Beaches and Brighton, but not Brighton Beach - 15/2/2008 -17/2/2008

I spent the weekend in Brighton visiting Kate, Dave and Neep in their still lukewarm but due to be cold by April house. Yes, unfortunately, they have to move in the near future.

Flights were delayed all around. One of the flight attendance on the way down kept telling us far too many things were "for our convenience" like sitting down while the plane was moving, not getting hit by falling luggage when opening the overhead bins. I arrived a little after 1am to Brighton thanks to the last Gatwick train of the day. The walk to Kate and Dave's involved an uphill climb out of Brighton town centre and dodging a typical Friday night's worth of vomit on the pavements and street, where the dodging was indeed for our convenience.

Neep wasn't exactly wide awake when we arrived, but she found the usual kitten energy reserve to go somewhat crazy soon after we arrived. Bedtime for everyone soon followed.

After a leisurely morning where Neep helped me cook breakfast (after she got her breakfast, of course), we took the slow train to Hastings and went for a walk in Hastings Country Park. Once we could find it. Food found us first, which wasn't really a bad thing. The wander through the Old Town to get to the park was

The sky was clear and the wind was roughly easterly, which meant cold Continental air but good visibility. Not quite enough visibility to see France (otherwise this post would have been titled "I saw London, I saw France"), but I don't think Hastings was well placed for that. I do think we saw that sticky outy bit just to the right of Hastings, which looks like it is called Dungeness. Kate was a big fan of all of the stairs up and down the hills.

Daylight became an issue so we cut the walk a bit short for a total of about 5 miles. After a leisurely train ride back to Brighton, food shopping and an equally leisurely but less successful wait in the cold for a lift back to theirs with said food, we got back to Kate and Dave's to make dinner. Other friends from Dave's work joined us. Much chopping, stirring and cooking prepared feast of nachos and fajitas. Sadly, the unripe avocados could not be rescued into guacamole.

The next day, we wandered Brighton at the same time as the Brighton half marathon finished, which injected a fit energy to the town centre and waterfront. We never found the appropriate friends finishing but we did find them in the pub eventually! I will confess to feeling runner envy being surrounded by all the half marathoners, but my time will come soon enough.

Dave promised a taste of Scrumpy's but never delivered. We found cider after a Mediterranean lunch, but it was not the Scrumpy that apparently destroyed Kathryn the weekend before my visit. That cider didn't agree with me, so I left an orphan when we left the pub. My train journey back to Gatwick was as eventful as every other leg of my journey to and from Brighton. I got on the slow train in the wrong direction (heading to the right place, but railworks are what they are), got on another slightly faster train at the first stop and made it to the check-in desks before the check-in time expired. Success! Except my flight wasn't on the board! Stress! I annoyed the Belfast check-in people who sent my bag and me to Edinburgh. Eventually. Along with the rest of the passengers on my flight, I got plenty of exercise trying to get to the correct gate, which moved from one end of the airport to another.

I did get back to Edinburgh with luggage, so all was well in the end. A filthy Brian collected me from the airport. He had a fun weekend, too, wallowing in cottage filth with Amy and Bram.

Kate's favourite part of the walk at Hastings Country Park was the steps leading up to it... and the steps in the middle.

The walk took us along the cliffs and the back along country lanes. We made it to the top of this cliff but took a shortcut back to finish with the daylight.

At the start and end of the walk, we found the world's biggest frisbee golf goal. I thought of Chase.

...and then we took a short jaunt to India

Neep plays with her corkscrew... and her Dave.

Neep or Schrödinger's cat?

Meep thought the camera wristband was more interesting than her toys.

Abridged Forth - 10/2/2008

After how many months, I finally got around to having a housewarming on the Saturday and that was good fun. Sunday was a bit of a late start, but that's what weekends are for. We decided to cycle toward Cramond and South Queensferry, and decide which way to go when the decision presented itself. After a brief glimpse of the Shetland ponies, we headed toward South Queensferry and then across the Forth Road Bridge. Brian tried to hide the Forth Rail Bridge from my view, but I found it anyway. He had some work to do to hide it better.

The other side of the FRB has a treat just up the stairs. The best playground ride ever. I wrote about it here a year and a half ago. I was happy to be fit to play there again. We shot some video with my little camera. Mostly Brian was the subject since I think the camera mystifies him still.

We returned to South Queensferry for a hotel pub meal, which was great for accommodating me when none of their menu options would work. After a good climb up the hill heading back toward Edinburgh, my half centimetre thick, Kevlar reinforced tyre found a thorn that passed through all of that to puncture my tube. Then we realised that the pump that fits my funny tyres was back in Edinburgh. A mile walk later, we were at the Dalmeny train station waiting for our ride home. Next time, we'll check the supplies to make sure the pump is there. The time after that, we'll probably forget it again.

Brian tried to hide the Forth Rail Bridge, but didn't do a very good job of it.

I was happy to be fit for the helicopter thing again.

Brian tried the other spinny thing... and couldn't walk straight afterwards.

Spun

Brian went for a spin.

The view from the spinny thing.

Snowboarding at Glenshee - 2/2/2008

Saturday morning started way too early as headed north to take advantage of the bad weather's benefits. Yes, snow in Scotland. It was Amy's idea (never a good start?) to go snowboarding. Brian had never been. I had been once with Amy's sort of instruction and a lot of quality time on my bum.

Bram brought skis so he could keep up with Amy. The plan was for Brian and I to acquaint ourselves with the snowboards and see what I could remember. We decided first to get half day lift tickets and then not to get lift tickets until we were sure we would use them. The last time at Glen Coe, I never figured out how to stay on the button tow lift. I'd get a yank start and end in a heap within 5 metres of the start. Thankfully they wouldn't sell me the half day tickets until 12:15. We had time to decide.

Sensibility prevailed a minute later. We ambled over to one of the other buildings and signed up for a lesson.

Nine other expert snowboarders joined us for a congested lesson at the bottom of one of the beginner slopes. We learned how to walk with the snowboard attached to one foot, which was quite a lot of work on an uphill and even easier to screw up on a downhill. Our instructor taught us how to slide down the hill on the back edge while facing downhill and on the front edge while facing uphill. The backwards one was a lot harder mentally than the forward one, but it did give the benefit of standing up easily. The last thing he taught us was the joy of leaning.

At the end of the lessons, we were ready for the expert slopes, but still not ready for the lifts. With only about three hours of snowboarding left, the lift tickets didn't seem all that useful. We did some hiking and sliding down the hill where we had our lesson. I chose my starting location each time when I got fed up with trudging up the hill with snowboard.

Lunch time came and we met Amy and Bram in the cafe. It was nice to get a break from the long hikes and short slides.

After lunch, I was good for I think three hikes and slides. I could tell fatigue was setting in because I struggled to do simple things like fasten the snowboard clips and that was accompanied by some related crankiness that seemed to entertain Brian more than it annoyed him, at least when I apologised for it. Our instructor from the course passed us on the lifts just before our last run, sort of laughing and sort of sympathising.

I wanted to try the really shallow beginner slope to see if I could rally some energy. My fumbling with clips got worse and then I couldn't stand up on the board. I agreed with reality and called it a day. On the way off the slopes, I stopped to talk to a couple of puppies that didn't like it when out-of-control snowboarders zoomed past them. I apologised for my own transgressions in that regard and we met Amy and Bram on the way back to the car.

Amy's muffler fix kept it in place, though not quietly. We made it back to Edinburgh in one piece, had a nice dinner and then helped Amy fix it again when it fell off just outside Brian's.

On the final approach to Glenshee, Amy's new van tried to deposit its exhaust muffler on the road. The snow meant there was no verge for us to move out of the way. She used a copper pipe to rig a temporary fix.

Amy gave Brian his first snowboarding lesson of the day

Brian's second lesson gave him a few hints of control.

A familiar pose...

Amy gave Brian his first snowboarding lesson of the day.

Instructor Amy's lesson continued, this time without the splat.

Post "official" lesson Brian falls with confidence?

Look at me go....... sloooooooooooooowwwwwlllly