Category: Everything and Anything

Well, on Sunday the 21st March, me and two friends from work successfully climbed Snowdon, the highest mountain in England and Wales, at 1085m (3500ft (ish)). Three weeks later, we climbed Cadair Idris. With Snowdon, the journey was filled with much peril and adventure but we persevered and made it to the peak and then back to the car park in eight and a half hours. That’s more than a full working day. Hell, throw in the drive times and intial picking up of people it was more than 13 hours!

We made it up and down with no major problems, apart from a ridge near the top which was very narrow and flanked by steep, near vertical 1000ft drops. The weather was horrible, although initially sunny and clear, this became cloudy. Then overcast. Then rain. Then heavy rain. Then heavy, freezing rain. Combined with the Snow at the top, which in places was in excess of 8ft, this was the worst weather I had ever experienced. Below is a truncated video of the 13 minute Facebook one. Sorry for the crazy Aspect ratio, first iPhone video.

With Cadair Idris, it was completely different. The weather was sunny and clear all day. So much so that we burned ourselves. The climb was a lot easier, and the views, perfect. We got lost in Dolgellau for a short while, but made it to the Snowdonia National Park Car park for the Pony Path. On the way down, I broke the strap on my birthday watch when I fell and smashed the steel buckle to pieces between a rock and my wrist. Almost two weeks later, and the scratches the buckle left in my wrist are still present. Cadair Idris was particularly busy, so we stopped and waiting on a particularly comfortable piece of grass for people to overtake until we were relatively alone. We made it up and down inside six hours, but the weather was partly to blame of this; we weren’t exactly rushing up the mountain, and stopped several times to take in the view and the weather.

We will be climbing Glyder Fach in May; hopefully we can be photographed on the Cantilever Stone!

Cadair Idris was definitely the better mountain to climb. We will be retackling Snowdon’s other paths inevitably, including the notorious Watkin Path. There’s even been talk of learning to rock climb!

And now for the obligatory photo montage. Only the last two are from Snowdon. I didn’t want to break my camera with rain! Not that it matters much, but there’ll be a post on that in a few days…

2009 has been an excellent year! Many exciting and different things have happened, from Edinburgh earlier this year to Alton Towers in August and then London just two weeks ago.

There was also the TT meet in York back in July which I hurriedly left to get to the annual unofficial Avox summer party which was awesome even more so. The journey back was perhaps the fastest I had ever driven my car, definitely over 110mph for at least most of the M62. I managed the entire York to Coedpoeth journey in 1hr 35mins! Speeding through towns and villages is dangerous and I do stick to the speed limits there, but the motorways, everyone seems to go faster anyway!

I got quite some things for Christmas, namely a few DVD box sets. I also spent money on other people this Christmas! Not going mad and buying a D40 like I did two years ago when I should have been paying for the car repairs.

I have now come into possession of a fancy iPhone 3GS. I have upgraded my phone, but downgraded my contract. I now pay £10 less!

Of course, the Winter of 2009/10 will always be remembered as the one with all the snow. It first fell, to my memory, on or before the 18th of December. I look outside today, on the 20th January, and it is partly still there. This is the longest there has been a snow covering where I live since the 1960’s. I liked it. I kn The added danger of driving on the snow and ice made the journey to and from work a lot more exciting and varied, a feeling I used to try to induce by trying a new route or shortcut every day. I have only been driving since 2006, but I can tell the amount of traffic on our roads has grown exponentially even in these past four years.

I could once, given a minute or two early departure from Redwither Tower (which we always used to do, running for the cars!), I could be at home by 5:15. Now, in 2010, I cannot get home until after 5:30. The only hope is the industrial estate access road project, the last of which I heard was meant to start work on Dec 1st. This has not happened which has mostly annoyed me!

Oh well, here’s to more blog posts this year.

P.S.: BTW, this is my first attempt at a post with Windows Live writer. It’s quite good, if I do say so myself, for a Windows program (see image below)!!

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Last week I had a week off. During that week, I went to Cardiff to watch the Australia vs Wales rugby game, which we lost, stayed over for a night, and then also went to London later in the week.

On Saturday we went to Cardiff. it was a standard drive, I’ve even driven there and back in a day without stopping just as part of one of my random drives once. We have an early start, and then drive. I went in my own car, and arrived first, parking in an NCP next to the Hotel. We then wandered to the Stadium, and watched the game. It was disappointing for us, as the Welsh team just didn’t seem to make any attacks until it was far too late.

After the game we walked all the way to Cardiff bay in the pouring rain, but couldn’t find a place to eat, so caught the train back. It was a beaten up old Class 121, which must be the oldest thing on the British Rail network, as it appeared to be made from wood! Once we got back to Cardiff Queen Street, we found it closed, so had to catch another train to Cardiff Central, which was teeming with drunken Wales supporters by this time. We saw quite a few Australians, but this was true of last year as well, they seem to be the only people who make an effort to get here! We eventually made it to a KFC and then retreated to the hotel

The hotel itself is The Big Sleep Cardiff, they apparently have a few UK locations. The Cardiff one was an old Office tower block converted to a hotel. It wasn’t bad, and there was kind of a view (left). Fortunately, we all got a good nights sleep, and, as in Edinburgh in February, me and my Dad got in a few drinks at the Hotel bar before bed.

After a few days of really late sleep ins, we went to London, through Wrexham & Shropshire. Although taking a lot longer than alternatives, the service was direct, and generally a pleasure to use, not to mention value for money. Although it was dark outside, as we caught the 5:12 from Wrexham.

We got to Marylebone at around 9AM – and hopped on a tour bus. This took around around all the major sights, which I promptly took photos of. During this tour I am certain I viewed an A380 flying over the city. Even though they have apparently made a touch and go on the nearby Broughton Airbus wing factory, I have never seen one. Missed a photo though, unfortunately.

After the tour, we walked around some of the minor attractions, and then made motions to head for Marylebone, where there was a pub where we had some beers. Then we got on the train. The return route was slightly different – it avoided New Street and went via Birmingham International instead. Even though this happened, we were only five minutes late. There were a bunch of Shropshire ladies talking about their horses and how slow the train was – I swear those type of people would purchase Easyjet tickets and then complain about the service.

Anyway, it was a good week off, and as Christmas fast approaches, it looks like I’m going to have some more things to post as christmas draws near.

Obligatory photo montage, attack!