New flooring; long distance walkers; breakdown cover

New hallway flooring and built in mat area

As of January this year, we have super new flooring in the living room and hallway at the house (and the same purchased for the dining room, though not laid as yet). We’ve subsequently moved Ruth’s bookcase into the living room and I have to say it does round off the room quite nicely. We managed to have a bit of a purge of books and a consignment of some others to the attic. Spirited little Harley has now mastered the new flooring and is able to come skipping into the living room of an evening, though Catherine Howard hasn’t.

In January, went on my first walk with the Beds, Bucks and Northants section of the Long Distance Walkers Association, after joining on Matthew’s recommendation and in a fit of New Year enthusiasm. Mustered with Hai, Matthew and a cluster of LDWA members (a few around my age, but most of them older) in the car park of The Caldecotte on a particularly awful morning of cold sleety rain. The walk leader had changed the route on account of the weather, so in the end we ended up going for a walk up around Caldecotte and Willen Lakes and Campbell Park – pleasant, though mainly territory that I know quite well already so perhaps not as interesting as it could have been.

The weather got progressively worse as the walk went on, becoming a semi-blizzard at one point. We huddled in a bandstand by Willen Lake to eat our sandwiches. Was glad of the flask of hot tea I’d brought with me. A brisk pace was set by the group members; I certainly felt well exercised afterwards. Total distance 14 miles.

Mustering at the start. Me third from left

Lunchtime sleet

 By the MK Rose. Me centre of pic with red rucksack. Think that was Hai on the left

Our group in Campbell Park. Me second from right

Walk route, showing start and end by Caldecotte Lake

Being a cautious type, have had breakdown cover for all of my driving life, albeit some of it as an extra name on Ray’s cover. Always with the AA until this year, when Ruth persuaded me that the AA was expensive and I should shop around. Indeed the renewal quote I got was quite expensive, but with hindsight what I should have done was phone them assertively and ask if they could do me a better offer. However, didn’t do this and Ruth found me a – certainly much cheaper - quote from Green Flag via a price comparison site, which I took up, albeit with some reservations about how many vans Green Flag actually have, whether they are indeed a proper breakdown service etc etc.

Having done the above, irony happened. A week before my AA cover was due to expire, I had occasion to call the AA. Started to back out of parking space at the OU and immediately suspected that all was not right with the car on account of the loud banging coming from its front end. After attempting to inspect car myself for trapped branches etc, gave up and used the AA’s delightful app to report a breakdown. How much simpler is that than in the old days, when you had to ring and attempt to explain where you were (well, and find a phone as the first step, in my earlier driving days). Got a pretty much immediate response from the app to say someone was on their way, and was able to track the progress of the AA vehicle from its starting point (somewhere near Bradwell Abbey) to where I was. AA man quickly diagnosed a broken nearside suspension (coil) spring and informed me that it was “a recovery job”.

Quite a long wait subsequently for the recovery vehicle, though once he'd arrived the nice driver did allow me to sit in his cab to warm up. Warned me that the hooking up of my car and towing it to the garage of my choice was going to be a slow process, so left him with my keys and called a taxi home.

Called Anglos the following morning to double-check that they did indeed have my car. The resulting bill to replace the spring was around £120, which I didn't consider too bad. Have actually never had to be towed before, so not bad going over the course of c. 30 years. The AA man theorised that broken springs are often caused by speed humps, though I blame all the damn potholes.

After this positive eleventh hour experience with the AA, am now with Green Flag. Huh. Thankfully the car has been fine so far, but my experience of GF has already been tainted due to the fact that, as I took out my cover via a price comparison site, I don't have access to the Green Flag smartphone app. As I had been considerably impressed by my first use of the AA's app, this is extremely annoying. Haven't quite decided whether to cancel my cover and crawl back to the AA.

Christmas and New Year

At the OU we’re lucky enough to get the days in between the Boxing Day and New Year’s Day bank holidays as Closure Days, on top of our already quite generous annual leave entitlement. This year I also booked off the rest of the week that included New Year’s Day, I think in the vague idea that we might go away somewhere for New Year, though in the end (as has happened before) I did some brief research, decided it was quite expensive and then didn’t actually book anywhere. Anyway, even though we didn’t go away, it gave me a full fortnight’s leave, which was nice.

On the Friday evening pre-Christmas Ruth and I went for dinner at Ray's, which was adorned prettily with a red glow as per below.

On the Saturday I baked a batch of mince pies and in the evening our neighbours Kris and Laura came round for dinner, bringing with them an extremely impressive cake.

Mince pies

Kris and Laura's cake

Spent Christmas Eve through to Boxing Day morning at Dave’s place in Newport, which was lovely. Nia lost her first tooth on Christmas Eve, which added to the sense of occasion. The tooth fairy left her a quite generous £2, though did emphasise that this was only because it was her first wiggly tooth.

On Boxing Day everyone came back to Mum and Dad’s where Hannah and Henry joined us for a roast beef lunch. We walked over to Bailey Park with the children where they had a bit of a play.

Huwie looking adorable on a swing

Impressed by little Huw’s feisty behaviour during the stay – suspected he was keen to be walking, as he was not at all impressed by just sitting on people’s laps or being put down on the floor. Amused by the level of fury that can be emitted by such a tiny creature.

Nia had acquired a ghastly game called ‘Gassy the Cow – Will She Moo or Will She Poo?’ which Hannah and I nobly spent some time playing with her, though much of our time was spent trying to unblock the plastic pats from the back end of Gassy as she didn’t seem to be expelling them as per expectations. Here’s Nia with a couple of the pats.

I returned to Reading early on the 27^th, collecting Ruth from her aunt’s house on the way. She seemed to have spent a pleasant few days with Auntie, including lunch at her uncle’s house on Christmas Day and a walk to the Boxing Day Meet the following day.

Then spent an enjoyable few days in Caversham going for some strolls. Ruth and I went for a walk up around Green Park, a business park near the M4 that opened in the late 1990s but latterly has had some residential development added. It was originally rumoured that a new railway station might open there, but to date this has never happened and I don’t know how likely it is. According to this, plans were approved in 2015, but I’m not aware that construction has ever begun. As the name suggests, Green Park’s buildings all have green credentials and there’s a central lake, the Longwater, which has evidently been designed as a bit of a habitat for birdies etc.

Office building at Green Park

Went for a walk with Ray around Maidenhead on the 29th Dec, taking in some of the new riverside development by York Stream, evidently part of the Waterways Restoration Project. York Stream used to be little more than a ditch, though I remember Auntie Barbara having a bit of a carry-on re how the water had been drawn off by the Jubilee River project. Unsure what Babs would think of the latest development. To my mind, it’s quite a big improvement and definitely makes that end of town a bit snazzier.

We did a bit of a circuit and then walked back up around some of the smart roads to the west of the town centre, including spotting this striking house 'Kynam' on Boyn Hill Avenue – one to preserve, though heaven knows whether it will be.

'Kynam', Boyn Hill Avenue

Further along Boyn Hill Avenue we passed 'Brocket', an Arts and Crafts-influenced early 20th century house that was until recently a Pupil Referral Unit - not sure what's going on with it now.

'Brocket', Boyn Hill Avenue

On New Year’s Eve Ruth and I popped into House of Pine and Oak in Caversham and inexplicably purchased a new dining room table and chairs. Well, Ruth did. My new Habitat set at the flat is MY table and chairs. As at the time of writing, we’ve had it for a couple of weeks (delivery was somewhat slow) and it’s very smart.

Met up with Claire at the Jolly Anglers on New Year's Day afternoon, though it was rather a sombre gathering as one of her friends had just died.

The week after the New Year, Ruth and I went back down to Wales to spend a few more days with Mum and Dad. Did the walk up Blorenge on 3rd January, Ruth's birthday, followed by tea at the Angel Hotel. The next day Mum treated us to lunch at the Chapel café - never been there before but very nice, if artsy. On the Friday Ruth got the train back to Reading while I drove back to Milton Keynes.

The Chapel on Market Street, Abergavenny

Judith greeted me on the Monday by saying I looked relaxed. Perhaps should take a fortnight off more often.

Walk, Whitchurch Hill and Boze Down, 5.38 miles

14 January

Another walk out of Rambling for Pleasure around Reading. The book describes it as 'fairly energetic' and notes that it passes through 'typical Chiltern farmland ... with some fine views across the Thames Valley'. No argument with that, though it was only the initial bit up Whitchurch Hill (the B471) that was particularly energetic.

Drove to Pangbourne and parked in the public car park. Headed over the bridge into Whitchurch and puffed my way up Whitchurch Hill as far as the war memorial, where I stopped to take this picture looking back.

Looking back down Whitchurch Hill

Shortly after this, turned off onto a path and then crossed a field, eventually returning to the road opposite the church of St John the Baptist, Whitchurch Hill. Detoured into the churchyard to visit my cousins' memorial.

St John's, Whitchurch Hill

From the village, headed east along the Chiltern Way, passing a terrace of cottages which the book informed me were built to house workers of Bozedown House. Didn't see the latter anywhere so looked it up after getting home; seemingly it now houses the Castrol Technology Centre, a research institute owned by BP. Castrol's website has a picture of it here. Continued on along open path, passing Path Hill House with its be-turreted gateway. Turned right and descended through Bottom Wood.

Path down through the wood

Continued on past Boze Down (according to the book), which I took to be this tumpy mound. According to The Megalithic Portal, it was a hillfort.

Possibly Boze Down

Reached Hardwick Road and walked along the road back into Whitchurch. Passed Eastfield House, formerly a care home but looking a bit sad at the moment.

Eastfield House

Here's the map (the village of Whitchurch Hill is the top bit, showing my detour into the churchyard) and elevation.

Walk up Blorenge, 8.13 miles

3 January 2018

Belatedly got round to walking to the summit of Blorenge – Ruth was keen to do it, seemingly being fired with greater enthusiasm for walking if there’s a summit in view. As 3 January is her birthday and we were down at Mum and Dad’s for a few days post-New Year, we ended up doing it then. I’d intended for us to follow a route that’s part of the Iron Mountain Trail, which goes around the Blaenavon Industrial Landscape, situated between Blaenavon and Abergavenny and a World Heritage Site since 2000, though in the event we only followed part of it.

Our route shown in red

We started from the Llanfoist Crossing car park and made our way up the lane opposite, past the church and through the dank and somewhat off-putting tunnel under the canal to come out at the base of a path leading up steeply alongside the Llanfoist Inclines, formerly used to transport stone, iron and coal down to the canal where it got loaded onto boats for its onward journey. I’d expected to find the path demanding but hadn’t realized quite how out of hill practice I was, as it was a struggle to reach the top bit where the path emerges from the woods onto open hillside. Had to stop frequently and clocked heartbeat at around 145 bpm at one point. (Looking at this BHF advice on a safe heart rate while exercising, my maximum heart rate would be 171 beats per minute – so not in the danger level I guess.) 

At the top, leant against a fence briefly, threatening to be sick, but thankfully recovered reasonably quickly. Ruth had been working out at the gym recently on the rowing machines and performed better than I did. After recovering, we walked on around the side of the Blorenge into the Woodland Trust reserve and stopped by the Punchbowl for a snack.

Path around the side of the mountain

The Punchbowl

Continued on eventually turning onto a path leading to the summit, after various tricksy false summits. Stopped near the small brick building apparently once used as a wireless hut (whatever that was) to take pictures – excellent views from this point.

Up we go

A view

As we neared the summit, the weather started to turn rather, and the rough path through the heather that had been pleasant enough on my walk there the previous July was distinctly boggy on this occasion. By the time we reached the summit sleet was in the air and a strong wind was blowing – sufficiently strong that we struggled to stand upright at the trig point to take a photo (it was the day of Storm Eleanor).

Me at the trig point

From the summit, we walked on to Foxhunter car park and the road. At this point, I started fretting about not getting back to the start in time for the afternoon tea we had booked at the Angel Hotel, so suggested walking back to Llanfoist along the road, which was less boggy underfoot but I’m not sure it was actually any quicker. We did just make tea on time.

Would like to do the rest of the Iron Mountain Trail in due course though possibly cutting out the initial climb next time – there are thankfully a couple of car parks near the top.

Blorenge is in the south-eastern corner of the Brecon Beacons National Park. To put its cuddly size in perspective, its highest point is 561m, just under two-thirds of the height of Pen y Fan, the Beacons’ highest peak, and around half the height of Snowdon, the highest peak in Wales. And, to give an international perspective, just over 6% of the height of K2. Not that I have any ambitions to scale that.

Rundown of December (pre-Christmas)

Book Group at Ali’s house on 1 December to discuss Quentin Letts’ The Speaker’s Wife. Started out with some prejudice given that Letts writes for the Daily Mail. Also, the blurb on the back refers to ‘an England which has neglected its beliefs’. Groan. Christians with a persecution complex are all I need. It was an enjoyable read if you abstract away from the irritating bits, including the ridiculously OTT depiction of the ‘celebrity atheist’, Dymock – he once drowned gerbils for God’s sake. And he’s ‘anti-love’ – as if that has anything to do with atheism. The book’s central character, the C of E vicar Tom Ross, is a well-drawn character – complex and flawed – but most of the others are pretty two-dimensional. Fun though and I was amused by the church of 'Alleluia! Jesus'.

Ruth and I drove out for a pre-Christmas visit to The Tree Barn at Christmas Common, which is mainly a Christmas tree growers but also has a shop selling posh and tasteful decorations - in fact we bought two baubles made out of star anise for about £8 each, which was a bit extravagant though they do smell nice. The shop was so crowded we could barely move around so we didn’t stay too long. Went on for a Welsh rarebit lunch at the Herb Farm at Sonning Common. Then called in at the Playhatch garden centre and bought a new artificial tree, as Ruth wanted a better specimen than the two little cheap ones I've used for years. The new tree is a slimline model as we don’t have much available width. Looked dead tasteful once it was decorated.

Went out for a joint Returns-ISA team (plus Harvey, the head of Planning & Forecasting) Christmas lunch on 12th December, that being the latest date available before various people disappeared off on leave. Had a pleasant lunch at Zizzi in the Hub. Hoa (on the left) looks particularly demob-happy, probably because he was about to depart on a pre-Christmas ski trip. I was nothing like as drunk as I look – I’d only had about half of a small glass of rosé.

Ruth and I went for a two-night pre-Christmas mini-break in Cardiff in mid-December, for no particular reason other than to look at twinkly lights and possibly buy a few festive trinkets. We stayed in the Park Plaza, as Ruth had stayed there for a week on a business trip a while back and thought I would like it. Indeed I did – it’s large, modern, luxe and impersonal, all the things I like in a hotel.

Our room was supposed to have a view of Cathays Park, but this was obscured by a Winder Wonderland extravaganza in between – not that we were in the room much during daylight hours anyway. Being not long before Christmas, the hotel’s lobby and bar were packed out with office parties on both the evenings we stayed, something I dimly hadn’t factored in beforehand. We did manage to book dinner in the restaurant for the second night and were reassured to note there were a few other couples dotted around among all the revelers. In fairness to the staff both the food and service were very good.

We caught a little one-carriage shuttle train from Queen Street down to Cardiff Bay, and had a walk out to the Barrage and back, and tea in the little Norwegian Church. It was a particularly lovely wintry day.

Looking out from the Barrage

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The Wales Millennium Centre

Visited the Senedd - when Mum and I went there in 2010 we had been able just to wander in through the main doors, but there was none of that on this occasion – Ruth and I were funnelled in through a security room where both us and our bags had to be scanned before we were allowed in. A bit OTT in my view but there you are.

We did a bit of wandering around shops and through the arcades, which were prettily swathed in twinkly lights. Ruth had her eyebrows threaded at Bollywood Eyebrows. We went into the market briefly. We had a nice lunch at Wahaca – a chain I’d never tried out before – and dinner on the first night at a quirky restaurant called The Meating Place, specializing in, unsurprisingly, meat. In fact some of the meat was served on skewers hanging from hooks in the ceiling. Primal.

Rundown of November

Attended the ‘Data Matters: work effectively in the new HE landscape’ conference on 3rd November, a joint endeavour between HESA, JISC and the QAA. Lovely venue, though I walked past the entrance several times, staring confusedly at Google Maps, before being beckoned inside by a kindly security guard (not the first time). Met several other colleagues from the Strategy & Information Office who were also attending, plus Susan, ex-of Returns team but now part of the Quality Enhancement and Learning Analytics (think I’ve got that right) team in LTI.

Went up to London again the following day to meet up with Helen. For a change, and having only recently discovered the Milton Keynes Coachway, I went by National Express coach rather than taking the train. Boarded coach, which was already fairly crowded by the time it got to MK, and found a seat next to a sleeping teenager (one of many such on board). In the main a fairly dull journey down the M1; it got more interesting once we were into London. Plus side of the coach: the ticket was less than half the cost of the train ticket; down side: the journey takes twice as long, and ends up at the dispiriting Victoria Coach Station. Don’t think I’d taken a coach from Victoria since I was a postgrad at Essex, when to save money I sometimes used to go by coach back to Colchester. Was really expecting it to have undergone a refurb in the meantime but no, it seems to just be even more of a pee-stained dump. Given that it appears heavily used, including presumably by a good many tourists, it could really do with an overhaul.

Caught up with Helen over lunch at the branch of Strada near the Festival Hall before walking across the river to Tate Britain. Helen had mooted the idea of going to the Impressionists exhibition that runs until May, but in the event we decided we didn't feel inclined to pay the admission fee and that we'd just have a mooch around some of the free galleries instead. Which we did, here are some of the things we saw.

Untitled (One Hundred Spaces) by Rachel Whiteread

Akua-Ba by John Skeaping

Not sure about this one

We had tea in the (packed) café before I made my way back to Victoria Coach Station to catch the return coach back to MK. Not sure the whole coach thing is something I'll be doing frequently.

Met up with Ray's sister Sharon on 11th November for lunch in the café at Stubbings. Sharon shared her plans for a creative project she is engaged in - I'm waiting to hear more in due course. We had an enjoyable wander around the Christmas display afterwards.

Went up to London again on 19th to visit Ruth's friend Patrick, his now-wife Barbara and their c. eight-month old son Ben. Patrick and Barbara are renting a cute, if snug, little house in Seaforth Crescent in Islington, part of a terrace of former council housing. Apparently even now only a couple of them are privately owned, including the one Patrick and Barbara are living in, which they're renting from an ex-colleague of Patrick's. Visions of their neighbours having been able to be resident for years in an expensive part of London on a peppercorn rent. Bah. We went for Sunday lunch at a pub a few streets away, whose name I've forgotten but it might have been The Railway Tavern on St Jude Street. Nice roasts.

Had a birthday tea party at Mum and Dad's on Sunday 26th as a joint celebration for Mum and Huwie. Huw turned one on 29 November. Mum's cousin Jonathan came for lunch and Anne and Ian joined us later for tea.

Mum and Huwie