Christmas round robin 2018

January
The knee-flogging for 2018 got off to an early start with two Park Runs on New Year's Day: Stretford & Sale Water Park, and cycling between the two.

As cold as it looks

A resolution to do a substantial walk at least twice a week until the Big Walk, starting with a crisp, cold one from Mam Tor with SWOG

Taking High Tea ... in the Beetham Tower

A great time of year for watching wildlife programmes, popular with all the family

Much preparatory work for the End-to-End (E2E): footpaths and road-connections on mapping software, saving in various versions on blog, Google maps. Lists of possible place to stay en route.

February
More walking, you get the idea

The Roaches

Macclesfield canal

Printing the E2E route to paper in sections, getting parcels ready to send (documented elsewhere). Taking Clara on practice drives still.

March
My biggest online treat of 2018 has to be this:

Not mincing your words

I decided Trump could easily get ditched by his own party, once he had served 2 years because:
a) Pence would be able to take over for the last 2 years and still run for two further terms
b) Poor mid-term results (Nov 18) would make this easier
c) Impeachment grounds would be the undeclared election expenses paying off two women to remain silent over his "affairs" with them.
While this looks more obvious in December 2018, I gave the above opinion to Mark B on 18th April If I turn out to be right,  he'll be the only one able to back me up!

25th March - 2nd June
From the Bottom to the Top: 850 miles from The Lizard to Peebles, after I completed about 2/3 of the intended route:

It was, mostly, an exhilarating experience, especially along the Cornish Coast Path and Pennine Way, if a little tedious traversing Staffordshire. Tellingly the other "best days" were when walking with others rather than the lonely plods.

Doing this meant I abandoned Penny to deal with all matters arising: from Clara taking her driving test (the day I left for Bristol) to the trauma of A level exams. Clara had to re-take her driving test, so Penny took the many more evenings of driving practice. Guilty.

June
First a longish rest from walking, trying to adapt to a life back at home, then a raid on 3 Munros during some very warm, humid days. Mheall Ghaordaidh a remote slog, Beinn Sgulaird a lovely high ridge walk, Ben More on Mull a horse-fly sauna on a still day, but with a most enjoyable arrete forming a NNE ridge descent.

The NNE ridge from Ben More towards A' Chioch

Stunning sunsets in Oban

July

3rd July, Manchester Arena - a true spectacle for Pink Floyd fans

Time

Roger Waters

Clara went Inter-railing and Rowena went to Malawi, so Penny & I became trainee "empty nesters"

A rare day of summer rain

We volunteered to help on the National Vegetable Society's stall at the RHS Flower Show, Tatton Show.  To people visiting the stall I was a veg expert, offering expertise with such gems as "don't refrigerate tomatoes" and the difference between F1 and F2 (the usefulness of a genetics degree).

Clara came with me to test a walk when she got back

August
My previous meeting with Jon was ... about 40 years ago. We had a lot to catch up on.

A trip to pick up Rowena from Heathrow. I stopped overnight in London Colney with Des, then visited Geoff & Pauline in Colney Heath. A brief stopover waiting at Runnymeade: the peacefulness of the river as the 'planes roared nearby.
                         

As the dry, hot, summer continued, we watered the garden each evening using salvaged shower-room water, with a little help from Heath Robinson

From shower waste-outlet into barrels

Overflow mode

Rowena, Clara & I went to the Edinburgh Festival for a few days. A mixed bag, once again, of good and (mostly) disappointing performances. Clara & I rounded off with a walk to Arthur's Seat and the Camera Obscura.

Then a trip to Bristol to install Rowena in her student house.After a long break from walking, there came a day when I just had to get out or go mad ... a favourite being the circuit around the head of Hope Valley

Mam Tor from Rushup

September

A day out at "Manchester Bee in the City" 

A week in Madeira: a whale watching boat trip, a couple of walks in the mountains and some long bus rides around the island.

Some narrow lavada paths with big drops, mostly unfenced, in spectacular valleys

 

As if that wasn't enough for one month, the finale of Munro-bagging with friends was next: Stuc a' Chroin and Ben Vorlich followed by food, a party and the most fabulous CAKE!!! baked & decorated by Clara.

October

Clara "I'm not going to university" took an extended trip to London, experiencing the pleasures & pains of shift-working as a restaurant "runner", and a course in dressmaking on Saturdays.

November

If it isn't obvious by now, I like a long walk, and it was time for another, so I took off for 8 days on the South Downs Way

and back to helping at a "Code Club" at a nearby primary school. 30 pupils in a small ICT suite was madness on day1

December

In September I was invited to join "Replicon Genetics, a biotech startup, as a developer. Let's see how that goes in the long run. For now it's a bit like returning to my undergraduate days of hobbyist programming. This time it's Python not BASIC & FORTRAN, but still DNA sequences. As an indirect consequence I happened to be passing the cat cafe in Liverpool

Dunham Massey garden is, dubiously, decked out with a "Winter Wonderland"