Spring Juniper Cup 2011 - Day 1

After the usual 4 month layoff orienteering is off again. The Juniper Cup is one of my favourite events, although it is a shame that after my critical comments about Day 2 last November I can't go tomorrow, even though the planner went out of his way to assure me today that he started his planning with my course this time round and it should be great. The weather forecast is not good and as we have no car with us I have to depend on others to give me lifts. My lift from today decided to give it a miss tomorrow due to the bad forecast.

Today's course was very good. As I was one of the early starters there were no elephant tracks yet to distract me. The depth was about 3 or 4 inches and my little toe in my left foot went completely numb by the end of my run. I was pretty tentative to start with, I am always a bit like that when I haven't had a map in my hand for months. I think I left the path too soon to 2, it would probably have been a lot better to go a lot further on the path and cut in later. To 6 I was a bit unsure and therefore slow. Finally I overshot, so I think I wasted a minimum of 3 minutes there. I came second, which is not bad considering the winter I had so far. My back was OK and at the end of the run it started smarting, like it does after a massage. I think the cream we use, which has chilli oil in it, has come to the surface again to sting me a little more.

Tomorrow there is a special Sunday when the guides in the city put on lots of different tours showing interesting places totally free. I might go on one or two, depending on the weather. Any rain, snow or serious drop in temperatures and it will be another indoors day.

Today's chat with Callum

I went orienteering for the first time this year today, so I missed my regular chat with Callum. Thankfully they called me again after their lunch, by which time I got home. My little monkey was on good form today, as you can see from the Skype snapshots here. He was doing a spot of reading first, then had a banana, followed by a musical interlude on his brand new keyboard. What sense of fun he has, it is such a joy to watch!

The last few days and then back home

On Sunday Maureen came down to see me in Brighton, which was really lovely. It has been over a year ago I last saw her in BP and her company was saving me from loneliness. We went to the Basketmakers for lunch, then walked about a bit and did some shoe shopping, followed by a rather rainy and windswept meander to the Pier. As you can see in the photos the sea was choppy, we saw some one armed bandits, then had a cake and tea in the restaurant at the end of the Pier, met Iggle Piggle en route and then returned to the Railway Station for Maureen's trip back home. I shopped for some food in the Tesco Express and went home to cook. I had a microwave prawn curry with rice, which was delicious.

On Monday I posted the toys to Callum, bought my bus ticket back to the airport and in the evening had dinner at Mary's who was a colleague at Stringer some years ago. It was very nice to see her again after all these years. Monday was another sunny day, which made a change from the blustery Sunday, but it wasn't cold even on that day. The flight on Tuesday was uneventful and now it is winter again with a bit of snow, which is a bummer as we were hoping to bring the car back at the end of the week. At the end of February the orienteering season starts, so let us hope winter lets up and I won't need a lift from somebody else.

Tomorrow we are having dinner with Andris and Maria, followed by two concerts on the Saturday. Schubert is one of my favourites, so I am looking forward to it.

Bad weather, good lunches, kitchen builders and Callum

On Friday the weather got a bit better but not by much. My shoes started leaking and I did end up looking like a drowned rat at the end. Met Pete again, this time in the Basketmakers which is yet another pub that doesn't change. Long may this last - AMEN!! I had my usual and he had steak. Then we walked to Argos and I managed to buy a couple of cute In The Night Garden toys for Callum. Then Pete went to do his shopping and I started walking back. Finally I decided to give up trying to find any more second hand Reginald Hill books and bought 4 new ones. Steve, the kitchen fitter, was gone by the time I got back, but I took the photos above of the kitchen. He got to this state in 5 days which is pretty good going I think.

On Saturday the weather was absolutely brilliant, but I stayed in as the cooker hood might have come, but eventually it didn't. Also, I haven't seen Callum for two weeks, so I had a chat with him on Skype, which was good. I finally managed to find some In the Night Garden videos on YouTube and it was really sweet. I also looked up their web site and learnt what it is about. It is made by the Teletubbies people and it is just as good. Not only cute, sweet programs, but the people who make it understand what very small children need: laid back, repetitious, loving and secure little stories, songs and characters. It said on their website that it is about people who care for each other and have fun. That really describes the little monkey in Toronto, that's for sure.

Brighton

Trip was uneventful, Julia was there, I have a key, know how to set and release the alarm and can even handle the central heating control unit. First night had hardly any sleep due probably to the late and funny meal I had. In the morning Steve arrived to carry on building the kitchen. Lovely bloke, good and fast worker and the standard of his work seems to be good too. Bought a day bus ticket and went into town. Saw some Reginald Hill books, but no special offers, so thought that I will not buy them at full price until I have done all the second hand and charity shops. Then bought a suitcase for the trip back, did some charity shops where I found a couple of Hill books. I also bought a few other books and then went to Infinity for nut butter and nuts. Met Pete at a fish and chips restaurant in Baker Street where the cod and chips was very nice indeed. Afterwards we went back to Stephen's to drop the shopping and went out to see The King's Speech.

That film was superb. On a variety of levels it produced enjoyment in the extreme. Did some food shopping en route home and collapsed into bed around 11 pm. Before that finalised Thursday's program with Ruth which was a walk to Stanmer Park and lunch in the tearooms.

Today I woke to bad weather which put paid to the walk, but as it happened I didn't feel too good with my back and a cold, so I didn't mind. Finally Ruth and Ian turned up just after 12. We chatted for about an hour and then went to The Royal Oak in Twineham. That pub still looks exactly like it did in 1968 when I went there for the first time. The food was superb,Ian and I had Springs Smoked Salmon Ploughmans, Ruth soup and roast beef ploughman. The lovely old and enormous fireplace kept us nice and warm, the doggy was cute hoovering all dropped bits of food and we all had a good time. (see pics)

Spring on its way

The whole of the last week was pretty cold with deep frosts in the night. We finally managed to get the flat reasonably warm in spite of having no heated spaces anywhere around it. We have the cellar under us, an unoccupied flat above us, the unheated back staircase to the left of us, the next block behind us and mostly unheated rooms to the right of us as well. So heating it through is never easy. The exercise classes are still going, but my back is not getting much better. Still, I keep going living in hope that things might improve eventually.

On Tuesday Ros and I went to see Livia, who lives in a typical overfurnished old fashioned apartment on the hill near Ros. She enjoyed it, Ros and I endured it, so we both have done our good deed for the week. Wednesday we spent an hour with Robert in the cafe opposite the Opera having cakes, coffee and a good chat. Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades was not exactly to my taste, so I'm afraid I've absconded half way through. And then we went down to the village for a couple of days. We returned today, but today needs more elaboration.

Roy is still refusing the use the car due to the bad roads and the winter conditions, so the plan was to use the bus which was due to leave at 10am. Somehow we managed to run out of time getting to the bus stop, which is quite unlike us as we are normally there at least 10-15 minutes early, but today we left it really tight, only to find that the driver drove off 2 minutes early. We retreated into the house to think through what we could do. I was just about to look up on the internet what other, if any, buses might go later when Roy told me that Andris has arrived to visit Nelly. That gave us the marvellous chance to beg for a lift, which we got. The only proviso was that Andris and Maria were going geocaching en route home and we had to join in. That's no bother, I said, I love geocaching myself, so we were off just after 3pm.

Today has proved that some accidents can turn out for the better. Instead of a boring, potentially cold and/or uncomfortable bus ride, we had a pleasant drive with nice people and had some fun geocaching and having a little outing. The pictures show the church and a nice manor house in Erdõtarcsa, one of the geocache locations. And just to explain the title of this post, examining the photographs will tell you that it was today that the long awaited thaw arrived. In fact, after the initial trip down towards the bus stop, when we missed the bus, being on crunching snow and ice, by the time I took these pictures the sun was out and very little snow remained. The forecast was for springlike weather by the weekend and it turned out to be true.

Next Tuesday I am off to Brighton and if I get a chance I will post from there.