interlude

Currently experiencing some technical difficulties, normal service will resume in due course.

new year, new day, new resolution

Cloud inversion on the Carneddau

Not really a resolution more of a reaffirmation… I’m going to get out backpacking once a month. No lofty aims or ambitions like bagging Munro’s or Marilyn's, or clocking up 20 mile days, just out in the countryside; some where, any where. In a tent, under a tarp or hanging in a hammock I don’t mind. Just out. In the fresh air, away from the City, in a space to breath, and think, and be free.

And I've not pencilled something in in my diary… no, I’ve written it in biro.

time flies like knives; fruit flies like bananas

I remember this from an eighties paper back by a bloke called Nigel about graffiti. I don’t see much graffiti these days; I guess the virtual bog wall of twitter, facebook, and blogging has replaced it. However in the words of Ronnie Corbett, I digress.

Ben, my son, will be six years old tomorrow, that’s over the hump of his first decade. It doesn’t seem that long ago when I cupped him in my hands as a little bundle in the garden of the Tide Tables cafe next to Richmond Bridge, barely days old. These days he’s barely short enough to fit over my head if he wants to ride on my shoulders, which is most of the time.

Happy birthday Ben, I know you’re not old enough to take the day off to do what you want but that day will come :)

so starts another decade

A change in my working circumstances late last year means I have a more flexible approach to how I work so I plan to get out more. Expect more gear reviews and trips then - the TGO Challenge being my main focus at this point. There's talk about a summer trip to the Pyrenees so I'll be bending Andy Howell's ear about his visits. And I've always fancied the idea of seeing raindeer in Lapland and the Northern Lights so perhaps I may get to meet up with Hendrik.

I'll be at the Backpackers Club AGM which is being held in the south west this year, and I hope that the lightweight gear festival continues to held along side. It's a good opportunity to see gear that you can only oggle online, and to speak to the likes of Bob and Rose at BPL UK, Mark at Ultralightoutdoorgear and Kenny and Co at Alpkit even if you're not a member.

Hope to see you there or out on the trail. A happy new year to you all.

arcam cd37 cd player

I've had a CD37 on home audition for the last couple of days and in between the various building works I've had a chance to listen to the player. The CD37 is a natural upgrade to the CD72 that I own (now available to purchase on gumtree if anyone is interested!) An interesting point to note is that one of the reasons for buying a CD72 was that the DACs could be upgraded to the similarly award winning CD92/CD192; a 192 upsampling improvement over the 24 bit DAC in the CD72. However by the time I made a decision to upgrade Arcam had revamped their CD player range and the boards were no longer available.

Straight out of the box the it was clear that there was a need to run the player in, over the last couple of listen sessions there has been a marked improvement with greater definition and more detail being pulled from the discs. The sound stage is wider and fuller than the CD72, with greater separation of the instruments and voices; the close vocal harmonies on Gillian Welch's Orphan Girl along with the sparse guitar picking stand out. One thing I like about Arcam's sound is that it's laid back, not strident or aggressive so you can enjoy hours of listening without the feeling that your ears needed a rest. Not all Arcam's disc spinners were this easy going, I once auditioned an Alpha 7SE and after twenty minutes I was longing for the quiet dead of night.

The transport and tray are solidly engineered, and the player takes time to load and read discs, no doubt due to the fact that it also plays SACDs. I don't own any of these although I've ordered one up from amazon to get an idea of what this format does sonically. I won't go into my cynical view of vinyl vs CD vs other formats here, I'll save that for another post. Suffice to state that the SACD format hasn't taken off as perhaps Sony would have hoped, no doubt not helped by the iPod generation, streaming and downloads.

Which leads nicely to why spend a very large chunk of cash on a seemingly soon to be obsolete item of hi-fi? There are personal and practical answers to this question. I've amassed a large collection of CDs and I prefer to spend time listening to the music rather than copying it to a hard drive, mp3 player or whatever, that is when I'm not out enjoying the hills and fells. And when I'm out I prefer Natures Soundtrack so I have no need to carry my favoured tunes around on a flash drive.

chanukah

Chanukah starts this Friday so I was out on a mission to find a menorah. Back where I grew up this would have been a easy task; walking up to Stamford Hill and having a browse around the shops on the parade. In the depths of northern Surrey I'd have to improvise. Philip Werner suggested that I make one (Brent Council have a PDF on their website with instructions for a menorah made from recycled materials in case I was that way inclined). However I was going to find a candle holder to suit the Festival of Lights needs; it must hold nine candles, one for each day of the Festival and one for the Shamash, which the other candles are lit from.


The menorah is one of the enduring symbols of Judaism and is traditionally a linear affair but then there's tradition, and then there's tradition. My offering is a modern take on on this, well that's my belief.

joy

Somethings make me so happy... here's one of those moments.

oh doctor beeching!

Bramley Station opened in 1865 as part of the Guildford - Horsham Branch Line. In 1876 a second platform was added and in June 1888 the station changed it's name to Bramley and Wonersh to encompass the nearby village of Wonersh.

On the 16th December 1942, a German plane dropped a bomb on a train leaving the station, badly damaging the train and killing 7 people, including the driver and the guard.

The Guildford - Horsham line was the only branch line in Surrey to be axed by Dr Beeching in 1965. Shortly after the main station building was demolished and a post box is all that remains.

The line took on new life in the 1980’s as it was redeveloped into the Downs Link, a public footpath and bridleway linking the North and South Downs. There's a series of caches along the line that with a bike to whizz you along between sites would be a grand day out.

In 2004, the local parish council and Bramley Historical Society renovated the station area by reinstating decorative crossing gates and a waiting room on one of the platforms.

happy birthday blog

You’re one year old today.

And as a special birthday treat I was going to bake you a cake but as this is a virtual world I found something better suited.

A blog about cakes, not specifically birthday ones, but cakes all the same. And these are special because they are professional made cakes, although to look at some you have to wonder what profession the cake maker is in because clearly it isn’t making cakes!

Now blow out the candle here and enjoy!

st margarets

The first street sign just after the bridge crossing the Mighty River Crane

The new surgery adjacent to the above

The drive

To the station

The surgery sign supplied by the NHS

The other surgery sign

Things are starting to drift...

Where's the punctuation gone?

Going, going, gone.

naked ladies

I wonder how many of you rushed to have a look at this post?


Detail from the fountain in York House Gardens next to the Thames in Twickenham.

chaos in the capital

Matthew over at Idiot on a Bike sums it up nicely... here.

the joy of backpacking

It’s early April. The sun has been blazing all day but it’s now slipping down below the distant skyline. A thin band of dark cloud wrings the last drops of colour from the setting sun. The clear sky beckons a cool, dew damped night.

My stove murmurs as my supper simmers in it’s pot. With the sun gone there is a noticeable drop in air temperature and I shiver slightly. I’m glad I’m sitting on my mat with my legs in my bivi covered sleeping bag. I fidget in the bag and the shivering stops.

Supper is swiftly eaten and with a bellyful of warmth I begin to relax and reflect on the day. I didn’t walk as far as could have, I didn’t do as much ascent as I might but it didn’t matter. I’d walked new places at my own pace, without want or need of a timetable. I pondered on how free and unshackled I felt as I looked up at the stars above. A final shuffle and I was snuggled down in my sleeping bag and drifting off to sleep. 

bike blog

I was pointed towards this bike blog by Teri who's a triathelete. I know, I know, she'll come to her senses one of these days.

This particular post made me smile even though we're at the beginning of another season - enjoy!

snow wonder

It's not often that you cant get into work due to the weather, so I spent the day pottering around doing chores before venturing out to take some pictures of the winter landscape.

Ranelagh Drive, under snow and not the
Thames high tide for a change.

Looking north along the Thames
from Richmond Lock.

seasons change

Began to notice this week that we are moving into Spring. A few bulbs are beginning to poke their green stems skyward, and the magnolia tree in the front garden is starting to show opening buds but it will be a month or more before the flowers appear.

Leaving work at the end of the day and it isn't fully dark any more; there was a twilight blue tinge to the sky last night.

The sun is clearing the houses opposite and now adds milky yellow light to the bedroom before I finally rise in the morning.

At the station the ubiquitous robins still chattered in the trees and shrubs, but now ring doves and wood pigeons cooed in the higher branches adding their voices. Querulous parakeets and magpies argued over perching rights, and a pair of pied wagtails skipped, flitted, wagged and chittered along the platform.

Nature is waking up; it willl soon be Summer.

normal service resumes

Lots of stuff to look forward to.

One new years resolution, nay promise, is to get out under silnylon at least once a month. And to get out on day trips as often as time at weekend allows, with a focus on a different set of hills on the outskirts of London. Having spent the last six months of last year trotting over and along the north and south downs I'm looking west to the Chilterns.

That's not to state that the on going section hiking of the North Downs Way has been dropped -- Darren and I are set to do the next leg towards the end of the month.

There's a summer trip to the Picos that's in discussion, along with a bike packing bivi trip that being peddled around.

With all these trips and excursions perhaps it's time to revisit mobile blogging again.

Finally I've got some new bits and pieces for Christmas that I've got reviews to post.

Have a great year!

happy seasons greetings

Well the title says it all really. Last morning at work until the 5th January. A few plans to stretch my legs over the break; the delayed next leg of the North Downs Way being one, and a lope over Leith Hill with Andy 'Wild' West being another. I think he's going to find the Surrey Hills a bit tame, that said Winterfold and the surrounding area has it's charms.

tom and dick

Been off with the dreaded lurgy. Still suffering so have had to postpone the next leg of the North Downs Way that I was planning to walk with Darren tomorrow :(

Andy 'Wild' West is back from the States and there's a well done/welcome home gathering in Ripley tomorrow evening that I'm hoping to be well enough to get to.

The double bag experiment worked last weekend and despite overnight temperatures of (reputedly) -6C I was plenty warm enough.

The Honey and Bush Buddy Ultra stoves were passed around and comments made. The consensus was that the Honey was heavy and the Bush Buddy expensive. No pleasing some backpacking folk.

Here are a few snaps taken at the weekend.

The lane to Hartington.

Hartington Church.

A very frosty Dove Dale.

Hopefully normal service will resume next week with two book reviews. Also on the horizon some feedback on how the Trail Blaze poles work with pitching the GoliteHex 3 and Hut2 tarp tents.

and then one day you find

ten years have got behind you.

No one told you when to run.

You missed the starting gun.

Enough of the lyrics. OK so I'm another year older (and as I said enough of the lyrics).

I've just had a conversation with a friend; we haven't spoken since '96 or thereabouts. She's still got her Brum accent despite spending most of those years in Korea, Cambodia and India. How did that happen?