Monthly Archives: January 2012

Long weekend in Surrey

I went down to visit the rellies in Surrey for a spot of wedding dress shopping (for soon to be wed little sister) and of course an opportunity for Ellis to spend some time with Granny C and Grumpsy and of course Aunty Natalilly.

We took a walk to the local pub on arrival into Chipstead and it was lovely to let Ellis run about while Papa and I knocked back an Old Speckled Hen or two and Ma and Natalie had a more delicate white wine spritzer!

Most of the next day was spent ogling wedding dresses in cambridge. Natalie couldn’t decide on the colour of a part of the dress so I got to try another version of the same one, purely to help out in her decision of course and not at all because I got excited in the shop and was desperate to try something on… Okay, a bit of both!

It was lovely to see Kerry and her bump which is getting bigger although she is beautiful and glamerous as ever. Sickening. We tried on some potential bridesmaid dresses but have not found the one(s) yet! Plenty of time for that.

Little Ellis loves the swings so Natalie and I took her for a visit by the hall where we went to playgroup (not far from the pub) and she had a lovely time on the swings and climbing frame, crawling through tunnels like Dougal!

We all then went off to the health club for some tennis and lunch and a bit of a swim. Ellis again had a lovely time in the pool and made me realise i will have to take her more frequently.

Sunday was time to come home again but nice to know that it would not be long before seeing them all again!!

Pics to follow!!

Trying to go skiing and failing – but it was fun though

>Rich And I headed out today with the intention of trying to Ski up and around Beinn A’bhuird. The forecast was less than good, and there was serious doubt that there would be enough snow.
We set off from the car around 8km cycle into the bottom of where we would normally start. Skis on our back with boots attached to them made for sore bums! the cycle up Glen Quoich was a little icy in places but still cyclable with care.

We made it in good time to the normal dumping ground of the bikes, and we changed into our ski boots, we had bought our winter boot with us as well just incase there was no snow we would just walk up it for the fun. On looking from below it looked like there was enough snow to ski, so we did. We had a bit more of a walk to the snow line.

We managed to skin up to Carn Allt Na Beinne and from there we had a clear view up the rest of the ridge which we were suppose to go up….. no snow, well a little, but not enough to ski up and down and for it to be fun.

Above is rich skinning up the hill, the wind was pretty wild at times. We dumped the skis and kept on walking up a little further to around 900m. Here we played around in the snow for a bit, Rich doing his ‘mountain man’ impersonation.

The wind was so ferocius at that point we decided to turn around. Couldn’t see a thing as the wind whipped up massive clouds of snow that battered us around.

Welcome to the World Fin!

Delighted that at last Scott and Anna’s baby has decided to join us.  Anna did a sterling job and gave birth to a some what cute baby Finlay Alexander Burnett on Sunday morning. Excuse the dodgy phone pic, but it was all we had at hand.  He is a cute wee fella, although he does have a rather girly scream!   Well done you two and a huge congratulations.

2 in a year – that is just gready!

Normally over the past few years I have just done the one winter route.  But with limited snow about for skiing it was decided to go and do another climb.  Lochnagar was the chosen destination, meeting in the car park at 8, we had brought the bikes to shorten the now hated long walk in.

Above Andy and Rich on the bikes.  The bikes were a great idea until we got half way up the steep bit and the track turned a bit icy and the bikes had to be ditched a earlier than thought.

Once into the corrie itself it became evident that there was not much to go at as all East facing parts were pretty much dry of snow, so we had two options, Raeburn’s gully or the old favourite Black spout.

We start up raeburns and by the time we got to the first belay it was evident that it would be a very slow day in the gully as there were many teams in front of us.  After a team talk it was decided that Black spout was the way forward, it was Rich’s first winter climb, and in fact first time climbing outside of any description so decided to play it safe and not try and give the poor guy a day filled with pure fear.  At the bottom Rich, Chris and I roped up to give Rich a bit more security and made our way up black spout.  The left branch is always a bit steeper and more interesting so we headed up there.

Half way up the left branch there is another little bit we can veer off on called ‘Crumbling Cranny’ grade II which we decided would make things even more interesting, off we went. Chris took the lead for the one pitch and make light work of it and the soft cornice.

rich looking happy to out and about in the hills enjoying the Scottish hills in the winter. I belayed Chris whilst Rich was educated in how it all works.

This was obviously not he best way to demonstrate it, but i think he got the jist! Chris made it look easy with some sparse gear placement, but no overall fretting, crying, screaming or anything remotely funny we could later poke fun at him for.

Rich climbing through his first cornice (never fun) and his look of happiness as he stuck his head up over the top into the sunshine.  The boy did good, again with no crying, screaming or anything we could later use as ammo.

A great day relaxed climbing in lovely conditions.  I think Rich will be lulled into a false sense of expectations to always go out in sun and soft winds in the winter.

and of course there was the gun show at the top!!!!!!!  No climb is complete without one of these. the view from the top was brilliant, the Northern Cairngorms looked to have loads more snow than where we were, suppose it is an easy decision to make as to were we go next weekend!

Gap family skiing trip

On the day after boxing day we all abandoned the UK and headed for Gap.  On Top of us, mum dad and Rachel, Ryan and Ann went to the white alps in search of snow, sun and cheese – we weren’t to be disappointed.

The first day we went to Orciere to see what state our legs were in – this turned into a GS style day of us hooning down pistes trying to remember how to ski again (Lara below)

The sun was shinning and skills quickly regained.  It was great to be back skiing in the alps again.  The legs took a pounding as on many runs we refused to stop, by the bottom the legs were on fire with lactic but faces were stretch with smiles.

The holiday was blessed with mixed weather which a) allowed us rest days when needed, and b) gave us loads of fresh snow. New years eve was spent going to bed early (10pm – I now we are boring) as we were on a promise for an epic powder day at my fast becoming favourite place to ski ‘La Grave’.  Setting off early on New years day with no other car on the road was strange, the place was journey was devoid of cars, suppose the rest of france were nursing sore heads.  We were right at the front of the lift que for it to open and what ensued was a monster day of first tracks and more burning legs – below is Lara on a great day.

La Grave is a pretty impressive ski resort, no pistes, just a huge steep mountain.  Ryan was a little amazed at it, as he had never skied anywhere like it before. 

After this some family ski time was required.  Poor Rachel had suffered from a stomach bug which had meant she was not able to ski with us for 4 days.  Finally she made it out and we all had a great day skiing together in Orciere

Unfortunately the ozzy crew had to leave at some point as they had jobs and lives to go back to in Oz :(. We had a few more days left.  Once again the weather was great us and we got another dump of snow.  Mum and Ann had been amazing the whole holiaday and did a whole heap of baby sitting for us so that Lara and I could go skiing together.  It was so so so so so so so good to go out and play together again, we have had the odd day together here and there since Ellis joined us, but this was different.  Ann and Mum when you read this thank you so much – it really gave us a fantastic holiday.  Anyway, back to the skiing, Lara and I got to Reallon early doors for another blue ski powder day

Wow – run after run of the fresh stuff.  There is a lot to be said about the smaller french ski resorts, they don’t get tracked out at all and Lara and I explored all over it and found some amazing lines and bowls that no one touched all day ( apart from us) .  We skied till legs could give no more and the light was fading and went home to a fondue!  I love france!

Our last day was spent touring – we felt we had to do a little bit of uphill to try and ease off our fast expanding mid drifts from the excess of the last few weeks.  We went up to a mountain called Pointe de la Vanesque.  it Was a lovely 2.5 hours climb to the top with views all around us.  I spend the whole time trying to remember good looking lines for future trips.

Lara was worried her fitness was not up to it, but she made short work of the 1000m climb.  The descent was brilliant, once again fresh tracks in awesome powder snow all the way back to the car.

We had a fantastic time skiing and spending time with the family, the weather, snow and babysitters made it!  the rest of the pictures can be seen by clicking here

Xmas 2011

Xmas was a rather large affair this year in Stoke Holy Cross.  I think it was the size it was as alot of people were keen to be there for Ellis’s first Xmas.

We had the ozzy crew fly in, the Tadeusz crew drive up to mix in with the Smith family.  Overall we had just over 20 in the house for Xmas.  After the present frenzy that is the norm in the morning, we set about making a rather huge xmas dinner.  Mum along with her many helpers played a blinder and happily filled up all our bellies with a great lunch and we all retired to the seats to rub our rather large and stretch bellies.

Uncle Ryan was at hand to start of Ellis into bad habits.  We can not say we are a classy family – we even have flashing hats, very sophisticated indeed!

It is at the this point most normal families will start to play board games, watch the queens speach or play a game that invovles films, book or theatre.  Not us, the house turned into a casino and all the hardened gamblers came out.

I blame Frank!  🙂 thankfully no family fueds were started and all walked away with their xmas present stash intact.

It was a brilliant xmas, great company and great fun.  Look forward to many more like it.  The rest of the pictures can be seen by clicking here.

A day in the life of Squeaker (Ellis)

First off I like to go into the bathrooms and empty the cupboards of all things in it and distribute them around the house (note the red marks on my forehead where I like to headbutt stuff)

I then like to venture into my room and empty my nappy bag all over the floor, I know mummy loves it when I do this as she always makes a funny noise when she finds them all over the floor

Once the bag is empty, I always wonder what the surplus white things are on my feet, they don’t need to be there, so I pull them off, if mum or dad put them back on, I think they are stupid so i just pull them straight back off again.

It is usually by this point my mate Sophie comes around to play, she is a great post to pull myself on, she has long hair that is great to pull, she is a lot bigger than me so one day I think she will thump me one, but till them I think i will carry on using her to have fun with.

Once Sophie has left, I am a little sad, so I venture into the toilet and bang the seat for a while, it makes a great noise. If I want to get a reaction from mummy I will pretend to eat the bog brush, she makes all sorts of funny noises and comes running.  Very fun!

After she has kicked me out of the toilet, I head up stairs. I usually take froggy or Kev the koala with me.  I love climbing stairs.  Mum and dad always seem to follow me up with hands out just behind me with a look of fear on their faces.

Don’t know why, I am wicked on steps.  Haven’t quite worked out how to get down them yet though, I usually just sit at the top until one of them carries me down and I will go back up them.