I called in at the beauty therapy salon bit of college tonight on my way to web design to check out times and so on for waxing. As it’s a college and training place they only do ‘salons’ at certain times. At the moment the only evening ones are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, neither of which is convenient. Thursdays I definitely can’t do, but Tuesdays should be possible in the next few weeks. The appointment would be at 6pm and take about half an hour. I start web design at 6.30pm. After half term the teaching should be pretty much finished and we’ll just be getting on with creating our own websites for the assessment, so then it shouldn’t matter if I’m a few minutes late. So another few weeks and then I’ll be having my first waxing experience.
Getting ideas for working towards a few items on my list.
Web Design
As I didn’t do the Duke of Edinburgh camping weekend, I’ve spent today sorting out plants, making up hanging baskets and planting vegetables. I’ve also got loads of laundry and ironing done. These are all things that needed doing, but I’ve run out of time to do the other things I was hoping to do, like my homework for the web design course. So I’ll have to do that tomorrow evening instead. The teaching part of the course has almost finished and soon we’ll be starting on creating our own websites for the assessment. I’m going to work on the actual website I want to have so at least I’ll be well on the way with it when the course finishes in July.
Exmoor
I rang the campsite in Exmoor this afternoon to try to book for next week. As it’s half term and the bank holiday I thought it might get busy. I spoke to owner who doesn’t take bookings in advance, but advised me to try to get there before lunch as it is likely to be busy. He said they shouldn’t have too much trouble fitting just me and my small tent in though. I’ve checked out a route online and it’s about a 4hr drive. To allow for a stop on the way and any delays, I think I’ll leave home at 6am next Saturday. That should give me plenty of time to explore the area once I’ve got my tent up, and then I can start my walks first thing on the Sunday morning.
I read a bit of the April edition of Country Walking magazine whilst I was having my lunch. It’s got a special feature on the national parks and yes, there was an article on Exmoor. So I’ve cut it out and will take it with me. I’ve already got the OS map which I bought a few weeks ago and lots of printed out walks from the internet.
Ballooning
I spoke to a friend at work during the week about ballooning. If I can get a good price she is willing to do it with me. So now I just have to wait for the special offer to come up again on Groupon. When it does I’ll buy a couple of vouchers and then we can sort out a day to do it.
Diving
The Groupon voucher that arrived today was for a PADI diving course. Although I have no time to do anything about this at the moment I had a quick look at what the requirements are for the course. I need to be able to swim 200m. I can swim 200m, but only with lots of breaks, and I somehow don’t think they’ll count this. At least I have an idea now of what I need to aim for when I start swimming again.
Yes, another volcano in Iceland has erupted and yet again I miss out on seeing lava. I was close to this volcano when I was in Iceland a couple of summers ago. I skidooed over the glacier that covers it, though I was further south. I also came close when I did a trip into the interior of Iceland which is pretty much closed to everyone in the winter. Because of distances and difficulty of getting transport in this region this Grimsvotn volcano isn’t as easy to get to as Eyjafjallajökull would have been when that erupted.
One of these days one will erupt when I’m either already nearby or when I’m in a position to get on a plane (assuming they’re still flying) and head straight over to see it.
I did a first this afternoon and even though it’s not on my list of things to do before I’m 60, I’m still going to write about it.
I got my car valeted.
I always thought this was something people with too much money do. I love having a clean car but rarely have one. My car gets used to transport muddy boots, plants, leaky bags of grout, camping gear – I won’t go on – but rarely gets cleaned, a) because I don’t have time, and b) because it’s not very often I get the chance to park right outside my front door and when I do it’s usually raining so I don’t want to go outside with my vacuum cleaner. So my car gets dirtier and dirtier and well, with the cost of petrol these days, I really can’t afford the price of the extra fuel I’m having to buy to cart all that dirt around.
I decided a few weeks ago to go to the valeting place near my house and emptied my car out into my living room. I baulked when I found out that prices started from £50! But then a colleague told me about a place in East Didsbury that does an amazing while-you-wait job, inside and out, all for a tenner. As I was in Didsbury today anyway for college and I have to drive past the valeting place I stopped to get it done on the way home.
It’s truly amazing. They washed, sprayed, wiped, scrubbed, hoovered, and even put something on my tyres to make them really black. Then they gave me a nice smelly thing to hang over the mirror. Why have I never done this before???
Now I can get rid of all the car junk from my living room. Hopefully when I sort it out more of it will go in the bin than back in the car. Then I can get on with other jobs, feel organised, and free up time to work on my list. And I’ll have a nice clean, fresh smelling car to go to Exmoor with.
I’m planning a half-term trip to Exmoor and want to start walking the South West Coast Path from the beginning.
The weekend after next is the start of half term. I’m planning to drive down to Exmoor to spend the week walking. Usually when I go to the south west I feel as though I have to go as far as possible and always end up down near Land’s End. But this time I thought I’d stop and see some of the places I usually speed past.
I’m not disciplined enough to write a book. But I would like to have a go. If I ever do write one I don’t think it will be fiction as I’m not imaginative enough. It’ll probably be more like a fictionalised account based on a true story. Because I think this will be very hard for me to achieve I’ve included ‘writing a book’ as a separate challenge to actually being a writer on my 60 things to do before I’m 60 list. If I write a book but never write anything else, I’ll only tick off the book task. If I write and get published regularly, but don’t write a book, then I’ll only tick off the writer challenge.
I heard of NaNoWriMo recently on another blog. I had no idea what it was about but a bit of googling soon sorted that out. It stands for National Novel Writing Month and takes place each November. It started as an American thing, hence the ‘national’, but is now global.
Basically you register, and then spend November trying to write a 50,000 word novel. By the end of the month you have to upload your novel to their site and their special counting machines do a word count. If you’ve achieved the magical 50,000 you get to copy and paste an online certificate. So no big prizes, but then it is free. And it gets people writing. The best reward of course is that by the end of the month you have 50,000 more words than you had at the start and so have something to play around with and try to turn into an actual novel.
When I was a student and had to write essays I always struggled with the traditional ‘make a plan first’ approach. I agree, this is a very sensible and practical approach and I can’t fault it. But I couldn’t do it. I would write my plan and then stare at the page not knowing how to turn it into an essay. So I came up with my own technique. After doing some research around the subject area, so I at least had a bit of a clue about what I was doing, I would sit down and time myself for one hour. In that hour I had to write my essay. This killed two birds with one stone. It was great exam practice and it meant I had something on paper that I could then edit and turn into an acceptable essay. After reading it through I’d have a good idea of what I could actually do with the essay, what changes needed to be made, what needed to be added (or left out), and so on. Then I’d make my plan and write my essay in the conventional way.
With NaNoWriMo I’ll have to use this technique. There’ll be no time for edits, drafts, research, plans, or any of the other stuff that you’re supposed to do first. Sounds perfect for me!
So depending on my workload, and how my college courses are going, I’ll be giving this go. Hopefully this November, but if not, then the one after.
Why I don’t want to go camping and walking this weekend.
The Duke of Edinburgh group from school have their camping and walking training expedition this weekend. It’s something I’ve been keen to get involved in ever since I’ve been a teacher but has never happened. As soon as the call went out for staff to help out this weekend I volunteered. Then I didn’t hear anything. I had been looking forward to it and it will be really useful for me to be involved in this as it could be relevant to my future plans (so I wasn’t volunteering just to be altruistic!) …
Joining the Ramblers and finding out their office staff aren’t very good at map-reading.
I’ve recently rejoined the Ramblers. I was a member a few years ago and although I only ever went on one walk with them, I did like the magazines and I like the idea of supporting them as a pressure group. They do a lot of good work keeping public footpaths open and fighting for rights of way. When my membership expired I couldn’t afford to renew it. I’ve always intended renewing but never got round to it. Now that I’m getting serious about walking and a future life involving the outdoors I thought it a good idea to rejoin.
My welcome pack has just arrived. I’ve got the latest magazine and a note saying I should receive the new handbook in the next few weeks. Unfortunately they seem to have signed me up to the Upper Wharfedale group. From what I can make out the walks all seem to be aimed at people living in Leeds and Bradford and their surrounding areas. There must be a group closer than a couple of hours drive away! I can’t remember which group I was assigned to last time; maybe Stockport or Derbyshire? So I’ll have to contact them and ask them to find me a closer group. It’s a tad concerning though that a national association involved with maps, distances, areas and so on doesn’t seem to know that Manchester isn’t a suburb of Leeds!
Why do people pay to have hairs ripped out of their skin by the roots? I really want to know.
Waxing might seem a strange thing to have on a list of things to do before I’m 60. Not much of a challenge, some people do this regularly and have done for years. But I never have. I’m quite intrigued by this aspect of personal grooming and why people would pay to have hairs ripped out of their skin by the roots. It’s a cross-cultural phenomenon, though in some cultures other substances such as sugar are used instead of wax. What exactly gets waxed (and how much of it) is both culturally and fashionably determined.
This really seems like something I should experience for myself, yet I’ve never tried it. Partly this is through fear of physical pain, but also it’s because of the fear of financial pain it will cost my bank account. Waxing is not cheap.
Each time I go to college to do my web design course the walk from the car park takes me past the hairdressing and beauty therapy department where there is a functioning salon. I had a look online at the treatments and prices on offer and it is cheap. There are two prices depending on whether you have a junior or senior trainee. They also offer other treatments I’m interested in such as eyebrow and eyelash tinting and massage. So it’s convenient and cheap – really no excuse now to not get this done.
I’ll start with my legs and will probably just get my lower legs done first. Then I’ll assess and decide whether this is enough to complete this challenge or if I should do more and get other bits waxed as well before I can count it as complete. I’ve just found a video on youtube of someone having a Brazilian bikini wax. It took ages, looked even more painful than I’d imagined, and her ‘bits’ got redder and redder as the procedure went on. So I don’t think I’ll be going that far. But who knows? Watch this space …
Jean, the mother of a friend from Kent, has just spent the weekend with me. She wanted to see a bit of Manchester, but most of all she wanted to do a walk from Hathersage as she missed out on a trip there with her walking group earlier in the year. We planned to do the walk on Saturday, but changed it to Sunday when we saw the weather report. This turned out to be the right decision as we got a wonderful day, whereas on Saturday it had rained heavily for most of the day.
One of the tasks on my list is to get my walking group leader’s qualification. I would like to start on this fairly soon and to do it I need to log walks I have done in 3 different areas of the country. The Peak District will definitely be my main area as this is my regular stomping ground. I haven’t walked for months though. Firstly because I’ve been incredibly busy and secondly because I had an accident involving a car and a house that put me out of action for a while. So as it was my first time walking seriously in a few months we didn’t choose a particularly strenuous walk.
We started off parking in Hathersage and buying sandwiches (oven bottom muffins) and eccles cakes in the local bakery to have for our lunch. Jean was surprised to see signs on the local pubs and cafes saying ‘muddy boots and dogs welcome’. Muddy boots and dogs are usually not at all welcome in Kent!
Foraging wild garlic as we walked through sun-dappled woods
Our walk took us across fields to join up with the River Derwent, which we then followed for a while. Our walk book did a slightly bigger loop, but this would have taken us away from the river and it was so nice walking along the bank it would have been a shame not to. We walked through a wood alongside the river with bluebells to one side of the path and wild garlic to the other. This meant lots of stops for photos and to munch on the wild garlic flowers. We crossed at the stepping stones and had fun taking more photos as we jumped across them.
Hopping across the stepping stones
We then headed up away from the river. When we came across a field of cows with a sign telling us we could buy ice cream from these very cows we felt obliged to take the slight detour involved to get to Thorpe Farm, home of Hope Valley ice cream. Well, it would be rude not to wouldn’t it? Especially when they’d gone to all the trouble of putting signs up. So after choosing our cow we strolled down to the farm. The ice cream (or hot chocolate if it’s a cold day) is made on the farm with milk from the cows. What a great example of diversification! After enjoying a very large cone of panacotta, chocolate and coffee ice cream it was with heavy legs we set off again. Really, it seemed to have gone straight to my legs.
Choose your cow, then go get an ice cream
We continued walking to get to the northern most point of our walk which was near Green’s House. A local artist called Lyn Littlewood has a studio here and she had signs up saying she was open. I last did this particular walk 7 years ago with Louise, Jean’s daughter. We called in the gallery then and Lou bought a painting for which we later had to call back to collect with the car. It was only when I went in the gallery this time that I realised she only actually opens her studio one weekend a year. What a coincidence that both times I’ve done the walk it’s been when she’s been open! The garden was also open so after a look around the studio we walked round the garden so I could pinch ideas for my own tiny yard and garden.
Zero miles ice cream, fresh from the cow!
When we left Green’s House the walk headed south more or less in a straight line all the way back to Hathersage. When we stopped to look behind us we could see the magnificent Stanage Edge outlined against the horizon. We dropped into a wood and found a well-placed bench by a foot bridge where two small, but speedy streams joined. The whole area was full of bluebells and dappled by the sun. And we had it all to ourselves. We knew we wouldn’t find a better place to have lunch so stopped to eat our oven bottoms.
Stanage Edge in the distance
As we continued our walk we passed more of the halls thought to have belonged to the Eyre family. We’d seen some earlier on in the walk too. This was the family from whom Charlotte Bronte borrowed the name for her most famous character and novel. They owned seven halls – they’d had to buy them for their children. No-one’s exactly sure which seven they are now, but they have a pretty good idea. Although these halls are nice and fit in with the area we did pass one on our right that can only be described as a monstrosity. It was a collection of over manicured gardens, precisely placed over-large Italian style vases, a long (very long) drive with horse head sculptures on the over-large gates … everything stood out like a sore thumb and was a total blot on the landscape. The only thing that could be said to be good about it, is that it is a good example of how money can’t buy taste!
Rant over …
Little John’s Grave
Towards the end of our walk we called in at Hathersage Church to have a look at Little John’s grave and to have a cup of tea and a slice (ok, a wedge) of victoria sponge. There are quite a few Robin Hood connections in the area, the Little John grave being just one of them. It’s thought feasible (if he existed at all) as in 1784 when the grave was opened a thigh bone that could only have belonged to a man over 7 feet tall was found.
This was our final stop and after our cake we walked back into Hathersage and to the car. We’d walked just under 7 miles and it had taken us 6.5 hours! This was because of all our stops. We’d had a great day though and felt like we’d done much more than just a walk.
