Good-bye 2011: Hello the end of the world

Hahahaha... so did that catch your attention?! I will not be commenting on my thoughts on the end being nye in the next twelve or so months, mostly because I haven't had the time to read all the huff and puff about it. Maybe one day when I have some time on my hands (2012 goal-to have more time on my hands), I will have a gander. But even in this last week off of work with no house projects left to complete (2011 goal tick- moved and settled into our house), I have found far more interest in looking at new shoes on Amazon :) And on the topic of ticking off the goals for 2011, here is what I have accomplished:

Finished up our house- well, the most of it. All main rooms are functioning, painted, and furnished- bar some wall decorations and a log-burner. As a home-owner there is always something to do, or so Craig keeps reminding me... like the garden, the flat roof, fixing the shower, the blah-de-blah this and the blah-de-blah that... and the list goes on and on. It looks like another goal for 2012 is: keep finishing the house, more specifically, I would like to finish decorating the dining room. Sounds easier than it is. I did manage to complete our Wall of Fame this past week and am really happy with the pics that we have: Flirts in the Tavern, Girls at the Cider Festival, Lucy and Craig, Corinne and me at Tower Bridge, Grad 2009, Richard in Craig's VW Beetle, Rob and Jackie canoeing on the river Wye, Paul's broken ankle off a grassboard in Wales, Greg and Kirsten and the Nowell Wedding, Si with shots for eyes, Edges at the foot of Robson, Edges and Abbotts' in Rhodes, Greece, Edges at Crescent Falls, Sisters in Jasper, Mr and Mr Edge on the top of Whistlers mountain in Jasper, Craig and my Dad and a handful of jackfish, and Nowells and Edges circa 1940.

Keep on camping: check 2011 and goal 2012. This year we ventured to one old-friendly and one new site in Devon. Thus, more specific goal for 2012: camp somewhere new... bonus points if I can have the trip organised for my birthday, and double bonus points if it involves some more trekking. More trekking because this was probably one of the highlights of the year: Snowdon in April and Three Peaks in June.

                                                                          Snowdon

                                                               A park in Torquay

Work nearer to home. Well, I can now confirm this goal is now finalised and I will be working literally down the road starting in Feb. Hurrah!!!!! Same company + different department= making delicious! Goal 2012: get a bike and cycle to work.

Completed two half marathons this year: one in the heat of the summer where I learned why you train for a half marathon (lost my mojo a bit this year, so hadn't ran the distance before the race). The reason why you train by running the distance is so you don't shock your quads by dousing them in lactic acid. I felt the burn and the burn lasted a week! Bonus marks, though for cutting 10 minutes off my time from the previous year. The second half I completed this year was in October and I cut my time again by another 6 minutes coming in at 1hr 57 min! Oh yea! Top tip here was the banana/choccie bar/ energy drink combo 30 minutes before starting. Goal 2012: join a running club to keep me motivated. Speed goal: run 10km in 50 minutes.

Got home to Canada this past year and it was lovely to see my family.
Host Christmas: didn't happen (can't win everything). Maybe next year? Don't know. Goal 2012: Host Thanksgiving on time.

And speaking of time: Complete blog entries on time: Missed out one month. booo... but doubled up this month to compensate.

So, what can I look forwards to achieving in the next year. Please feel free to join in when you can!
Have more time on my hands
Finish decorating the dining room
Camp somewhere new
Trek somewhere new
Holiday somewhere new and get a new stamp in my passport (from a new country)
Cycle to work
Join a running club
Run 10km in 50 minutes
Run a half-marathon in under 2 hours
Host Thanksgiving
Get driving (because I will have more time on my hands)
Get baking (ditto)
See my sisters
Relax!

Happy New Year!

Mid month macaron madness

As promised, some blogging about my mid month baking escapades... which mainly consists of making macarons. Mak-ah-RONs. NOT Mak-uh-roons.Posh little French delights; sort of like an almond-meringue sandwich. I will let you in on this little secret, and those of you in Canada should take this as a top tip (and cut me into your profits for providing you with such insight): Macarons are the new cupcake! They are elegant and poised petite desserts that can portray the poshest of flavour combinations. They have been popping up in England in the nouveau-lieu-d'etre: patisseries and boulangeries and people are paying stupid amounts for these delights.

I have wanted to try them forever and ever and finally bought them when we were at the Good Food Show in November: 5 quid for 4 macarons- that is as highway robbery as is paying more than 5 Euros for a bottle of plonk on the continent. Lavender and creme (purple), citrus and ginger (yellow and cream), green tea, and I don't remember the last one but I do remember it was pretty and yummy. Of course the next step is to attempt them myself.

Well, the ones I made were certainly not as dainty as the ones I see on the high street- I call them rustic; but they certainly packed the flavour that I anticipated. I certainly learned a few things whilst making them, as well.

Lesson 1: my large food processor is not designed for such elegant work. The recipe calls to  "sift icing sugar and almond flour into the bowl. If you have ground almonds, pulverise in the food processor until they are very fine". I dumped the almonds/icing sugar into the food processor, and in baking moment designed entirely for Lucille Ball, made a cloud of icing sugar/ground almonds in my face and in the kitchen. I realised this wasn't working, so waited for the cloud to settle and made a decision to skip to the next step.

Since I had ground almonds that looked like they were small enough to sift, I dumped all the almonds and equal part of icing sugar into my incy tincy hand sifter from Ikea (first time I used it... see, I bought it knowing that I would use it... even if it was a year later), tried to pull the lever, and nothing happened.

Lesson 1a: do not put more than 1/2 a cup of anything into your puny Ikea hand sifter. 40 minutes later, most of the material was sifted, apart from the larger almond nuggets. By this point, I now understood why macarons are 1.25GBP each and chucked the nuggets into the sifter mix.
Lesson 1b: next time, buy almond flour instead; however, when I tried to implement this lesson in the second round, I found that I actually can't find almond flour in any normal shops. Can some one please spare me a top tip here and tell me where I can find it?

I carried on to make the meringue and fold in my sifted ingredients. In attempts 1 and 2 (with pink food colouring) my meringue worked perfectly. Now I know I studied food science, but can someone please explain to me why meringue collapses when you add yellow food colouring? I haven't googled it yet, but would love to hear some speculation.

Lesson 2: when you want to make a yellow/orange meringue, follow the recipe that calls for cocoa powder and not yellow food colouring.

Once mixed, it was piping time:

Lesson 3: filling your piping bag with sticky goo takes a certain amount of patience and skill. I was instructed to pipe the meringue onto the baking sheet to the size of a walnut. Well, is that a walnut in the shell or out? How big is a walnut? I am allergic to walnuts, and I can't really remember what they look like. Whatever, I went on what I thought was the size of a walnut in its shell from what I remember my mom to have in the Christmas nut bowl.

Lesson 4: they actually meant the size of a cracked walnut, because if you see my picture, my macaron tops are far too fluffy to be considered elegant. They are more like the big fat gypsy wedding of the macaron world: all the pink, fluff, and sparkle- but mine are a step up in that they actually have taste! Now, I know I was just cursing the yellow food die for killing my meringue, but the flatter meringue did produce a smoother, flatter macaron. Top tip #2: don't gypsy your meringue, a soft tulle is better looking.

While they sit to set (apparently they develop a "characteristic skin") I made a ganache. While that set, I... doesn't matter. A few hours later...
Lesson 5: you need at least half a day to build macarons.

So over the course of 2 Saturdays, I concocted 65 assembled macarons- that's 130 halves +10% "broken" ones- you have to taste while you eat ;) plus 40 big fat ginger cookies and 40 chewy chocolate chip cookies, I finished the majority of my Christmas baking. I still have another batch of ginger cookies and macarons to make and it will all be over. Phew.

Merry Christmas!

Mo'vember

Contrary to what you might think from the title, this blog is not about moustaches. Although, it might have been a good idea to take pictures of funny moustaches I have encountered in my journeys this month, but I have only just thought of that now... note to self: add to the "to-do" list for next year.

So, Mo' = Mo' (re) action in November. Here is what I have been up to:

The month started off with a visit from the yearly Disney Crew. As usual they were in Brum over Halloween and we crashed their dress-up party in the scariest outfit of all to someone on tour: Real Life! This means that I came straight from the office in a collared shirt and skirt. This year was the first year I watched the whole show since being off tour. This year was also the first year that I actually didn't know three of the stories! The only one I did know was the Little Mermaid which appears to be in every DoI show around these days- but the skaters (and PD ;) ) did a good job of keeping it interesting. The other parts were about Cars, Fairies, and Toy Story 3. I am still cursing myself for not seeing Toy 3 in theatres or even on a train journey home... but like much of this year, I can't believe where time has gone.

Every year there are a few less people that we know on the show- who we do know are mainly sales crew with a fewer skaters and office staff. It's nice to think that we would go back for the travel and the money and the make up and the sightseeing and... but it's even nicer to sit in my lounge and write this on my own computer on my own couch looking at my own pictures of where we were with Disney on the walls. And I think of the closet and shoe rack space and think that I would never ever give that up! It's also nice to know that without starting on Disney, I would not be where I am today. Hard earned Disney dollars bought this house!

What mo' did I do in November?! I did get the opportunity for a travel teaser mid-month where I went to visit Munich. What a pretty city! It has palatial old building charm with a good buzz in and around the town. I had a chance to walk about on a Friday night in the town centre and didn't bump into one person: everyone was courteous in going to take in the pre-Christmas atmosphere with mates at the end of their long week. Nobody was ploughing through the mild crowds like they're in a race to get home. I was one week too early for the Christmas Markets, but the consolation was that I have been to a traditional German Christmas Market in Berlin and Oberhausen... again, in my Disney days. And I must say that Birmingham does have its own Christmas Market that is quite good... which I will tell you all about in a few weeks.

I also went to another gigantic market of sorts with Tracy and Vicky this past weekend. We went to the Good Food Show at one of the event centres in Brum. Craig and I went last year and stocked our kitchen with bits and bobs like knives and chopping blocks, but this year was all about having a stroll with the girls around the food stalls. You pay about 25$ to get in but there are demonstrations and of course lots of samples to try. We managed to see the MasterChef and Saturday Kitchen hosts (both are some of my favourite TV shows here) and I probably ate an entire block of cheese before I even got to the Cheeses of the World exhibit... no photos allowed, for whatever reason. There were all sorts of stands with wares on offer: sausages, salamis, chips, cakes, dips--> Ah, that is a good business. Why didn't I ever think of that! Buy herbs and spices in bulk, mix them together in a pretty jar, and sell them off again as a dip mix or meat rub.There was also a whole area of wine and whisky tastings. I stayed away from the malts, but tried some of the grape goodness. There were two stands flogging chocolate infused wine, which I was wary about, but was surprisingly surprised on the depth of the flavours.

Next month is looking to be jam packed again. I have an ever growing list of Christmas delights that I want to make whilst the pickled onions are marinating. As I am an entry behind, I will really try to get a mid-month post up telling the tales of my Christmas baking. Until then, keep warm!

Pass it on

I remember watching a TV programme just before I left Canada called "Jamie's Ministry of Food". The show depicted the message of trying to get people in a town (the fattest in Britain) to get cooking instead of being lazy and eating greasy take-aways. I thought that this was indeed a good thing to get started, so went on the website to see how I could get Jamie's message going.

His message encouraged people to set up home party to demonstrate one recipe that they learned to cook. Each member of the party... from 2-4 persons, was to have their own "home-made" recipe- no jars of pre-made food or sauces allowed, it all has to be made from scratch. They were to teach the rest of the group how to make their meal, and at the end of the day, those people will have learned something new and had to have pledged on arrival that they would "pass it on". These people would then host their own party and "pass it on" and eventually, the action of people cooking in their homes again would catch on.

Of course, then I moved and never did anything about this whole Food Movement. That is until now... I am making my effort (via the web) because this is something that I think is really important. Food contributes to our ailments and helps us to be strong. We can learn to use it to benefit our bodies, even if you don't understand the biochemistry behind it. You can learn to make foods from scratch as a way to control the ingredients that you are eating. You can monitor the salt, fats, vitamins that you use by adding these things yourself. You can control the additives in processed foods, because you aren't using them in a home-cooked meal. Finally, you are learning how to cook again- this is something that some people just haven't a clue how to do anymore.

So, what am I "passing on" today:
1: buy it now: Jamie's Ministry of Food cookbook. This book has not yet failed me. I have to give full credit to my friends Becky and Todd because they are the ones that kick-started the idea of this Movement again. We got this book as a moving in present, and it is the best gift you can get! I have tried probably 1/2 of the recipes so far... a new one each week, and I haven't yet made a crap meal. Those of you that are stuck on Christmas prezzies, this is it- I have just solved your problems! Be a part of the movement and "pass it on".

Jamie simply tells you what you need to have in stock and how to cook things from 20-minute meals to a full Sunday roast. The directions are simple, straightforwards, and again... I haven't come across a bad one yet.

2: my recipe to you: Now there are two that I could have chosen from: Lasagne and Minced Beef Wellington, but I am sharing the Lasagne with you (after I talk about the Wellington). The Wellington is super if you are having guests over 5-6 adults or if you want to cook something that will last a couple of days. It looks and tastes impressive (sans peas- I add an extra carrot and shrooms instead) and for me, it is something I would have never dreamed of cooking because I thought it was difficult- it really isn't. You will have to go to the website (http://www.jamieoliver.com/jamies-ministry-of-food/about) or buy the book to get the recipe from me... or come for a visit and I will show you how!

But now, the Lasagne. I chose this one because I have tried to cook lasagne in the past and have never ever been successful. One of Craig's favorite foods is lasagne, and his Mum's is to be rivaled. This one was amazing!

You make the bolognese yourself: 2 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, 2 medium onions, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 carrots, 2 sticks of celery, olive oil, 2 heaped tsp dried oregano, 500g minced beef, 2x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes, sea salt, black pepper, bunch of fresh basil.

Make your sauce- this takes time, but is entirely worth every minute!
Finely slice the bacon- Peel and finely chop the onions, garlic, carrots and celery- place a large pot or casserole dish on med to high heat- Add 2 lugs of olive oil, sliced bacon, oregano and cook and stir until the bacon is lightly golden- Add the veg to the pan and stir every 30 seconds until softened and coloured (about 7 minutes)- Stir in minced meat and chopped tomatoes- Fill one tin with water and stir in with the mixture- Stir in a good pinch of salt and pepper- Pick the basil leaves off of the stalks, and put them in the fridge for later. Chop the stalks and stir into the pan- Bring to a boil- Turn the heat down and simmer with a lid slightly askew for 1 hour stirring every now and again- Take off the lid and cook for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally- Keep an eye on the sauce as it cooks, and if you think it's starting to dry out, ad a splash of water.... now I shortened this to 45 minutes with the lid and 15 minutes without and it worked fine.

Remove the bolognese from the heat- Tear and stir in the larger basil leaves- Taste the sauce and season with a little more salt and pepper if it needs it. This makes a considerable amount of sauce, so it is good to freeze and use again!

Preheat your oven to 375F/190C

Next, for the lasagne:
250g dried egg lasagne sheets (I bought the pre-cooked ones that don't need re-cooking), 100g Parmesan cheese, 1x 600mL tub of creme fraiche (or sour cream), 1 large ripe tomato, (3/4 cup wilted spinach- my addition)

Grate your Parmesan and mix it to your creme fraiche.
Spoon a third of your bolognese sauce into the bottom of an earthenware ovenproof dish (approx 25cm x 35 cm)- Follow with a layer of lasagne sheets and another third of sauce- dollop a third of your creme fraiche mix- Sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and pepper and top with another layer of lasagne sheets- Spoon over the rest of the bolognese sauce (your wilted spinach) and another third of the creme fraiche- Finish with a final layer of lasagne sheets and top with the rest of the creme fraiche- Scatter over some extra Parmesan- Top with some slices of tomato and fresh basil leaves- Cover with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes- Remove the foil and cook for another 20 minutes until the lasagne is bubbling and golden- Serve with fresh green salad.

Try it out and pass it on!

Distances

Ack! It is yet again the end of another month, and I am thinking to myself "where has the time gone?!"
Week by week goes by and something comes up that is worth blogging about, but I just don't seem to find the time to get it down in type. For instance, I have uploaded pictures from an event at the very start of the month, but never got around to writing about it. I remember thinking that getting the pictures up is the part I always dread because it takes the most time, so I tried to do that first. However, it seems that it has taken me longer to sit down and hash this out.

So, what have I been up to?!

Like I said, the start of the month was the Living Angels Concert. Our friend organised a camping/ music festival weekend to raise money for the Living Angles charity that he set up. The event was held just outside of Tamworth (just outside of Birmingham) on a fantastic summer weekend. The weather was hot and the whole gang managed to make it out for the weekend. The gang + some ex-POWD memebers from Sunderland that Craig and I hadn't seen in a really long time. There was live music all weekend (including Chilli con Queso from the Cosiers) , foot massage (bliss!), Zumba, and some North vs. South cricket.

Next up was the completion of the Global Corporate Challenge event. I took part in this last year and this year. All it really is is a challenge to see what corporate team can take the most steps in the 100-or so days. So from early May, I don a pedometer to track my stepping. This year I beat my daily average from last year with a whopping 13293 steps per day... Most of this stepping came from my 3-Peaks challenge which has significanty skewed my results, but still... I am happy with anything more than 10,000 per day. In the course of the challenge I mustered:

-1,475,620 total steps= daily average of 5.29 miles and 536 calories

-Total calories= 59, 497, which according to the calculator= 367 glasses of wine or 441 pints of beer or 165 bars of chocolate.

For your information (again, according to this calculator): 10,000 steps= 4 miles= 400 calories.

Or, more simply: 100 calories per mile.

One 175mL glass of red wine= 119cal

One 175mL glass of white wine= 130 cal

One bottle of rose wine (Faye)= 533 cal

35mL of JD + Diet Pop= 79 cal

On the topic of mileage and drinkage, I have been running again. I have a second 1/2 marathon of the year coming up on October 23rd. Hooray!! I had been feeling really negative about running againg, but a magic banana and a new route seemed to work that negativity out: I am now feeling really pumped about this race.

So pumped, that I registered for a 10km race the 2nd weekend of October.

Now let's see how this balances out:

If I run an average of 10 miles on the weekend (sometimes more and sometimes less), that = 1000 calories; thereby, on the weekend I can drink 8.4 glasses of wine!! Fantastic!! And on that note and as it is Friday night...

Moved in!

Oh no. I have posted this far later than anticipated, and I do apologize for the nearly 2 month wait. All for a good reason, though. I have been EXTREMELY busy moving into our new house!

Finally, just over seven full months from receiving the keys, and ten months from putting in our offer, we are living in our house. From my last entry, it's been a big push to get things finished. Kitchen painted, new kitchen fitted, tiled, flooring, filling, carpets throughout the house, furniture shopping, furniture assembling (we are flat pack experts!), packing, unpacking, and we are here. Of course, there is still some work to do, but I really feel in no rush to get these things done. I now understand why en-suites go unfinished for eons and am glad that we got the major operations finished before we moved in. I am starting to even ignore the persnickety little lines that I want to touch up because they have been banged up during the moving process or weren't straight enough from the start. Once you are in, and working, and living a normal life, you simply haven't time to get around to these things.

What I am still looking forwards to doing is filling up our walls a bit. Time to break out the old albums and see what pictures are worthy to decorate the walls.  And here are some pictures for you to look at to see where we are. If you want to see more, I have a full set of old vs. new on Facebook.

Other than the house (and work) filling my time, we did go on holiday the last week of July. We joined the Nowell party in South Devon for a spot of sea canoeing and mooching around the small towns. I really enjoyed Devon. The whole place seemed a bit more up-market than Dorset where we visited last year. Really nice atmosphere, rolling hills, calm seas, and small pebble beaches. The beaches were a bit strange at the start and most practical if you are wearing (shocking-pink) aqua socks :) but once you are sitting on the pebble beach, it was great. You could mould the rocks to however you comfortably wanted to sit and they were large enough that they didn't stick to you in places you hoped sand would never go, but always does.

We glamped at a site where you could see the sea when drinking your morning coffee, visited Agatha Christie's house and estate, fished off the pier in Torquay (but didn't find Faulty Towers, nor any fish), twice canoed in the sea off of a beach called Blackpool Sands, walked to a lighthouse (and learned that the British Government will always fund the lighthouses because the American Military owns GPS, thus who knows when they might "turn it off"), mooched around the shops in many of the small local villages, fished off of the beach, fished off the canoes (successfully), and ate the freshest mackerel sushi I have ever had. All in all a good week and a good past month and a half.

Oh yes, and with the recent events in England... we are all safe. I blame the rioting on bad parenting. People who have no morals or values or respect for anything. Life lesson: force manners and values down your kids throats, because eventually some of it is bound to sink in.

3 Peaks Challenge: Log of Events

Here is my version of the play-by-play, or log of events from my experience taking part in the 3 Peaks Challenge. I might remind you that this challenge consists of climbing the tallest 'mountains' in England, Scotland, and Wales. These include Scafell Pike, England at 978m, Ben Nevis, Scotland at 1344m, and Snowdon, Wales at 1085m... the extra bit to this challenge is the goal of completing the three peaks in 24 hours. Did we do it? Read and find out (even though I already spoiled the answer through my f-book status).:
NB: I'm using surnames due to double first name confusion... and then it also sounds more like a play-by-play ;)

08:00 (Friday): Team arrives at the start point in Reading (apart from Edge and Keegan who have later pick ups). Due to leave at 08:15. ummm... as I heard, this was a bit off because the van wasn't in the previous night as promised by the rental company. Typical start to a time-focused event.

10:00 (Friday): Watson calls Edge to let her know the Reading team are 'running late'. They report they are only near Oxford, when they should be past Banbury.

11:15 (Friday): Edge meets team Reading at the Hopwood Services on the M42 for what was thought to be a short pick-up/ pee break stop. Nash orders a fry up to 'sit in'. This ends up with Nash sitting at a picnic table behind a fence with 11 anxious onlookers on the other side. Quite zoo-like and it reminded me somewhat of the Old Speckled Hen commercials "And here we have a Nash eating a sausage... interesting, but it's not a hen". For those Canadians reading: it's a beer commercial without the bikini clad chicks at a mountain hot tub party (yes, there is such a thing) where a fox browses through a plethora of curious situations looking for something a little different (Old Speckled Hen beer).

After two sausages and a couple fork-fulls of beans, Nash has had enough (perhaps of us staring at him) and we are on our way North... way North.

Much of the rest of the day was dozily spent in an 18 seater Minibus/ van whatever you want to call it- uneventful to say the least. My notes don't start up again until 18:35 with an interjection at an unspecified time before that: Peters wanted me to mention that Wilkinson SHOUTED hello from the back of the minibus while everyone was asleep. Watson was ever-so annoyed by this disruption to her sleep as reported by Swiss who caught death glare darts in his forward direction at the time of the incident.

Notes start back up at 18:30 (Friday): stop at Sainsbury's somewhere in Scotland. While most were making their key purchases of sandwich materials, bananas, porridge, etc. I was sure to purchase my own essentials: A bottle of Merlot on offer and some Emergency Chocolate. Why Emergency Chocolate is capitalised, you wonder? Because that is exactly what it was: For immediate relief of: Chocolate cravings, lovesickness, exam pressure, mild anxiety, and extreme hunger. Directions for use: Tear open wrapper, break off desired dosage, and consume. Alternatively massage into affected area. Repeat dosage as required until finished. If symptoms persist, contact local confectioner. I am really not joking about this, and to add to the collection I also purchased some 'Girth Control' (to help you stop thinking about 'it' for 15 minutes), 'BOCHOX' (to alleviate symptoms from wrinkles and crow's feet') and 'Invisible Chocolate'. In any case, I think you get the idea about my priorities in life.

18:45 (Friday): Leave Sainsbury's. Progress!

18:47 (Friday): Stop for gas at Sainsbury's gas bar. Patience... ugh! Oh yes, and cabin fever started to set in at this time as I reverted to calling it 'stopping for gas' vs. stopping for petrol.

18:52 (Friday): Go!

19:00 (Friday): Stop! For good reason as we picked up Keegan (peaker) and Mr McGaw (driver/ Scottish tour guide) from Barhead. Everyone at this time is complaining about being hungry, tired, crazy, whatever so we stop at the dodgiest Turkish Kebab place I have ever entered in my life for an attempt at dinner. Dinner= unsuccessful. How this place is even allowed to be open blows my mind. I walked in, looked at the sweaty donner meat rotating on the spit, scanned the salad bar to see pre-packaged containers with green 'stuff' inside and decided for once in my life, I would actually rather go hungry. The rest quickly followed suit.

XX:XX (Friday): Found somewhere suitable to eat: KFC/ Subway/ Dominos/ Marks and Sparks food hall and took a pitstop.

22:00 (Friday): Arrive at the foot of Glencoe in Scotland just past Loch Lomond for a picture break/ leg stretch. I have officially added this part of Britain to my list of places to return. From Loch Lomond to Fort Williams I was feeling slightly lusty as much of the landscape reminded me of the pre-Rockies in the Nordegg area/ middle of British Columbia terrain: large foothills, vast lakes, green trees, few people.

22:10 (Friday): Get back in the minibus and floor it (oh yes, this bus is limited to 60 mph as I should probably mention) to the hostel as they will shut at 23:00.

22:50 (Friday): Arrive at the hostel: Aite Cruinnichidh or something unpronounceable as Ellis stated. Quaint and chalet-ish with woodpanelling interior and a sauna. Unfortunately we arrived too late for the sauna and unfortunately I hate woodpanelling now that I have had to deal with so much of it in my house. Also unfortunately, too late to have any proper sleep and the cabin fever from the van had really settled in with me so I was feeling jumpy- good thing for emergency merlot!

24:00 (Friday):By the time we unpacked and repacked (if you were a girl, I noticed) for the next day and made our beds for the night (bed linens included, but not assembled, again, if you were a girl) it was time for bed and time to set our alarms for daft o'clock (03:00). Night night!

03:15 (Saturday): Alarm! Time to go! Fight for the showers/ loos. Get your stuff together.

03:45 (Saturday): Breakfast time. I brought my own instant oats in a disposable pot= no washing up= win! The majority of the others pooled in for stove-top oats.. which ended up heavily congealed and burnt. oops! Nothing like a start to the day with a little bit of extra carbon in your tummy- or an extra arm work out trying to scrub the oats off the bottom of the communal pot. Good thing was, the breakfast served as some good-spirited humor to start the day. Jokes consisting of the Indiana Jones large ball of terror rolling down the mountain to a thermal hair piece.

04:38 (Saturday): walk out the front door of the hostel and set pedometer to 0 (GCC Stepping Competition)

05:05 (Saturday): Arrive at Ben Nevis. The mountain is clear and although it is early, we all seem ready to go. There is another group of nutters starting just ahead of us doing the challenge for Marie Curie Cancer Trust and we end up leap-frogging them for the next two mountains.

05:15 (Saturday): Official start time: The path is winding made mostly of dirt for the first half of the climb and turning into larger rocks placed into steps as you trek above the grassline. the views are absolutely fantastic: velvety green peaks dotted with cottony sheep and lakes in the valleys.

We are expected to climb this peak in 3 hours with a 2 hour descent but ran into a spot of delay when one member started to feel ill. It was a shame and we all felt for her as she organized the entire event; without her we wouldn't have experienced these views and I probably would have spent another weekend strengthening my right shoulder muscle painting. She made the decision to go back to the start while we carried on.

The satisfaction continued to grow as we kept climbing, seeing more and more of the Highlands as we reached the top There was even snow! Seeing snow still makes me excited, which must still mean I am Canadian at heart.

08:25 (Saturday): Summit of Ben Nevis in 3 hours and 10 minutes. I think that most of us were still taking in the views on the way down as this mountain/ visit to the Highlands was a first for many and it took nearly as much time to get down as it did to get up.

11:15 (Saturday): Foot of Ben Nevis and ~27,000 steps. Legs okay, but my hands were tingly and fatter than I have ever seen them: not a wrinkle to be seen which was a bit worrisome.

11:30 (Saturday): All in the van and off to Morrisons (supermarket) for a loo-break.

12:05 (Saturday): What was thought to be a quick stop turned into half an hour and some yoga on the parking lot ground by Nash... but it's all systems go back to Sunny England to get to Scafell Pike.

15:27 (Saturday): We are driving in Scotland in some terrible rain, which starts to cause concern (time and weather wise). McGaw gets a text saying that it hailed and Snow'd-on Snowdon the previous night... adding to the concern.

16:00 (Saturday): Break from driving and we ended up at the same services as when we first drove up... still in Scotland. Timings look like they are going out the window now for completing the challenge in 24 hours. This spurs discussion on the interpretation of the rules of the 24 hour climb: Is it from the bottom of Ben Nevis to the top of Snowdon? Or bottom-top-bottom-top-bottom-top-bottom? Or as scientists, can we throw in a correction factor to make it work to our needs?

16:22 (Saturday): Go!

16:28 (Saturday): Stop! again for gas, ugh!

18:48 (Saturday): Arrive in the vicinity of Scafell to very heavy rain on a very narrow and very very bumpy 20 minute drive in. Wilkinson is looking very green and reported afterwards that he nearly chucked his Irn Bru.

19:15 (Saturday): Start Scafell in no rain but slippery conditions. The first part of this path reminded me very much of some of the mountain hikes along the small rivers in the Rockies that my family used to go on. This terrain turned into the large rock-embedded paths with spongy green grass and sheep (black sheep and sheep with white faces and brown coats) which turned further into garden sized rocks that were loose, slippy, and utterly annoying. As far as the caliber of this trail, it was less enjoyable than Nevis because the rocks were slippy. The views were nearly as nice, still velvety green almost-mountains much like the interior of BC. Keegan claimed the view was very different to that of Nevis (perhaps it was his Englishness that could tell the difference). Injury claimed two more of our members during this hike.

We were due to complete this peak in 4 - 4.5 hours and were not far off by finishing in 4.5 - 5 hours. On the way down we were lucky to see a vibrantly magenta sunset over the Cumbrian hills and a bit of the coast. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera for this endeavour as the prospect of rain looked high so photo credits go to Peters and Keegan for the Scafell shots above.

23:45 (Saturday): Mine and first half of group's official complete time.

00:00 (Sunday): Second half of group's official complete time ~ 45, 100 steps (for the day). Rowe adopts the parking lot yoga and hits the deck.

00:09 (Sunday): Depart back up the bumpy and windy road. Wilkinson tries to eat some form of tuna noodle casserole/pasta (how brave considering how he felt coming down this road the first time) and decides it's not working. Everyone steadily dozes off as we make our journey to Wales.

02:16 (Sunday): Stop at services somewhere in middle England. A very strange situation is occurring where there were two big men in suits and a t-shirted man just outside the men's loos with a black car parked in the lot. There is speculation about whether or not he is a celebrity. Then another group of burly looking men drive up and get out. Many are a bit scared that we have walked into a drug deal arrangement. eeek!

03:08 (Sunday): Get back in the van and go to sleep. Seems like we are off.

04:00 (Sunday): Wake up in the van and realise we are still in the same car park. I have a brief panic and look around to make sure everyone is here. Everyone is accounted for, but I can't see the driver. Panic slightly again, but the rustling seems to wake up the driver (who was catching some zzz's) and we are off.

So at this point we are obviously not making the continuous 24 hour mark, even if we decided that it was only to the top of Snowdon... we might be able to get near with some heavy k-values.

07:00 (Sunday): Arrive at PYG trail Snowdon. Trekking in the light is very welcoming as we thought we would be doing this one in the dark, Clearish weather, a bit cloudy on the top: all signs look good. Discuss if we should do the slow and steady Miner's Track as we know we aren't making the 24 hour time or if we should do the quick and dirty PYG track to get it over and done with. Consensus = PYG as everyone is tired.

07:30 (Sunday): Go! We estimated to complete this peak in 4-4.5 hours. Spirits were pretty high, although a bit groggy from lack of sleep. Terrain here is mainly boulder-steps and a bit more rocky in general from the other two peaks. The views of the two lakes are spectacular with the emerald green hill and turquoise water competing for vibrancy. We have light and it is dry... until about the half-way mark- it started to rain, blow, and it was cold and slippery. My hands start to freeze up even wearing gloves and are shooting pains... legs are fine. We reach the uppermost ridge to gale-force winds. Nash and I are crab walking across the top ridge and the rest of the group who was slightly behind us had to crawl across the top as Kelliher's super-mom instincts kick in and she catches Watson before she blows away.

09:40 (Sunday): Nash and I summit. I attempt to purchase coffee at the top (there is a cafe!) and my hands are functioning worse than a 90-year old woman with arthritis.

10:13 (Sunday): Everyone else summits. We strip down and put our jackets on the floor (it's heated) to steam them off. We discuss what to do next over coffee and oggies as the weather isn't letting up. There is a little steam train that takes people up and down the mountain. Kelliher, McGaw, and me decide to fork out the £18 to take the train and the rest of the group decides to brave the weather and take a different route down the back of the mountain.

11:09 (Sunday): Walking team departs the summit

12:00 (Sunday): Train team departs the summit

13:00 (Sunday): Train team ends up in Llanberis (not where we started) and makes our way down the road to the pick up point using the Sherpa service (a double decker bus for 1£). I have never been so glad to catch a train and a bus in my life!

Oh yes, there is no cell reception at the pick up point, so communicating to the driver where we were was impossible and a bit worrying; especially as we found out the walking team made a wrong turn on the way down and are now on the other side of the mountain. Thinking caps on- what is the best way to get everyone together again?!

13:20 (Sunday): Receive a call from the walkers that they are finished, wet, cold, and on the other side of the mountain.63,000 steps complete from the start of Nevis.

14:00 (Sunday): Train team gets to pick-up point and explain to the driver what's happened.

14:44 (Sunday): Get to the walking team at the Snowdon Ranger Hostel. Nobody looks very happy and we have forgone a final team picture because we all just want to go home. This is the fastest anyone has got back into the van in the past three days.

15:00 (Sunday): Go home.

All in all we were generally lucky with our weather and did complete 3 peaks. Let's do the math to see how we fared:
Bottom Nevis-top Nevis-bottom Nevis= 6 hours
Bottom Scafell-top Scafell-bottom Scafell= 4.5 hours
Bottom Snowdon-top Snowdon-bottom Snowdon (- oggie break)= 4.75 hours
Driving only time= 10 hours and 55 min
Thereby, full climbing and descent + driving= 26 hours 20 min
If minus Snowdon descent (2 hours and 10 min)= 24 hours and 10 min
If minus illness stop on Nevis (20 min)= 23 hours and 50 min.

HOORAY! Pfaffing aside, it looks like we actually did complete the National 3-Peaks Challenge in UNDER 24 hours! Hooray team and thanks to everyone involved: Abi, Anthony, Derek, Emma, James, Jo, Kirsty, Keelan, Mick, Phil, Phil, Rachel, Rachel, and Sam.

Patience and Progress

One must have great patience when buying an older house. I knew this, but never thought it would take this long to make progress with our house. We are not yet living there, as I can guess you are wondering. I have always considered myself to have a fair amount of patience, but also know that I lack it with things that make me excited... like Christmas, birthdays, eating dinner, and moving into our house. Practical things, like waiting to board a plane, or assembling flat-pack furniture doesn't seem to make me so agitated.

We have made some progress with our house this month. Our kitchen is now re-built; and when I say re-built, I really mean it! We knocked down the existing structure, ripped off the roof and started again. If I can offer some advice to first time buyers, pay the extra for the detailed survey when there has been a substantial extension made to your house with the planning permission mysteriously missing. Oh well, life lesson! We have purchased a brand new kitchen interior, which makes me very happy (progress), and are now waiting for it to arrive and be installed (patience). In the meantime, our bedroom is ready and waiting for our bed... new carpet installed and flat pack furniture assembled and many of the other rooms just need finishing touches. Apart from the kitchen, our family room still needs to be decorated and carpeted, but we will wait until the kitchen is complete as they are attached. I would like to think that I will have some progress pictures for you next month :)

Something else very exciting is happening in June. I will be taking part in the 3- Peaks Challenge on June 11/12: this is an attempt to climb the three highest mountains in Great Britain within 24 hours: Ben Nevis in Scotland (1344 m), Scafell Pike in England (978 m), and Snowdon in Wales (1085 m). There is a team of thirteen people from my research builing in Reading doing the challenge for Diabetes UK and Alzheimer's Society UK. Last month, I climbed Snowden and it gave some insight into the challenge... I am probably entirely underestimating this endeavour, but am not too worried about it.

I've been an entirely terrible team member and have not attended one group meeting (oops.) and the group have already completed two full weekend training sessions. I think part of this (lack of team participation) is my selfish motive to do this for myself and the fact that everyone else lives in Reading and I am in Birmingham, so it does make it difficult for me to join them on their weekend aways. The last thing I want to do on the weekend is travel for more than 30 minutes to anywhere.

I'm also in a bit of  a pickle with the footwear situation. I have spoken to a few people, including the group leader, who have climbed one or all of the mountains and it is strongly suggested that I wear hiking boots. Our trip to Snowdon last month (see, I'm not completely not training), was completed entirely and COMFORTABLY in running shoes, which I would prefer to wear. I know the limits of my body and how it works in running shoes. Any climbing that I have done in the past (walking around the Rockies, climbing Fuji) was done in running shoes and I'd like to think that this will be best. To top it off, I borrowed a pair of hiking boots from my friend Tracy and decided to run in them this weekend where I had to stop after 6 miles because of a gigantic blister on my heel. One good thing about figure skating is that it hardens up your feet, and unfortunately my lacking of skating in the past three years has softened them up. So any suggestions about how to harden my feet in the next two weeks, please share. At this point I feel like I'm going to bring both hikers and runners and swip swap when necessary.


Happy Spring!

Climbing Mountains

As promised this month, entry number two- complete with some exciting news other than the marriage of Willie and Kate.

A question that kept coming up when I was in Edmonton earlier this month was 'Are people in England excited about the Royal Wedding?', and my answer at the time, was uncertain. There has been a lot of publicity and controversy around the event, and most of the people about me seemed to be happy for the couple, not so bothered about watching it on TV or having a great British street party. I felt somewhat similar... excited about the hype; uncertain if I should make a trek to London to join in the festivities. That was until the few days before the actual wedding... and a lot of my colleagues in particular seemed to feel the same. I actually felt a bit regretful, envious, and panicked that I hadn't planned anything, or even bought a commemorative tea set to show the grand kids one day. Nonetheless, I stayed in Brum, spoke with my Mom up until the ceremony, and watched a solid 2 hours of events on television with Craig's Mum (again, contemplating if I should take photos of the TV events for my grand kids to see one day... I didn't). So to answer your questions, Yes, people in England were excited about the Royal Wedding; it just took some time to get it into their heads.

One reason why I didn't make the trek to London was that we had gone to Wales the weekend before to climb the 'mountain': and I can confess, it was a mountain at about 1100 meters. Not comparable to the Rockies, but still a challenging climb. We arrived in Betswy-coed on the Friday with beautiful sunny weather, which was perfect for some footie, Frisbee, cricket, and cans, and a good forecast for the next few days. On Saturday 17 of us (including Josh (4) and Ellie (7)) climbed up Snowdon for Tracy's (21 again) big birthday. Unfortunately it was misty and heavily cloud-covered, but a good day all in all. Josh and Ellie were the youngest we saw climbing the mountain and made it up without much help. Sunday we were graced with lovely weather again and went walking to see a waterfall and to have lunch in the ruined Denbigh Castle. By ruined, it wasn't horrible. It was a picturesque place to have a spot of lunch and view the Welsh hills. So picturesque, that it doubled as the photo-background for three heavily made-up, short-shorts, tied-top 16 year olds who were getting some cheesy glamour shots done, complete with a smarmy, fat, middle-aged male photographer. There must not be much to do in the Welsh villages except build portfolios to become a page-3 model. Yikes!

Some structure, perhaps the miner's quarters, along the path up to the top of Snowdon.

Winning for Canada near the top of Snowdon

An Edgey Craig on a Craigy EdgeLunch views from Denbigh Castle

The Clan at Denbigh Castle

Reason two that I didn't make it to London, is that we are making progress with the other mountain Craig and I are climbing at the moment, called our house! The remodelling of our kitchen is well underway and we needed this weekend to go kitchen shopping. I hope to have some pictures for you in next month's report. In the meantime, we have been repainting the wood panelling in our bathroom and intend to put the finishing touches on this weekend.

Well, off to get some finishing touches and perhaps a half-price commemorative tea set if I can find one.

Same-same; not different

Some of you know that I made an impromptu visit to e-town due to unfortunate circumstances- such is life, but it has been wonderful to be back with my family, especially my sisters. I have generally thought the adage 'you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your family' to ring true retrospectively; however, I have really enjoyed each day that I have been home, even to the extent that I put off seeing other people in favour of my fam (sorry to those of you I didn't see). As much as I enjoy being away and doing my own thing, it feels like I have refueled my connection with those I care about most. I suppose that my 2011 Horoscope Annual is somewhat correct in saying 'Home and family are central to your life, providing you with a sense of connection and continuity'... but, not to the extent that I will be moving back any time soon, so don't be getting any crazy ideas!

And if anything else has been reinforced in the past two weeks, it is that I am certainly glad not to be living here full time. Flying in, I forgot how flat this place really is. I also wasn't very excited about the presence of snow in April where Craig was reminding me on a daily basis that it was sunny and in the high teens in Brum (uncharacteristically warm for April, though). And as I sit and write this entry, it is nearly blizzarding with a total of 15 cm of snow fallen from 8am - 3pm. No Alberta, you may be trying to make me stay, but you certainly aren't doing a very good job of convincing me. Edmonton is also brown, dead, and mouldy where I was admiring the crocuses and daffodils just as I left England. There is no aesthetic motivation for me to want to look out my window, let alone set out of the house. Same streets, same buildings, same trucks, same mullets, same bums begging for cans. Nothing has changed.

I did venture out with my sisters to a spot of shopping, some restaurants, and to get perma-stamped, but only to find that even in the city centre, or on Whyte, or in WEM it's all still the same dead/robotic feeling. I am assuming that some of this is due to the long winter you have had this year; however it was sunny for the majority of my time here, and nobody was looking particularly twitterpated to me- there was a lack of spring in people's step. Or maybe this dead feeling is because everything is so open and spacious in Edmonton. Perhaps, if things were a bit more cozy, then we could feel the energy of each other a bit more.

It seems to me that everything feels a bit more vibrant and energetic in England, but then again, maybe I get this feeling because it's still newish to me. Maybe some of you should come to visit me and let me know what you think for yourself ;)