We had visitors last Saturday and made a trip out to what I shall always know as the Owl & Otter Center but which is now called the New Forest Wildlife Park. It’s actually the first time I’ve been (despite having used the car park for numerous RR10 events). The owls and otters are still present in force but there’s a good selection of other animals to see from ferrets and foxes to bison and, the most recent addition, wolves. (It’s based in the New Forest obviously rather than containing wildlife representative of the Forest!) The highlight had to be the over friendly deer which, having nibbled my shoelaces proceeded to give the edge of someone’s silk dress a good chew much to their distress! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves but I’m not sure I’d rush back.

The following day, Christine was off visiting a friend and I took the children off to Manor Farm. We topped up our buckets with bird seed as usual although there seemed to be few in evidence in the farmyard. Duncan seems particularly wary of the animals. At one point he let out a prolonged ‘oooooooo’ which transformed in to a scream as a hen approached him. After a picnic we headed down to the playground in the park which was advertising some new equipment. Some was a bit dubious. There was one triangular piece that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a dog agility course which Duncan seemed to love as it had carpet inside and mirrored walls! There is a fantastic new swing though which is a very thick rope suspended from something resembling a Newton’s cradle which seats/stands about 10 children. After about 10 minutes of watching, Emma eventually deigned to get on. She didn’t stay on for long though!

I can’t claim that Royal Wedding fever was rife in the Currie household. Emma was mildly excited due to the whole ‘princess’ side of things but probably wouldn’t have noticed  if we’d just gone out for the day. As it was, we settled down in front of the TV just as the groom departed for the Abbey and watched until they were in the church. The photo is a bit misleading as Duncan wasn’t really glued to the screen. He was probably only standing there to try and get other people’s attention. Emma seemed to enjoy wathing all of the different hats going in to the church.

Having seen the vows, we then rushed out the door to go and have lunch with friends. The TV was on there when we arrived but the children seemed to have lost interest in the event by then although the two girls did continue to wear the crowns they had made at their respective nurseries (obviously a popular pre-wedding activity). The occassion was, however, an excuse for Christine to add a patriotic theme to the cake baking. In fact, cakes seemed to be of particular interest to Emma. When we bought the paper the following day, Emma was most keen to find a picture of the wedding cake!

Emma’s birthday itself was a fairly quiet afair. Emma was up early but more due to sunlight than anything birthday related. Presents were opened over breakfast and then I went in to work.  The family then joined me there for lunch at the clubhouse where Emma’s early start was starting to show. Apparently she enjoyed visiting the fish after I’d gone back to my desk though. Then it was the first of many cakes in the evening. Emma’s attempts at blowing anything (and not just Rice Krispies out of her nose) are still pretty feeble so I was suitably impressed that she managed to extinguish the candles.

Emma then went to nursery on Thursday as usual where she got to celebrate her birthday again. This time, she was dispatched with iced fairy cakes for each of the children. I then took Friday off work and, although we spent most of the day preparing for Saturday, we did have a trip out to the paddling pool and sandpit at Flemming Park. It’s the first time Emma’s ever wanted to go in the paddling pool so, not having brought a swimming costume, she had to make do with wading around in the water with Christine.

Saturday was party day: 10 kids (including siblings) and their parents. Emma’s excitement rocketed even just at the sight of balloons scattered around the lounge. Thankfully though she was pretty well behaved for the whole of the event (as were the other guests!). The balloons proved to be a bit of a sore point mind: one girl couldn’t bare to go anywhere near them lest they burst whilst the twins were busy popping them with cocktail sticks. Christine compered the party games (of which hunt the teddy seemed to go down the best). I was responsible for decorating cake number 3 which, for some reason lost in the mists of time, had to look like a lion. I thought it looked pretty good but Emma’s first guess was that it was a mouse!

Three hours later and the children departed with their party bags and we sighed a huge sigh of relief. I think Duncan’s birthday will be a much quieter affair!

More photos on Flickr.

Our accommodation has a wonderful view over Saunton Sands and Braunton Burrows which meant that we didn’t have far to travel to today’s event. I drove Christine down for her run and took Emma around the string course. Emma enjoyed running up and down the dunes so much that we had to collect all of the off-string controls (although the walk to and from the start was a bit much for her, particularly with all the puddles to jump in). The enjoyment was increased by the copious amounts of sunshine! There were 4 hours between split starts so I could drive everyone back to the cottage, have lunch, and then drive back for my run!

As my GPS track shows, I failed to make the most of a child free preparation to my run and ended up returning to the start kite before eventually locating the first control! That put me 5 minutes behind the leaders and I never really recovered. I struggled to interpret the complex contour detail on the 1:15,000 map and always felt myself lucky if I did hit a control spot on. I was 7th on the day but 8 minutes behind the leader which put me 8th over the two days. Others in our accomdation faired much better with Christine 3rd on W21S, Mark 2nd on M50L and Alice winning W50L.

On my return, the Easter bunny had visited our garden and Emma enjoyed hunting out the chocolate eggs, even if she couldn’t seem to see them even when they were right in front of her face!

We decided to make the most of the sunshine today and spent a large part of it at Hillier Gardens. Despite no longer being members, entry is still free with our Culture-all Passport. In some ways, the passport is better as, in my absence, Christine can take any guest along with her for free. I’ve put a small selection of photos up on Flickr. (I’ve decided to make a concerted effort to download photos in a more timely manner, sort them more ruthlessly and get more of them up on the web.) Unfortunately a large number of people had obviously had the same idea and, although they are easily lost in the gardens, there was a long queue to get something to eat.

Anderwood Score GPX

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Neil didn’t get many takers for this venture and I’m afraid I wasn’t going to be one of them! Neil and Roderick set out from Fritham early this morning, heading past the Sir Walter Tyrell at Rufus Stone to the New Forest Inn at Emery Down and then on to The Oak at Bank. From there they went across to Beaulieu Road Station and then headed west towards Brockenhurst which is where I joined them at the Standing Hat car park. I had a distinct advantage at this point given that they had already run 17 miles by now.

We skirted round to the north of Brockenhurst and on to the car park at Wilverley which was heaving in the summer sunshine. From there we ran along the edge of the Inclosure (which sadly didn’t provide much shade) and crossed the A35. We parted company for a short while as we crossed Mill Lawn Brook. I headed right a bit to cross at the bridge and then couldn’t find Neil and Roderick again. They had stopped at the stream and, as you can see from Neil’s trace on my watch below, then spent a while looking for me before I, having continued on to the clearing beyond, eventually phoned them. We met again by Burley Cottage although I had taken a slightly more direct route along the cycle path.

From there we continued north to cross the A31 at the underpass, then cut through Milkham Inclosure to High Corner Inn where we were met by Christine with welcome top-ups to the water supplies. From there it was a familiar final push back to Fritham.

In total, Neil and Roderick had covered an impressive 34 miles on trails and through terrain taking 6 hours 35 minutes. I had joined them at the mid-point in both time and distance which says much for their determination to keep going in the second half. Congratulations guys – good effort! Look forward to seeing you on Tuesday night.

Sadly, the day didn’t end quite so well. As were leaving the pub Emma slipped off the bench and caught the back of her head on the seat, as a result of which she took a massive bite in to her tongue. Hopefully the blood pouring out of her mouth didn’t put too many people of their drink. Emma made the most of it getting regular cuddles for the rest of the evening although she was in a particularly bad way at dinner time when eating was obviously painful. Looking at the large incision in to her tongue I could see why. Let’s hope she’s feeling a bit better tomorrow.

PS I’ve had to reduce the number of data points in the GPX below so that XML Google Maps doesn’t grind to a halt. Here’s the full GPX if you’re interested in all the gory detail!

Run the Pubs/Car Parks Reduced GPX

We headed over to the Isle of Wight today for the Needles Cross-Country Marathon (although I was only running the half). Our gamble of getting the 8:45 ferry seemed to pay off and we arrived in reasonable time for the 10:00 start from the West Wight Sports Centre. There was a good turnout (around 300 for both events) with a fair sprinkling of Tuesday night runners present (myself, Neil, Darren, Roderick, Sue and Jane).

The course heads up to Yarmouth and then around the coast to Freshwater Bay via the Needles. The Half Marathon then heads back inland and the Marathon does a loop out to the east. Although nearly all off road, there was more hard surface underfoot than I had anticipated. It was a bit too hot for my liking, particularly when slogging up the hills, although there was a welcome breeze at times. It was probably a bad sign that, as I ran up towards the Needles Battery I was chatting to the first lady. She then proceeded to disappear ahead of me as we climbed to the radio mast. As we ran along Tennyson Down I could then watch her, and the other two runners who past me as I stopped for a drink, gradually pull away from me.

Another runner passed me when I stopped at the drinks station at Freshwater Bay (perhaps I should have carried water after all) and, although I tried my best, I failed to haul him back in again before the finish line. The results have me down as seventh finisher which sounds fairly respectable although I’d have liked to get under 90 minutes. Neil had a good run and was less than 4 minutes behind me. (Apologies for the poor quality of the photo Neil – you were going too fast for the camera!) It’ll be interesting to see how we do at the OMM this year (Neil having just submitted our entry for the B course).

We were planning to find a beach before catching the two o’clock ferry home but Emma was starting to look a bit dopey so we drove back to Yarmouth and were then waved straight on to the earlier ferry.

Needles Half Marathon GPX

It was pay back time this weekend as we spent both days helping out at various events. On Saturday we went along to the SOC event at Hut Wood. We walked there and got soaked as a result when the heavens opened. Thankfully the sun came out as we arrived and the rain didn’t return until later in the day. The downpour didn’t seem to have discouraged attendees either with over 60 participants. I went round with a group of juniors from nearby Halterworth Harriers running club. Not wishing to be stereotypical but the two lads did all of the work whilst the older girls discussed boys, films, TV etc. I’d originally only planned to shadow them for the first few controls but when they started heading off in the wrong direction to number three then I thought I’d best stick with them. Who knows – perhaps they’d have paid more attention if I hadn’t been there as the safety net? I think even Emma on the yellow course with Christine may have averaged faster minutes per km…

Today we went down to Royal Victoria Country Park to help marshall at the Southampton Running Club 10k. It absolutely tipped it down again but thankfully we were in the car this time (and not involved in either of the accidents we passed on the M27). As we neared the park, blue skies suddenly appeared from nowhere and the rain stayed away until we were getting back in the car. Neil brought the twins over and they and Emma made the most of the combination of waterproof suits, wellies and big puddles!

A visiting friend and a dry forecast was all the excuse we needed to head over to Marwell Zoo on Saturday. It’s the first time we’ve taken Emma and she’s certainly of an age where she can take it all in now. There’s a good range of animals from giraffes to ants and everything inbetween and having arrived before eleven we were there until closing time. It’s perhaps debateable whether Emma enjoyed the playgrounds more than the animals though! Still, entry is free (for her) until she reaches three. I had the camera out but I’m not particularly impressed with any of the photos I took. The slightly less mediocre ones are over on Flickr.

We were visiting friends near Reading on Saturday and, at their suggestion, we all headed over to Beale Park for the day. Described as a “Wildlife Park and Gardens” it was soon clear that, in reality, the park contains almost anything that might be described as an amusement: from paddling pool to piggery, from gardens to goats and from trains to lemurs (sorry – the alliteration broke down on the third attempt!). As with many places of this size, you worry a bit about the welfare of the animals and, with some cages not labelled at all, you even wonder about the educational benefit. However, all in all, both adults and child enjoyed the day out.

I nipped in to the Holiday Inn to get a hand pushing the car out the way. Needless to say reception was staffed by a selection of dainty looking young girls. By the time we’d rounded up a couple of big strong men my car was surrounded by four of our finest Community Support officers. One of them helpfully suggested that we needed to move the car sideways on to the raised central reservation. Fortunately his colleague saw the sense of moving it out the way round the corner in to Dew Lane. Rather embarrassing for me was that he was about to call my mobile number from a piece of paper he’d retrieved from the glove box (presumably the central locking had failed as I rushed away). This was the note the RAC had given me detailing the problem with the alternator.

Many thanks to my colleague Chris Andrews who came to the rescue in his Land Rover. We retrieved the old battery (now fully recharged) from home and, with a jump start, this was sufficient to get me to the garage where the alternator was due to be replaced on Thursday. Although only £40 cheaper than Kings Seat, I decided to go with Independent Car Sales and Servicing in the local industrial estate. This was mainly because I felt we’d given Kings more than enough money in the past year but I wasn’t disappointed by the quality of the service that I received.

Sogndal was our decision point: should we continue north to Geiranger or start the journey eastwards back toward home. Geirangerfjord is supposed to be perhaps one of the most impressive fjords in Norway but we decided that we were all fjorded out and opted to take the tourist road over the mountains to Lom instead. This route is definitely worth making part of your itinerary – particularly when the sun is out as it was for us. The views across the Jotunheimen mountain range were stunning.

We had three nights in Lom – mainly just so that we weren’t moving on every day. Unfortunately this is where our luck ran out with the weather. The first day we headed up the local peak of Lomseggen – the top of which was shrouded in cloud when we set off. The path up wasn’t very pleasant and as it became steeper and looser underfoot we decided to head back.

The following day we headed back in to the Jotunheimen, driving up one of the toll roads to the hotel at Leirvassbu. The plan was to ascend the nearby summit Kyrkja, or at least Christine would as I might decline to carry Emma up the scramble at the end. As it turned out, neither of us made it to the top. After a lunch stop I turned back with Emma as I didn’t fancy the combination of boulders and snow. Christine was then forced back a little further on when the clouds dropped and the hail came down, obscuring the path onwards.

Our last night in Lom was also not the best. My phone rang just before midnight and then a few minutes later there was a knock on our cabin door. It was one of the staff from the campsite cafeteria where we had eaten dinner returning the handbag that Christine had left on the back of her chair. The contents were all still there except for 300 Kroner in notes. A sleepless night was then had trying to decide whether or not to cancel all of Christine’s cards. In the end we decided that it was unlikely that the bag had been through the hands of a hardened criminal, just someone with light fingers, and consequently did nothing. So far we haven’t been proved wrong…

From Lom we headed south towards Oslo, stopping for a night in Valdres at the winter hut of some friends. This felt like absolute luxury compared with the cabins we had been staying in – perhaps helped by good company and a few drinks. The next morning we all headed up a local hill. Unfortunately the views across to the Jotunheimen were not forthcoming but at least we could say that we had made it to the top of something!

The 17th May is yet another public holiday in Norway although sadly, this year, a Saturday. This time it is the National Constitution Day, celebrating Norway’s declaration as an independent state in 1814 (although still under Swedish rule). The day is very much targeted at the young and as we ate our breakfast we could see the local children gathering at the school for the raising of the flag. Unfortunately, it was to prove to be the coldest National Day for fifty years and at this point was actually snowing!

We then followed a group of children down the hill to the city centre where a massive parade takes place.  We had been given tickets by the relocation company for the enclosure in front of the palace so were well placed to view the procession and the reception by the royal family from their balcony. That said, with the freezing cold and rain, the main street was not as packed as it might normally be. After about an hour of watching the children and school bands march past we had to head for the warmth of home.

For the rest of the day’s entertainment we have to thank Sophie and Finn from the orienteering club. This began with hot dogs (pølse) and cream cakes courtesy of Sophie’s family. We then headed over to Rikshospitalet to join in their local parade with the younger children. Fortunately by this point the sun was out. Josephine was awake but Emma slept through the marching band as she had for much of the morning’s action! The parade ended at the school where various games had been laid on for the children. We indulged in another tradition – ice cream!

A large proportion of the population were clothed in the national dress for the day and even those who weren’t were very smartly attired. I have to say that this may be the first occasion on which I’ve seen a Norwegian man wearing a suit and tie!

We’ve been trying to figure out the closest occasion that Britain has to the Norwegian National Day but failed. Some sort of mix of St George’s Day, Trooping the Colour and school sports day is about as close as I can get. Perhaps we do need a constitution after all?!

We spent last weekend in the Czech Republic at the wedding of our (currently Southampton based) friends Petra Hajkova and Petr Junek. Things didn’t get off to a good start with the Thomsonfly flight from Bournemouth to Prague delayed by an hour and a half. This meant Emma wouldn’t wait for the feed that Christine had hoped to give her on the ascent and then had just dropped off sleep when it was time to board. Emma screamed a bit when the doors were closed but, greedy thing that she is, eventually settled in to a feed and then proceeded to sleep for most of the flight.

Hertz then delayed us a little further by directing us to the wrong parking bay and then I had to work out how to fit the child seat we had hired (somehow I had though they might do this for us). The wedding was taking place in a small village called Strážné on the edge of the Krkonose Mountains to the North East of Prague. We had to break the two and a half hour journey for a feed which then meant we wasted a further ten minutes or so taking wrong turns in the dark.

The upshot of all of this was that we arrived at the wedding venue shortly after dinner had been cleared away and we collapsed in to bed with just a cereal bar for sustinance. Still, it had taken us considerably less than the 26 hours it had taken a friend with a green conscience to come via train.

We joined the other Brits for breakfast the following morning and then went for a short walk before dressing for the eleven o’clock ceremony at the adjacent church. Sadly, Emma objected to the organ music that marked the arrival of the bride and groom. Christine whisked her away quickly, missing all of the service (and indeed most of the next three hours whilst Emma slept, the baby monitor battery having died on the journey out). Petra was resplendent in white dress whilst Petr had hired the works – tails, top hat and gloves.

There were sections of English to keep the non-Czech speakers amused and mercifully no hymns. We then returned to the accommodation where the eating and drinking began. There was also the traditional joint sawing of logs and sweeping up of a broken plate (don’t ask me!) followed by a manic bearded story-teller come puppeteer who threw the occasional English phrase in to the Czech fables so that there was a vague chance that we might comprehend.

In another tradition, the bride was then ‘kidnapped’ by relatives and taken to a local hostelry. The groom’s party then proceeded to go from pub to pub in search of her, the groom having to fork out for drinks at each venue until she was found. We were left in the hands of a live band (a little loud for Emma who only ventured out during their breaks) and Petr’s mum who was determined to introduce the Brits to the full range of Czech spirits despite not being able to communicate in English.

As the band gave way to a somewhat quieter rendering of someone’s MP3 collection, we skulked off to bed. Breakfast was mercifully a little later the following morning and Emma duly obliged by sleeping for over eleven hours.

It was only a fleeting visit to the Czech Republic for us and it was soon time for us to set off back to the airport. We stopped off briefly in Jicin to wander around the old town and head up the obligatory town tower. Thomsonfly were only 50 minutes behind schedule for the return journey. Christine had the unfortunate task of changing a nappy mid-air in a toilet that was big enough for baby or mother but not both.

On balance, an enjoyable weekend but also a hard introduction to the additional complexities (and stresses) of traveling with children.

No – I haven’t been reading Harry Potter all of this time. We’ve been away on holiday for the past couple of weeks and without network connectivity for most of that time. Our primary destination was the Scottish 6-Days orienteering event held on Speyside, up in the Highlands of Scotland. However, we decided to make the most of my being off work and have a fairly leisurely drive up there showing off Emma to various relatives on the way.

First stop was a couple of nights at my parents’ in Hertfordshire. From there we headed North to my Aunt in County Durham, stopping off at a family friend in Derby on the way. By now it was clear that, weather-wise, we were heading in the wrong direction: South of England = heatwave; Scotland = rain. Although I’ve visited Hadrian’s Wall a couple of times, I’ve always ended up Housesteads so, for a change, we had one of our many travel breaks at Chesters Roman Fort. The bathhouse, sited down by the river is in particularly good nick. A black mark for the visitors centre though who said that it was fine to take in a pushchair. Given each set of remains is surrounded by a fence with kissing gates, we’d have been better off with the baby carrier. As it was, we had to keep taking it in turns to parade Emma round the perimeter of each enclosure.

Having crossed the border in to a rain soaked Scotland, our next port of call was Stirling. We met up with Christine’s parents at the Wallace Monument although declined to pay to go up. They had flown to Glasgow where they had picked up a rather snazzy camper van from Kira Rentals. The go-Pod was to be their home for the week but would also act as a nice dry crèche for Emma. Already toying with the idea of buying a camper van, the experience only seemed to leave them more enthusiastic about the idea.

We had rather grander accommodation planned, as were due to stay in Kellas House, one of the two large country houses booked by JOK for the week. Whilst slightly more out of the way than the other house (Glentromie Lodge) and without its model railway, the current Dutch owners have made it a very comfortable home (providing you don’t mind the assorted parts of dead animals liberally scattered around the walls). Emma certainly didn’t seem to have any trouble sleeping on the massive bed (or indeed, we’re glad to say, in her travel cot).

As for the orienteering, probably the least said the better. I have spent a not insignificant amount of time coaching and/or training on four of the areas (Alvie, Inshriach West, Culbin and Anagach) but this didn’t appear to help me in the slightest. Fitness wasn’t too much of a problem, although I’ll admit to struggling a bit on the long legs through the heather at Camerory and I enjoyed the lack of rocks underfoot at Culbin. No – twenty years of orienteering in the South of England has just left me with sloppy habits. Pretty much every day I wasted several minutes on two or three controls, wandering around in the general vicinity of the kite. Typically this was because I’d failed to navigate accurately enough to even find my attack point (if I had one) let alone the control site itself.

Things improved marginally on the last day when, having made my mistakes early on and been caught eight minutes by Ben Chesters, I decided not to just let him cruise past for the third time of the week. Instead we raced each round the second half of the course, taking turns in the lead. I had my best placing of the week (8th) and I like to think I helped Ben to first place. Sadly this still left my languishing in 24th place on M21L in the overall results. Even allowing for the large foreign contingent, I should have been at least in the top fifteen. Christine faired somewhat better, finishing a creditable 13th on W21S in her first orienteering since returning to running.

Our journey back down South involved few stops: Dunblane, Gretna Green (parking is free but otherwise it doesn’t have much going for it!) and Blackburn/Ramsbottom. We did, however, have to contend with the M40 being closed whilst the police crawled up and down it on their hands and knees. Still, the detour via Coventy didn’t cost us too much time and when we rejoined the M40 at Banbury we had it pretty much to ourselves. With accommodation already being booked, now we just have to decide whether we are going to head North again to Tayside in 2009.

A bus ride was then layed on to Millets Farm Centre which, despite the name, was an idylic location for a very tasty evening BBQ. We then danced the night away to Damian’s party mix and the excellent Jazz Soul Boogie Band.

No photos I’m afraid as, in my role as official photographer, I think the bride and groom should be first to see them.

Congratulations to Alison and Aloysius who tied the knot yesterday in Rickmansworth. Alison was a fellow Engineering and Computer Science student back in Oxford and met Al on a mountain biking holiday.

Christine and I had the day timed to perfection. I would drive her to a Swedish exam in Southampton and wait outside. We would then drive back through Chandler’s Ford to return a DVD to the library and then on to the hotel where we would change and get the coach that was laid on to the church. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until we had reached Fleet that I realised that I’d failed to put the suit/dress carrier in the car (and not for the first time). We didn’t make it to the hotel but did still have 20 minutes to spare when we reached the church.

As Al mentioned in his speech, it’s not often that you see Alison in a dress but weddings are special occasions and she certainly looked the part yesterday, complete with long white train. After the ceremony we made the mistake of trying to cut through to the reception venue only to meet a dead end. Consequently, when we eventually arrived, we were being offered refills for glasses we didn’t have!

The reception was being held in the fantastic setting of Moor Park Mansion. With a string quartert, nice meal, ceilidh, free bar and a pretty impressive firework display all I can say is that I’m glad we don’t have to top that! The wedding favours for the men were also very practical – breath testers. Mine seemed to say that although Christine hadn’t been drinking all evening I was sober enough by the end of the evening to drive anyway.