Sunday 31 October 2010

Spooky!

We may have come face to face with some real ghosts this weekend. Or at least, if ghosts did exist, they would be sure to hangout at the place we stayed last night.

This weekend we went down to Lea Hall, in the heart of glorious Derbyshire. Yes, its a bit far south - but I promise you it looks a lot like the north, so it is probably worth a visit!

Lea Hall was the childhood home of Florence Nightingale and so had some proper history and that. The rooms were fantastic and Lucy got this rather shadowy shot of the bed which I like:

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(the toblerone you can see was a present to me, and lasted approximately 2 hours)

The reason for this visit was the 6 year anniversary of us getting together. I didn't reveal to Lucy where we were going until the blooming sat-nav gave the game away when we were about half a mile from the house. I probably made a mistake by hinting that passports may be required for the weekend. This may have potentially led to a problematic heightening of expectations. It was a damn good weekend though!

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Sunday 24 October 2010

View Over Valley

Lucy and I are close to making some big decisions at the moment. With my new job has come a 1 hr 20 minute each way commute and we need to figure out a way to narrow this down. We're pretty close to actually getting off this goddam rental train and actually purchasing a place of our own. Its about time really - but we both still harbour sectret desires to sack everything off and go and live in a tent in some faraway place. Pretty difficult to do with a big fat mortgage in tow.

As we usually do when we have things to discuss, we head for the hills. I took this one in some valley I dont know the name of - while walking near Derwent reservoir. The reds of the moors are fantastic in the Autumn, and I always think you can do much better photography in the winter months than summer if you get a clear day:
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Tuesday 19 October 2010

Ho Hum.

I have made the decision that I really need to get back into this blogging malarkey. Its been a hectic 12 months, but hopefully some of that should be dying off and I should have some free evenings again.

That job I wasn't sure I wanted - I took it, and we are even looking at buying a house at the moment (though a major issue is the fact that I am the crappest negotiator ever to grace this earth).

I thought that in order to get hings going again I would have delve into my Flickr account for any photos which I have stashed away and could use. Then I had a minor heart attack when I found out all of my photos were missing! Thank god it was just my account expiring and I can recover them - otherwise I may have cried.

Here's one of the boys standing on the top of a via ferrata route we did in the Dolomites in May. A little too dark to see faces, but still I like it:

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Hopefully I will be around a little more from now on!

Wednesday 6 October 2010

Some do and Some Dont

When Lucy and I took my new car out for its first run a couple of weeks ago (new car because I now have a new job and have had to give up the company Prius), I discovered a little difference in our approach to life.

We set off from a straightforward junction to be greeted with the vision of the car in front being ploughed into by a late turning honda civic full of preppy rugby players. The civic must have been accelerating hard as around it span to about face and begin drifting back in to my new prized possession. It was at this point that I realised Lucy and I are not of the same breed.

I, a veteran of several car crashed, had the following chain of reactions:

1. Oh shit if he drifts back into the side of my car and dents it I am going to be mightily pissed off
2. They're probably alright - these things usually look worse than they are
3. What am I going to have for dinner?
4. Lucy wants me to stop, if I do that here I may dent my car or scratch my alloys mounting the curb
5. For some reason the sun-glasses compartment is slightly too small to fit my sunglasses in. Why would they do that?
6. Boy am I glad that I wasn't one car further up or that would have been my car with the bumper hanging off.

Lucy, who has never been in an accident had a slightly different reaction:

1. Screams silently
2. Oh shit that looked bad I hope everyone is ok!
3. We have to stop, Sam stop the car, I dont care about your alloys - just stop the car!
4. Are you guys alright, I will call an ambulance.
5. Whats the number for the ambulance?
6. We need to hang around for 8 million hours (in the cold) to check if they get in the ambulance ok and to make sure that the police get our details for an insurance claim in which the driver of the civic as already admitted fault.

It turned out the passenger was a little bit injured. Only a broken arm or something (my diagnosis from around 3 metres away) - Lucy did the right thing, I am always proud of how she acts in a crisis.

I am more the guy that walks past. In this situation it didn't really matter - but as a rule, being the guy that always walks past is nothing to gloat about.