' only natural predator is man and I fear that Fred may have been poached for sale in the far east where icicles are ground for use in soup as an Aphrodisiac.

I will keep monitoring the area that Fred was last seen in the hope that he might find his way back but being away from his home at such a young age is very bad and Fred is probably lost forever.

In a world of Global Warming, Icicles are becoming an endangered species, please donate some money to help me protect this incredible creatures natural environment.

Categories: Plasmon_

Chrimbo Dinner

19 December 2006 18:41

Today was the Plasmon Software Groups Christmas dinner.

We went up to The Pheasant in Great Chishill where I had a Mushroom Lasagne because I'm not a great fan of Turkey. Having looked at other peopleis food I think I made the right decision.

Categories: Personal_ Plasmon_

I've got a small one, but it is growing

19 December 2006 18:48

An Icicle that is, hanging on for dear life from my bike wing mirror.

It's about 3cm long and I have named him Fred.

Fred looks very pretty when illuminated by the brake lights from the car in front, however, tomorrow I am going to pay more attention to the brake lights *looks embarrassed*

If Fred is still there tomorrow I shall take a picture of him and publish it in this blog so that the rest of the world can enjoy his beauty

Categories: Biking_

Use the force Luke

18 December 2006 19:02

I can now add one more weather condition to the list of nasty stuff that I have safely ridden in.

The fog on the way I home was impressive, I didn't so much see where I was going as I felt my way along the road.

At one point the fog was so thick that I couldn't see an oncoming police car with it's blue light's flashing.

So that's baking heat, torrential rain, tree bending wind and blinding fog successfully tackled.

That only leaves the last type of weather which I have to admit I really fear, Snow and Ice. I wonder if I can buy stabilisers for the bike?

Categories: Biking_

Damn, no Cinema this week

18 December 2006 14:05

Unfortunately, me, Matt, Nichola, Martina and Ginny/Richard aren't able to get to the cinema this week so I won't be able to wish them merry christmas and all that seasonal goodwill. It seems Martina has other friends and has already seen it.

Merry christmas guys and gals.

Categories: Plasmon_

Oh no, out of fuel - again

18 December 2006 13:53

I had to go home at lunch time today because I had forgot to bring certain birthday cards to work with me which really need to be posted today.

I got as far as a the St Neots bypass before the familar old kangroo jumps from the bike told me that I was really pushing my luck and should have refilled 10 miles ago.

Anyway, this time I knew I was getting low on fuel so I was waiting for it and at the first jump I managed to reach around under my leg and switch the fuel over to the reservse tank while still moving and more importantly while the engine was still running so that the fuel line didn't dry up which means I didn't need to wait for 2 minutes for the fuel from the reserve to filter through the system and so I was able to continue riding without any delay - yay me.

On the down side, my clutch is starting to slip quite badly, I should have too much trouble getting to sussex for christmas but to/from Yorkshire might a interesting test of my ability to ride very very very smoothly. It certainly isn't going to last until April which is when I had planned on getting the clutch replaced so I guess I am going to have to get the bike booked in for just some time in January and get the short service done at the same time which is a bit of a shame because I was hoping to do the short a service myself to save a bit of money.

Categories: Plasmon_

Walking in Wakerley

17 December 2006 15:31

Today I went walking in Wakerley Wood as part of a reccie for a walk Debbie is leading after the new year.

I some how managed to underestimate how far the meeting point was (dispite the walk last week starting 5 miles down the road) and so l arrived 15 minutes late but luckily I found out where the other walkers were going to be end I was able to ride round and catch them up.

Since this wasn't a full walk there were only 6 walkers, Debbie, Steve, Sarah, Yvonne, Barbara and me - Jonny Comelately.

I'm glad I did this walk, the weather was beautiful, the woods were nice and the smaller group made the walk more intimate and I was able to get to know everyone a bit better.

On the way home I found myself behind a car whose front tyre was smoking so I flashed them and when they pulled over I made sure they were aware of it, when I got closer I saw the tyre actually looked in pretty good shape so maybe the problem was a brake pad rubbing against the disk.

Anyway, once they knew smoke was billowing (nice word) from their wheel arch I left them to it because they looked pretty nervous around me. They didn't even say thank you or offer me a boiled sweet or anything for taking my time to check that they were OK

Categories: Personal_ Walking_

More Christmas Shopping

16 December 2006 14:57

I went into Cambridge today to get the last of my Christmas shopping.

While there I bumped into 2 people from Citrix, the first was Tony and about an hour later I bumped into Jean-luc who was on his way to a wedding where the photographer.

The shops were quite busy but I suppose it could been worse.

The thing I like about Cambridge is that you do get a superior class of busker. There were a number of jazz bands, an extremely good Pianist and a bloke playing a violin while tight rope walking.

Categories: Personal_

Someone put me out of my misery

16 December 2006 10:49

For two days now, i have had 2 songs stuck in my head which I keep humming and whistling to myself.

In particular when I'm riding the Motorbike because the engine tone makes a good back ground noise and the accoustics in my helmet are surprisely good

The songs are:-

* Last Christmas by Wham from about 1990
* The Incredible Hulk TV theme tune from the 70's - You know the one, with the Piano sole which speaks so hauntingly of Dr. Banners' lonelyness as he is once again forced to move on to yet another small Mid-west town.

Sometimes the tunes merge together and it's driving me nuts.

I can't think of where I have heard the songs recently to make me remember then in the first place. I suppose Last Christmas was playing in a store for the annoyingly festive season but the Incredible Hulk theme tune?

Categories: Personal_

Reviewed Past Blog Entries

15 December 2006 10:59

This morning I reread some of my past blog post's and found that there are lot's of incorrect words where the hand writing recognition on my PDA interprets my scawling as the wrong character.

In particular "and" is often recorded as "end" and ''been" is recorded as the ''beer" which for all who know me is not a word I would use very often.

The trouble is because these are real words spell checker is not catching them.

Now I know about the problem I'll watch out for those error's myself but if you see something that reads wrong, replace the incorrect word with a word which look's similar and that is probably what I meant to say.

Categories: Personal _

Pub Meet with the Ramblers

15 December 2006 00:01

Tonight I went to Peterborough for a pub meet with the Peterborough Young Walkers.

It only took about 50 minutes to get there which means that I once again arrived far too early.

We were suppose to be going to The Charter which is a floating bar and restaurant but when we got there we found the bar had been booked for a private party.

In the end we headed to a pub in the town center where we waited for the late comers to catch us up.

It was a nice evening, I was very tempted to get a minted lamb burger but before I realised the time, it was too late to order.

While there I arranged to help Debbie do a recky one of her future walks this Sunday.

Categories: Personal_

Internet Connection Sloooowww....

11 December 2006 17:33

For the last 2 days my internet connection has been really bad, webpages timing out, connections to mail servers getting dropped and horror of horrors I have beer unable to play on-line games.

I've run Plusnet's self-test and according to that the local exchange's contention ratio is very poor.

The self-test program suggested checking back on a weekly basis. If it takes that long to resolve then I'm going to by asking for I a refund because the service is unusable in any practical way.

Categories: Personal_

15000 Miles and counting

11 December 2006 18:05

Today's bike service represent's 15,000 miles since I brought the bike in a April 2006.

My Mileage = 15278
Total Mileage = 33950

Fuel Used = 1192.25 litres
Average MPG = 58.26

Cost Per Mile = 44p/mile (about 1/3 that the Polo used to cost)

Categories: Biking_

Motorbike Service

11 December 2006 17:51

I've got the motorbike back from the garage after it's 12000 mile service.

There weren't any problems with the bike except the the rear tyre which I knew was in need of replacing ony way.

The service report did mention that the clutch was on the way out, the estimate for that repair is £150, I'm hoping the clutch will last until the next medium service in 8000 miles time.

I also brought some Sidi Black Rain Evo when I went back to pick up the bike. These should be warm I and safer than my current boot's.

Categories: Biking_

Apethorpe Walk

10 December 2006 16:38

Today's walk was from Apethorpe, it was quiet a nice walk but it was very muddy and it was very cold.

It was only 6 miles but the pace was about right with only 1 tea stop. The pub at the end of the walk was nice but the food there was expensive.

On the way home I managed to run out of petrol in the main tank. I switched over to the secondary tank rode very smoothly until I could find a petrol station. After the bike stalled I remembered I that I hadn't put a full tank in the last time I filled up - do'h

That is the last walk of the year. The next event I'm going to is the New Year Event in Harrogate.

Categories: Personal_ Walking_

Brrr

08 December 2006 11:31

The ride home last night was very windy and very cold.

I was blown all over the road and I had to lean the bike over to about 20 degree's just to maintain a strailght line.

I'm not getting cold under my clothes but I'm getting really cold on face, I might need to invest in a scarf. A pink stripey one with tassles should improve my macho image.

Categories: Personal_ Biking_

Christmas Dinner with Everyone

02 December 2006 22:24

Tonight I had dinner at the Dukes Head near Crawley with Mum, Jen, Matt, Nan, Granddad, Shirley, Roo, David, Chris, Ian and Sarah.

Kevin ond George didn't turn up.

Ian and Sarah handed out Wedding Invites for April.

It was a nice night and for a Beef Eater the food was vey good.

Categories: Personal_

Blimey, T-Mobile finally manage to send a Direct Debit Mandate

05 December 2006 11:29

After many many many attempts to get T-Mobile to send out a Direct Debit form, I got home Monday to find one sitting on my door step. So that's just 6 requests and about 8 months to get T-Mobile to send out a form to allow me to pay them, maybe they didn't want to be paid?

Categories: Personal_

--
Trevor Hook
Blog: http://captain-hooks-notes.blogspot.com
Skype Username: t_k_hook

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