Christmas and the New Year

So, it's now 2008 and I've already put the wrong date on a form (at a climbing wall I put that it was the 04/12/07...)
I drove south in pretty much one go, it took almost an hour for my front wipers to fully defrost, until then I was getting out every 10 miles or so in the Cairngorms to manually clean the windscreen. When it did run fully there was a little but of water collected on the top of the rubber of the wipers which had frozen and lifted the blade out off the screen. Quick to sort out, just had to flick off a narrow strip of ice.
Went to see gran and some of the others in Swansea, which was great, but I have covered alot of miles over the days. I also went to the gym with my mum.
Now, as those that know her will be aware, mum has been a bit over-weight for a number of years and wants to get fitter generally, but also so that she can walk up Cairngorm next time they come up. She originally bought a rower, which broke down (as apparently all of that make did) and so I recommended that she visit a couple of gyms, not just the one at the local Cascades swimming pool because that one is basically shite. It's also filled with OAPs that go for their "gym and swim" which consists of 5 minutes on a bike then an hour in the jacuzzi. I finally got her to go up the hill to the gym at the hotel and speak to a personal trainer for a bit. She was so impressed she's joined up and is going three times a week.
Good for her.
Saw loads of old friends (and St Trinian's - great fun film), and I've been blamed by a mate for him loosing time when he's supposed to be writing a report. Honestly, he asks for a lava lamp then blames me when he gets hypnotized by the wax!
For new year I drove back up to join a couple of friends (and three others) for a week in the Highlands. While driving through the Cairngorms I got my first flat tire. This, I learned, is not the joyous experience one would expect. I had to get advise because I still had about 60 miles to go and only a space saver to use. I knew you shouldn't go over 50 mph, but I'd thought that there was a distance limit. Turns out no, there isn't. Two random members of the public did stop to offer help, which was nice. Got home to un-pack, sleep and pack at about midnight. Joy.
So, into the Highlands and cue a week spent walking, ice-skating, rock climbing, sledging and mountain biking. Have some great bruises and more great memories, saw many stag (including the one in the dark by the side of the road. Driving along thinking "aha, a dog by the road, I'll slow down, hang on, ANTLERS!!!!"). Also cooked for us all, which is a rarity as anyone that knows me will testify, and it appears that the cooking went down well. Got a bit further on guitar hero as well.
There's a few more bits that happened but I think that's about the it for the highlights. I've still got to try out Assassin's Creed, couldn't play it last week because Zack (Chris' cousin's Carin's son) was too young to watch the game, so that'll probably be my Sunday sorted, and then it's back to mundane Monday tomorrow for work.
I hope you all had a good holiday season and to quote Neil Gaiman:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

*edited for ease of Neil Gaiman quote-age - cheers for the comment Pam!*

A good weekend

This weekend my good friend Tasha drove up, with dogs. It was good to see her and we got out to do some proper outdoors stuff.
Friday we went out to Cairngorm (starting out at 7:20 - way before sunrise) and started walking up the hills with head torches until the sun came up. We ended up doing two Munros and a few extra tops (peaks above 3000 ft only count as Munros if there's 500 ft drop between the highest named point and the peak you're looking at, otherwise they're tops) and went up Cairngorm itself at the end. This was pushing me to the limits of my endurance, Tasha was bouncing ahead and "encouraging" me. On the way down we stopped off at the Ptarmigan restaurant and asked the nice bloke outside if the furnicular railway was running, although we knew it wasn't supposed to open until the next day. It wasn't but he said to hang on and sorted us out with a free ride down on the railway. That saved us about 90 minutes to 2 hours worth of walking so I owe the mountain guys a few favours I think. While we were out Tash convinced me to wander over to have a look at the Larig Ghru (sp?) which is a HUGE glacial valley. It's hard to describe the size of the valley, we were sat in the snow level with the top of the valley and, no, I just can't describe it. Google it and have a look and any Colin Prior type photos, it's just immense and beyond what I can put into words.
Well, that night we went to take the dogs out for a walk on the beach, mainly to stretch our legs out a bit. Next day we went to take the dogs for a walk in the local woods, in this case Culbin Forrest, and the little 3 and a half mile walk tired out the dogs nicely and almost stretched out all the muscles. Not quite though, today (Sunday) we went to the Inverness climbing wall and Tasha once more showed that she can climb a grade and a bit higher than me, although I managed to boulder to the same level as her HAHAHA.
After a few routes I knew that I wouldn't be able to drive safely if we climbed to my limit so I called it a day, or to put it another way, wimped out like a little girl.
Showed Tash to the A9 (main route south) and drove home, wincing when changing gear, but that's the fun of climbing.
Weeked after next she'll be back up, as she's agreed to be my +1 for the mess ball, and just found out that there's a possiblility that Matt (EMB) may be up in the mean time, although it may be too short notice. Hope Matt can get up, would be great. I'd like to get all, or at least most, of my friends up here at some time, but that may take a few months to organise.......
Put my Christmas tree up as well, all 3 FT of it, drunk a bit tonight (enough to feel happy) and the Jameson's advert with the harp is back on, so happy at the moment. If I can keep my weight loss on track and get a few more forecasts right I'll be even happier. Or, failing that, if I can beat Guitar Hero II or III on medium, let alone hard.
Must stop blogging drunk though, may have to edit this for spelling or excessive honesty.

Dear Santa...

For Christmas I would like...

An Amazon Kindle. When I was at uni one of my friends and housemates, Sally, told me about some developments in electronic paper. The stuff she was looking into used duel coloured molecules/units that could be turned with an electrical impulse, and as it was pretty much solid state, once the page was set there wasn't any more power needed until your wanted a new page. (Apologies if I've got the details wrong, or explained it badly, it was 5 years ago we had the conversation). The Kindle isn't that sort of electronic paper, but is a form of digital book/newspaper/magazine. First time I've seen it was on Neil Gaiman's blog and after watching the video on the amazon.com website I think I want one. Maybe not first gen but looks like the future.

New arms. Been bouldering today at Inverness, my arms and hands ache. Pulled a muscle in my leg as well, hopefully all will heal in time for climbing at the weekend with Tasha.

A new (or second hand) car. Need a bigger one, maybe then the arseholes in BMWs will see me when they're pulling out into traffic and not smack me in the back bumper! No damage apart from scratches but annoyed me. The sod didn't even stop! Now, I know with advanced driving I'm supposed to look ahead and expect things to happen, which is why when the car pulled out I was already trying to move out of the way but why the hell didn't they stop? I know that my car is small but when it's in front of you it's visible, REALLY visible. Argghhhh!

An iPhone. Okay, it doesn't do as much as the Viewty but like most Apple things, what it does do, it does really well and really easily. Had a play with one in the O2 store and I'm now desparately telling myself that it's too expensive (it is), I don't NEED one (I don't) and I don't want one (ah, but I DO!!!!). I'll hold out for a while, mainly as I can't afford one....