pmsumner

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/sumner.phil/5thJulyDelamere

We've been here for 2 years and not been to Delamere once, I'm sure there should be some kind of law about that. Today we went, and got lost sevral times. Not only getting there, but also wandering around the forest itself. We even got lost trying to find the visitor's centre, and that was (barely/allegedly) signposted.

It's nice round there, though possibly a bit green at this time of year to get many good colourful photos. I also did some hanging around the zip lines at the Go Ape course, trying to get some good shots of moving objects involving motion blur. I don't think I did particularly well but without the tripod it's tricky to keep things smooth and level.

Had a good weekend down south in Cambridge with boneist and sbj180. We went for a trip to Saffron Walden on Saturday afternoon, followed by a walk in Wandlebury Country Park, then had curry and beer in the evening. mmm curry and beer. Was a good evening.

We took down Guitar Hero and boneist did remarkably well after a few false starts. Just goes to show that practise does make perfect :P She's now decided to get her own copy! :)

On Sunday, pipsytip, sbj180 and I went for a wander round some of the back streets of Cambridge. It was a nice walk round, seeing bits of the town that wouldn't normally be seen. And of course the obligatory drive home. I'm confused though - it only took us 3.5hrs to drive down - driving through Birmingham at 1830 on a Friday evening should be hell. We flew through at 60!

The weekend has included:
La Tasca yumniness
Visit from Jane's friend
A 40th anniversary
Wine
Quaesadillos
Bacon sandwiches
A trip to Chester
New DVDs
Goldfrapp's new album
Cleaning the garden furniture, possibly over-optimistically.
Semi-Pro at the cinema. Quite good, much better than Be Kind, Rewind.
A quick shot on Lego Star-Wars. Fun but not particularly engaging in the long run.

Busy been, have I.

This weekend we went to the Trafford centre for some silly reason. It was an experience, as it always is. Afterwards, however, we went for Chinese at Elements in Cheshire Oaks, which is a pretty decent buffet. Not perfect but scrummy enough. I was trying to persuade Jane to go for "all you can bowl" bowling from 10:30pm to 1am but she wasn't interested ;)

Sunday, Ruth and John came over, huzzah. We haven't seen them for ages, and they stayed for ages :) We pottered into and round Chester, then ate lasagne and filthy puddings. mmmmmmm. It's fabulous to see them, and I really do frequently feel bad we don't see them more but damnit, I haven't got my own personal jet yet ;) This week, when we win the lottery.....

We're currently watching "Dawn Gets Naked" on BBC Three. Is very funny :)

So, in an attempt to concentrate on something else:

Sunday we went to Go Ape in Grisedale Forest, which is essentially an assault course high up in the tree-tops. We had the safety brief (long loves the tree), and a test run on zone 1, which is a nice easy rope ladder, wire bridge and zip line. At this point if you have problems you can turn back and get your money back.

We all seemed to get on OK there, so headed on to number 2. This is where things went a little bit harder :) The rope ladders are longer, the trees are higher and the obstacles are nastier. I was going last out of our group, I think I'm glad as it meant I wasn't under any pressure from my lot, however the 10yr old kids with their dad who works up towers anyhow (bastard), were making me look bad :)

I didn't have problems really, however I was holding to everything really tightly, and I absolutely refused to stand up on the horribly narrow ledges until I had to. Unfortunately that was far too early for my liking in some places. I could feel my knees shaking really really badly most of the time. At least everything had handrails and sides to hold on to.

2 was completed without too much nastiness, swearing or wishing I could get down now please. 3, however was a nastier course yet. There were ladders. Ick. Going from a platform high in the trees to another platform even higher in the trees. There were bridges with no hand-holds, just wood and wire footplaces. Ickie. I was not at all impressed here, and although I think I looked confident (at least when I wasn't crawling around the platforms), I was absolutely crapping myself. I didn't enjoy it... It wasn't a good scared, it was scared scared.

I should probably point out here that I don't regret doing anything - although it wasn't necessarily an enjoyable experience it was still an experience and hence worthwhile doing.

I stopped after this site, 2 more were available and although they didn't look difficult, I found that I'd no strength left in my upper body and I really didn't _want_ to go. The others did, and their descriptions didn't make me wish that I'd done it.

I went off to the house of pipsytip on Friday, where there was a party with booze, music and karaoke. Fun was had, and drink was drunk.

Saturday was an early start when we cleaned up the hall, and went off to Shrewsbury where there was an alleged Medieaval festival on. We turned up at the Quarry to find 4 or 5 marquees/marked out areas, spread over an enormous field and not much happening at any of them. We wandered, and bumped into spods varied and many, most of which I hadn't seen for years. Arranged to meet at Bishop's Castle, got a sandwich at Philpott's and went to investigate the swashbuckling that is Pirates of the Carribean 2. Then to Pizza Express for yummy pizza and the Babes, who were simply fabulous :)

Sunday involved another early start, then spods, lots of tea, more cake than I imagined possible, then Church Stretton. The food festival was awesome. Huge, and loads of awesome stuff. Just a shame that I was driving :)

The Cottage with Dawn and David, good.
The weekend with Jane, good.
Now that Jane's gone? Not so good. Feel for some reason that this weekend has gone by so quickly. Saturday we went to see `Hard Candy' at the local Cineworld. I'm still not at all sure I enjoyed it. I was riveted, sucked in, shocked, made to wince over and over, but I can't honestly say I enjoyed watching it.

Whether one's meant to enjoy something as intense as this, I don't know.

A real weekend. My Saturday was filled with busy things and the evening was to be filled with the joy of unpacking some boxes which I really needed to get my arse into doing. Instead, it was filled with Casee and a very nice little place in Kendal which had good beer, hot staff and a damn good band playing.

Sunday was going to be filled with walking but the weather conspired. We played Yahtzee, went to her place of employment, went to Asda, got a free 27" telly (YAY freecycle), ate pancakes, ate spaghettis bolognese, went to a pub for karaoke to find it was the wrong day.

It doesn't sound like much I guess but it was a great weekend. It was good for her to have some company afer a long week, and it was good for me to get to feel useful and to not spend the weekend missing Jane ;) Yeah I'm a big suckup...