Flat pack phobia

?

Could the human being cowering in this box possibly be my 6 foot something, just turned twenty, mountain walking, rock climbing son?

What on earth could bring about such a change?

...

...

...

Ah! I'm beginning to understand!

Oh help!

Move over. I think I want to cower in the box too!!

.......................................

Instead, we packed it all away and waited until the next morning, when we started nice and early! 

And it wasn't quite as bad as it appeared :)

Eventually, I might actually get this seating area finished!

St Pancras

A week before we disappeared off on 'holiday', Mark travelled through London and had to wait on St Pancras station for a couple of hours. He spent the time experimenting with my Dad's old camera, trying to find some interesting compositions. He offered them for the blog and I was very happy to dedicate a post to his shots.

The curved sweep of the station frontage. There is so much detail in the architecture of this building!

Since becoming the International terminus for the Channel Tunnel trains, St Pancras has had something of a restoration and revamp. I love the arched roof. It lets in so much light.

The Olympic Rings are here in anticipation of the big event next summer.

Because it is now such a busy terminus, St Pancras has also sprouted a plethora of shops to entice the traveller to part from his hard earned money.



Statues represent the theme of the traveller. One wonders where this smart gentleman may be going...

...or how long it will be before this loving couple are reunited.

The plaque caught Mark's attention because of the named location. Butterley, in our home county of Derbyshire, is now the home to the Midland Railway Centre.

I hope you enjoyed Mark's collection. I must encourage him to offer more photos for future posts.

Sunset over Alport Heights

Mark was home for a couple of days in early May. We went out to do some stuff and found ourselves fairly close to Alport Heights, so he asked if we could drive up and take a look at the gritstone pillar he had climbed when he was about 15. He wanted to see just how idiotic he really had been.

His final verdict was that it was a semi-idiotic thing to have done; but pretty 'ballsy'.

This time, I wasn't worried at all!

And we hung around to watch a rather glorious sunset!

(Enough chit-chat. I'll leave you in peace to enjoy it too!)



Ahhhhh.

Happy Birthday Ben :)

High ropes course

On Thursday evening, after work, Mark and I loaded all of his stuff into the boot of the car and headed for the M6 and Penrith. After almost four weeks at home with glandular fever, he was finally returning to University. 

On Friday morning, he gave me the full guided tour of campus and I've picked out a few of the more interesting bits to show you.

Of course, the campus has all of the usual things; library, teaching rooms, sports complex, accommodation, eating places etc etc etc, but I thought I'd select just three slightly more unusual features and show you one each day for the next three days.

Day 1: The high ropes course.

Imagine climbing the centre pole, balancing on the circular platform, launching yourself into the air and touching the yellow ball; even better, grabbing it and hanging on?

How is your pulse rate?

It makes a welcome break from writing essays!!

And yes, he did manage to grab the ball. I've seen the photos on Facebook :)

Happy birthday, Mark :)

So, what do you do when..?

So, what do you do when you're home from Uni, all of the Christmas/New Year celebrations are over, you're trying to write a 1,500 word essay and you haven't been able to get near a rock face for over a week?

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You climb a tree of course!

to set up a rope, climb down, improvise two loops,

prussick back up and then hang around looking at the view.

Prussicking? You don't understand prussicking!!!

Honestly, some people! I've known what prussicking is for ages! Since... Tuesday!!!

Prussicking is when a rope is climbed using a foot loop and a harness loop, each attached separately and able to be slid up the rope. The climber's weight is shifted alternately between the two prussicks while the other one is slid higher.

Weight on harness prussick, slide up foot loop; weight on foot loop, slide up harness prussick; weight on...

You get it!

(I think the word I'm looking for is 'labourious'!!)

Kirkstone Pass

Early evening over Kirkstone Pass? Erm...No! This was actually yesterday 12.15pm, dinner time!

Today, I'm a little weary! Those familiar with English geography will know that Kirkstone Pass is not exactly on my doorstep, being the road between Windermere and Ullswater in the Lake District. But yesterday was Mark's arrival day at the University of Cumbria, so the three of us piled into the car (along with a huge amount of 'stuff') and headed for the M6.

In theory, we could have stayed on the motorway to within about 3 miles of campus, but we turned off a bit early in search of this pub, the Kirkstone Pass Inn. In spite of the low cloud, we were not disappointed. The Inn is small, friendly, has bags of character and served a good roast dinner followed by a huge wedge of sticky toffee pudding.

The Inn is at an altitude of 1,481 feet above sea level. It isn't the highest in England (Tan Hill, Yorkshire, 1732 feet) or even the second highest (Cat and Fiddle, Derbyshire 1690 feet), but it is impressive! On a clear day, the views from here would be stunning. Yesterday, they were more 'atmospheric'...

Shrouded in mist...

But the outdoor tables show the potential.

PS: Yes, I do know that the Cat and Fiddle is really in Cheshire, but you could stand at the front door of the inn and virtually spit at the Derbyshire county boundary sign, so there!

An unexpected discovery

Yes, I admit it. I am missing New Wine like crazy.

Only one of my lads came with me to the Conference; and that was only for the part of the week when his oldest and closest friend was also around. The elder son went in the opposite direction to the Stafford Showground and a New Wine sister event called Soul Survivor.

Soul Survivor is aimed specifically at youth and, with us oldies out of the way, the youth who went were able to experience God in a way suited to them. Mark had a great time; including coming 4th in the fun run and playing something called cage football!

But I hadn't realised that he was pining for the camping quite this much...

I got quite a shock when I went down to make my first cup of coffee of the day. When I went to bed last night he was sitting in the living room watching telly. Add to that the small irrelevance that it had been chucking it down with rain!

Incidentally, he's still there!

I don't know whether the neighbours have spotted him yet!!! They already think that we English can be a bit odd   :D

18

My eldest son, Mark, is 18 today. Where has the time gone? I can't believe that a child of mine has officially hit adulthood!

Being the nostalgic type, I have of course been thinking back over the past 18 years and remembering some of the times we have had; good and not so good. Being a parent brings many joys, but is also a massive responsibility...

All those HUGE life shaping decisions to make! What if I get it wrong?

The pride of achievements celebrated and good times shared together.

Living through difficulties and emerging in one piece.

Onging battles >:(    "No, I don't care how brilliant you think it is...I really don't want to watch that video on YouTube at 2 o'clock in the morning! This is me, in bed - asleep!!!"

There are hundreds of stories I could tell, but thought I might share just one; which you will probably find hilarious, but scared me half to death!

It was a hot afternoon during the long summer holiday and we had been stuck indoors all day, so I decided to pack a picnic and drive us up to Alport Heights, which is only about 10 miles from home & has great views. Mark was 15. We ate our picnic and then Mark wandered off to "have a look" at the big pillar of rock slightly below us.

The next thing I know...

It took him about 2 minutes to reach the top, but twenty heart-stopping minutes (with 2 false starts) to get down again! I think I was more worried for his safety during those twenty minutes than at any other point during the whole 18 years; and all I could do was watch!

The amazing thing is, that he wasn't phased at all. He was so confident in his own ability to reach the bottom in one piece, that he didn't bat an eyelid, whereas I can feel my pulse rate increasing just thinking about it!

Three years on, he climbs regularly at the Derby Climbing Centre and has been offered a conditional place at the University of Cumbria to study for a BA in Outdoor Leadership. No doubt part of his course will focus on...

...health and safety :p

Happy birthday Mark! :)

Sorted

This morning, Mark, my almost 18 year old son, and I went a bit mad and decided to clean out our garage. Like a twit, it didn't occur to me to take a 'Before and After' picture until we had been hard at it for about 30 minutes, so, the following is a pictoral telling of the last 3 hours of our garage clean out:

At this point, we had already shifted 1 bike, a top box, a shredder, a pool table top, a low cupboard and all of our camping stuff.

And here most of it is:

...along with other assorted junk.

We had friends along to keep us company; though his bigger brother got taken outside.

Emptied (as much as necessary), de-cobwebbed (sorry spidey) and vacuumed. Wow, it looks big!

Pity that most of this lot has got to go back inside :(

...except the wheely bins of course :)

Finally, after 3 1/2 hours it looks like this:

...and at least now I know where everything is!

Won't comment on the state of my muscles after two afternoons of gardening, one evening training and a garage sort! Thank goodness Mark was willing to help!

Now let's see how long it lasts!