The new job has meant that I’ve hardly had a chance to look up from the desk for two weeks. It’s very enjoyable – don’t get me wrong – but there’s plenty of learning to do and things aren’t quite intuitive yet. A warming advantage of working at home, though, is hearing a knock on the office door when a little person comes in from pre-school to bring you something like this, neatly folded up. Thanks Lils. xxx
Fiona’s 40th birthday
My sister in law Fiona will be 40 years old on Tuesday, and she held a party yesterday to celebrate. 
. One drawback was that I forgot to take my camera, so you’ll have to makedo with a few snaps from my phone cam.
Great party, nice to catch up with people and dance until I very nearly dropped.
Most memorable bit of the weekend for me was having to help deliver a lamb whose mum was struggling a bit – with expert amateur midwifery from Sally and Simon, and a little bit of luck, we got there, and muumy and Lamb are doing fine. Lucy, still in control, aged 12, wearing her dressing gown, took it all in her stride. The rest of us were deeply moved by the whole experience!
Update: Some great Flickr piccies posted by Simon.
In with the new
I started my new job in web development today after being in the old one quite a while. I’m very exctited about it all. First day went well and not been fired yet.
Sent off in style
I had a great evening last night – being sent off in style by my now ex colleagues at Natural England (see separate post).
Great few pints in the Britons Protection beer garden then on to Akbars for a splendid curry and a final few in the Ox (I think it was called that – was getting a bit blurry). Click on the short, fat, hairy Gareth Lawler pictured left to see a few snaps from the evening.
Thanks to everyone for coming out and making it very special indeed for me – and thank you for letting me go without getting cross about it.
Good times call for oversized Naan breads.
He’s leaving town…. (and countryside)
Today’s a very special day for me – probably the most significant day in my life for many years, really. After twelve and a half years – virtually my whole working life – I’m moving on today.
In 1994 I came to work for the Countryside Commission, earning £6,400 per annum (gross), and on a four month contract. Things became permanent, as these things sometimes can if you try to make it happen.
In 1999, a merger took us into the Countryside Agency, and in October of last year, another reorganisation of the rural side of government gave birth to Natural England.
There have been one or two changes over the years, aside from salary. In 1994, our offices in Cheltenham were state of the art, running some lovely old computers with Pentium 486 processors, which did amazing things like run Wordperfect and even Lotus 123 spreadsheets. We emailed each other (internal ones only – the outside world contact didn’t come until 1997) and by 1999, we had access to the internet!
Since 2002, I’ve been commuting into Manchester by bike, and according to my records have covered about 27,200 commuting miles in that time. I’m not sure what the carbon saving I’ve been making is, but it’s pretty reasonable. I’ve been going through chains, brake blocks, gears and tyres quite a bit though.
I’m off out for some beers and bites with all my friends here this evening. Very much looking forward to that bit !
I’ll be working from home from Monday for Reverse Delta. More of that to come soon…..
Ten Years After
Ten years ago today, I married Katie at Casterton in Cumbria.
Time flies when you’re having fun.
Please sign the 10 year anniversary guest book below (by leaving a comment!) – we would love to hear your memories of the day.
Love Dave and Katie
Kinder Downfall fell race 1 April 2007
My first fell race since Whittle Pike some eight months ago after a bit of a break from competitive running trying to get my back injury better. I was really very chuffed to finish 11th out of a field of about 250. I was 25th in 2005 (last attempt) in 1:20:06. I covered it in 1:16:25 this time round.
The Garmin Forerunner clocked this at 9.71 miles and 1770 feet of ascent and descent. Advertised at 10m and 2,500 feet, there’s quite some difference here, but I trust the Garmin. The start’s almost 700 feet up and Kinder’s only a shade over 2000 feet.
Still – it’s a tough, classic fell race. Faster than many Lake District ones, it’s descents are good under foot, and easy to keep your momentum up without being too steep. There’s a killer (for me) 1.5 mile run in at the end – the type I detest(!), and I annoyingly lost two places here, but that’s the price I pay for being a cyclist who just can’t be bothered to train to run on roads.
View the race route magically trasported from my Garmin Forerunner into Google Earth KMZ here.
Click on the image above for the profile of the route (and my pace along the way in blue)
Elvis posing
Took advantage of some lovely sunshine to take some piccies of my favourite high contrast canine. He may be a dim whit, but he’s an incredibly handsome one. For Elvis (not Presley, but just Dog), Posing comes naturally.
Spring: fresh air.
Really feels like spring’s on its way now. It’s a warm, sunny Monday, the clocks have finally jumped into summertime, and people are starting to smile again. I had renewed vigour this weekend after a slight sick bug last week, and had a tough but really enjoyable 3.5 hour hilly ride through Bowland into a fairly relentless headwind on Saturday (even finding the time to take this photo with my new camera phone).
Had a great run up Ingleborough with Elvis on Sunday morning to revive the legs a bit. Views slightly stifled by haze (and a bit windy again), but, as ever, it’s an enjoyable 5.75 mile run.
Here’s links to the Google Earth path files for the ride and the run. The more astute will notice my annoying five mile detour on the ride at Slaidburn, when I wasn’t concentrating and took the wrong turn….!
Unintentionally funny comic strips
I was sent these by my friend Simon…. the top 15 unintentionally funny comic strips of yesteryear. I suppose they’re funnier when they’re exposed out of context. Fnarr fnarr.
William runs through chains
I was watching a fantastic bit of stop frame animation the other day on youtube, when I saw a cheesy camera trick exactly like I’d done about 12 months ago with my friend Will whilst on holiday in Wales.
Howgills, some Sedbergh reminiscing, and an overdue dose of snow
I had a great day out with some soon to be ex-colleagues (and a currently ex colleague) in the Howgills the other day, taking in a 9.5 mile walk in the beautiful Howgill Fells. It enabled me to (fairly) quietly reminisce about my two years living in Sedbergh as a teeneger, especially as we retraced the route of the Sedbergh Ten Mile race on our way back into the town (“Muddy Slide” – a steep gorge – the excitement came rushing back to me).
The snow finally came to the north west for me – our house has had the barest of coverings this winter, much to my disappointment, so to get out in the snow, albeit just a generous dusting, was great.
Piccies on Flickr. Here’s the walk as a google earth (.kmz) path if you’re interested.