Pat's hill climbing abilities

All righty - I think Marea promised you all that I would start contributing to this blog in about November last year!!!!! Well I'm sorry everyone - but better late than never aye??

Easter weekend saw our first overnight trip out into the countryside in the van - the destination - somewhere in the peak districts!!! (not even we really knew when we left home:-)

Anyway - first stop was Marea's workmate Neil's place, who so kindly loaned his jigsaw for all our woodworking needs. Thank you very much Neil. Then we ventured towards the peaks (well rolling hills by NZ standards) and towards Castleton.

After catching up with friends and enjoying a pub meal, it was time to give Pat his first real test and take on a rather steep (but very picturesque) hill. Our friends had driven on in-front of us, so at least there were only strangers to laugh at us. We gave the van a good run up and started the climb!! It wasn't long before we had to drop down to second and the number of cars built up behind us. Poor old Pat, he really wasn't that keen on taking things quickly - so trusty old first gear had to come into play. Finally, we made it to the top much to the delight of everyone crawling up behind us, INCLUDING our friends who'd happened to have taken a wrong turn!!! Never mind.

Thank you for your very smart text Kerryn!!

The difference between us

Walking up to Shining Tor today our conversation went like this...

M: ''If we are going to be doing lots of walking, perhaps we should get some walking poles''
D: ''Nah, its more of a workout without them.''
M: ''I think I read that you actually work out more using poles, cause you work the upper body too.''
D: ''Well i'm not here for the workout, i'm here for the view.''
M: I'm not, i'm here for the workout and the view.''

The Test Run

For Pat's test run, we ventured not far from Nottingham, into the peaks' district. This was departure from our original plans to visit Scotland to catch the end of the ski season. However, I am recovering from laser eye surgery(20/20 vision now:-) and friends of ours were planning a girls weekend there, so we headed back to the peaks.
This district has many many happy memories, from our explorations when we first bought our car, walks with the local ramblers club, our visits with all our 'out of town' visitors, to an 'almost proposal' from Daniel (something about me throwing snowballs, blah blah, haha). The stone walls, animals and narrow country lanes, feel like the quintessential English countryside should. And the people, though there be too many of them, are mostly well behaved.
This time have visited the Goyt valley, an area we have not been to before. There are a number of peaks with 636m being the highest. In England, at 526m Shining Tor is a veritable mountain and I look forward to climbing it today.

Freshies

Wahohoo! It was 0630 and I was awaken to Daniel’s appreciation for the blanket of snow that had fallen silently overnight.
We had parked Pat next to the Errwood reservoir in the Goyt valley. It wasn't until Daniel went for his morning walkabout (as he is apt to do) that we found the 'no overnight parking' sign. Shrug. We'd cooked our first meal in our van last night and made a toast to Pat with a glass of chardonnay, and of course, because it is Easter, polished our meal off with some chocolate.
Under failing light (I think we need a new leisure battery), Daniel taught me how to play 500. Who will be the tour champion? The challenge has begun.
This morning after grilling hot cross buns for breakfast we walked around the Fernilee reservoir. There was no-one else around and it was bliss to be out early because although ~6cm of snow had fallen overnight and was still crisp underfoot, it was threatening to melt rapidly. This is a good thing as we are in a steep valley and not confident of Pat's ability to get us out of here under more adverse conditions.

Sent from my email.

Finally some time to myself-on the bus- on the way to work. I'm not
driving today because, this pm i'll be catching a train to London
then onwards to the french alps. Yay! Fingers crossed that all our
connections run to time.
In preparation for our snowboarding, i've downloded a trial version
of Run.gps onto our toy. We should now be able to record all our
snowboarding activities using gps. that's the plan, If I finish
reading the manual. This is all part of the grandplan of including on
this blog a live view of where in the world are daniel and marea when
we start our European tour.

In other news... I picked up a new parking sensor from the post office
on wednesday -£15 from ebay. The stereo is now fully installed and
it's been great listening to some tunes whilst we work in the van, but
Daniel wanted a new toy to play with. There is already sensor
'installed' but nothing beeps at us, so we'll start again.

We have also been making use of the one hour of daylight now
available between 1700-1800, even though it has been soo cold i have
had to wear gloves. The 3rd bed - for visitors - is now almost fully
constructed. We may be able to report completion when we get back from
skiing on 1st March.

To beard or not to beard

Arrived in the post yesterday - One Laptop Battery - thanks again ebay.
This one will last 2hours and 23mins compared to the old one which dies with 10mins to spare. On our travels will now be able to watch an occasional movie, write a book, manage our finances - or access the internet wherever we find a free hotspot.

We still need to buy either a Auto laptop charger (DC/DC adapter) or an DC/AC Power inverter. Apparently recent tests have shown that using a DC/DC adapter uses 30% less power than an inverter. Converting from DC (cigarette lighter) to AC (inverter) to DC (computer power cord) does sound a bit stupid.
But, an inverter can be used for powering superfluous household appliances like kettles, toasters, hairdryers, curling tongs and electric shavers.
Yes we could get both, but then I'd have nothing to write about, and wouldn't Daniel look great with a beard? Perhaps we need a new poll.

We're watching you.

I've been curious how many people are reading our blog.
We do get some feedback via published comments and of course those of you who voted in our poll.
I finally signed up to Google Analytics.
So I'll know who you are and where you live....kind of.
E.g. the one person in Australia who reads our blog must be my sister - Hi Ange:-)