The big three-zero

This is me at the age of thirty - I think I still look pretty good... of course, the curls hide the grey quite nicely, which is good!

Yes, this weekend I celebrated a big birthday. One of my friends at work told me that turning thirty-one is much worse, so I've got that to look forward to now! To celebrate we headed back down to Reading for some nostalgia, and a bit of swinging through the trees at the local Go Ape course:

Afterwards we headed into Reading and had a meal out, which clashed with the rugby. Still, it sounds like we didn't miss much...

Thank you to everyone who came, or sent a text or an e-mail or a card. I had a lovely day and don't feel too old. Seriously, every now and again I think 'I CAN'T be that old', but then I think about everything I've done so far and where I am in my life right now, and I realise I'm pretty happy. And who can ask for more than that?

Here's to the next thirty years - may they be as fun-filled and enjoyable as the last!

Putting the garden to bed

We have weeded. We have swept. We have trimmed. We have tidied. We have moved the furniture. We have planted the bulbs.

I think the garden is just about ready for winter now. We're busy for the next few weekends, so it was good to get it sorted, especially as the first hints of autumn are in the air. Time for a nice cup of tea and a sit down to celebrate this achievement I think!

How calm, how constant are the hills,

How green and white and golden in the summer light.

Their lakes, their leaping wells are bright

With flower, leaf and rain.

And their profounder rivers run from rocks

That are the altars of the sun.

How calm, how constant are the hills.

Our time's dark gale of ice and fire

Thunders around them but removes them never.

No tempest overthrows their strong humility

They are both god and temple

And their stones are holy, the earth's enduring thrones.

How calm, how constant are the hills.

(Words by James Kirkup - set to music by John Ireland and discovered by me at choir practice on Tuesday).

Cheese and Tuba Medley

I've almost forgotten how to do this blogging lark: Elspeth always seems to get in before me to tell you all about our weekends. Well, Elspeth's been sent to Sweden, and I have to do something to fill those lonely evenings, so here I am.

In truth, this was more my weekend than Elspeth's. We went to Cwmbran to see Mark Carter, a.k.a. Mr Tuba. While Elspeth was enjoying the delights of the largest undercover shopping centre in Wales, I spent many hours talking about tubas, playing tubas, and ultimately buying one. After much debate, I bought one of Mr Tuba's own, specially designed by Mark and built by the Melton people in Germany. It is definitely the best instrument I've ever played, and I am soooo happy to own it! And grateful to Elspeth for not appearing too shocked or unhappy at the size of the cheque I was writing.

Here it is (yes, it's big, yes, it's shiny, and yes, it's loud):

It was good talking to Mark about aspects of my playing too, enough so that I was convinced to spend my part exchange cash that I got for my old student Yamaha on a mute! Practising with it will improve my lung power, and also make me more comfortable practising at home without disturbing my neighbours (too much).

Watch this space for future tuba talk.

Sunday was a marvellous day, with a visit to the Great British Cheese Festival. Last year's was rained off just as we arrived, so we've been waiting for this for more than 12 months, and it was definitely worth it! Highlights included:

• Food from Britain market. More pickles than you can imagine, sausages, pies, beer, cake - brilliant!
• The 'British Cheese - A Revelation' tasting we went to at the end of the day. We happily tucked in to 7 different cheeses from the Lubborn Creamery and Butler's Cheese, accompanied by a nice wine. Even better was the goody bag we picked up on the way out: a whole supermarket chunk of each of the cheese. Each. Fabrielous.
• The Dram Busters - a tasting of whiskies and cheeses which sit well with each other. Mmmm. Unfortauntely, I didn't get a bottle of each whisky to take home.

It's hard to leave out Britain's biggest cheese market, the farm shop, so many free samples of food, fantastic fudge... I was somewhat disappointed though with the location - the farm centre (we had to stop in, since we were there, you understand) is great but everything seemed considerably more cramped than when it was at Blenheim Palace, and it took us over half an hour to get off the site at the end of the day. On balance though, very much a positive, as evidenced by the fruits of our visit, arrayed below:

Beer x 3, Pickles/chutneys x 7, Fruit Liquor x 5, Fudge x 1, Battenburg x 1, Black Pudding x 1, Garlic for planting x 2, Cheese x 19, Sausages x 4, Pie x 2

Anyone care to join us next year?

The daily commute

You might have noticed that the blog only gets updated after the weekend. This is mainly because our mid-week life, while fun to us, is probably not as exciting to you. A typical day goes:
Get up at 6:45, have breakfast, leave house and catch 7:42 to London. Tim heads to his office and I catch the Picadilly line to Hammersmith. Work. Leave at 5:30 - I head back across London and catch 6:15 train back to Bedford. Arrive back home at 7:15. Tim catches Thameslink from London bridge and arrives home at about the same time. Have dinner. Go to band/choir/badminton/pub. Come home. Go to bed.

This may sound terrible to some people, but we don't mind it. And (ignoring the commute) you probably have a similar daily routine. Every now and again though, some aspect of our day goes horribly wrong and all you can do is laugh. Here is the tail of my commute home yesterday...

Leave the office at 5:20 - slightly early to make sure I catch the 6:15 train. Forget to check the transport for london website, so don't realise until I get to the station that the Picadilly line is suffering severe delays.

Not a problem - decide to catch the district line, change at Victoria and take the Victoria line to King's Cross. Catch the district line.

District line is slow. Get to Victoria at 6:00 and join the slow moving seething mass of commuters trekking down the stairs, round the corner and onto the Victoria line platform. Reach platform to hear an announcement that King's Cross is closed due to overcrowding.

Not a problem - decide to get off train one stop early at Euston, and walk to King's Cross. It will only take 10 minutes, I'm already too late to catch the 6:15 but I'll be in plenty of time for the 6:55.

Victoria line is not slow and (surprisingly) not too crowded. It rattles along and slows up at Euston, but doesn't stop - the driver announces Euston is closed due to overcrowding. We then drive straight through King's Cross, which is also closed due to overcrowding.

Problem - I am now at Highbury and Islington (I have no idea where this is in relation to anywhere else in London). I wonder if there is a bus?

Follow the slow moving seething mass of commuters along the corridors and up the stairs to the outside world. Try to phone Tim but the network is busy due to all the commuters ringing their friends to complain about being in Highbury and Islington.

Find a bus stop, interpret the map and work out which bus and which stop I need to get to King's Cross. Find the bus stop, sit and wait for the number 30.

10 minutes later catch the number 30 towards King's Cross. Bus takes another 10 minutes to reach the station. Still, I'm in plenty of time to catch the 7:30 train home.

Get home at 8:20 - Tim, alerted to my plight has dinner waiting for me. Laugh at the succession of calmities which has caused me to have the longest commute home so far - three hours door to door.

What can you do but laugh? getting angry doesn't help and just makes the situation worse. And days like yesterday really are the exception rather than the rule.

Oh well - look forward to a post full of fun activities after the weekend!

where we live

Overheard on the train on Thursday evening:

"Bedford? That's in Lincolnshire, isn't it? Yes, I'm sure it is. Lincolnshire... yes, definitely Lincolnshire"

The temptation to turn round and say "actually, it's in Bedfordshire" was very strong - you'll be pleased to hear I restrained myself...

A weekend of amusements

Thursday was a busy day at work for both of us, so it was nice to have Friday off and go on a boat trip. Saturday was spent relaxing at home, then off to St Albans in the evening to watch Bellowhead, who are even better live than they are on their albums. Then Sunday was spent with the newspapers and a quick walk around some 'arable uplands' (the book's description) of Bedfordshire.

All in all, a pretty good weekend. Oh, and Tim bought some new fish which may also make an appearence on here at some stage...

Sorting and tidying

The plan for today was to go for a Walk, with the aim of continuing the walking fun we had in the Lake District. This Walk depended on catching the slow train from Bedford towards Bletchley, but it turns out this service doesn't run on Sundays! So we've postponed the Walk until another day. I did some pilates instead this morning and as usual have discovered muscle groups I never knew I had before.

In lieu of walking we decided to have a blitz on the study. As well as containing the computer, this room tends to become a dumping ground for 'stuff which we need to sort out'. So today we sorted. As a consequence of this we have cleared out a whole load of books we'll never read again, and made some room on the bookshelf - see above. The photo gives you a pretty good idea of our reading tastes as well: I own the Ruth Rendell/Barbera Vine books and most of the crime/sci-fi. Tim on the other hand prefers Jasper Fforde and Alexander Mcall Smith. There's a random assortment of 'classics' and 'modern classics' as well - we're pretty wide ranging in our reading habits!

The books on the top of the bookshelf are our 'to read' pile, ones which one or the other of us haven't got round to yet. The exception to this is the 'Competitive Strategy Dynamics', which is one of Tim's textbooks - I can't see either of us reading that one for pleasure...

What we did on our holidays, part 2

After a week of sunshine in the Lake District, we flew out to Malta for five days of relaxing - oh, and a bit more sunshine. It turned out to be an even better holiday than we could have imagined - the hotel was wonderful and the town we were staying in (Mellieha) was hardly influenced by tourism at all. Once you moved away from the main street there were no touristy shops or restaurants, just quiet streets full of houses and tiny 'corner' shops. It was lovely to have a few days of sheer relaxation, along with a little bit of sightseeing.

Completely randomly, we managed to stay for the week of mellieha's festa - a week long celebration leading up to a solemn mass on Saturday with the procession of the Saint's statue through the streets. Every night the Church was illuminated, brass bands paraded through the streets playing marches and fireworks were let off. As you can imagine, Tim very much enjoyed the bands. We played 'hunt the band' round the streets on several evenings, and spent Friday night in the parish square listening to the music, eating nougat and enjoying the fireworks. It was great to see the whole town involved in the celebrations, and a shame that we had to come home before the main procession.

I could post loads of photos, but here are just two more, showing me and Tim in typical holiday poses:

Elspeth the 'information hound' (Tim's new nickname for me)

Tim relaxing in the pool!

What we did on our holidays, part one

Last week we went camping in the Lake District and in spite of the dire predictions of my workmates, the weather was lovely. We're back now and re-packing for our trip to Malta, but here's a summary of our holiday so far.

Saturday: after a lazy morning and a cooked brunch, head up the M1 towards the Crocker family B&B. A long hot day in the car, relieved by afternoon tea at the Mouseman cafe and afternoon tea number two when we reached my parents'.

Sunday: A Walk up Pen-y-Ghent, continuing our aim of conquering the Three Peaks in three years.

Monday: a drive up through the Dales and into the Lakes. Lunch at the artisan cafe at Booths in Kendal - yum! A short Walk around Brother's Water and up to a waterfall, before arriving at the campsite.

Tuesday: Another Walk around Haweswater and up to High Street. This included a very precipitous descent and much smugness when we reached the bottom of it and met a family about to climb up the same way.

Wednesday: Some walking wear shopping in Ambleside, followed by a quick Walk over High Rigg - a small lump by Lake District standards, but ideally located for great views over to Helvellyn, Skiddaw and Blencathra. The walk also passed a tea shop, which would have been a great stopping point if the owner had been a little less surly. We walked on instead and found afternoon tea later in Keswick.

Thursday: A Walk just North of Mosedale - well it had to be done... a good walk this, with a very steep ascent then great views of the clouds from the (very windy) top. The sun came out after lunch, and we strolled back to the car and found afternoon tea on the way home.

Friday: no walking today as the clouds were very low. Instead, a trip to Honister Slate mine to marvel at the engineering involved at hollowing out a mountain without making it fall down. Then a Lakeland Tea at Bryson's in Keswick - yum!

Saturday: a drive home, broken by visits to Grange-upon-Sands and Ingleton. Fish and Chip dinner when we got home - this is fast becoming a tradition of our holidays, and one we're happy to keep.

Sunday: a day at home to wash and re-pack. To keep up the exercise, we head to Willen Lake and attempt the trim trail. Elspeth discovers she has no upper body strength.

We're all packed now and heading for Malta tomorrow. See you in another week!

My life as a book

I've just carried out the 'which book are you' quiz and this is the result:

You're To Kill a Mockingbird!

by Harper Lee

Perceived as a revolutionary and groundbreaking person, you have
changed the minds of many people. While questioning the authority around you, you've
also taken a significant amount of flack. But you've had the admirable guts to
persevere. There's a weird guy in the neighborhood using dubious means to protect you,
but you're pretty sure it's worth it in the end. In the end, it remains unclear to you
whether finches and mockingbirds get along in real life.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Hmmm. Interestingly, I did study this book at school so I know it quite well. I'm a bit worried about the 'wierd guy in the neighbourhood' though! And since when have I been known as a revolutionary?

A weekend away

This weekend we went back to our favourite campsite, Pencelli Castle near Brecon. We met up with the usual crowd - see above - and spent our time drinking tea/beer (see above), gossiping, playing with Isabella (see below) and playing cricket (also below). We went for a Wet Walk on Saturday to see the waterfalls, but I'm afraid it was too wet to get the camera out - shame, as the waterfalls were looking rather impressive due to all the rain!



Tim and I are now counting down to our holiday - two whole weeks off work, the longest since our honeymoon! We're planning on spending some time in the Lake District, then we're off to Malta for a week for some relaxation and sunshine. Only four more days of work to go...



Anyway, back to the weekend just gone. Tim tries out his cricket stance, while Sam is wicket keeper:
Tim entertains Isabella - or should that be the other way round?
And Chris parties with the burgers:

Good things come in threes

I've just received my exam results for CFA level III which I took in June, and I have passed! I am really pleased to have passed each of the three levels at the first attempt, as it validates the amount of work that I've put in for the exams, and as it means that for the first time in a long time I have no exams on the horizon.

It feels fantastic.

oom-pa in the park

Brass bands do not travel light! Tim's band played in the bandstand in Bedford Park on Sunday, and while I could post a picture of Tim and his Tuba, this shot is more fun. That's not Tim's tuba case in the photo - his is slightly smaller than that, but we do have two of them in the house...

Mum and Dad came down to visit this weekend, so sat in the park with me and enjoyed the music. It was good to see them both again and borrow all their lake district maps for our forthcoming holiday. They also turned up with my old SEGA master system games console - I hadn't realised they still had it! The games look top class, so we're looking forward to dusting them off and seeing if they still work. I'll let you know how it goes...

Training

I'm spending a few days in Bristol, attending a training course for a change, rather than running one! Interestingly, Tim is running a training course on Friday, which will be a new experience for him. I wonder how he'll find it? I really enjoy giving training courses, but they are tiring - you end up talking a lot, which is hard work even for a chatterbox like me!

Of course, Bristol means aerospace, and an A380 landed on the runway next to the canteen at lunchtime. I saw them taking off when I was in Toulouse, but I was much closer to it this time. I drove right past it on the way off site as well - I didn't have the camera with me, but I suspect you're probably not supposed to take photos on site anyway...

Bristol also means family, and I'll be popping in to see the Spencer clan tomorrow evening. Again, bringing the camera would have been a good idea... my excuse is that I left the house at 5:30 this morning, and you can't expect me to remember anything at that time!

A nice weekend

While half of the UK is under a large amount of water, we had a very nice weekend in Bedford. Well, Tim got wet on Saturday but he was in Hitchin, so it doesn't count. Anyway, on Sunday morning we decided it was too nice to stay indoors and set off on a Walk from the front door. One of the nice things about our house is that the river is only 2 minutes walk away, and you soon get away from the houses and out into the countryside (see above). I should point out that I took this photograph - apparently if you ar Tim's height you can see houses and power lines above the crops!

Through the wonders of google, you can see our route here.

It may have been a short walk, but we enjoyed spending some time together, talking about all sorts of things, and admiring the wildlife, including lots of butterflies:



Now this one is a Tim-photo!

Then and now

Over on Facebook, Chris has been asking about the garden. So here is an update!

The garden has suffered from a bit of neglect this year, so it's not looking as good as I would like. But then Tim pointed out that it's looking a lot better than it did two years ago:

Meanwhile, parthenocissus henryana is doing its best to colonise the fence:


The bed on the left is supposed to be our vegetable patch, but not very much happened there this year. I'm considering buying fruit bushes for it instead. The rest of the garden is now starting to fill up with plants, as you can see - most of them are perennials, the idea being that we won't need to do much to the garden each year. Last year the central bed was filled with wild flowers (hence the state of the 'vegetable patch' this year), but this year we added the grasses instead. Overall, I'm pleased with how it looks - considering there was nothing there when we moved it it's now a lovely place to sit out in for breakfasts and dinners.

That's if it ever stops raining...!

Not so successful...

This afternoon Tim and I decided to try out the permanent orienteering course in the local forest - we've had the map for a while and wanted some fresh air and a bit of exercise. Two things hampered this plan slightly:

1. For an allegedly permanent course, there were no posts/markers to be seen. Tim and I are both proficient enough at reading a map to be sure we were at the correct locations, but nowhere did we see any sign of a letter to fill in on our sheet.

2. It rained. Heavily. Only once we were far enough away from the car that we got very wet on the way back. Did I mention that we didn't bother to take any waterproofs? This did curtail our search for markers, so perhaps point number 1 is not comlpetely correct!

So not quite as active an afternoon as we had hoped for. Never mind - there's always next weekend. If anyone knows any other permanent courses then let us know as we'd love to try again some time!

Badminton

After a few re-writes, this post is about badminton. Yesterday I went to Bedford & County Badminton Club for the first time. Having not played badminton, or indeed any concerted sport, for over a year, I’ve been overdue a return. They’ve even gone and changed the rules since last time I played!

I played very poorly. There’ are so many aspects of the game which seem to fall away, or at least go into hiding, when you’re away from it for so long. Positioning, shot selection, timing, power, agility, technical shot making: it was all missing last night. I have a long way to go before I’m back up to par, let alone competing with some of the better players at the club. I trust that the basics will continue to come back quickly so that I can begin to improve on the harder stuff.

So, this post could have been about competitiveness, drive, disappointment, new environments. Instead I’ll keep those thoughts to myself, and look forward to telling you how great it all is once I’ve remembered how to play the game. Besides, all this typing really isn’t doing my aching shoulder any good…

This weekend the Tour de France came to London. This was a perfect excuse for Trish, Cory & Duncan to visit us for a weekend - another set of friends who have realised we live a nice distance away from the capital! We spent Saturday relaxing in Hyde Park, soaking up the atmosphere with the rest of the crowds and watching the cyclists zip by. Sunday and Monday were spent relaxing at home and playing with Duncan, who is officially cute. We managed a trip to the local park as well, as shown above - much fun was had by all!