Here’s Winter and the Indoor Season is upon us

Posted on December 1, 2009 by sean

The air is thick with chalk dust, the rain rattling down on the roof, a small leak drips near the front door (just above the box which contains my trainers), all around there is activity, either climbers on routes, or people waiting for routes. Its busy as expected on a wet post lunch Sunday afternoon session, you are constantly keeping an eye on people above you. The cafe area is filled with the sound of a childrens party and popping balloons. Welcome to the Depot near Leeds on a typical sunday afternoon for this time of year.

This scene will be repeated in climbing walls all over the country at the exact same time. This November has been a boon for such facilities with the near constant rain keeping all but the most sheltered crags damp and driving climbers indoors. There seems to be a new wall opening every month somewhere, with Harrogate and Awesome Walls Stoke opening in the last few months. Just looking at my bank statement shows me I’m personally spending a small fortune on indoor climbing now, with at least a couple of climbing sessions a week, as a midweek session at Awesome Walls in Stockport or Leeds Wall and Sunday afternoon Bouldering at the Depot become the norm again.

At the end of the poor summer outdoor season for me, I wasn’t looking forward to moving indoors, and after a poor first month indoors I’m finally getting consistent good sessions, although my bouldering is coming on a lot more than my leading. My arm strain injury finally seems to have abated and I’m now moving onto V3 projects rather than the V1-V2 routes I’ve been stuck on for a while, and my leading head seems to be returning slowly but surely.

A climbing wall is on the surface the same wherever it is, boarding at different angles, holds, features, clips and ropes. However there can be huge differences from one to another, a crowded bouldering area can either be a pain or generate a good atmosphere according where you are. Staggering your start so the rope next to you can get some distance before you ascend, can either be a bore or an inspiration based upon the same criteria. I was at Leeds Wall a couple of weeks ago tying on for a 6a lead, when a pair just walked straight in front of us from another part of the wall, ready tied on from last lead and started on the route, jumping in front of us, me and my belayer were that surprised and left speechless. We weren’t the only ones they did this to!

Leeds is my nearest tall wall climbing centre and although the routes are good and there is plenty of variety, I find the place cold in personality. It something I can’t put my finger on to explain. Opinions on Leeds Wall seemed to be polarised on recent ukc2.com forum discussion, with as may defenders as critics. I’m not saying I don’t like the place, on the contrary its a great training facility, and I use it just as that, but I wouldn’t choose to go there for an afternoons social climbing with friends. Across the Pennines however is a wall which is just as big area wise, but has a totally different atmosphere, namely Awesome Walls in Stockport, its warmer put simply!. I know as many people casually in both places, but feel more welcome at Stockport. Maybe its because of the building, as one person suggested in the aforementioned forum thread, but I don’t think so myself, I used to climb at Rochdale Climb UK, before we started to find the walls too short, and it was located in an old car showroom as far as I can tell, much as Leeds Wall is located in an fairly modern warehouse building, so not much more of a salubrious location.

Awesome Walls (AWS) is located in an old 19th century factory, and admittedly it adds character to the place, but bricks don’t give the place ‘warmth’. Its more the chattiness of the people who are there which makes the difference, casual conversation seems a lot more common. I think this is down to the relative closeness of the walls compared to Leeds, where the essential large open floor space below the main lead overhang wall makes the area seem very open and empty. This leads to the rest of the routes being contained in 2 relatively tight spaces in the corner and to the right of the overhang wall, and gives the centre a slight sense of imbalance between the main areas. At AWS there is maybe slightly fewer ropes, but they are more evenly spaced and means there’s always people about, but you are not on top of each other.

However AWS’s main attraction is the 24m lead wall at the back, where even at lower grades its a damn good workout, and soon builds up wall endurance, its slightly daunting first time you do one, purely due to the height, and the rope stretch on the lower off leading to some more rapid than normal stages of decent, but its soon something you come to appreciate when you are getting 3 climbs worth in smaller centres such as Rochdale or Huddersfield in a single climb.

When it come to the social side of climbing however, you will inevitably getter a better atmosphere where you are having to be more involved with other people constantly, whether its waiting for a route or minding out for people above to you, and when bouldering this is almost a constant factor, with the nature of the activity being short bursts of action followed by a period of rest in which to socialise. The Depot gets this off to a tee, managing to maintain a cosy atmosphere with it rarely feeling crowded even when very busy, and keeping the friendly atmosphere when it is quieter. The crowd who go there are the friendliest I have found at any climbing facility, with encouragement from other users when on a route being the norm, and not just for people who are doing V7s, V8s or V9s, but for punters like me working on E2-E3 routes, and extending down to newbies doing V0s. It seems to encourage a mutual respect for other users whatever their abilities, and this only encourages people of the same thinking to attend regularly, not taking long until weekly casual conversations with the same people each week becomes routine and part of the enjoyment.

The management and staff are also an important part of the feel on the place, and again the Depot seem to have the right mix there as well, although I will admit, the floor supervision for a bouldering centre requires a different, less interventionalist style of contact with its users, due to the nature of the climbing there.

I’m sure other people will disagree with me about this!

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Mad Men Season 3 Episode 11

Posted on October 27, 2009 by sean

WARNING – SEASON 3 SPOILERS – US PACE

This week saw the eleventh episode of Mad Men Season 3, and the tying of the story threads started.

This season has been accused of drifting over the middle episodes, and it was ironic that the episode which pulled the series sharply back into focus was called “The Gypsy and the Hobo”. There have been many suggestions on the forums at AMC.TV about what the title means and who it is refering to, some say Betty and Don, some say the Hobo is Don throughout his life.

The first theory I don’t buy, the Gypsy is a carefree, but self sufficent character, not something you could call Betty, self sufficency requires maturity and that is something Betty has been lacking up till the last few episodes, when the Don / Dick issue has been brought to her attention. Even with the seperation at the latter end of season 2, she was not that mature in her behaviour.

I see the Gypsy and the Hobo as Don and Suzanne, the hobo reference for Don is obvious with him not wanting to commit, in both in business life regarding his lack of contract until a couple of episodes ago and in his personal life with his numerous affairs from which he never seems to learn from, even when it pushed his marriage to the edge. This is backed up with the adoption of Don Drapers identity to escape his old life and the war. He seems willing to drift and “disappear” when he has to. Look at the California episode with the rich europeans in of season 2.

Suzanne is the gypsy, she is the free spirit, not requiring anything from Don apart from his company, she understands the situation, and that she will always be on the side line, to keep both Dons marriage and her job as a teacher safe. This is where she shows maturity. Take the scene where Don is surprised by Betty’s return, and Suzanne is left in the car while they discuss Dons dual life. She could have kicked up a fuss, but she quietly waited, realised what was going on, and left to go home. When Don called the next morning, she knew that it was over for now, and accepted the fact, although she was deeply upset.

However the highlight of this episode was the confession of his double life by Don to Betty after the discovery of the evidence in the locked drawer in last weeks episode. People have accused January Jones of being a bit wooden in her portrail of Betty, but this episode showed some of the best one on one acting, by both her and Jon Hamm I have seen in this series and certainly the best in season 3.

The extended scene where Don went from being defensive to realising that his “lie” was up was played perfectly, and you could see it in Dons face well before anything was said. Despite all the lies that Don had told her in the past, she had no doubt he was telling the truth this time. The later conversation in the bedroom showed Don publicly greaving for the suicide of his half brother Adam, something he could not have done before now, as Adam was part of his secret. It was then when Betty realised why all this had been kept from her, and it wasn’t a slight on her, more the fragility that sits under Dons confident smooth shell.

All this is without going into Roger and the old flame from Europe showing up looking to someone to handle her account. Again Roger showed a side you don’t see that often, realising that he was happy with his marriage and didn’t want to even consider rekindling, even for 1 night, their old relationship as he was married to the “one” who was “carefree and didn’t worry about the future”, and that she wasn’t the “one” for him.

This episode cues up the last 2 episodes for a grand finale to season 3, and I’ve a feeling we will lose another major character before this season is up.

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Nine Edges 2009 – Its getting better

Posted on October 5, 2009 by sean

Tell me (deep breath) why (deep breath) I’ve paid (deep breath) to do this (deep breath) again.  That was my feelings as I ascended the 350m up to the top of Derwent Edge, its utter madness if you thought about it.  You’ve still got 21.5 miles to do, and your warm up is the steepest part of the course, or you could look at it from the point of view that’s its all downhill from here.  On the way up I agreed with the first statement, once at the top the second statement prevailed.

This was my second Nine Edges after coming in last to the (being disassembled) gate at 7.10pm last year, in a time of 10 hours including climbing at 5 of the edges before deciding I didn’t have enough time to do the rest. The one day I could do with a decent days climbing, it deserted me totally for the day, and spent 45 minutes faffing about on a climb at Derwent that should have took me 5 minutes.

I had no real training for this walk, and any last minute training was curtailed when I pulled my calf 3 weeks before the event while bouldering, and later on in the event with about 14km to go it showed.  Before this my last long walk was 15 miles around Langdale in June. I figured I could use my family holiday in North Wales just before the event to get some training in, but I got in just 1 walk up to 500m near Portmadog, before thick cloud stopped me getting to the 770m summit I was aiming for, still it proved my calf had healed itself.

This year I dropped the climbing section and just did the walking, with me was Dave, my climbing partner who was soloing routes along the way, although at 14km it was clear his pace was far faster than mine and we split up to meet at the end (this was bore out in the fact he was over 40 minutes faster than me finishing including him climbing).

The start as eluded to earlier was a killer, this isn’t down to the hill, as I’ve been on severer starts, but due to the fact that the first hill of the day in any walk is always a killer for me and I’m OK on subsequent peaks .However once the valley up to the plateau had been ascended and you were striding across the moor at 350m ASL, the views opening up as you gained height, with more of the Peak District become visible by the minute, an ever more impressive panorama was opening up, and it was worth all the effort, as you gain height up to the first checkpoint at the top the hill and the 5km mark is passed, taking in the traverse of the edge, you are left to admire the distant peaks before you drop down and enjoy the descent to the A57 at Moscar Lodge.

You do a lot of walking for your first 2 edges, taking in Derwent and Stanage take you 17.5km into the 32km route, and if you are climbing you still have 7 to go!  Stanage Edge is an impressive sight, just from the pure number of routes, around 1000 at the last count, but its a bloody long walk when the sun I just starting to warm up, you just don’t appreciate its 7.5km length until you have walked it in one go, the map doesn’t do it justice.  Last year we had a cool breeze blowing across the valley, and paragliders all along the edge, this year is was pretty still, and the lack of cover kept the temperature up for the time of year.  The crag was busy with most faces having at least one party on them and the jangle of metal was regularly heard, a very pleasant noise when you are a climber.

Now the crags come thick and fast with one every two or three kilometres on average.

Eventually you reach the Burbage North checkpoint and a well deserved dose of energy drinks are downed before you take the very pleasant walk through the Burbage Valley.  This looks like crack climbing heaven, with block after block of horizontal and vertical breaks on the north section of the valley.  Plenty of tourists here for casual walks were joined by the main section of runners catching me up and the mountain bikers passing me at regular intervals.  The psychological barrier of getting to the halfway point is passed just before the Burbage South checkpoint.  It was also the start of the balls of my feet feeling an ever increasing amount of aching.

Unfortunately the next section takes you away from the edge and into the National Trust estate at Longshaw Lodge, this is the worse bit of the walk as although you have tree cover, and its only just over 2km long, but it seems to go on forever, and you are relieved when you get to the Heywood Car Park at the north end of Frogatt Edge and regain the views across the valley you have been enjoying for the majority of the walk.  The feet were beginning to pay me back for the 14 miles so far, and the remaining 7 miles were not going to be the most fun of my life.

The next section of the walk is relatively rapid, with good flat paths in comparison with the rockier routes along the other edges, admitted you don’t get a constant view over the valley, but the 3.5 miles from here to Curbar Gap is a nice walk at anytime.  The climbs are hidden from view from the top at these two crags unlike the rest of them.  It was towards the end of this section last year my spirits began to flag, but this year I still felt mentally good, despite increasing aching legs, and the last checkpoint had bee cleared.

Past the Curbar Gap were the hardest 3.5 miles I had done in a long time, coincidentally this walk about a year ago.  Last year I cursed the Wellington Monument and this year was no different.  It seemed to take forever to reach the stone cross, and just as long to get the the cross roads.  My pace had slowed now and the balls of my feet had moved up to pain from aching.  A 10 minute rest at the monument was needed, and when I got to the crossroad cramp began to set in.  Stretching out helped, but it never really left me until the pint at the end.

Skirting along Gardoms Edges before heading across to Birchen, this time I didn’t head along the top of the edge for its whole length, but walked along the base of the hill, and what a better route it is, from the top you hardly realise there are rocks there, but from the bottom you see a damn fine crag, filled today with a lot of groups.  The mind was willing, but the body wasn’t by this point, and I was glad to get a sight of the pub as I descended through the tall grass, and after an impossibly long few hundered metres, I stepped through the gate, and could see the finishing line.  Making sure I did get to within 100 yards of the end and get motored, I finally reached the tent in just over 7 hours in 113th place overall and as the 40th walker, that was up from 185th overall and 85th last year, setting a walking time which I want to beat by at least an hour next year.  Dave came in 5th climber, taking into account both runner and walkers and 19th walker overall in around 6 hours 20 minutes.

An early morning start was essential on a fine sunny day in September, as later in the day it would get a little too warm for walking long distances, and the lack of wind over Stanage Edge and clear skies made it increasingly uncomfortable for an hour or two before you hit the sheltering trees through the National Trust estate and the back of Curbar and Frogatt Edges.

15 minutes from the start I was wondering why I ever paid my £20 back in March to walk these 22 miles from Ladybower to Robin Hood yet again.  It took me to my limits both physically and mentally last year, and still I registered as soon as entries opened last year.  The Nine Edges challenge has that pull once you have tried it once, you keep coming back for it, and at the 22 mile mark, when checking into the last checkpoint at Robin Hood for my second finish, I would have happily paid my £20 there and then for the 2010 event.

Don’t believe the official distance, my GPS track has been 21ish miles for 2 years in a row, and you feel that last mile coming past Birchen Edge, so I’m tending to believe that, although the official distance did make a convenient t-shirt design this year, so I’ll let them off!  Each year the organisation gets better and better, and all hats off to Edale MRT for their work, the marshalls were fantastic, and the water fill ups and snacks increasingly welcome as the challenge went on.  The pint at the end is also most welcome and an incentive to finish if ever there was one!

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Holiday Part 4 – Portmerrion and Ffestiniog Railway

Posted on September 27, 2009 by sean

On the last two days of the holiday, we did the local tourist things you do when you are in the Portmadog area, mainly go on one of the steam trains and go to visit Portmeirion. I’ll cover the latter first, as it had more of an impact on me.

Portmeirion photos can be found here

I’ve never been a die hard fan on the Prisoner TV series, but a passive fan. However Portmerrion was top of my places to visit while we were over here, and I wasn’t disappointed. I started watching the series again this weekend, and its so much more interesting when you recognise the locations for the scenes from your visit.

It is a beautiful place, not massive in area village wise, but with many little passages to explore. The main square is amazing, with the best view being from No 2′s house with the green domed roof. You spot new subtle features every time you go through an area for the 2nd or 3rd time, and could happily have spent a full day there with several changes of batteries and memory cards for my camera.

The variety of colours of the buildings and styles of architecture make you wonder what’s round the next corner. The walk down to the hotel and beach leads to the stone boat that could be seen at the Old Peoples Home scenes in the TV show, and if you walk further on from there, you can reach the end of the peninsula and the lighthouse returning through the woods.

You can see why they filmed the TV series there, it has that feeling about the place, lots of little passages, stair cases going off in all directions, and lots of places to overlook you, you could be spied on here and not know, in a positive way its quite an oppressive layout, very contained, yet as a visitor it overcomes this with the amazing views from every angle on any path and from any angle

There are buildings that are there for no reason, but for aesthetic reasons, and rightly so, the village was built by Clough Williams-Ellis, it was as an indulgence, and I wish there were more indulgences like this.

If you are a die hard fan of the show, you can even buy a 5.5ft tall white balloon for £30 from number 6′s cottage, I decided to just get the t-shirt instead.

I’ll be adding the Ffestiniog railway section in the next few days.

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Holiday Part 3 – fish, aborted walks and towns which should be aborted

Posted on September 27, 2009 by sean

DON’T GO TO PWLLHELI EVER! THERE IS NOTHING TO DO!

OK, warning over, lets get on with the day. Today was an early start, as I was going to a attempt an ascent of Moewlyn Mawr. Starting out from Creoso village, the plan was to ascend the peak and if time allowed a lower neighbouring peak Moel Bach. The walk started nicely with an easy stroll along the valley floor, with great views of the horseshoe of hills which make up the valley. Cloud level looked to be a little low, but I was hoping it would clear. The ascent started when I took a right fork which followed an old mining track to 500m above sea level to an old abandoned mine. The path was a continuous uphill for about 1.5 miles until I reached the mine. It would have been a damn impressive operation when it was all up and running. Visibility was not great even at 480m, but I pushed on, but after another 500m and 50m of ascent, it was down to 30m, and was relying on compass to navigate. I decided, given andreas condition, getting lost was not the best idea, If it has been just me, or if it had been a bit clearer, then it would have been no issue, but getting lost on top of a hill isn’t the best way to help andrea relax during her pregnancy.

 

After a breakfast at Erics climbing cafe below the Tremadog crags on the way back, I headed home, and then we all headed over to Pwllheli, and left again within ½ an hour, enough said!, its a working town with not a lot going on, unless you are staying the rather substantial holiday camp just up the road. Retracing our steps back to Portmadog, we took the toll bridge over the bay and stopped at a resturant on the coastal road in Harlech for lunch, which went down very well, with a couple of pints of Snowdownia Ales fine selection. And given the size of elises spagetti bolognaise, I’d have hated to see the adults portion. A very nice drive over to Barmouth then followed.

 

Barmouth is what I would call a typical seaside town, with beachside fairground and arcades, tat shops and cafes along the front. The beach is huge, forming the southern tip of Cardigan Bay, and the views over the Cader Idris range where a nice bonus as well. Elise enjoyed running barefoot on the beach as any child should do. A number of bohemian shops kept elise and andrea busy as well. We returned here on the Thursday, and enjoyed some very nice fish and chips from just up the road from the Last Drop pub, as well as elise making the most of the long promenade.

 

For dinner we headed to the Queens hotel in Portmadog for dinner and had some very nice tapas washed down with several pints of Crag Rat real ale. Food and service were excellent, and my Quesdillas And Spicy Meatballs were spot on.

 

On Tuesday we left the mainland of Wales, we travelled over the Britannia Bridge, and headed to the Anglesea Sealife Zoo. Anglesea is a strange beast when you are surrounded by mountains on the mainland, as is appears to be pretty much totally flat. However moving over to the island, gives a fantastic view of the whole showdown mountain range, and hopefully the panorama I took will come out when I get back home. The zoo was good, if a little small for the admission fee, but there was plenty to see and happily killed a few hours, including lunch at the bistro. The outdoor activities extended the stay a little bit longer, before we headed back to the mainland and the mountain village of Llanberis.

 

With its sheer view up to the Mt Snowdon area dominating the view to one side, and the numerous slate mines dominating the view of the hillside on the other side of the lake it certainly a scenic village, and plenty to do if you arrive earlier in the day. After a trip to Joe Browns Climbing shop to pick up some new gear, we took a walk down to the lake, and then up to the country park. There is plenty to do there when its open (we arrived at 4ish), and the lakeside steam train looked good, but by the time we got there it, and electric mountain was closing, so we headed back, going via Pen Y Pass and Bedgellert.

 

Of all the roads I have driven in Snowdonia, this is the most scenic so far, with view of Snowdon from all angles, as well as many other of the high peaks. It was from this road I ascended Snowdon about 6 years ago, using the Pyg Track, until now I had no compulsion to do it again, but as was head down from Pen y Pass, I caught sight of the Snowdon Horseshoe, and I immediately wanted to do the full circuit! Being here for a week, my eyes have constantly been driven to the mountains, and there are now 3 or 4 on my list of to do hills. I suspect a winter trip is due here!

 

Dinner again was at the Golden Fleece in Tremadog, no unusual steak this time, but a decent pie instead, washed down with several nice ales!

 

When we got back to the cottage, something stuck me, how many stars I could see, and the Milky Way was clearly defined, something I have witnessed for a while now, and left me gobsmacked, its a pity our cities and towns preclude this sight now for most people.

 

As a footnote to this article, I thoroughly recommend any of the Portmadog produced Snowdonia Ales, they were extensively sampled over the week, and not a bad pint among them!

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Holiday Part 2 – Arrival and Caernarfon

Posted on September 27, 2009 by sean

Some how yesterday we managed to get across from Chester to Portmadog on mostly deserted roads,and no caravans to be be seen! We came down via Denbigh, over past Llyn Brenig on the B4501 and then after a short run on the A5 we headed south on the B4407 over the moors to Ffesiniog before hitting the main road to Portmadog, a fantastic drive over some stunning barren moors, not meeting a handful of cars on each of the 2 stretches. Not a place you’d want to break down however as no phone reception for 20-30 miles!

 

The hardest bit was finding the cottage, eventually we found it, half a mile down a track from the main road in the middle of a working farm. Very isolated, and all the better for it, its pitch dark at night, something you don’t experience enough when you live in a town or city, and not a sound can be heard once work has finished for the day. The cottage has lots of space, big rooms and very nice corner bath. Couldn’t ask for more.

 

There are views over all the Tremadog crags as well, and what lovely climbing rock it looks! A short walk down the track gives fantastic views of the triple peaks of Moewlyn Bach, Mawr and Hydd, all in the 700m height region, which will be attempted in the next couple of mornings on a nice 6-7 mile walk, 15 minutes drive from the cottage.

 

Yesterday, was a bit of a sandwich with some nice bread, and a slightly unpleasant filling, with the aforementioned drive over snowdownia being the first slice of bread. The second slice of bread being the couple of hours I spent at cricceth with elise while andrea slept off the poor nights sleep at the travelodge in the cottage. There is something about the sea at sunset, something relaxing, and this coast is not exception, a 15 minute drive down the road, its nice little resort, with a pebble beach, and the compulsary castle! The poor quality meat in the middle was the precautionary visit to local hospital for my wifes increasingly complicated pregnancy!

 

Today however was a joy from start to end, with the great day out at greenwood forest park, near Caenafon, however this day did confirm my hatred of roller coasts of any kind, even small moderately fast ones. I’ve hated them since I was a teenager, and not ridden one of any sort for over 15 years, and it will be about the same time again after today, this one was designed for older kids and I still felt deeply uncomfortable. Normally Andrea would go on the ride, but the pregnancy put pay to that, so I was forced to join my daughter on the ride, and she was happier than me on it! I can happily climb up a rock and be exposed to a 5m fall or hang 50m above fresh air, but give me a safe tracked ride 6-7m off the ground and I don’t like it one little bit. Life is that strange!

 

The drive over from the cottage via Bedgellert and Snowdonia held fantastic views. There was loads to do for elise, and was nicely quiet when we arrived at lunch, by the time we left at 3.30ish queues were starting to form, so I can’t imagine what it’d be like in peak season, my idea of hell I’d guess. However, I don’t recommend the overpriced burgers there, didn’t feel too clever for a few hours afterwards.

 

Going out of season has its advantages, less crowds, accommodation being half the price, and nice clear roads, however the downsides can be a lot of attractions close or scale back operations something we found in later days at some of the resort we visited.

 

We then took a trip over to Caernarfon on the way back, and, parking just behind the imposing castle, took a walk along the front towards the Victoria harbour, and had a drink overlooking it, before returning through the walled town. Being a Sunday, not a lot was open, so we returned to the cottage to chill before going for a very nice meal in Tremadog at the Golden Fleece. It was the first time I had eaten ostrich steak, and it won’t be the last time either, the only way I can describe it is as looking like beef with a hint of chicken in the flavour.

 

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Holiday Part 1 – The Travelodge Rant and Chester

Posted on September 27, 2009 by sean

I pull aside the curtains from the sofa bed next to the window, it still dark, 6am I guess, I am wrong, checking my phone its 5.20am. Having nothing else left to do but lie here, I realise I could be in any hotel in this chain, in any location in the UK right now, and I would have no idea I had been moved there. A bit like a slightly less lofty Prisoner set. Indeed my stay here might be made more interesting by the factor of large white spheres following me everywhere. The receptionist doesn’t look over joyed to be working here, and I don’t blame her one little bit, you are spending 40 hours a week in a red brick hotel, just off the road which takes people to places guaranteed to be more interesting than where she is now.

Its currently 5:52am, I can’t sleep, and I’m laying here under a duvet in a back room of a Travelodge just off the A55 eastbound carriage, behind a petrol station next to a Little Chef, trying not to disturb the other two members of the family who are sleeping 5 yards away. You may ask, why not go into the reception or breakfast room to work, simple answer is that there isn’t either here, and the Little Chef doesn’t open for an hour, so I can’t pop over to there. There is no phone reception at the back end of the hotel, so anything which relies on an internet connection on my phone is out, and the wireless internet is not free, so that’s the laptop offline as well. This blog entry will be posted when I get to civilisation again.

When the route into your hotel ends with “come off the sliproad for the westbound services at junction 33, go past the garage and turn left, the hotel is not visible from the road”, its not going to be the height of luxury. Biscuits with your tea, they are available at services. Toiletries, you didn’t think to bring them yourself, services will have them in. I will, thankfully however be out of here in 3 hours, and on my way to the cottage, not far from the real life set of the Prisoner at Portmerrion. Reminder me next time when you pay £29 for a family room, you get £29 worth of room. £10 each is less than most YHA hostels, but the hostel has more facilities.

However the saving grace of this place is that is allowed us to stop over in Chester for the day on our way over to the west coast of Wales. One of my favourite small cities to visit, its full of original architecture, mostly unspoilt, with an open river side area to the south of the city among the roman ruins with its parks and pubs overlooking the River Dee, and an walkable city wall all adding my reasons to return here. Its very much like York in most of those aspects, another city I can quite happily visit for a weekend.

We have been here 3 or 4 times now as a family and there is still more to see, we still haven’t visited any of the museums, and there are areas of the city we still haven’t explored. Yesterday for the first time, we took a walk through the park next to the river, a typical 19th century ornamental garden, with the addition of the remains of the roman settlement, and the tamest squirrels you are likely to meet. Tame as in, they walk up to you and get within inches of you hand checking if you have any food for them, even with my daughter who could spook an elephant with her heavy handedness sometimes, got a close check up.

The Boat House pub served up a decent lunch, with a decent selection of JW Lees beers from Manchester, with my black pudding starter being good, but suffering from the comparison with the fantastic starter with the same ingredients at the Canalside in Skipton. If you ever need to convert somebody to black pudding then that is the place, homemade with lentils and chorizo, and served with a black pudding crockette, the taste is out of this world. The burger seemed to get my daughters approval (and she won’t just eat any burger, see refuses to go McDonalds full stop, my efforts over the last 4 years to get her to dislike the place have finally paid off!). The tuna melt seemed OK as well, but there not a lot to get wrong with a tuna melt is there!

Eschewing the Little Chef for dinner in the evening, as it would be too much of a busmans holiday for me as I work their head office in Sheffield, we headed to the nearby village of Buckley only to find that the restaurant we were looking for was closed, and a recommendation from the staff at the local co-op sent us up the road to the Red Lion, it didn’t look much from the outside, but once inside was a nice pub. The food was good with a nice cooked sirloin steak with homemade chips, jerk chicken and childs meal of chicken, veg and mash all hitting the spot, Only downside was that the starter wasn’t available, but that was a good thing in the end as it left room for chocolate pudding and cream. Service was good, with an incorrect side order being replaced without fuss.

Anyway I’ll sign off this post the way I started, and have one final rant about the Travelodge Northop Hall, and its most annoying factor, and that is due to its location on the eastbound carriageway, you can’t get directly here if you are east of the hotel, you have to travel back to previous junction and then come back through the village of Northop so you are west of the hotel, and can access it from the east bound road again, so in theory you could be 200 yards from hotel and have to travel 8 miles to get back to it, madness!

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Memories of Leicester – An Ongoing Series

Posted on July 21, 2009 by sean

I’ve done a couple of articles in the past about my time in Leicester, and I thought it is about time I did another one.

I lived in Braunstone Frith until I moved to Coventry for University at 18, that wasn’t my first choice, I wanted to go and build robots at Reading University, but my Physics E grade at A Level let me down. Lets admit it, no member of 1991-1992 Mr Lawrence class was never going to get anything named after them physics wise. Some bright spark (no names Mr Wilford) even decided to go and study Physics as University after failing his A Level. All this after the stunning success of the GCSE’s in co-ordinated science, where 80-90% of mainly the same students achieved double A grades.

Even then I spent my weekends in Leicester during my degree working at Littlewoods in the Haymarket Centre. Originally I worked in the stockroom, then got moved to working in the cafe, keeping the crappest storeroom jobs in the process. I much prefered the storeroom, less hassle, and you could organise your day to suit yourself. Several others returned at weekends to work as well including Ian Baker, who stewarded the social club at British Shoe, where I did regular shifts on a sunday afternoon covering the lunch run in the kitchens, and doing the occasional function.

I remember my maddest weekend work wise, which was a function 8pm-2am at the social club on the friday, then 8.30-5.30 at Littlewoods follwed by another late function at the club immediately afterwards on the saturday, followed by the normal sunday lunch shift. But I think my worst sunday lunch was after a night out in Loughborough. I had been out with Adam Freestone, Benner, Tez and a few others to dance night at the Student Union. I have been awake all night, after going back to this massive 19 bedroom house and chilling out till the sunday morning, then catching the train back. On the way back I got a call asking if I could cover lunch, feeling OK at the time, I agreed. Bad Move! About an hour in the after effects of the night before kicked in, and serving food was the last thing I wanted to be doing at that moment.

I remember my maddest weekend work wise, which was a function 8pm-2am at the social club on the friday, then 8.30-5.30 at Littlewoods follwed by another late function at the club immediately afterwards on the saturday, followed by the normal sunday lunch shift, was bloody ready for a session after that. But I think my worst sunday lunch was after a night out in Loughborough. I had been out with Adam Freestone, Benner, Tez and a few others to dance night at the Student Union. I have been awake all night, after going back to this massive 19 bedroom house and chilling out till the sunday morning, then catching the train back. On the way back I got a call asking if I could cover lunch, feeling OK at the time, I agreed. Bad Move! About an hour in the after effects of the night before kicked in, and serving food was the last thing I wanted to be doing at that moment.

Work meant there were a few of us about for nights out still, which normally meant either going to wherever Mark Horne was DJ’ing that night with Ian, Phil, Simon or a combination of that circle of friends or a few beers at the Bricklayers Arms, we started drinking there underage, it was about a mile of out town, but a nice boozer, for some reason we stuck there.

If Andrew Crane or Stu Wilford was about, a visit to Fan Club or Alcatraz, after a couple of years this was more often as Stu had decided a career in Physics was not for him. These two groups were pretty exclusive in that they rarely crossed with each other.

If it was the latter was always the same ritual if the weather was good. We would meet up at Andrew’s house (Adam Freestones was on the way there if he was coming), then walk down to Stu Wilfords place, and then walk into town down the old Great Central way path at the back of New Parks to the Narborough Road Junction. A good night of moshing was followed by chips and curry sauce from the bottom of the high street and then the walk home.

I don’t know why we did walked so much, but we just seemed to walk a lot more with this group. Maybe it was because none of us had our own cars. The people who had cars were all in my other social circles, Ian Baker had a Cherry Red Mini, followed by a Metalic Grey Ford Orion, other peoples slip my mind now. The first time a car came into the Adam / Stu / Andy circle was when Adam started going out with Emma who had a car, and I admit this freely, she was taken advantage of for a few years. Other people who I hung out with as part of this group also had cars, Tez Dyer and Carl Benner, and from what I remember they were taken advantage of as much by other people.

Now a side story, somebody (possibly Tez Dyer) at one point has a small van, Rascal van size, and there were 7-8 of us in the back of it, I think Tez, Loz his brother, Adam, were all there. I can’t remember where we were going. People were smoking fags in the back, and we all fitted where we could. There was more than a couple of people who could have cut down on the pies. The driver then decided to do a sudden stop, this being a van we had no notice of this, and all I can remember is arms, legs and cigarettes flying and having to untangle the pile of limbs afterwards. I also remember a similar size van doing drive by super soakers on Dominion Road one day.

There was also a third circle of friends, mainly based around Carl Russell, most of whom were linked by basketball to him. Carl was an anomily among my friends in that he drifted in and out of my other 2 social circles as it suited him, for sport and nights out. During my summers at university I was back home, and normally temp’ed a few days during week and then did the food jobs at the weekend.

One summer I worked at Co-op doing some relabelling macros in excel for 10 weeks or so. I also played football on a wednesday night, and went for a few beers with Carl before catching last bus home from town. We seems to be able to drink a lot for not a lot of money on those nights. However one night we excelled ourselves. We had 12ish quid left on us in total, including bus fares, and somehow managed to get totally pissed on it, without student cheap deals. The first stop at the Bricklayers Arms (was O’Neills then), they had 1 quid guiness for 5 minutes after every goal, I think it was a 3-2 or a 4-2 game, but the drinking stella through a straw at the sports bar below the Grand Hotel seemed to be the moment of genius. Not the morning after however.

However the biggest part of my life from 15-20 was Role Playing Games, an interest thats been reignited in the last 3 years with the same bunch of people I played with in my teens, now through online gaming, firstly with running Rifts via skype and a GM website, then onto Dialbo 2, and very recently via Anarchy Online.

Twice a week, sunday afternoon and a midweek night, me, Stu, Adam, Andy (when he was back in leicester) and a selection from Aaron, Woody and Benner among other would congregate at Adams, Andy’s or Stus armed with dice and a 3 foot high pile of Rifts World books. (yes we had nearly 40 books for 1 game). Rifts became the main obsession. Previously we had done D&D, Ninjas and Superspies, Warhammer Fantasy, but Rifts was our game. Four Packs in hand, we played until we were to knackered or not fit to play. If Andy Crane was about it was always the prefered location to play as he had his own wing the the back of the house where we could just chilled and second and most important a full size snooker table in the conservatory.

Thats it for now….I’ll write another installment when I come up with some new stuff.

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The Redundancy Game and the Great Job Hunt

Posted on July 13, 2009 by sean

Just over 2 weeks ago, I was made redundant for the third time in my career in IT.

The previous two times had very different affects on me, the first time in 2000, I found a job straight away, my pay off and return of share save money brought me an E reg Mini and a brand new kayak, the first of which got wrote off when it did a 180 degree spin and it became 6 inches narrower than before the accident. The second I still own today, with some battle scars. It was a positive thing.
The second time about 7 years ago co-incided with a very dark period in my life, I was having massive personal problems, and losing my job was the straw that broke the camels back. The job market wasn’t brilliant, and it took me 4 months to get a new job. In the meantime I worked as a “test script monkey” on systems I was coding and designing just 12 months earlier for minimum wage via an agency. All of this combined to put me in a deep malaise, borderline depression. I would have mood swings that would make a junkie look stable. But I came out of it eventually with a decent job where I made friends who I still have today. Also I discovered my love of hill walking and climbing, via various trips I took with my mate Randolph up to the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales.

This time, all the signs were there, but I was blind to see them. When I was told my job was at risk, I didn’t react well, I felt betrayed, stabbed in the back, thinking why the hell did I put in those 20 hours days when something was needed. Now I look back and can fully understand why my job had to go, but its hard to see the light, when they have just been metaphorically punched out. The consolidation of offices to the midlands, and having to balance the manpower to the work available made me the natural choice, although it would have been someone else if I had wished to move to the midlands, as I was the 2nd most experienced developer in the company at the time.

This time has also taught me two other important things, read your income protection policy carefully, finding out that you are not covered for redundancy is a kick in the balls when you have been paying in for the last year. Also I could quite easily live on half my pay if I needed to after all non essentials were taken out of the equation, and I am not a high flyer by any means, merely on a fairly average salary for an IT developer.

Finding a job is hard work, and requires dedication and organisation, it means constantly monitoring the likes of CW Jobs and Jobserve, applying for roles, chasing up agents for feedback, and fine tuning your CV. You have your very good days and very bad days. Give me regular work anyday. After a few days I got this down to an art.

Most jobs sites allow you to do job searches as an RSS feed, just pick your favourite reader, and the jobs come to you instead. You still need to do some searches, but this cuts this down 75%. My CV was fine tuned every other day, with small tweaks, added information about my side projects, and shuffling of skills. This did help get some interest as I went into week 2, from the PHP roles. If you have personal projects / websites / systems out there, make them work for you, let them sell your skills, I have no doubt this helped me get 1 or 2 interviews.

My friend Ian Nelson (www.ianfnelson.com), emailed me a load of advice on getting a new job, something he has to do more than often than most as a contractor. Two bits of advice I will pass on here, one, put a short personal statement at the top of your CV, make yourself stand out. If you want to see my CV, look on my home page (www.seanliquorish.co.uk). Second, chase the agents, its not rude, and it will make you be noticed more than others who don’t, remember they will make at least £5000 out of getting you a job, make them work for it, and don’t be pushed into something you don’t want by them if you are offered a job, make sure you are totally happy with a package and where you will work.

By the start of week 2, I had 4 interviews lined up, that was from about 30-40 applications. I found that the companies I was getting first and second interviews for 2 years ago when I took my current role, I didn’t even get my foot in the door. This was a disappointment at the time, and disheartened me. However all the hard work was worth it when the first interview came in, and then the subsequent ones just gave me more confidence day by day. The market was slower than 2 years ago, but I seemed to be doing OK in it.

My first interview was in Leeds, doing PHP and .NET, I disappointed myself here, I didn’t sell myself well enough, something I made damn sure I corrected in the second interview in Sheffield, where I put Donald Trump to shame in the selling stakes, and the interview lasted nearly 2 hours. In fact I thought afterwards that I had gone over the top in selling myself and come across pushy! The Sheffield role was a green field development to build internal systems for a national retail chain, with good resourcing and generous benefits. It was a System Architect role by any other name. In my current role, these were the projects I enjoyed most. The success of this interview boded well for the next 2.

The next day I was interviewing at a legal firm in Manchester, this one went OK, however, the style of interview dictated a different approach to answering questions, a more controlled sell of my skills. One of the skills I last used 2 years ago, came in as a trump card to get my interview here. Thats another lesson I have learnt, never mind how niche you think a skill is, put it down, as there is always a niche to fill. The second lesson from this day is to have some change on you when driving into Manchester, if you don’t, expect to get robbed by NCP. This was my first technical test, and it went well apart from the MS Word 2007 section, as I have trouble find anything in the Teletubbie interface that is Office 2007.

After this interview, I received a phone call from the agent for the Sheffield role, I was the preferred candidate, that was good news, the package and benefits were to my liking as was the role, however I had a couple of nagging doubts in my mind, which I couldn’t quite place. With this in mind, I told the agent he would have an answer after the interview at the business services supplier in Manchester the following day. The nagging doubts hit the surface at 2.30am, and didn’t leave until 6am, wiping out half a night’s sleep, not the best preparation for an interview the following morning. The nagging doubts were despatched to the agent at about 3.30am, and it took me 3 episodes of Mythbusters to get my mind relaxed enough to go back to bed.

Thankfully my lovely wife got up with my daughter, despite her own illness, and let me get another hour in bed before I got up. This time I had some change and parked at Boddingtons old site, for less than half the price of National CarPark Pirates. This interview also had a technical test, half of which I didn’t get done due to a slow virtual machine and crashing Visual Studio. The ones I didn’t get round to I answered verbally, and made up for the lack of typed evidence. The tiredness showed in the technical questions however, when simple SQL server questions I should have known just wouldn’t come to the surface. However I trumped myself with the answer to the lateral thinking question at the end which was “If you were to rebuild Manchester to its current plans and relocate the population there, how many petrol stations would you build”. The role looked good, and jumped to number 2 in my list of preferred jobs.

This was all trivial however as the doubts had been fed and satisfied by the Sheffield role and I agreed to accept it starting on 29th July, 9 days before my redundancy period finishes.

A great end to a rollercoaster 2 weeks, I’m leaving my current employers on good terms and have got a hell of a challenge to come. Remember to be patient and believe in yourself and you will get out what you put in!

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Pike O Blisco and Crinkle Crags from Langdale via Hardknott

Posted on June 22, 2009 by sean

Pictures can be found here http://www.seanliquorish.co.uk/gallery/?album=Sean%2FWalking%2FLangdale+Crinkle&page=all

Last weekend saw the second of my planned Lakes trips this year, last time I took in Bowfell, Great End and Scafell Pike from Langdale, wild camping at Angle Tarn. This time it was planned to be a climbing trip, taking in Middlefell Buttress, the Scouts and possibly Pavey Ark, staying in the relative luxury of the National Trust site in the same valley.

You remember the Crowded House song “Always take the weather with you”, well me and my partner in crime Mike always do, and that weather is always wet. We had the 2006 and 2007 trips to climb Pillar Rock, fine until a mile before we get there and then it rains just enough to make it unclimbable. In fact in 2007 I appreciated the upside down view from the Notch in Slab and Notch after coming off a metre or two above the start, due to wet conditions.

I’ll be honest, we could have got 3-4 hours climbing in on the first day, however when we had pitched up the tent, the clouds above Crinkle Crags and Bowfell looked quite dark and ominous, so we decided to do a walk instead. Mike had done Crinkle Crags before, so we decided to extend it to take in Pike O Blisco, which was a first for both of us and to take a small diversion to look at the needle on Long Crag.

Leaving the campsite at the far end, we moved up through the wood at the base of Side Pike, and zig zagged up to the plateau between Langdale and Hardknott Pass. After a nice warm up climb to 250m, we were then faced with what I consider to be one of the less well known gems of the Lake District, the Blea Tarn area. I had certainly never heard of it before, and I’m not a stranger to Langdale by any means. In fact there were only 3 cars parked up and we only met 4 people all the way through here, so I guess I am not alone.

If you have a young family and want an afternoon out in the Lakes without a lot of height climb for the kids, then you can easily park at the top, and then go exploring the woods just past Blea Tarn, let them scramble on one of several rock escarpments, or just enjoy the walk through some stunning countryside with fantastic views of the mountains at either end of the pass, and surrounded by rocky hills either side. If they are a bit older then the walk up from Langdale wouldn’t be too taxing either. It is like someone has taken one of the big valleys, shrunk it in scale and transplanted it at 250m altitude.

After a pleasant half hour of walking through this, we started to head to the right over Blea Moss following the hill out of the valley to meet the road up Hardknott Pass as it headed uphill towards the roman fort. Half mile of tarmac followed before we look lunch at Wrynose Bridge. A welcome break before we took on the 500m of ascent we needed to gain to top Pike O Blisco. Having driven the pass before myself, the unmistakeable smell of clutch plates and brake pads drifted over us even 20m away from the road, and you could tell some people were going to have fun with overheated brakes towards the bottom of the pass!

We followed the stream for a mile up the hill which would take us to the plateau at approx 500m, crossing several small streams as it split up higher up the hill to the North. As we ascended the views of the surrounding hills got better, with Wetherlam and Swirl How on the opposite side of Hardknott pass, with the impressive curling approach ridge and eventually the Langdale Pikes as you reached the small plateau near Long Crag. However our objective was slightly to the west, and we headed over to the summit of Pike O Blisco over the intermittently boggy ground we have been dealing with ever since we left the road at Hardknott Pass.

The route to the summit meandered for just under a mile, with steady climbing up to 705m, where we were rewarded with a typical rocky summit for this area. Views from here stretched along the Langdale valley and back towards the head of Windermere and Little Langdale, as well as higher levels views of Wetherlam and Swirl How

For all the climbing up to the summit, we now had to descend the rocky path down to the pass between Blisco and Crinkle Crags, some 200m below us. At this point my knees fell out with me and didn’t make friends again until I got back to the camp site. Don’t blame them after how I treat them sometimes :^)

We then took a small diversion, heading on the track back towards Wrynose, to check out Long Scar for a future climbing trip, and more specifically the needle at the end of the crag. The route looked interesting, with some nice chimney work needed, however there were several other lines which looked worthy of some investigation, including some nice crack routes.

Once back on the main Blisco to Crinkle Crags track, we started the long slog up to the triple summit that is Crinkle Crags. This was an almost constant 350m of ascent with a short plateau behind Great Knott, and several short breaks were needed for the aching legs. I would love to tell you the views were worth it, but I can’t, from behind Great Knott to the top of the Band, all I saw was cloud, cloud and more cloud. This accounts for the lack of photos from this section of the walk! It also made later navigation over the top of Crinkle a regular map checking affair as it was all too easy to take one of the many wrong paths with no visual point of reference. This is one summit I am going to have to revisit in better weather to appreciate them properly.

Taking in the 3 (or 4) tops we then started the descent to the three tarns at top of the Band and our final stretch of the day. I have a love and hate relationship with the Band, as I ascended up on my previous trip and descended it on this trip, and it is the same either way, you get nowhere fast, apart from the top and bottom sections it seems to go on forever without you seeming to gain a lot up or down. Looking at a map you can see why, you don’t, its the last kilometre at each end where you make the gains or losses. However it does get you to some great places.

It was halfway down the Band the rain finally hit us, and it hit me hard, with hailstones which stung, for 15-20 minutes. I also found out my waterproof trousers were not entirely that as well. I was glad when the rain stopped and the farm at Stool End came into view, and soon was behind us. The last 2 km to the camp saw intermittent showers, before we reach the, still there, tents.

Getting into dry kit, we sat out the showers in the tent and did a run to the Old Dungeon Ghyll during a break in the rain, which didn’t make an appearance for the rest of the night. The planned camp dinner got abandoned for 6 pints and a chilli at the pub. And 6 very nice real ales they were too! In fact they must have been good as I felt fine in the morning.

After breakfast and a cuppa at the tent, some early rain put pay to any climbing in Langdale, so we headed out to Ambleside for shopping and a cuppa and second brekkie at Nicks Kitchen (nice spicy ketchup for the sausage butties), and then back south for some local climbing. The rain followed us all the way to the Barrow area, where we shot down the A6 to go to Warton Quarry, but that was closed for a nesting pair of peregrine falcons, unfortunately we didn’t see the parents, just the chicks. An alternative of some easy climbing at Denham hit the spot, before heading to pick the car up from my mates house.

Not what we planned for the 2 days, but a good one nether the less, with most of the Langdale hills done now (only Langdale pikes left now, which I will do in a day trip). Was also impressed with the National Trust site and will be returning there.

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