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Friday, April 2nd, 2010
839Having exchanged my parents for Christine’s, this morning we packed everything up in to the car and headed to nearby Bicton College for the JK Sprint Race. The college grounds provided a mixture of open fields, woodland and a complex of buildings. I was running M21E and the courses started out across the fields before heading in the to the woodland. This is where I faultered a couple of times, struggling with the large scale for what is otherwise classic orienteering terrain, as shown by my GPS track on RouteGadget. That was more than enough to see me way down in the results. After some sunshine, the rain returned in force whilst we waited for Christine to finish. Ambulances aren’t an uncommon sight at orienteering events given the nature of the sport but the arrival of a police car is always somewhat worrying. It was only later in the day that we heard the tragic news that Dave Stubbs from Berkshire Orienteers had passed away whilst out on his course.
Posted in Family, Orienteering | Comments Off on JK Sprint
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
836We came down to Devon last weekend for my Uncle’s 70 birthday party. We have since been staying in a holiday cottage on the outskirts of Sidmouth with my family. The cottage is nice and large which is lucky as the weather has been pretty miserable so we’ve spent a lot of time inside. Sidmouth itself isn’t all that inspiring, particularly in the rain. We had a trip out to Otterton Mill for a walk. I ended up sat in the car with a sleeping Emma who woke just as everyone else was forced to return by an ever increasing downpour. The photo is from Branscombe Beach (infamous for the grounding of the MSC Napoli) where we managed to get some sunshine (in between the showers). The sun came out again just as my parents left for home but sadly we were touring Sidmouth looking for a replacement tyre having run over a nail. The following day we went in to Exeter to pick up my brother who, having driven my parents home, had returned via train.
http://www.ottertonmill.com/
Posted in Family, Travel | Comments Off on Wet week in Devon
Thursday, March 25th, 2010
It being the last Tuesday before the clocks change, we met early to get a trip out to Lordswood before it got too dark. Given the weather conditions I’m not sure we succeeded as it was fairly dark in the woods and certainly muddy. Still, it was good fun and it meant I could get back home in time for bedtime stories. Roll on the New Forest…
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Posted in Running | Comments Off on Last outing of the winter
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
833Interestingly, haivng just re-read a post from October ’98 when the Google Street View car came past and we’d just been to Manor Farm Country Park, we were back at Manor Farm on Sunday. This was another freebie courtesy of our Culture-all Passport. We’d been attracted by an ad in the county council magazine for a “Nature Navigation” day. This entailed the loan of a GPS to follow a short trail around the park with cardboard cut-out animals along the way. Something like a hi-tec orienteering string course but with the difference that the event was actually popular! Perhaps it was force of habit but the GPS seemed overkill and it would have been more fun with a map. The farm itself was a bigger hit with Emma with lots of young animals to see. She even enjoyed the story teller with his ghostly tales. (One of Emma’s favourite activities at the moment is to get us to make up a story for her which generally has to entail an animal biting their tongue!)
Posted in Family | Comments Off on Nature Navigation
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
Back in October ’98 I blogged about the arrival of the Google Street View car in our road. The data for our area has finally been made available and I’m glad to report that Emma (with short hair) and I can now claim our moment of fame. I’m disappointed that we don’t get to feature twice despite crossing the road whilst the car turned at the end of the cul-de-sac. Having moved house since you’re not likely to find us in the same spot again!
Posted in Family, Web | 2 Comments »
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
830Neil and Alice are off on the other side of the world for the next week or two and have kindly lent us their cycle chariot. Emma was certainly keen to give it a go as she was sat in the seat with the cover over whilst I finished assembling it! Unfortunately Saturday wasn’t really the best day for venturing out on a bicycle as it was drizzling from dawn ’til dusk. By mid-afternoon we had to get out of the house to maintain sanity and a bike ride round the local playgrounds seemed as good an idea as any. As you can see from the photo, Duncan was slightly less keen about the whole idea but then he did go off to sleep shortly after we set off! I certainly found it an easier ride towing two rather than having Emma in the rear seat although there’s not much in the way of hills around us to really provide a test. Given its size, it remains to be seen whether we take it away with us on holiday and, given the price (now about £800 for this model), even more so whether we decide to buy one for ourselves.
Posted in Cycling, Family | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
Having put on my new road shoes for the first time last night it was typical that a route was proposed that, when first run in my absence last year, was apparently ankle deep in mud. The route in question starts by hacking out across to the Common (via the site of Southampton’s Court Leet) and then takes in Hollybrook Cemetery and the Lordsdale Greenway that encircles the Coxford district of Southampton. As well as keeping us off the roads it meant that we got more than the usual level of ‘encouragement’ from local youths! Thankfully it was pretty dry this time round and the trainers came out pretty unscathed. I must remember to tie the laces less tightly next time though as I had pins and needles in my toes for much of the run! An early start next week to take in Lordswood and then we’ll be switching back to the Forest for our runs.
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Posted in Running | 4 Comments »
Monday, March 15th, 2010
On Saturday we went to the SOC local event at Dibden. The longest course on offer was a Green which included several legs from the Mens Open at the British Relays. The course started with a few track legs which weren’t particularly interesting but were a good chance to warmup. When we reached the legs from the relays they weren’t the same gaffles I had but I was pleased to find number six without too much trouble as this was the area I wasted time in at the British. In proceeded to waste a minute or more on the next leg although in my defence I still couldn’t see the distinct vegetation boundary even when I was stood at the control site. Total time was just under 27 minutes for the 5k course so a good burn-up.
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Posted in Family, Orienteering | Comments Off on Relays Revisited
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