Time. That's what it all comes down to. "I would do that, but I don't have the time.." well... Who does?
Time is out most valuable asset. The problem is you are always spending it. Constantly. It is a non-stop flow through the fingers like sand job. Not only does it constantly flow away from you without you really realizing, but alot of the time you waste it doing nothing. Or you inadvertently do something which will mean you spend more of it later doing something you dislike. It's funny how stuff often works out like that.
I often find myself thinking about the future and what I want to do. Sometimes I make plans. But mostly I dash those away, before they get dashed away by something else. The most full days I have had have been planned start to finish, but the best days I have had were accidental. The thing I think most about the future is that all I can do about it is let it happen. If I try to make the decision about whether to go around the world with my mates for 3 years living on £10 a day between the three of us or to stay at home and have a wife and kids I will of course make a decision but I will just as surely feel bad about it instantly. The problem is that both are great adventures. I would love to spend a year or three running around the world with not a penny to my name "winging it" with my mates jumping from border to border having the time of our lives. But I know that I would love spending time with a wife and kids, teaching the kids to cycle and taking trips to the zoo, just as much. Neither plan has come any where near fruition yet, and I don't see either on the horizon either. Unfortunately we will just have to waste some more time waiting to see what comes up.
Maybe I will get the best gift of all. Enough time to do both. And then live in the country aging slowly with my wife while the kids are grown up, and we grow our own fruit and veg...
I don't see it.
Tuesday 21 September 2010
Thursday 16 September 2010
London at Early
How many people have been to London..? Lots right? How many people pass through there every day? Well over 1 million people live in London, so quite a few really. But, how many people have seen London at 5am? I have. And I don’t think many others have, as I only saw a couple of people at the time...
I had been to Italy for the Bianchi bike launch. And as usual the plane got back to Stansted airport at just past midnight. I had no-one to pick me up. And no way of getting out of the airport until the first train left the airport at 4.30am. So I tried to get some sleep. Good luck with that. Sleeping in an airport is an actual artform. And that is coming from a guy who has been thrown out of rock gigs for falling asleep on the speakers. The fluorescent lights don’t go off ever. The shops close for one hour between 2 and 3. And in that time the cleaners are going round on ride on floor buffers. Combine that with the fact there is only enough seating for half the people there at any one time, and some people are being greedy and sleeping across three seats and you’re in for a rough night. As it was I had been awake for almost 20 hours anyway. I found a seat on the floor and made the most of it.
As soon as the shops opened again, I got a smoothie and thought about my options. My train ticket wasn’t due to leave the airport until 7.30am, but there was very little that was enticing me to stay there. I wandered into the train station under the airport and looked at the time table. The first train out was at 4.30. I would wing it.
I got on the train and didn’t see another living soul until it hit Paddington station a half hour later. Then I just saw a tired looking girl selling porridge and an overly alert guy checking tickets. I avoided him.
Judging by the guy checking tickets, there were bound to be more people who wanted to check my ticket, so I bought a ticket for the underground and hopped on. I didn’t know where anything was in relation to anything else in London. And I figured that nothing would be open as it was still only about 5am, so I got off at a random stop and started to walk around. Remembering my route back to the station so I could get back to get my actual train later.
I walked across London Bridge, and took a picture of Tower Bridge. I walked through a couple of parks with no name on, and found a tiny workmans cafe by tower bridge that sold me a large hot chocolate and a round of marmite on toast at 6am, for £2.75. I don’t care who you are, that breakfast was a friggin bargain! I couldn’t get it that cheap in Exeter let alone find anywhere that cheap in London again! And at 6am! Seriously! Bargain!
I decided to text Nathaniel as I knew he would be up early that day as he was moving to uni. He responded quickly with a list of potential things I could do in London from 7am onwards. He really knows some odd stuff. I decided that going for a wander was as good as anything else. So I did. I walked across tower bridge, and then along the Thames for a bit before turning back to find the train station again. In all this time I had only seen four or five people in the streets. Which is quite an odd feeling when you have seen London in the day time. As I came back across London bridge, there were more people around, and I started to think it was nicer before. I jumped back on the tube and shot towards Paddington to make my way home. I think I still ended up catching an earlier train....
I had been to Italy for the Bianchi bike launch. And as usual the plane got back to Stansted airport at just past midnight. I had no-one to pick me up. And no way of getting out of the airport until the first train left the airport at 4.30am. So I tried to get some sleep. Good luck with that. Sleeping in an airport is an actual artform. And that is coming from a guy who has been thrown out of rock gigs for falling asleep on the speakers. The fluorescent lights don’t go off ever. The shops close for one hour between 2 and 3. And in that time the cleaners are going round on ride on floor buffers. Combine that with the fact there is only enough seating for half the people there at any one time, and some people are being greedy and sleeping across three seats and you’re in for a rough night. As it was I had been awake for almost 20 hours anyway. I found a seat on the floor and made the most of it.
As soon as the shops opened again, I got a smoothie and thought about my options. My train ticket wasn’t due to leave the airport until 7.30am, but there was very little that was enticing me to stay there. I wandered into the train station under the airport and looked at the time table. The first train out was at 4.30. I would wing it.
I got on the train and didn’t see another living soul until it hit Paddington station a half hour later. Then I just saw a tired looking girl selling porridge and an overly alert guy checking tickets. I avoided him.
Judging by the guy checking tickets, there were bound to be more people who wanted to check my ticket, so I bought a ticket for the underground and hopped on. I didn’t know where anything was in relation to anything else in London. And I figured that nothing would be open as it was still only about 5am, so I got off at a random stop and started to walk around. Remembering my route back to the station so I could get back to get my actual train later.
I walked across London Bridge, and took a picture of Tower Bridge. I walked through a couple of parks with no name on, and found a tiny workmans cafe by tower bridge that sold me a large hot chocolate and a round of marmite on toast at 6am, for £2.75. I don’t care who you are, that breakfast was a friggin bargain! I couldn’t get it that cheap in Exeter let alone find anywhere that cheap in London again! And at 6am! Seriously! Bargain!
I decided to text Nathaniel as I knew he would be up early that day as he was moving to uni. He responded quickly with a list of potential things I could do in London from 7am onwards. He really knows some odd stuff. I decided that going for a wander was as good as anything else. So I did. I walked across tower bridge, and then along the Thames for a bit before turning back to find the train station again. In all this time I had only seen four or five people in the streets. Which is quite an odd feeling when you have seen London in the day time. As I came back across London bridge, there were more people around, and I started to think it was nicer before. I jumped back on the tube and shot towards Paddington to make my way home. I think I still ended up catching an earlier train....
Hiking In December
Hiking in December. Always a good idea...
What would you do when two of your best friends ask you to go hiking with them in December? If your answer was to scream “Hells yea!” then this post is probably for you.
It all started late one night in November at my friend Jules house. We were having a video game session, and as usual talking about camping and the fact we hadn’t been in a while. It was at that point that Bick (Jules’ brother) who was unemployed at the time, suggested going in a couple of weeks. I looked at the guys and just said simply “I’m in...”
Next time we get together I have managed to book off three consecutive days, as has Nathaniel. Bick was unemployed anyway so he was definitely in, and then there was just Regan and Jules. Unfortunately neither of them could get the time free from work. And just like that the intrepid trio was set.
Over the next week we met each night to discuss plans for routes to walk and also to check kit and make sure we are thinking the same thing. On one of the nights, once we had the route set, Jules drove us around the closest part of the route in my Jeep. We parked at a couple of the sites and got out to check camp spots and other things. Bearing in mind that we would be mostly setting up tents in the dark. As it happened this did not help us in the slightest when it came to the hike.
Ok, we had quite an ambitious plan when we first thought of it, but isn’t that always the way? The whole thing was to have our stuff packed the night before and leave early in the morning. We would be walking Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. In theory not a problem. Except that Bick is unemployed and so can’t possibly be up before twelve, and Nathaniel and I both need to pick up food before we go. So we meet at twelve, and head towards the nearest supermarket. We wandered around for half an hour and then left with some items that vaguely resembled food. From there we went more briskly to Nathaniel’s house with our kit and the food, and divided it up between us. After this it’s about three pm and we are finally ready to set off. It will be dark by four. Excellent. We all like a challenge right?! At least on the first day we only had about 4 miles to cover. We set off, heading mostly uphill, and walked for about two hours. Upon arrival to our first spot, one Danes Wood, we turn torches on and head into the woods. It has already been dark for quite a while, but being in a wood after being in a city for so long makes you crave a light even when you don’t really need it.
In the middle of the small wood was our campsite, under an immense pine tree. We work quickly, clearing the ground, and putting up my tent. Nathaniel stopped helping with the tent to start our first meal. All of us are holding torches while we work. The darkness had really set in by this point. And we were starting to realise that it was December for other reasons too. We woke in the middle of the night to discover that the temperature had dropped to a rather chilly minus 4. After putting on some long-johns we were back to sleep in no time.
When the morning came we heard some dogs outside the tent and found a few dog walkers being quite interested by the tent. Until we opened the door anyway. We didn’t hang around for very long in the woods. Just long enough for a bowl of cereal or an apple. We decided that putting up tents in the dark wasn’t the most fun ever, and so wanted to cover as much ground as possible before dark. Using our trusty OS map as a guide we set off on footpaths and roads covering the ground surprisingly quickly. The only thing we stopped for before lunch was to remove the previous night’s long-johns as the light, and movement heated us up. We did this in the field opposite the car park for the local estate. This did cause a slight stir when the coach load of elderly ladies pulled up in the car park. Strangely we decided that was time to leave.
We walked for about 6 hours with only a couple of 5 minute breaks. We covered all types of terrain in a surprisingly short distance. We crossed fields with frozen puddles in them, we hiked through woods, down streams and along train tracks. I was shocked at the amount of different terrains within such a small distance from my home. I know that the others were too.
We had no specific destination in mind when we had set off, just a couple of potential camping spots and a vague direction. So on the second day of walking, we looked at the map and decided on a couple of places we would like to go to, and worked out a route amongst them. As it stood we left Danes wood that morning, and travelled past the Killerton estate. We were headed towards Butterleigh, via Silverton. A small village between Exeter and Cullumpton. We had worked out a route to it that went down a couple of small off-road footpaths and looked interesting and challenging in terms of distance and height ranges.
We walked all day with just a couple of brief stops. We passed through the town of Silverton at one point, and stopped outside the church to eat an early lunch (it was only around 11am). We didn’t linger there long due to the cold, and moved to get some more water from the town shop. Leaving Bick outside with the bags seemed sensible so as not to cause a fuss in the store (both Nathaniel and I had full beards at the time, and Bick had long hair too) and Nathaniel and I went into the store. We bought batteries and water. When we came back out we saw an old lady give Aaron some money. He was so shocked he couldn’t actually answer as she pressed the 50p into his hand.
As we pressed on the day didn’t change at all in terms of weather. It was just overcast the whole time. We had no idea what time it was without looking at our phones. Walking across the train track then through some ones farm was the most odd thing from the trip, but there were plenty of signposts there so we knew it was the right way.
When we came into Butterleigh it was about 3pm, and we were hungry again. We had eaten an early lunch and nothing since. We sat in the church car park opposite a pub waiting for it to open. After it started to get dark at 4 we considered setting up the Trangia in the car park and cooking some rice. But then the pub opened and we went and sat in the warm. We had a pint, and even managed to convince Bick to buy us all a meal! It was bacon and brie with cranberry sauce. It was fantastic!
While in the pub we got talking to some locals, who were clearly interested by three young fellas hiking around in December. We explained where we had come from, and where we were intending to go, and they recommended we sleep on the cricket ground up on the hill that night. For two reasons, it had trees all around to keep the wind off, and being a cricket pitch it was flat. It seemed like a good idea, so we thanked them and set off.
We walked up the hill, and took the turning they had mentioned. We saw a car park kind of space come out of the dark. As we started to walk into it, I saw a car sat there. Being the kind of person who finds cars sat in a dark car park to be odd, I shone my torch in the window. Only to discover it was full of people! We ran away! That was the cricket car park.
We carried on up the road a little way to be away from the people in the car, and came to a forest track. One of the other locals had mentioned a track, and said there would be somewhere dry under the trees. As we walked along it, it was clear that we were walking around a wood we were unfamiliar with in the dark. and that the floor was very wet. We stopped and got the compass and map. After much huffing we picked a direction that should take us to a field with a corner we could hide in. And it did. We were right at the top of a hill, with the wood to our backs, and farmland/small clusters of houses to our front. We set up the tent very quickly as it was getting very cold having been dark for over 4 hours now. That night we went straight to sleep.
When we woke up in the morning, none of us wanted to linger in the field, fearing being caught by an angry farmer (why he would care really, we hadn’t broken anything to get there and were out of the way in what appeared to be a fallow field anyway..). Nathaniel quickly set about making breakfast, some nice porridge, while Bick packed his sleeping gear away. He was always slightly slower than us. I set off to find somewhere to have a wee, and followed a deer trail about 100 yards from the tent. I started to pee against a small tree and out of no-where a dog walked past. While slightly startled I still noticed it wasn’t in a hurry, and it did have a collar on. Its owner would be past in just a few seconds. I had more than a few seconds worth of pee left. Making a snap decision I turned around mid-flow and started to walk towards the campsite carefully. As soon as I had made it three steps I heard someone behind me. I couldn’t do anything but keep walking and peeing and hope for the best!
We ate the porridge quickly, and I took down the tent while the others cleaned the pans. After quickly checking the packs we looked at the map. Today we thought we might be able to make it to a small trading estate just outside of Cullumpton called Willand. And from there we would either get a bus, or walk into Cullumpton where we would get a bus. The start of the day went through the woods and then spat us out onto a busy fast moving road. We walked along there for about 3 miles before turning into a small village that had a permissive footpath through a farm. We followed that footpath, although it looked like no-one had in years. It just looked like a farm, without a real path across it and I became increasingly nervous. But in the end we got right across it, about 2 miles worth without seeing a living soul. Which was odd.
As the footpath put us back onto tarmac we took another look at the map to decide the next step. We had a lot of lanes to walk to get to Willand, alot of twisting back and forth. We would pass through three or four hamlets, and see some strange places that day. At one point we had someone walking the other way stop and ask us for directions. They said they had been walking for hours and not seen anyone. To be fair, so had we. We were starting to tell stories along the lines of 28 days later, and it was just us and a couple of others left un-harmed. Puts you in an odd frame of mind.
We arrived in Willand at about 2.30pm. We found a corner shop and got some food that we could eat straight away. Pasties and the like. We sat outside and ate them. Then some school kids turned up and we decided to find a bus stop. We found one just round the corner oddly enough. It told us which busses went there, but strangely not how often. We used a phone to call the “bus hotline” where we were on hold till after the next bus arrived (bit special really). We got on the bus which occasioned many odd looks from other travellers and the bus driver himself. Especially as Nathaniel was the only one amongst us who understands public transport... We sat down with our packs, and I actually fell asleep on the journey back. Even though it was only about 20 mins long. It was just the warmth of the bus, combined with having an actual seat to sit on, and having a full stomach. We hopped of the bus outside the church on Polsloe road, only to watch it stop 3 more times ahead of us, all before Bicks house where we were headed. Typical!
Getting back to Bicks house, stepping off the warm bus into the cold December air, and having to shoulder the packs again was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Even for just that half mile or so. But, getting back to Bicks house and having a beer while talking with Jules and Regan was awesome. Definately 3 days well spent!
What would you do when two of your best friends ask you to go hiking with them in December? If your answer was to scream “Hells yea!” then this post is probably for you.
It all started late one night in November at my friend Jules house. We were having a video game session, and as usual talking about camping and the fact we hadn’t been in a while. It was at that point that Bick (Jules’ brother) who was unemployed at the time, suggested going in a couple of weeks. I looked at the guys and just said simply “I’m in...”
Next time we get together I have managed to book off three consecutive days, as has Nathaniel. Bick was unemployed anyway so he was definitely in, and then there was just Regan and Jules. Unfortunately neither of them could get the time free from work. And just like that the intrepid trio was set.
Over the next week we met each night to discuss plans for routes to walk and also to check kit and make sure we are thinking the same thing. On one of the nights, once we had the route set, Jules drove us around the closest part of the route in my Jeep. We parked at a couple of the sites and got out to check camp spots and other things. Bearing in mind that we would be mostly setting up tents in the dark. As it happened this did not help us in the slightest when it came to the hike.
Ok, we had quite an ambitious plan when we first thought of it, but isn’t that always the way? The whole thing was to have our stuff packed the night before and leave early in the morning. We would be walking Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. In theory not a problem. Except that Bick is unemployed and so can’t possibly be up before twelve, and Nathaniel and I both need to pick up food before we go. So we meet at twelve, and head towards the nearest supermarket. We wandered around for half an hour and then left with some items that vaguely resembled food. From there we went more briskly to Nathaniel’s house with our kit and the food, and divided it up between us. After this it’s about three pm and we are finally ready to set off. It will be dark by four. Excellent. We all like a challenge right?! At least on the first day we only had about 4 miles to cover. We set off, heading mostly uphill, and walked for about two hours. Upon arrival to our first spot, one Danes Wood, we turn torches on and head into the woods. It has already been dark for quite a while, but being in a wood after being in a city for so long makes you crave a light even when you don’t really need it.
In the middle of the small wood was our campsite, under an immense pine tree. We work quickly, clearing the ground, and putting up my tent. Nathaniel stopped helping with the tent to start our first meal. All of us are holding torches while we work. The darkness had really set in by this point. And we were starting to realise that it was December for other reasons too. We woke in the middle of the night to discover that the temperature had dropped to a rather chilly minus 4. After putting on some long-johns we were back to sleep in no time.
When the morning came we heard some dogs outside the tent and found a few dog walkers being quite interested by the tent. Until we opened the door anyway. We didn’t hang around for very long in the woods. Just long enough for a bowl of cereal or an apple. We decided that putting up tents in the dark wasn’t the most fun ever, and so wanted to cover as much ground as possible before dark. Using our trusty OS map as a guide we set off on footpaths and roads covering the ground surprisingly quickly. The only thing we stopped for before lunch was to remove the previous night’s long-johns as the light, and movement heated us up. We did this in the field opposite the car park for the local estate. This did cause a slight stir when the coach load of elderly ladies pulled up in the car park. Strangely we decided that was time to leave.
We walked for about 6 hours with only a couple of 5 minute breaks. We covered all types of terrain in a surprisingly short distance. We crossed fields with frozen puddles in them, we hiked through woods, down streams and along train tracks. I was shocked at the amount of different terrains within such a small distance from my home. I know that the others were too.
We had no specific destination in mind when we had set off, just a couple of potential camping spots and a vague direction. So on the second day of walking, we looked at the map and decided on a couple of places we would like to go to, and worked out a route amongst them. As it stood we left Danes wood that morning, and travelled past the Killerton estate. We were headed towards Butterleigh, via Silverton. A small village between Exeter and Cullumpton. We had worked out a route to it that went down a couple of small off-road footpaths and looked interesting and challenging in terms of distance and height ranges.
We walked all day with just a couple of brief stops. We passed through the town of Silverton at one point, and stopped outside the church to eat an early lunch (it was only around 11am). We didn’t linger there long due to the cold, and moved to get some more water from the town shop. Leaving Bick outside with the bags seemed sensible so as not to cause a fuss in the store (both Nathaniel and I had full beards at the time, and Bick had long hair too) and Nathaniel and I went into the store. We bought batteries and water. When we came back out we saw an old lady give Aaron some money. He was so shocked he couldn’t actually answer as she pressed the 50p into his hand.
As we pressed on the day didn’t change at all in terms of weather. It was just overcast the whole time. We had no idea what time it was without looking at our phones. Walking across the train track then through some ones farm was the most odd thing from the trip, but there were plenty of signposts there so we knew it was the right way.
When we came into Butterleigh it was about 3pm, and we were hungry again. We had eaten an early lunch and nothing since. We sat in the church car park opposite a pub waiting for it to open. After it started to get dark at 4 we considered setting up the Trangia in the car park and cooking some rice. But then the pub opened and we went and sat in the warm. We had a pint, and even managed to convince Bick to buy us all a meal! It was bacon and brie with cranberry sauce. It was fantastic!
While in the pub we got talking to some locals, who were clearly interested by three young fellas hiking around in December. We explained where we had come from, and where we were intending to go, and they recommended we sleep on the cricket ground up on the hill that night. For two reasons, it had trees all around to keep the wind off, and being a cricket pitch it was flat. It seemed like a good idea, so we thanked them and set off.
We walked up the hill, and took the turning they had mentioned. We saw a car park kind of space come out of the dark. As we started to walk into it, I saw a car sat there. Being the kind of person who finds cars sat in a dark car park to be odd, I shone my torch in the window. Only to discover it was full of people! We ran away! That was the cricket car park.
We carried on up the road a little way to be away from the people in the car, and came to a forest track. One of the other locals had mentioned a track, and said there would be somewhere dry under the trees. As we walked along it, it was clear that we were walking around a wood we were unfamiliar with in the dark. and that the floor was very wet. We stopped and got the compass and map. After much huffing we picked a direction that should take us to a field with a corner we could hide in. And it did. We were right at the top of a hill, with the wood to our backs, and farmland/small clusters of houses to our front. We set up the tent very quickly as it was getting very cold having been dark for over 4 hours now. That night we went straight to sleep.
When we woke up in the morning, none of us wanted to linger in the field, fearing being caught by an angry farmer (why he would care really, we hadn’t broken anything to get there and were out of the way in what appeared to be a fallow field anyway..). Nathaniel quickly set about making breakfast, some nice porridge, while Bick packed his sleeping gear away. He was always slightly slower than us. I set off to find somewhere to have a wee, and followed a deer trail about 100 yards from the tent. I started to pee against a small tree and out of no-where a dog walked past. While slightly startled I still noticed it wasn’t in a hurry, and it did have a collar on. Its owner would be past in just a few seconds. I had more than a few seconds worth of pee left. Making a snap decision I turned around mid-flow and started to walk towards the campsite carefully. As soon as I had made it three steps I heard someone behind me. I couldn’t do anything but keep walking and peeing and hope for the best!
We ate the porridge quickly, and I took down the tent while the others cleaned the pans. After quickly checking the packs we looked at the map. Today we thought we might be able to make it to a small trading estate just outside of Cullumpton called Willand. And from there we would either get a bus, or walk into Cullumpton where we would get a bus. The start of the day went through the woods and then spat us out onto a busy fast moving road. We walked along there for about 3 miles before turning into a small village that had a permissive footpath through a farm. We followed that footpath, although it looked like no-one had in years. It just looked like a farm, without a real path across it and I became increasingly nervous. But in the end we got right across it, about 2 miles worth without seeing a living soul. Which was odd.
As the footpath put us back onto tarmac we took another look at the map to decide the next step. We had a lot of lanes to walk to get to Willand, alot of twisting back and forth. We would pass through three or four hamlets, and see some strange places that day. At one point we had someone walking the other way stop and ask us for directions. They said they had been walking for hours and not seen anyone. To be fair, so had we. We were starting to tell stories along the lines of 28 days later, and it was just us and a couple of others left un-harmed. Puts you in an odd frame of mind.
We arrived in Willand at about 2.30pm. We found a corner shop and got some food that we could eat straight away. Pasties and the like. We sat outside and ate them. Then some school kids turned up and we decided to find a bus stop. We found one just round the corner oddly enough. It told us which busses went there, but strangely not how often. We used a phone to call the “bus hotline” where we were on hold till after the next bus arrived (bit special really). We got on the bus which occasioned many odd looks from other travellers and the bus driver himself. Especially as Nathaniel was the only one amongst us who understands public transport... We sat down with our packs, and I actually fell asleep on the journey back. Even though it was only about 20 mins long. It was just the warmth of the bus, combined with having an actual seat to sit on, and having a full stomach. We hopped of the bus outside the church on Polsloe road, only to watch it stop 3 more times ahead of us, all before Bicks house where we were headed. Typical!
Getting back to Bicks house, stepping off the warm bus into the cold December air, and having to shoulder the packs again was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Even for just that half mile or so. But, getting back to Bicks house and having a beer while talking with Jules and Regan was awesome. Definately 3 days well spent!
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