Lots going on but too lazy/busy to write - all very exciting though.

 

Uploaded a few pics of the kiddies to stop a relative nagging me for them. More stuff tomorrow.

Where to begin? Let's start with the fun stuff:

 

All set for the off next week. I've added a few things to my kit this time round - partially due to my paranoia around tent failure.

 

Aquisitions include:

Rab Survival Zone Bivvy - I've been after one for an age. There's part of me that wants to try the tarp/bivvy combo and another part that, especially late in the year, doesn't fancy sleeping in a plastic bag if things go wrong.

 

Nalgene bottle - simply because filling a Platypus from a stream is a pain.

 

Montane Lite-speed - my Superfly XT is probably a bit too hardcore for British summer.

 

The Gregory Z55 feels great - and I'm no longer regretting not going with something lighter. This works in context of trying to find the balance between durability and weight. For someone who's spent to much time sliding down ghylls on my arse, this is an important factor.

 

I also took number one daughter, who's five, on her first camping trip recently. She loved it and didn't want to come home. While she's too young yet to drag across the wilds of the Lake District - there's hope for the future. I also learned that the Akto can comfortably sleep two - as long as one is only 1.05 meters.

 

So I've picked four agents who'll shortly be receiving a bunch of words that, hopefully, are assembled into something resembling a story. Stay tuned for exciting updates on exactly what rejection letters look like.

 

I'm now booked in for my operation on August 7th. That's two nights in hospital and two weeks out of the office. Bags of fun :(

 

While I love Wing Chun, I also need to work more on my fitness. So I'm starting Choi Kwang Do as well. Number one daughter has been doing this for a year now and is on something like her sixth belt. If she wasn't so little I'm sure she'd kick my arse. But I'm the daddy for the next decade or so, which should give me time to master some kind of defence. I'll be training with these good folk - who are the ones that turned my daughter from being a mere gobshite into a lethal gobshite who can bust all kinds of moves.

 

 

 

Zomg! as those net kids say. I've been without laptop for 10 days now (that seems to be the amount of time our IT hampsters need to replace a harddrive) and I have the worst bastard hayfever I've ever experienced.

 

Grass bastard pollen has meant that I've shelled out for the most comprehensive prescription I've ever needed for anything - 50 sovs worth of inhalers, antihistamines, sprays, drops and other malarky all so I don't die at the hands of nature. That's my excuse for not posting anything, writing or doing much for a week now.

 

Nature - screw you. I never liked you anyway. At least the high moors are free of most flowering bastards. All I have to worry about are ticks instead...