Once again I haven't written anything here for a few weeks. The Inn Way walk in the Lake District went ahead as planned earlier this month. 9 days of walking, just about 100 miles, went into 43 pubs and sampled 55 different ales!
That's not quite as bad as it sounds - I wasn't staggering around the fells in a drunken stupor. Each drink was only a half, and then that was shared between the two of us which brings it down to a much more reasonable sounding 1.5 pints per day.
I have starting writing up each day's walk with details of distance, pubs, scenery and accomodation, including lots of photographs. I've done this as a separate blog which is now available to view. Vist my Lake District Inn Way blog page.
The first three days are there, with the fourth due to be ready tonight. Hope you have a read and enjoy it.
[Update - day 4 is now complete. Day 5 to follow with some amazing photos of Buttermere]
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Blogging on the move
I just got a laptop for my birthday which means I can now get on the internet wirelessly. I thought it would be nice to be able to sit out in the garden whilst browsing the web. Unfortunately my connection currently dies just before I get to the garden table!! A little playing around with the router box position should help get the few extra feet I need hopefully.
Also I can now see that several people nearby have their own wireless networks running. Somebody has one of those BT Home Hub things - wonder who that is? Out here at our end of Hitcham there aren't many houses so I was surprised to see so many networks.
I am now starting to set up a new blog with details of our Pembrokeshire Coast Path walk. Most of the photographs are now tidied up and ready to be published. It's taken longer than expected, as weekends have been busy recently. Last weekend was my niece's 8th birthday. R made a fantastic cake for her:
This was taken just after blowing out the candles which is why her name has a slightly Dali-esque look to it!
Also I can now see that several people nearby have their own wireless networks running. Somebody has one of those BT Home Hub things - wonder who that is? Out here at our end of Hitcham there aren't many houses so I was surprised to see so many networks.
I am now starting to set up a new blog with details of our Pembrokeshire Coast Path walk. Most of the photographs are now tidied up and ready to be published. It's taken longer than expected, as weekends have been busy recently. Last weekend was my niece's 8th birthday. R made a fantastic cake for her:
This was taken just after blowing out the candles which is why her name has a slightly Dali-esque look to it!
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Would you refuse free money?
Sounds a silly question, but after a quick poll here there are a lot of people who do. They nod along as I explain it, then decide that it's all too much effort. Telling them that I've collected over £400 in six months picks up their interest again a little, but you can see they aren't going to do it themselves.
The secret to this is cashback websites, in particular www.quidco.com. Online merchants will pay a fee if you arrive at their web site from a referrer (such as Quidco). In the case of Quidco they then pass this fee on to you. The only thing they do is keep back the first £5 that you get in a year to cover their costs. Other sites typically keep back a portion of every referral fee they get.
The biggest amounts of cashback come from insurance - something that we nearly all need to buy every year. At the moment you can get back up to £120 with some insurers. In fact this brought the total cost of car insurance for this year down to just a few pounds (the insurer also sent me some vouchers for taking out a new policy which was nice of them) I was close to ending up in profit!
Finance has become something of a hobby of mine over the past few years, enough that I could bore anyone with it if I went on too much. So I'll leave it there, and hope that some readers may follow through the link above.
The secret to this is cashback websites, in particular www.quidco.com. Online merchants will pay a fee if you arrive at their web site from a referrer (such as Quidco). In the case of Quidco they then pass this fee on to you. The only thing they do is keep back the first £5 that you get in a year to cover their costs. Other sites typically keep back a portion of every referral fee they get.
The biggest amounts of cashback come from insurance - something that we nearly all need to buy every year. At the moment you can get back up to £120 with some insurers. In fact this brought the total cost of car insurance for this year down to just a few pounds (the insurer also sent me some vouchers for taking out a new policy which was nice of them) I was close to ending up in profit!
Finance has become something of a hobby of mine over the past few years, enough that I could bore anyone with it if I went on too much. So I'll leave it there, and hope that some readers may follow through the link above.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Slow progress
No blog updates in 4 weeks! Two and a half of those were because I was away from any form of computer enjoying my holiday. Since being back there just hasn't seemed to have been the time.
All the photographs from the last holiday are still waiting to be organised and run through photoshop to smarten them up a little. Work has been keeping me busy during the week. Too many stacks of paper at home to sort through in the evenings. Where does it all come from? I think the Royal Mail disputes may actually be a good thing! I can get the current piles out of the way before anything more arrives.
Other free time has been spent planning another holiday (yes I'm going away again!!) In September I'll be walking the Lake District Inn Way - 90 miles, 7 days, 44 pubs... basically a long distance pub crawl. I'm trying at the moment to book bed and breafasts along the way. Ambleside is proving to be impossible. The walk starts there, so had planned to arrive on Saturday, stay the night and then start walking on Sunday. But nowhere will accept a booking for a saturday night only. They all want 2 nights minimum. Some of them even advertise themselves in the guidebook to the walk - that shouldn't be allowed! Now I'm ranting and so will stop here and calm down.
All the photographs from the last holiday are still waiting to be organised and run through photoshop to smarten them up a little. Work has been keeping me busy during the week. Too many stacks of paper at home to sort through in the evenings. Where does it all come from? I think the Royal Mail disputes may actually be a good thing! I can get the current piles out of the way before anything more arrives.
Other free time has been spent planning another holiday (yes I'm going away again!!) In September I'll be walking the Lake District Inn Way - 90 miles, 7 days, 44 pubs... basically a long distance pub crawl. I'm trying at the moment to book bed and breafasts along the way. Ambleside is proving to be impossible. The walk starts there, so had planned to arrive on Saturday, stay the night and then start walking on Sunday. But nowhere will accept a booking for a saturday night only. They all want 2 nights minimum. Some of them even advertise themselves in the guidebook to the walk - that shouldn't be allowed! Now I'm ranting and so will stop here and calm down.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Holiday Time Again!
Yay - it's Friday, it's 5:30 and it's time to finish for a two week holiday!
Pembrokeshire Coast Path here I come. Well, just need to pack tonight and then navigate over to Wales tomorrow whilst avoiding any floods. Then it's a few days in a cottage to relax before starting the walk proper on Wednesday next week. 185 miles, 12 bed and breakfasts (so 12 full cooked breakfasts!) and I'm sure a there'll be a few pubs along the way.
Oh and there's about 35 geocaches on the route too which I'll try and find.
Photographs as usual when I get back.
Pembrokeshire Coast Path here I come. Well, just need to pack tonight and then navigate over to Wales tomorrow whilst avoiding any floods. Then it's a few days in a cottage to relax before starting the walk proper on Wednesday next week. 185 miles, 12 bed and breakfasts (so 12 full cooked breakfasts!) and I'm sure a there'll be a few pubs along the way.
Oh and there's about 35 geocaches on the route too which I'll try and find.
Photographs as usual when I get back.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Sunset from Hitcham
A few quickly grabbed photographs from the end of our garden last night as the sun suddenly dipped below the cloud and set.
Even a patch of nettles can look pretty in this light.
The final one, to the right there's a glider about to turn and land at nearby Rattlesden gliding club (you need to click and see the bigger image to make out anything!).
Even a patch of nettles can look pretty in this light.
The final one, to the right there's a glider about to turn and land at nearby Rattlesden gliding club (you need to click and see the bigger image to make out anything!).
The Angles Way (day 2)
Sunday turned out to be not such a good day as the Saturday had been. This was both in terms of weather and also the walk itself.
After a good nights sleep (being woken once by ducks drinking water of the tent that had collected overnight!) we got the tent packed away just as it started to rain. The rain lasted for most of the day, never really heavy but never light enough to take off waterproofs so it was quite hot and sticky going.
From Scole to Harleston the path seems to wind backwards and forwards at random. We crossed the main A143 several times. Approaching Brockdish it suddenly doubles back and takes you about 3/4 mile detour to end up a few hundred yards further on down the same road. Then you are taken back over the A143 once again to pass through an industrial estate and new housing developments at Harleston. I'm sure there must be some nice part to the town, but we never got to see it.
Today wasn't really a day for photographs, but we did take one of a bull as we passed by his field. Not sure that the fence would really prove much of a deterrant to him if he wanted to get out!
Things did improve a little after Harleston. Then we decided to cut our walk short as we had to be in Bungay by 6pm that evening for a meal. As we came down to Mendham we spotted R's parents in their car who were supposed to be meeting up with us a few miles further on. Just by coincidence they had stopped to check the map and then saw us coming down over the fields and waited. They had tried walking some of the path further along near Earsham and found an electric fence right across it with no clear sign where the path went. Given this we agreed that the 13 miles that we had done already were enough for the day and drove to meet up with the rest of the family and get cleaned up ready for going out.
The rest of the evening was lovely, the Thai Kitchen in Bungay is highly recommended if you are ever looking for somewhere to eat.
After a good nights sleep (being woken once by ducks drinking water of the tent that had collected overnight!) we got the tent packed away just as it started to rain. The rain lasted for most of the day, never really heavy but never light enough to take off waterproofs so it was quite hot and sticky going.
From Scole to Harleston the path seems to wind backwards and forwards at random. We crossed the main A143 several times. Approaching Brockdish it suddenly doubles back and takes you about 3/4 mile detour to end up a few hundred yards further on down the same road. Then you are taken back over the A143 once again to pass through an industrial estate and new housing developments at Harleston. I'm sure there must be some nice part to the town, but we never got to see it.
Today wasn't really a day for photographs, but we did take one of a bull as we passed by his field. Not sure that the fence would really prove much of a deterrant to him if he wanted to get out!
Things did improve a little after Harleston. Then we decided to cut our walk short as we had to be in Bungay by 6pm that evening for a meal. As we came down to Mendham we spotted R's parents in their car who were supposed to be meeting up with us a few miles further on. Just by coincidence they had stopped to check the map and then saw us coming down over the fields and waited. They had tried walking some of the path further along near Earsham and found an electric fence right across it with no clear sign where the path went. Given this we agreed that the 13 miles that we had done already were enough for the day and drove to meet up with the rest of the family and get cleaned up ready for going out.
The rest of the evening was lovely, the Thai Kitchen in Bungay is highly recommended if you are ever looking for somewhere to eat.
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