A Good Day.

Today is a bank holiday for most of the UK, but not Scotland. Fortunately the air force take it as a day off. Most of the time recently I've wasted the extra days I've had, or got to the end of the day and thought "wow, I've done nothing." Okay, actually I think, "I've played a good amount of XBox and got a bit of exercise, which is not too bad." And then I've thought of the untold possibilities that each new day presented and realised that I've just walked down the same path I've been down countless times before. (For reference, yes I am paraphrasing the xkcd comic I've got hanging in my kitchen.)
Today was different; I'd told myself I'd use today and by gum I have! One of the guys in the mess recommended the mountain bike tracks at Fochabers so today I hitched my bike to the back of my car and headed over to the Fochabers Ring. I didn't know it was the Fochabers Ring until I got there, I just headed over and found a route. So off I went, along a nice gentle undulating track then hit the uphill section. I knew that I was following a route that had red or orange labels on the posts, followed it from the monument at the top of the hill and then turned back.
I have my limits, and when the route labels go from orange to black with a skull and cross-bones (seriously!), that's a good time to find the different route. Apart from a bit at New Year's, I haven't done much proper off-road biking for ages, used to do quite a bit in the summers with the activity camps so I wasn't sure what I could remember of the more technical side of biking. I reckoned I still had the basics but when the sign recommends expert biking, walking the route first and warns of tables, drops, jumps and moving see-saws; it becomes time for the better part of valour.
As it is, back up the hill to the monument and followed the long route through Rohan and into The Mirk Wood (yeah, there's a whole Lord of the Rings thing going on) and wow. It was absolutely wonderful, some lovely singletrack with nice flowing sections and some interesting bits that demanded concentration. Better, I think, than the bits we used to ride in the Forest of Dean. Aragon Alley was poorly signed and had a depressing amount of narrow uphill with lots of exposed routes which was much more difficult but in a rewarding kind of way.
So yeah, loved it. When I got back I looked up the route (and the page I linked to earlier) and found out that the route colour corresponds to difficulty, just like on the slopes. The red route I was on turns out to be graded difficult - for "proficient mountain bikers with good off-roading skills." Turns out I remembered more than I thought about biking. Will be going back (and if anyone fancies coming up with a bike, or wants to hire one, please feel free!), especially now I've found that map with the other routes in the area.
After that little adventure (mainly on hope, but with coffee for breakfast) I got home, cooked a very nice little chili (another major achievement), caught up with a friend's latest blog entry, did some more washing and watched some great TV (weather gadgets on The Gadget Show). Now I plan to read more of a good book (Xenocide in this case) and try to figure out how to write my next entry without quite so many phrases in parenthesis.
It feels great to look back on a day and think that I've done something different to my normal routine. Actually, yesterday wasn't a waste either, I tidied up and caught up with my ironing. Of the two, guess which day was better. Guess which one I'll be trying to do again.

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!*