The house is nearly in a live able state, we have places to put things, hang things and hide things.  It was time to get away for the weekend and go and play as if I had to make another trip to the dump or B&Q I was going to scream.

Friday night we drove over to Aviemore and went to a pub and had a few drinks and had a really nice evening just the two of us and talked baby names and the best tyres for gripping wet granite amongst other random topics. In the morning we drove over to Laggan and had a great day biking

We did the upper red, lower red and a few laps of the orange.  Was great.  All taken at a slower pace due to Lara being pregnant of course(if the mums are reading!).  We finished by about 3, we returned to Aviemore and I went shopping for a few bits.  After this we spent a lovely afternoon sitting in a cafe watching the world go by drinking soft juice and beer – (guess who had which!) and reading. We had dinner and went and watched the soapbox cart race coming down from the ski centre.  I was expecting some small wooden boxes bodge together together.  Quite the opposite – the winner was a carbon fibre bodied aerodynamic speed bullet made by bentley’s graduates for the fun of it.  I couldn’t even get a picture of it it was that fast!  I did get a couple though,

These guys had huge nuts – they averaged just under 50mph down this road over a 4 mile course with their bums about 2″ above the floor.  Great fun to watch.

Sunday we woke to a really colourful sunrise as we were sleeping in the van in the ski centre car park up high.  I got up and started to get our climbing stuff ready.  Soon I realised I had left my rucksack at home and we did not bring Lara’s one as she is pregnant and is not allowed tocarry weight – how convenient.  Not wanting to go and buy another one for a day I decided I would just suffer and carry my 130l duffel bag up, this thing is a monster and was not the most  comfortable thing in the world, but had no alternative.  Each step I took it smacked the back of my thighs.  Rather annpoying after an hour!

The walk into Coire An T-Sneachda was reasonably quick, Lara was marching on ahead as she was carrying nothing and I had it all (as can be seen above) Our aim was to climb Fingers Ridge which can been seen up and just left and above my head on the ridge or the red line below from standing under the route.

It is a 150m Diff, so nice and easy as Lara is pregnant after all.  The climbing was great, nothing difficult and in a lovely place.  We had a few splats of rain but nothing horrendous on the way up

A few hours later and we get to the top and onto the Plateau.  A lovely climb with some good exposure to concentrate the mind.  We walked back down the goat track and back to the van.  Lara did her normal ‘sleep all the way home’.  A great weekend outside and a great relief to be away from DIY and decorating!

All the pics can be seen by clicking HERE

A few weeks ago it was my 30th Birthday.  Does this mean I am a grown up now?  As a kid 30 to me was an adult, at 30 I still feel like a kid.  It’s interesting how different friends’ lives can turn out. Some of my friends are going forth and multiplying right in front of my Facebook-stalking eyes. Some of them have kids starting school, others still feel the urge to shrug responsibility and don’t look in a rush to dump their rucksacks and around the world travel tickets any time soon.  Strange and wonderful how we all grew up in different directions.  I alwasy thought and wanted to ‘be old and have kids’ but now it is here it is very scary.  I think I just have to accept the fact that I am not a youth any more (although skids are still cool) and that this is the time I do need to be getting on with these things otherwise it might get too late for me to enjoy a family.  I never wanted to be an really old dad so the time is now!

Enough of my drivel.  I have a cool wife, for my 30th birthday she ran around behind my back for ages and organised a whole bunch of my mates and swore then to secrecy and to go tank driving!!!!

We all got a go to drive these monsters around a  field and up and down trenches.  Some were more successful than others, some got told off for going to fast (Russ..) and others for going too slow (couldn’t possibly incriminate!). 

All in it was a wicked thing to do as I never would have thought of it, and now I can say I can drive a tank!  After we all finished, we got into our cars and drove down to Peebles for a night out

It all got rather messy, jelly fights, drinking silly alcopops,  Mrs Goddard sampling wierd and wonderful local deap fried delicacys and then crawling back to the camp site.

Amazingly no hangovers all round in the morning?!?!?!?  We all went to Glentress and road moutnain bikes, some old hat at it, others relatively new to it.  All really enoyed it.

It was a fantastic weekend, I would like to thank all who made the effort to come up for it, was touched at the effort put in, and of course thanks to Lara for organising it for me, good wife! The rest of the pictures can be seen by clicking Here

A miracle of human magic has happened, against all odds and beliefs…. Lara is pregnant!  Everyone doubted the ‘potency’ of my role needed to play in the act of making a baby after sitting on a bike for last 10 years non stop.  But to all the non believers out there – it works!!!!

We had the 12 week scan last week, all looks good. All the limbs etc in the place where they should be, ugly little thing at the moment, more like an alien than a human.  Lara is doing fine, she is slowly coming out of being constantly tired and being in bed by 8pm every night.  She has had no morning sickness and is not a massive hormonal mess.  Actually to be honest I have got away with ‘crazy pregnant women’ stories I have heard about pretty well.  

She is due on the 29^th of January, so Rachel sorry you will have to come second place from now one (very unlikely the wee fella will come out on that day anyway) 

I am fine, very excited and scared at the same time, I suppose it is getting to grips how this will change my life, the responsibility and the thought of actually being a father and have someone look up to me for guidance and maturity…..  The last bit is going to be the hardest!  Will keep you all updated to how it is going over the following 6 months.  The wee man is due on the 29th of January.

Yesterday as I muddled around the house, I seemed to kick stuff by accident over and over again. Each occassion saw a plethora of foul language being released.

Woke up this morning and looked at my foot. Guess which one got repetitive strikes! Stupid toe