GETTING ON WITH IT

Procrastination. It's what I do well.

You will have noticed a few lulls in the blog recently, but it's not for the want of something to write about; more the choice of what to write about and then the moment passing. Life can be a little bit like that for me at times.

There's been a trip to the Yorkshire Dales to see John, Steph & Sierra a few weeks back, that has totally passed this blog by; a trip to the Lakes last weekend with Lord Elpus to support Shirl and various momentous personal bits and pieces that would otherwise have been hinted at or alluded to.

But sometimes life gets in the way and the time to sit back and think about events flies by at break-neck speed. For me, my blog has been a 'Pause for Thought' oasis of calm, when I can sit down and gather my thoughts and carve out some semblance of order from the chaos that sometimes masquerades as life. My blog can be a place for me to distill what is worth having, and conversely I suppose, to decide what needs to be discarded.

It needs more care than it is getting at the moment as without this care it is possible to career onwards at dizzying speed, blundering blindly about.

So - I promise to spend more time with you all - if only to sort stuff out in my own mind. You may not have a clue what I am talking about as I am sure that I am pretty confused about it all as well.

Anyway - You will be seeing more of me from now on - that's a promise. There's a whole heap of stuff coming up that needs sifting, sorting and organising and it's going to be done right here. It should be fun - there's some good things to think about.

In the meantime, here are some lovely pictures to act as a bit of a 'catch-up' for the last month.

Yorkshire Dales

From Loughrigg Fell (a Wainwright, don't ya know!)

Wild evening on Black Crag (another Wainwright)

Oh - and thanks for being patient with me; I must do better! Now I must write that out a hundred times....

NOW WE ARE THREE

My two boys will recognise this book as their favourite bedtime storybook. Perhaps it was the delivery, but usually after ten minutes or so they were as good as gold and fast asleep.

Anyway - today, the blog is three years old. Happy Birthday Blog. We have been through some good times and some bad time in those three years as I am sure some of our congregation have too. But life isn't so bad you know.

Well, now the boys are all grown up I thought it was time that they realised that there is a real life out there: Everyone has problems - Even their boyhood heroes. This table was pinched unashamedly from Wickipedia.

In December 2000, a Canadian medical journal jokingly "diagnosed" characters in the books and films with various mental illnesses:

	Conditions	Additional factor	Cause	Drug (brand / common name)
Pooh	inattentive subtype (ADHD); cognitive impairment; possibly Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) (ADHD impulsive subtype excluded), if so he may have Tourette syndrome	Obesity and poor diet	"Shaken Bear Syndrome" (dragged down stairs by Christopher) resulting in microcephaly, ADHD: cause unknown	Stimulant (Ritalin/methylphenidate)
Piglet	Generalized Anxiety Disorder	Bad enviroment	emotional trauma from trapping heffalumps	antipanic agent (Seroxat/paroxetine)
Eeyore	chronic dysthymic disorder or Major depressive disorder	Housing problem	Unknown	antidepressant (Prozac/fluoxetine
Owl	dyslexia (very bright)	Housing problem	see: Theories of dyslexia
Roo		statistically high risk for Poorer Outcome (single-parent household (overprotective unemployed) aggravated by Peer influences, i.e. Tigger as a Role Model)
Tigger	hyperactivity and impulsivity subtype (ADHD)		unknown	Stimulant (fluoxetine) + sedative (clonidine)
Christopher Robin	possible Gender identity disorder in children (from illustrations),	overactive imagination (though delirium is not speculated in article), complete absence of parental supervision and educational problems	Unknown
Rabbit	Narcissistic personality disorder (God Complex)		Unknown

DANCING SHOES: First Impressions

As regular members of the congregation will be able to tell you, back in June I decided to go all 'lightweight' with my feet.

I invested in a new pair of lightweight slippers - my lovely Salomon Quest 4D GTX's and saved quite an astonishing half a pound in weight on each foot from my old faithful leather Scarpa Nepals.

They have been serving me well and have taken me on various trips up hill and dale with no ill-effects at all. Indeed, there have been no nose-bleeds and contrary to expectations, my feet did not fall off and I did not turn into a girl.

This set me to thinking. Now that 'thinking' thing is a rare thing if you live inside my head and so I was loathe to ignore the results of my (very rare, it does have to be said) thoughts. It sort of went like this:

"Those light-weight slippers were quite comfy, even on the rufty-tufty bouldery stuff. Even on the rufty-tufty bouldery stuff, wearing my rucksack... my feet were slightly less tired at the end of a walking day... (Mind you my body was still totally knackered as per usual, but that's just age and not getting out enough.) I just wonder if I went a bit lighter and try for some of those plimsolls that all the Hobbits on the Challenge like so much....Perhaps with a Gore-tex lining to keep my tootsies warm and dry?"

And at this point I woke up and it was all a dream... Or not, in fact!

I was then approached earlier this week by a splendid chap called Adam from fitnessfootwear.com who asked me if I would like to choose footwear from the North Face page of his online emporium to test. I thought this sounded like a very sweet move.  And - I would get to keep them after the test.

Now that sounded even sweeter! The reason for this wonderful bout of generosity is that Adam wants to get his web-site 'out-there' amongst the online outdoor community and so he has also approached other bloggers as well with this very generous offer. That seems like a pretty good way of doing things to me.

So I browsed his pages very carefully and just happened upon the answer to my earlier thoughts. Yes! They had a pair of North Face Hedgehogs GTX XCR in a rather natty colour-way of Charcoal Grey and Sage Green. So - sartorial standards will be kept up to the mark. - After all said and done - you wouldn't want to see me dashing about the fells in anything garish and luminous, would you? Surely not. No indeed not!

Well - I finally agreed to all this and sure enough, one day later a pair of the said shoes have arrived at Mission Control! That's pretty impressive, I thought to myself!

So - to vital statistics:

Old Scarpa Nepals: 966 grams per boot. Salomon Slippers: 701 grams per boot. North Face Hedgehog GTX XCR: 454 grams per dancing shoe!

That's a whopping great weight saving of.... 512 grams per foot! That's 1 lb and 2 ounces per clodhopper in old money! Hey - I am now uber-ultra lightweight! I'll be living under tarps yet - you just see! Ooh - I forgot - I am - my house's thatch has a tarp covering a leak!

They look very well made and have a substantial sole-unit that is torsionally quite stiff - which I like a lot. There is ample room in the toe box and they feel quite snug. I like the lacing system - and I will probably play around with the lacing. First impressions: I like them. A lot. So thank you, Adam. I will let everyone know how I get on with them after they have been out for a few walks and then later on after they have taken a bit of a hammering.

In a richly deserved and blatant plug, you can find Adam's online emporium here:

FitnessFootwear.com

OLD MEN DON'T DANCE

It all went swimmingly. The groom was handsome and the bride quite, quite beautiful.

So; meet the new Mr & Mrs Simeone.

And my left calf hurts, because I went dancing. Old men don't dance.

RACHAEL & ROD

All appointments; cancelled. International statesmen; put off. Billion dollar presentations; scrapped. Flags; unfurled.

The crew have been given a celebratory flogging. Full sales are set. Extra oarsmen drafted in. Troops are straining in their landing crafts. Gunboats put on full alert. A statement in the House. Telegrams from Elizabeth. A fusillade of canon-shot!

Shoes polished, teeth cleaned, hair combed, washing behind the ears and full immersion bath tubs fetched.

Extra pinching of housemaids' bottoms...

 

For tomorrow morning, I am off down to Bristol, for my daughter Rachael's wedding to Rod.