Blog
Long Lakes weekend June 2016
Friday 24th June
Good journey. After taking in enough bags (Carol) for several weeks we had a light supper and walked down to Esthwaite water in the dusk. Lovely.
Saturday 25th June.
Big breakfasts. To Coniston for a look round then up to the Coppermines and then on to Levers water reservoir now part of Coniston hydro electric system. Quite a hard walk for my party (Carol) who did very well. Picnic at Levers water.
Back down we stopped for a cup of tea with the Jetboil at the end of Coniston Water.
Back to Belle Green B&B to get ready to go to the Tower Bank Arms. We managed to be late even though it is only 2 mins walk away. No excuse for us having to wait over an hour for our dinner. Carol had pork fillet with black pudding mash and veg. I had y m2nd choice of ratatouille with sweet potato mash on top and tempura veg. The food was nice but we were hungry tired and cross by the time it came.
Sunday 26th June
More big breakfasts. To Ambleside for the shops! Then to Browfoot just north of Staveley for a flat walk along a river. Very peaceful. Lunch overlooking Kentmere tarn. Back via ferry which now has stupid ticket machine system instead of buying ticket from man on board. Very complicated machine which made me want to hit it. Machine has not resulted in fewer jobs as there is still a man to check tickets and a man to direct cars as to where to go. Meaning the machine is total waste of time and will make people very cross. It seemed to be succeeding well with this aim. Back to B&B to get ready to go out to the Blacksmith’s Arms at Broughton Mills. This is a very nice old pub with good food and the excellent Tirril Brewery’s draught Pennine Pilsner. I had 2 halves. Carol had grilled chicken with and I had pea risotto with a poached egg on top. C then had sticky toffee pudding and I had a sort of lemon mousse with a piece of shortbread. All very nice. Back via lovely quiet lanes.
Monday 27th June
Big breakfasts! Set off to do pub inspections for a possible evening meal:
Cuckoo Brow at Far Sawrey
Red Lion at Hawkshead
Queens Head at Hawkshead
C did the inspections. Asked which she would prefer. None of them! Decided to buy some small snacks instead as both quite well fed now.
Drove to Broughton in Furness. Unfortunately the nice bakers is closed on Mondays but we got some bits in the grocers and the butchers which had various samosas, pakoras etc. We had a drink in a cafe on the square.
Drove back through Broughton Mills passing the Reading Room car park which would be a good place to park when visiting the pub which has only room for 3 cars in front of it and no car park of its own.
Parked on the little road to Torver and walked a short circuit down the road along the beck. Very quiet, saw 3 people. Stopped for lunch at a named hamlet which is just a handful of ruined houses. Started to rain but just a shower. Back up the hill through the forest. My party struggling a bit as quite a while since dialysis on Friday and the cumulative effect of a smaller volume of dialysis since the fistula repair operation. She did well and is expecting to be full of beans once back on the regular regime. I hadn’t really appreciated how this all worked.
Drove back to Near Sawrey stopping for a cup of tea brewed up on the Jetboil.
Walks in June 2016
5th June
Withens Clough
This is one of my favourite walks. I did a circuit from the reservoir and skirted round the bottom of Stoodley Pike. Lovely day.
18th June
Sophy and I did another favourite around the Walshaw Dean reservoirs. Not much sun so we brightened the place up ourselves!
Cader Idris from the north side 30th May 2016
After leaving Borth I bought a salami, Emmenthal and coleslaw baguette from Matt’s (excellent) Deli in Bow Street. Had an espresso there too.
Got to Ty Nant car park near Dolgellau at about 10.30. I parked in the last space but was not happy as the vehicles either side had both parked really greedily. Then I saw there was an overflow car park so I took the motor in there. I went to buy a parking ticket. The machine took my money, failed to issue a ticket and failed to return my money. Cross! Went back to car and wrote a notice to this effect. All this buggering about meant I only started walking at 11.00.
Beautiful day, sunny and hot. Memo, must remember sun screen, P20. Managed ok with Bron’s sun screen on the way up and then I just covered up for the descent which was hot but better hot than burnt.
It’s a fairly steady and easy ascent most of the way. It took me 2.5 hours to reach the top. I had my lunch there once I’d got away from the crowds.
Descended using the same route and got back to the car just after 3.30 so only 1.5 hours down. About 750m of ascent.
Bruce rocks the Etihad Manchester 25th May 2016
I miss my Bruce buddy. Dearest Chris, you were there in my heart and as Bruce said at the end: “The E Street Band loves you”.
This was my 16th show, which sounds a lot but compared with some of the fans is just a piddle in the ocean. I can’t imagine how much I would have to earn to attend all the shows on the tour or how that works out with the time to take to do that.
I got to Manchester just after 4p.m. and parked in the Velodrome car park for a tenner. A few minutes walk to the stadium and good for getting out later. Funniest comment I overheard was “I had no idea he was this popular!” Ah well, the stadium only holds 50,000 people….
The gates opened at about 4.30. My bag was searched but not very thoroughly and so I managed to smuggle in my camera in my pocket and a big bottle of water, neither of which are permitted but seeing as everyone carries recording devices in their pockets it’s a bit pointless to say that. I was grateful for the water as it’s very expensive in the stadium, £3 for a small bottle.
It was cold and wet. I got myself a slice of pizza for £5, looked like it had been mutilated really but food not allowed in, just about edible. Small bottle of Heineken for £5. And then another one. Outrageous they are allowed to get away with it but captive audience. Last time Chris, Carol and I were at Etihad, it also pissed down but we had a deluxe picnic in the car in the car park. I should perhaps have done that but the early start for the show didn’t help.
Got into my thankfully covered seat in good location. Got chatting to guy next to me. He was nice and kind. He went off as he didn’t actually have a seat, was keeping dry, to be replaced by morose chap.
Bruce arrived just after 7p.m. The set list: http://www.backstreets.com/setlists.html
Patti wasn’t in the band. Bruce brought the band members, Nils, Stevie, Soozie, Jake out onto the prongs that go into the audience which was great. Show was about 3 and a bit hours.
I managed to get out and to my car without too much hassle and was home before midnight.
Highlights for me:
- The Ties that Bind
- Out on the Street
- The River
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y36NRFUPsnk]
- Working on the Highway (Bruce bum wiggle, love it!)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ1Mmkqa1G8]
- Bobby Jean
- This Hard Land (solo acoustic)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6SxF6K6mcI]