Adventures in Kansas and Nova Scotia

A very tired Daniel, and a not so tired Jen, somehow managed to make it to Sheffield in a reasonable amount of time without any falling asleep at the wheel which was good! That also meant we had some time to have showers and clean up at Adam and Kate’s before heading out to dinner with them and some other friends. We were going to a Lebanese restaurant, which would be a new experience for me. I had already checked and there were dished I thought I’d like. We ended up doing a tapas style thing with a whole bunch of starters. It was quite nice. Not one of my favourite types of food and I don’t think I’ll ever be suggesting we go and get Lebanese but that said I’d happily go again if others wanted to.

In the morning we took Tammy, Adam and Kate’s dog, for not one but two walks before I headed off towards Manchester to catch up with more friends. I stopped briefly in Glossop for lunch and try to arrange overseas voting. Nothing much had changed seen my last visit. I saw Sarah and her two kids in the afternoon before heading up to Leeds to catch up with Julie and Andy. That evening we had take-away Indian food. I miss Indian food! I stayed the night there before heading back to Sheffield to catch up with Colin and Avril and their new child. Quite a bit of driving and I went round in a circle, but it was less than some previous years and it was great to catch up with people.

Having finished seeing people up north I drove back south and spent a highly exciting new years at my parents. OK, it wasn’t that exciting. I was tired after the previous few days and didn’t even start drinking to just before the New Year. Strangely though most of a bottle of wine was gone by the time I went to bed. Not sure how that happened.

Nothing of note happened New Year’s Day. On the second took more photos of birds in my parent’s garden before I went visited Manningtree with my parents. The most exciting thing about this was all the swans on the river side. They were very tame as swans, go obviously very used to being fed. Things only got a bit nasty when a dog was around. Taking photos of birds seemed to be a bit of a theme of this trip and photos of the swans are here, along with a few of some other things.

Saturday I drove to Hylands Park in Chelmsford to catch up with Caroline who also happened to be in the general area. I hadn’t been to the park in years and hadn’t been near Hylands House since they had done it all up. We got tea and cakes in the cafe and generally had a good catch up. Afterwards I went and drove past my old schools and the house I grew up in. Lots of very familiar things, although some stuff had changed. Perhaps the most noticeable was the removable of all the tree’s from the front garden / yard. I then stopped briefly in the retails parks at Lakeside before spending an enjoyable evening with Si and Claire.

Sunday lunchtime an old school friend, also Daniel, and his kid, Riley, visited. It was a pretty miserable day but we still walked into Clacton to get lunch and spend some time at the amusements. Riley seemed to have a good time and didn’t even seem to mind when he didn’t win at these claw machines that you almost never win at. That evening my parents and I went over my brother’s again to see them one last time before I left to go back to Canada.

Monday was spent packing and generally getting ready to leave. My parents had decided they wanted to drive to Heathrow that evening and were paying for a hotel for the night. There’s nothing much exciting to report until I got on the plane. I have to say, though, that I hate the new Terminal 2. You’d have thought with it all being shiney and new that it would be better than the old ones, but oh, no, most definitely not. I was one of the last on the plane only to find no room for my carry-on and being told it would have to be checked. Apparently this happens regularly on this flight, not surprising given the size and number of bins, but they still don’t think to tell you this when you’re booking or anything. The flight itself was also unreasonably hot. The whole experience was thankfully made a bit better be one member of the cabin crew who was very helpful and a good laugh. I’ve complained to United about the bag situation but also commended Derrick, the cabin crew member.

Newark was, once again, not a whole barrel of laughs. Still better than Heathrow Terminal 2 though. I ended up spending rather longer than Newark than planned on my flight to Halifax kept on getting delayed. Ended up getting to Halifax about 1:30 in the morning as opposed to the roughly 11pm that we’d been scheduled too. That was fun!

When I started the drive to Nottingham it was raining. Not too badly but bad enough that it caused some other drivers to go slowly. Should have seen that as an omen of what was to come. Instead I was thinking that once I was on the dual carriageways I’d be on my way. Turned out not to work quite like that. Just after I reached the end of the A1(M) near Peterborough the rain turned to snow and the chaos began. The A1 was slow. The slow lane was well very slow. Relatively clear of snow thanks to all the cars but full of people going too slow. The fast lane on the other hand had quite a lot of snow. More than I though my small light weight rental could really handle. So it was the slow lane for me. But eventually I made it to where I was turning of the A1 to get to Nottingham…

And then the “fun” really begun. Well when I say fun what I really mean is going nowhere for two hours. It all started when I hit a queue of traffic. It was moving a bit so I eventually decided to go past the gap in the central reservation where I could’ve turned round which was a bad move. Turns out I got about 4 cars beyond the gap, and just over the brow of a hill, and stopped again and this was where I spent the next two hours. Well I say it was a bad move. Maybe it wasn’t. I have no idea what might have happened if I’d tried to find a different way. Anyway eventually I got out of the car to see what was going on. At the bottom of the hill two cars had been in a small accident. Both cars were drivable but even with the police there telling them what to do they were still taking for ever to swap their details etc. Half way up the hill was a car at right angles to the road. He was quite happy to drive off but, not unreasonably, didn’t fancy trying the chicane created by the two crashed cars at the bottom. So we all got to wait around a bit.

Talking to the police it turns out they’d asked for the hill to be gritted so weren’t best pleased it hadn’t been. The gritter was on it’s way and did eventually turn up but couldn’t get down my carriage way to the parked cars were moved. And some drivers were refusing to move – I don’t know what they were thinking they were going to do, wait until it melted? Anyway eventually the police persuade the people ahead of me to move, one at a time to reduce the risk, and I was on my way again. Very slowly as the person in front of me was being extremely cautious. I eventually made it to Nottingham over two hours later than planned. Given the conditions, and the steep drive to the CC hut where we were meant to stay we decided it was better to take up the offer from her in-laws of staying there. Which was a little odd!

Next day Jen had me up nice and early to drive up to the Lake District as we now had a fair bit further to go then we had planned. The drive up want well and we were soon at the Rheged discovery center just off the M6. I’d stopped there for petrol/gas before but had never realised there was such a big center there as well, with a small outdoor clothing store, a cafe and a few other bits as well. Jen was quite amazed I hadn’t been there before.

Not long after we were walking up Blencathra. It was a bit of a slog in places but it was nice to get pout and stretch the legs. There’s not a whole lot of photos as we entered the cloud near the top and didn’t come out again until we were on our way down. The cloud meant we weren’t even entirely certain we’d technically reached the top, although we definitely reached the summit plateau. There was also snow on the tops which made it all quite pretty – when we could see! We were down again really quite early so went into Keswick for some shopping, then to a pub for dinner before heading to the CC hut for the night.

Next morning we were up nice and early again as we had a reasonably big day ahead of us. I wanted to do Scafell Pike – the highest point in England – as I’d never done it before and Jen kindly agreed. The walk up went well until we were nearing the top where there were a couple of sections of boulders to cross. Turns out that both my knees and my ankle weren’t particularly happy with this. I think I need to do my physio exercises again! Jen made it to the top a few minutes before me and got to see the view for longer as it disappeared in cloud about a minute after I got to the top. Still just enough time to get some photos and we saw a cool rainbow thing. It was the people arriving a little after me that I felt sorry for.

Jen had a desire to go over Glaramara on the way back. I was thinking I may not be up to that but crossing the boulders went better on the way down – it seems I hadn’t found the best route on the way up – and so I somehow talked myself into doing it with her. Quite glad I did as the weather got nice again and I enjoy really pushing myself. We made it down to the road just as it was getting properly dark and we were soon back at the car. We headed into Keswick for fish and chips before back to the CC hut again.

Next morning was another early start as Jen wanted to get a hill in before we drove to Sheffield where we were seeing friends that evening. This time the plan was Skiddaw. Except I didn’t make it. I got a fair way up it before deciding that the last two days had taken their toll and I should turn round. Glad I did as I was extremely slow on the way down with my knees. I popped into Keswick to get a drink and by the time I was back Jen was already down and walking down the road towards me. She certainly made good time without me slowing her down!

We then started the drive to Sheffield stopping off at the discovery centre again for a toilet break and to get a couple of thank you presents for Adam and Kate who we were staying with that night. More amazement followed when I realised what a good selection real ale they sold there. I can definitely see me stopping there more often now! Thus ended our time in the Lake District. This post is already longer than I was expecting so I’m going to end this one there and write about the rest of my time in England in another post. Photos from the Lake District are here.

Sunday the 14th saw me driving down to the airport to start my journey back to England. I’d persuaded my boss that I should leave for Christmas a week earlier than originally planned and work while I was in England. This was mainly due to it saving me a couple of hundred pounds in airfare. My boss, thankfully, agreed! That Sunday night I was spending in an airport hotel. My flight wasn’t too early the next morning and I definitely could have driven down the next day but the cost of the hotel and their parking while I was away was less than the cost of normal airport parking so a night in the hotel it was.

After a quite lazy start to the next day I made my way over to the airport. Turns out they changed the plane from that originally scheduled for my transatlantic leg and the seat they’d put me in was in the middle of the plane. It was still an aisle seat so I wasn’t too bothered but I thought I’d use it an excuse to see if I could get a nicer seat. I’d originally had an outside aisle seat (if that makes sense) and I could see there were no normal economy seats like that left, only some in the “plus” section. Basically all this means is four more inches leg room. Still was worth the punt and I was successful in getting one for free – as opposed to over one hundred dollars normally.

The nice thing about flying to the US from Halifax is that you get to do pre-clearance, i.e. you do immigration and customs in Halifax. There’s never much of a queue and the staff seem friendlier. I suspect the two are linked. There was nothing exciting to say about the flight to Newark. I then had about five hours to kill at Newark. With incredibly shit internet – despite having paid for it. Still I somehow survived. I also somehow survived the red-eye. I still hate them! Did watch How To Train Your Dragon 2 though which made it a bit more bearable. As did the extra leg room. My parents were kind enough to pick me up again. It’s safe to say I slept some on the way back to theirs and then went to bed for a few hours when I got there.

My first few days back at my parents I didn’t get up to anything much exciting at all. Chatted to my parents. Went and got coffee with them in the morning. Did some work. Recovered from jet lag. That was about it really. On the Friday I picked up a rental car but still nothing much exciting happened other than that I brought a new pair of climbing shoes, and calling that exciting is a stretch. Saturday was a little more exciting as I spent part of the morning taking photos of birds in my parents garden and then I went and saw my brother and sister-in-law, which is always enjoyable. Then things went back to nothing much exciting happening. I went swimming. I think that was just about the most exciting thing to happen before Christmas itself.

Christmas Day my parents once again got my brother and sister-in-law visiting. Not sure how they seem to always end up at my parents for Christmas. Not that I’m complaining as it’s really nice to see them. This year they both had quite a lot of time of around Christmas which meant they got over to my parents a little earlier than the last couple of year which made for a more laid back and relaxed day. Christmas was much the same as normal. Lots of food, lots of drink, lots of presents and playing games. Really can’t complain at all!

The big present I got this year was a new camera lens, a Canon EF 35mm f/2 for those into that sort of thing. I also got a couple of other camera bits. Once again my parents came up trumps with something I wasn’t expecting. This years it was a couple of cushions with a wolf on them. When I went to Yellowstone I brought a throw with a Wolf on it which I use as a rug. They’d obviously noticed this when they came to visit me and so got the cushions to complement it.

Boxing day was more of a quiet affair. Still lots of food and games playing but less alcohol and presents – well none of the latter. We all went for a short walk in the morning and I took some photos of a cat with my new lens. My brother and his wife left late afternoon and I left not long after them – hence the lack of drinking on my part. The plan was to drive to Nottingham to pick up Jen and then drive onwards and spend the night in the Peak District. I should have had plenty of time for this. There were forecasts of snow but I though how bad could it be, this is England. Well it turned out that although the snow wasn’t that bad it did cause chaos! But that will be in my next post.

Some of you may have noticed that I’ve been a bit shit at updating this blog. This makes remembering what I did in this period a little difficult. Even with the help of my calendar and the photos I took. Still here goes…

Really not too sure what I got up to the weekend after my last post. I’m guessing it wasn’t anything too exciting. I know I went for a walk around Wolfville… because I took some photos. Other than that I’m not too sure what I did. Must have been highly exciting!

The weekend after that I did get up to something more exciting. I went for a longish hike, 7.4 miles according to my GPS. Although the rocky shoreline in places made it feel further than that. When I’d left Wolfville the weather didn’t look that great but it came out a really nice, if cold day. I went hiking at Crystal Crescent Beach near Halifax. There are some nice but small beaches there and overall it was really quite scenic. I definitely like that bit of coastline. The third beach from the car park is a nudest beach but needless to say no one was braving the sub-zero temperatures! It was an enjoyable walk and I took some photos and got to see a porcupine. Afterwards I went shopping but there’s nothing exciting to report there. No idea what I did on the Sunday. It’s not exactly the time of year to be doing lots of exciting stuff.

Fairly sure the next week was much of the same – i.e. nothing exciting happened. The next Sunday I went for a hike again. Shorter this time at only a little over 3 miles. But much hillier. Definitely not hilly by any reasonable definition but at the same time the hilliest hike I’ve done in mainland Nova Scotia. There was quite a lot of ice around as well which meant I didn’t do everything I wanted to do as one of the paths was just sheet ice as far as I could see. Not the most exciting place to hike but somewhere I’ll have to go back to so as to try to get my hill fitness back. Photos are here.

That Monday I had my 6-monthly review meeting with my boss. Well it was more like a year than six months as it was the first one I had. Still it was meant to be a six-monthly review. I think it went well and there really was nothing exciting to report. A slightly more exciting thing happened that week at work – I submitted my first paper based on my work here. It went out for review so at least the journal thought it was in scope!

That Friday was my lab’s Christmas party. I made flapjack (the British meaning, although I think everyone that reads this probably knows what I mean by now) and sausage rolls. You can buy frozen sausage rolls here – which is an improvement over America – but I made these. Well when I say I made them I brought pre-made puff pastry and sausage, combined them and cooked them. Still they seem to go down well! The party was at Kendra’s house in Kentville so I got the bus there so I could drink. Getting the bus is never the most enjoyable experience as it goes all over the place and takes forever. Still it was worth it to have a few drinks – I ended up quite drunk. I was rather glad when Laura very kindly said she’d drop me home on her way home as it saved me getting a taxi.

After a bit of a lazy start to the Saturday I went for a hike at Mount Uniacke again – it’s definitely one of my favourite local places to go hiking. It was all a bit water logged but I still had an enjoyable hike and managed more than 6 miles. And I caught an absolutely stunning sunset at the end of it. I went a little mad with photos. Did I say how stunning it was. Sunday was spent packing before making my way to the airport but more on that in my next post.

Well I feel like it’s about time that I update this blog what with it being three weeks since my last update, but if I’m honest there’s not a whole lot to update you on – it’s been a very quiet few weeks. I can’t remember what I did the first weekend after my last post and I have no pictures or anything else to remind me. So it was probably wet and I probably did not much of anything. That has been a bit of a recurring theme of late.

The following Friday evening I went down to Halifax to watch Reel Rock. I had intended to do some shopping as well but the shop I most wanted to head to was already shut when I arrived just after 6. This despite their website saying they shut at 8 on Fridays. It would appear they’d changed to winter hours and not updated their website. Which was irritating. Still I thoroughly enjoyed Reel Rock and it was good to catch up with a few people.

The weather forecast didn’t bode well for the weekend so it originally appeared that most people wouldn’t be climbing. Turns out some people did get out on Sunday but by the time I found out it wasn’t worth making the two hour trip down from Wolfville given how early it’s getting dark now. Instead on the Sunday I went for a walk around Wolfville and walked along the dykes again – this time getting a bit further than I did a couple of weeks previously. There’s some photos here, but nothing really exciting to report.

After a day in work we had Tuesday off for Remembrance Day. It was a lovely warm day and people were climbing. But I’d made a commitment to go to a Remembrance Day ceremony with the Scouts and I wasn’t about to not do that. It was pretty similar to services back home apart from the stunningly nice weather. Apparently that’s unusual here as well! After the ceremony had finished I want for a walk at my work again. I started off a slightly different way and ended up walking through an area that was currently like a marsh. Ended up crossing the main stream on a fallen tree so that I could walk up the bank on the other side and reach drier ground. After walking around the woods at work I also walked along the abandoned railway line that is also nearby. Photos are here.

It snowed here on Friday and didn’t get above freezing yesterday so that pretty much meant no climbing again this weekend. I fear the rock climbing season is finished for another year. Today has been slightly warmer and the snow has melted a bit. Went out for a short walk around Wolfville the highlight of which was seeing an Eagle in the same tree as before. Was lighter this time so it’s definitely a lot more noticeable in the photos. Shame about the branches in the way. There’s also a few photos there of the “cornice” that formed on the table on my balcony. It wasn’t there when it stopped snowing so I’m assuming the tables on a slight slope and as the snow’s melted at the bottom it’s provided lubrication for the whole thing to slide. Which is kind of cool.

See told you I didn’t really have a whole lot of news. Not doing stuff has however meant I’ve put quite a lot of effort into work. I got Major Revisions on the paper I mentioned in my last post and I’ve spent some time on that. I also got that paper onto my current bosses desk and, believe it or not, I’ve finally completed a draft of one of the two papers I intend to write about my Kansas work and got that onto my old bosses desk. So work is definitely going well.

Well even by the standards of this blog that’s a pretty boring post! Sorry about that.