Brecon break

April 14th, 2012

1010For the first half of the Easter half-term holiday we booked a last minute break at a cottage on the north edge of the Brecon Beacons near Llanfrynach. We arrived on the Saturday and the next day enjoyed a fantastic cycle ride along the east edge of Talybont reservoir up to the waterfalls where we had lunch. Duncan got a bit cold during the shady ride there (he doesn’t put any effort in when sat in the child seat) but the falls were in the sunshine and he seemed to have warmed up enough by the end of the trip to enjoy an ice cream!

The next day, after much indecision we decided to take a crack at climbing a hill and if you’re going to climb a hill it might as well by the highest: Pen y Fan. We spurned the motorway footpath up from the Storey Arms, instead using the car parks on the north side near the cottage. This gave us a nice gentle climb up past Pen Milan, stopping near Llyn Cwm Llwch for lunch before the final steep climb up past the obelisk and to Corn Du. Emma was starting to flag a little bit on this final ascent but she and Duncan enjoyed playing with the stones on the flat summit. From there, it’s a short hop to the marginally higher Pen y Fan. We descended north from there and I abandoned Christine and the children and ran off to bring the car round. It may have only been about five miles in total but it was still a fun day out in the hills and we were pleased that Emma made it round without too much grumbling. Even Duncan walked more than we expected!

The weather began to turn at this point and we spent the next day at Dan-yr-Ogof caves. I was actually quite impressed by the caves but for the children I think the Dinosaur Park was the real winner. By the time we reached the Shire Horse Centre, the rain had set in and sadly the indoor play area didn’t appear to have much for young children (a tricycle race track which isn’t much fun on your own) so we set off back to the cottage. The Wednesday was pretty much a write off as we watched the thick snow cover first the hills and eventually the fields surrounding the cottage. We managed a twenty minute walk in the morning and then went to the swimming pool in Brecon after lunch.

The cottage was booked for the Easter weekend so we packed the car on Thursday and went for a short walk along the Brecon and Monmouthshire canal before heading off to stay at Christine’s parents’ for a couple of days to make a week of the holiday.

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Sickness and Steam

March 18th, 2012

1007I’m catching up on some old blog posts – primarily as an excuse to link to some photos. Back at the beginning of March we’d booked a return trip to Whitemead in the Forest of Dean to catch up with Christine’s cousin and family. It didn’t quite work out as planned – I started to come down with a cough on the Friday and by the time we arrived I was shivering uncontrollably and took to my bed. Saturday was a write off (at least for me) but by Sunday morning I was starting to feel a bit better and Duncan, Emma and I joined the soon to be be birthday boy, Daniel, and his Dad for a ride on the Dean Forest Railway. I have to say that, once you’re actually on the train, the fact that it is steam powered is rather lost but the children all certainly enjoyed themselves.

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Hamptworth: dark and light

February 27th, 2012

1004There was a full weekend of orienteering on offer on the weekend just passed. In the end, we decided not to make it three trips to the Forest and spent Saturday enjoying the sunshine doing a bit of work in the garden. I then headed down to the Hamptworth Estate on Saturday evening for the British Night Champs. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with night orienteering. You can’t beat the pleasure of running through the pitch black and seeing a control looming out of the darkness. Sadly, I tend to spend rather too much time running around in circles and this was not to be an exception.

As RouteGadget shows, I made two major blunders. Everything started well enough but at the fifth control I was rather thrown by the presence of contours in the New Forest and turned up-hill just 10 metres short of the control. Actually, I think I was thrown because my attack point was supposed to be a ditch junction whereas, in the daylight, it was evident that the ditch on the map actually turns in to a veg boundary. I had more trouble with vegetation boundaries at 12 where it looks like I had the rhododendrum boundary out by 90 degrees.

Each of those mistakes cost me five minutes. On top of that, in the tussocks and brashings I was generally too cautious and when I finished I was third out of three and a good 25 minutes down on the leader. As it transpired, the remaining three runners in my class managed to take even longer so I can still claim a bronze medal!

On Sunday, the sun was shining again and we all went along for a fantastic day back at Hamptworth. I took the children round the string course whilst Christine ran. Duncan walked the whole way and both were pleased to see sweets at the finish rather than the usual SOC raisins! We then sat in the sun next to a large puddle adjacent to the finish waiting for Christine to return.

I found the area much more enjoyable in the daylight when it was possible to make use of more distant objects in the vague terrain. Two mistakes again on RouteGadget. The first at 8 where, in the presence of Tim Britton, I failed to realise that I had drifted to the north. Then another two minutes en-route to 12 where I failed to negotiate the rhodies successfully. I was six minutes down on Jack Benham so my running speed was definitely up on the previous night. I can’t quite work out where I’ll end up in the SCOA Champs as a result – probably second or third.

I got back to discover that Christine (with a little help from the sweets) had persuaded Emma to go round the string course twice more (on her own this time) and Duncan had even walked round again. All in all, a fun weekend of orienteering although given my aching legs today, not one to be repeated too frequently!

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Half term holiday

February 20th, 2012

1001We’ve quickly settled in to the school routine when it comes to organising our holidays around term time. For February half term, Emma and I enjoyed a day together whilst Christine worked and Duncan went to nursery as usual then, the next day, we packed our bags and set off to visit Christine’s brother and family at their new house in Cornwall. We stopped off in a Travelodge in Ilminster on the way down. I wouldn’t recommend it as it’s looking pretty tired. We also made the mistake of attempting to go out for dinner in the town on what was, of course, Valentine’s night. We traipsed around with the children in tow being turned away from one pub after another. Eventually we did ended up at the Marston’s pub which did us proud.

We had an enjoyable time with my Uncle in Devon the following day, visiting the miniature zoo in Shaldon amongst other things, before completing our journey down to Cornwall. The next day we headed back west to re-visit the Eden Project. It must have been five years ago when we last went as we met my parents there and told them that Christine was pregnant with Emma. The children enjoyed themselves greatly, particularly the chocolate theme! The next day was spent in and around Falmouth with the relatives. We even managed some sunshine down on the beach. I’m afraid we can’t recommend the Gylly Beach cafe as the wait was prohibitive. The ice creams afterwards went down well though.

Sadly the nice weather was not to last and our journey home was spent under a rain cloud. We did, at least, have a day to gather our thoughts again before getting back to the school/work routine.

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Black Water white water

February 13th, 2012

998On Sunday we went to the Wessex event at Black Water near Burley (not in Dorset, despite the name of the event: Dorset Delight). Although Thursday night’s snow had disappeared from around our house, it was still very much in evidence in the forest. We were therefore grateful to Christine’s Mum for taking the children round the string course and saving us all from a prolonged day of split starts in the cold. It was a lovely bit of runnable forest and I enjoyed my run in the crisp snow and ice. The mapping and planning left a little to be desired (the former perhaps suffering from a summer revision and the latter from the former) as did my navigation. My meanderings through the forest can be seen on RouteGadget which explain why I ended up nearly six minutes down on the winner. Although my calf was a bit sore, my ankle stood up to the test so time to enter some more events…

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Lollies

February 3rd, 2012

995Duncan has becoming increasingly stubborn, not helped this week by having a lingering cold as side of which he’s come out in spots all over his cheeks. For example, for breakfast he currently needs to have two bowls: one for porridge and one for cereal (or breakfast as Duncan insists on calling it), and has to sit on someone’s lap to eat them. If you ask him whether he’d like a little bit of something, he always reply with ‘big bit’.

This evening we had another classic example. Half way through the first course, Duncan pushed his plate away and declared that he wanted a lollipop (which usually means an ice lolly). After a few minutes of persistence, he decided better of it and ate a bit more off his plate. Anyway, eventually Emma went to get the lollies out (ideal for possibly the coldest night of the year!) and made the mistake of first getting out the packet containing the last remaining Fab. Emma generously agreed to let Duncan have it (having had a real lollipop earlier from a birthday at school). After one bite, Duncan decided he rather have a milk lolly like Emma and tried to palm his off on me. Luckily, half way through, Emma decided she didn’t like hers and gave it to Duncan, only to then decide she’d have Duncan’s Fab instead. Fantastic – two happy children. Only then, having seen Emma biting off all the chocolate and sprinkles, Duncan decided that he really would rather have the Fab! Luck would have it that Emma then decided it was too cold for lollies. Duncan reclaimed his lolly for the third time and I got a half eaten mini milk!

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New bed

January 23rd, 2012

992After much indecision on my part, we have finally bought Emma’s new bed (her first full size bed) and it duly arrived on Friday. I managed to get the bed itself assembled by bedtime (although, as you can see from the picture, the drawers didn’t arrive until later in the evening). Emma was very excited and was suitably pleased with the bounce of her new mattress! The biggest change, however, was for Duncan who was finally able to move out of his cot and transfer to Emma’s old bed. He has been preempting that move for sometime by climbing in to Emma’s bed just before lights out, tucking himself in and shouting “my bed” on a regular basis. Much to our surprise, he didn’t take advantage of his new found freedom and went to sleep without leaving his new bed. He also doesn’t appear to be quite so prone to falling out of bed as Emma was (and sometimes still is). The best bit, of course, is that they can both get in to our room for their morning stories without either of us having to leave the warmth of our bed. Even better: Emma has taken to waiting in her bed until our alarm goes off – whatever time we might have set it for!

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Trains, planes and boats

January 17th, 2012

989I had suggested that on Sunday we get the train to Brockenhurst for a walk but the day before Emma managed to get a cut between her toes by standing on the edge of the up-turned washing basket! Emma has been hopping/hobbling around ever since (except when she forgets when she runs around quite normally!). Our fallback plan was to go to nearby Lakeside Country Park and have a ride on the miniature dual gauge railway. Christine declined to join us on the train and, in the 20 minutes we had to wait for it to leave, could easily have walked the length of the line several times!

Unlike last time, Emma seemed entirely unperturbed by the smoke and noise. When we got off at the playground, Duncan spent most of the time watching the other trains go round and, as each one departed, he would shout “another train, another train”. We walked back through the park taking in the planes from the nearby airport and the r/c sailing yachts on the lake. We didn’t linger though as, despite the sunshine, the wind was bitterly cold.

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