In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been helping out a friend at work called Matt, with an adventure trip to Morocco.

After various conversations, it got me to thinking. Are there 10 useful adventure “tools” that cover most of the spectrum of adventure from a cultural weekend in Rome, the lake district in winter, to the Namibian desert.

Purely to assist discussion, I’ve picked my 10. Please remember that this is not meant to replace specialist equipment like a first aid kit.

1. Waterproof Jacket

Getting wet is not nice (and remember even if its not raining, a waterproof will stop cold wind, which a jumper probably wont).

I prefer a really light one that you can fold down to the size of a tennis ball.

Get one that extends to the upper thighs and is a nice colour (a waterproof is very usefull in the hills, but a stylish waterproof can be worn in the hills and for traipsing around New York, in the rain.

2. Headtorch

The usefulness of a torch, doesn’t need to be explained here, and in mountain environments can be the difference between life and death.

A torch, is just a torch, but a headtorch can be worn on the head for hands free work or produced from a pocket and held in the hand to find dropped keys on a walk back from the pub.

I’ve always preferred the Petzle brand and ht’s that run on 3 AAA batteries you can get almost anywhere in the world.

3. Orange bivvi bag

An orange bivvi bag should be taken on every walk. At the very least it can be laid out on the ground and used to sit on while eating sandwiches.

In an emergency, it can be used as a waterproof/windproof shelter and its reckoned for their weight they have saved more lives than rescue helicopters.

4. Swiss Army Knife

For some adventure environments more specific tools like parangs or sharp fixed blade knives for skinning are better.

The Swiss Army Knife (the one above, isn’t an original Victorinox by the way, but the picture is good) is a do everything tool from opening parcels to repairing spectacles and sharpening pencils.

Large blade, small blade, tin/bottle opener and screwdrivers are generic across the range.

My preferred additional functions are saw, scissors, tweezers and awl. Some newer ones have replaced the corkscrew with a cross head, avoid this at all costs, as a Philips can be improvised much more easily than a corkscrew.

Make a small lanyard from paracord, so you don’t drop it in cold weather. Should be regularly oiled and sharpened, and obviously when travelling on a plane needs to be stowed in the hold.

5. Whistle

I’ve worn one of these around my neck on adventures for the best part of 30 years.

On a recent talk by Ray Mears he said you should buy several whistles and put one in the pocket of every jacket you might wear while adventuring outdoors.

I quite like the lifeventure whistle, its a fiver but if your ever in trouble, you’ll be glad you spent the money.

The six bursts for emergency and 3 bursts reply (for those that remember it) has been superseded and its important to know the difference.

3 short bursts on the whistle every 60 seconds means I need to be rescued.

6. Lighter

If you’ve every carved a firebow and made fire from friction, you’ll know how rewarding it is…

… and how completely impractical it is for normal life. Stick by the axim of survival school and always make fire (if you need to make one) by the simplest means.

4 for £1 represents the best value in outdoor equipment I think I know off.

If you staying in bothy’s or shelters or something like that, might be worth taking some tea lights as well.

7. Mobile phone in a waterpoof bag

In a bar with wifi, get messages home, confirm flights, check emails, post pictures to friends.

On a boring flight, games like chess and interesting fiction and films to keep you going.

When exploring a new location, maps, travel podcasts and lists of places to see if you haven’t had time to buy a guidebook.

Acts as a backup camera and can save weight as a substitute walkman (a personal stereo to those born in the last 10 years).

Using a mobile in emergency’s has saved lives before and almost certainly will do again.

I have heard daft story’s where people went hill walking and left a map and compass behind, relied on the GPS on the phone (which didn’t work) and then relied on the phone to contact mountain rescue when they got into difficulty (which also didn’t work). Keep one handy, but NEVER really on it exclusively as your emergency plan.

Always keep in a waterproof bag and have a power monkey in your kit if on a long trip.

8. Money belt

Nothing inspires me more than watching Ray Mears walk into a forest and build shelters, light fires and all sorts of stuff like that using just his skills.

However, in most of the world that I occupy, money is pretty essential too (especially when your in countries where people earn a dollar a day – they don’t have a surplus to feed you if you’ve lost YOUR money.

For that reason, I really like the lifeventure money belt. It’s a brilliant belt in its own right and unlike leather, isn’t affected by getting wet, insects or direct sunlight.

It’s plastic so it won’t set off metal detectors in airports and has an internal zip compartment to store cash (best folded lengthways into thirds).

9. Paracord

Hundreds of uses, and in emergency’s you can use the inner core for fishing line and for sewing.

Always worth learning important knots and practising re-tying them (which can speed up a long train journey).

10. Cereal Bars

If something goes wrong and you miss your breakfast or you find yourself somewhere exotic and there’s nothing that you want to eat…

… or if your sat in a snowhole and you need emergency food.

Cereal bars. They rock.

The End

What do you think, are there some things you’d include/remove or some things I’ve listed you think are just plain daft.

Either way, give me a shout, and let’s hone this list to perfection.

Near and far, the search for adventure continues…

If any of the stuff you read on this website clicks, then get a piece of paper now and write down 10 adventures (no matter how small, but be as ambitious as you can) you will do in 2017.

In your search for adventure you may find the following groups and resources usefull. It was, after all, Isaac Newton who said “If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants”.

You don’t have to learn everything by mistakes and re-inventing the wheel, most people I’ve met on my adventure journey willingly gave their time and assistance.

The Chester and District Walking Group.

The Chester Globetrotters.

The Walking World website.

The Youth Hostel Association.

I’ve got loads of stuff I’m planning in the next few weeks, and the format of the website is going to change slightly as an experiment.

Instead of putting up pictures and words about places I’ve been and things I’ve done, I’m going to write articles about how to plan a trip, what to take and stuff like that (thanks to Matt at work for this suggestion and best wishes with his Trans-Europe and Morocco trips).

Happy New Year from everyone here at johnsunter.com near and far, the search for adventure continues…

Well, the last 8 weeks of 2016 were mad busy with holidays and trips and stuff going on at work.

Back down to earth now and a catchup on johnsunter.com – quite a lot here, but I’ve tried to let the pictures do the talking and keep my rambling to a minimum (well, verbal rambling that is).

Above are some of the fantastic presents I received for Christmas.

The new Ray Mears book, Out on the Land, a small keg of Budvar lager and 4 mugs which Nikki bought me, with pictures of me in a sort of seven ages of man/four ages of John Sunter format.

For no reason in particular, my old mate Ganders (who’s “proper” name is Andrew Ganley) mentioned a tv show from the 70’s we both remembered called Shoestring.

In it, a former computer programmer has a change of life and becomes a detective for a local radio station (and he’s nicknamed the private ear).

I commented that throughout the series, he was treated with mystique and awe for his super intellectual skills on account of him previously being a computer programmer.

Funny, I’ve worked in various fields of IT for 25 years, and nobody “down the pub” has ever treated me that way 🙁

Well, the first hit of my adventure episodes was a meet up with my old friend Sarah.

I’ve always been grateful to Sarah, who I first met at the Chester Globetrotters. After my first visit there, a few of us went for a drink and she told me about a pretty smart walking group.

That was the CDWG where I’ve done more than 100 walks, I’m on the committee, have made loads of really good friends and I met Nikki there.

I’m known locally as a flash bastard, so we met up in the cafe in Asda in Ellesmere port, near where I work.

She brought here lovely daughter Eva, who was actually born on Christmas eve.

At work the company committed to match any contributions made by employee’s to specific charity’s so I volunteered as charity champion for the Woodland Trust.

Our main income stream was people wearing Christmas pullovers and paying £2 each time they did (hence this billy can I setup in reception with little pictures of jumpers on it).

I raised a respectable £139 which I’m quite pleased with, and I’d like to thank my many colleagues at work for their contribution.

At work on the Friday before Christmas.

Everyone was in a festive mood, and we ordered Pizza for lunch.

Because of the way the days fell, I was able to have 2 Christmas eves.

The first one, on Friday evening, was some “me” time, where I had a buffet of food which Nikki described earlier as a “heart attack in a bag”.

I also had Call of Duty ready to play, all sorts of appalling music that I really like and my train set.

I finished the evening with a medley of my favourite opening scenes from James Bond and Mission Impossible.

All washed down with a nice Rioja.

Next day its Saturday. Up early and scrambled eggs for breakfast.

I wander into town, meet up with Nikki, do some shopping then some nice wine in Corks Out and dinner at Urbano 32.

Back to Nikki’s house and we spend Christmas eve with Fi and Jed and their lovely daughter Amy.

In the morning its Christmas day and we go out for a walk.

Nikki’s sister and sisters husband Vic are staying over so we head for Wepre woods.

I gave them both a present I thought they’d like.

The previous day, I’d bought some para-cord (as though I dont have enough lying around the house) and 2, Fox 40 howler whistles.

I made them up with 2 double fisherman knots, so they had 1 each and could wear them around their necks for emergency’s.

Not expensive gifts, but I hope really useful.

Where did I get the idea ?

As you can see in this picture from my youth (sent to me by Nadiah, thanks Nard) , I got into the habit of wearing a whistle around my neck for emergency’s some years ago.

Back at Nikki’s house everything is getting ready for Christmas dinner (and some silly nonsense about opening presents in the late afternoon rather than first thing in the morning, but Nikki’s house, Nikki’s rules).

Another tradition of Nikki’s parents is to watch the Queens speech. I must confess that I have never previously watched it from begining to end but I was able to do so this time as I set the tv up for them to watch it.

I’d also bought a DVD about Spitfires for Nikki’s dad to watch (he is fascinated by aeroplanes, was in the RAF and used to design them at British Aerospace). He seemed to enjoy it and then we all watched Frozen which I’d heard loads of good things about from Amy.

Years ago, I did several courses in Bushcraft and survival. Lots of people have asked me about this, but pictures done really capture it.

I got a DVD by Jonny Crocket from Survival School, where he demonstrates how to light a fire, put up a hamock and stuff like that.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it and then it was time for dinner.

We sit down, and here you can see my “emergency chair” of Peter Kay fame.

A lovely relaxing evening with ace food including Yorkshire puds and some nice wine.

Off to bed, another Christmas day over.

Not wanting to waste the holidays, we woke on Boxing day, bid our farewells to Lyn and Vic and then headed for Llandegla Forest to do a walk we’d seen on the walking world website.

The sun shining through these trees was spectacular.

Later we stopped by some picnic tables for lunch next to a lake.

Here Nikki poses with the rucksack I bought her as a Christmas gift (it’s an Osprey Talon 33, far and away the best rucksack in its class in my opinion).

The following day we’d planned to meet up with my friend Frank (he’d travelled from Thailand for a surprise visit to see his parents). Due to some train nonsense, we weren’t able to meet up.

We went walking again, and in the evening, met up with my old mate JK off Borneo and Morocco fame 🙂

In this picture, I’m not being ignorant. I have a new camera with an amazing feature. Instead of a timer for group shots, you set the camera up and then run an app on your phone that shows you what the camera can see. When your ready, you press a button on the phone and the camera takes the shot.

Only thing is, you need to remember to look at the camera.

I spent some time before Christmas practising my cooking.

Here, my interpretation of Singapore Noodles.

I bought some of these “mini chip pan’s” that are popular in a lot of pubs now, for serving chips in.

Three programs I was really looking forward to were Dr Who, Jonathan Creek and Sherlock.

I really enjoyed Jonathan Creek. Not the best episode, but a return to form considering some of the rubbish they were putting out about 2 years ago.

I think I’ve completely gone off Dr Who, considering how much I used to enjoy it and I think Sherlock is terrible (John Watson’s wife as some sort of super spy/commando never worked and still didn’t this time).

MAGALUF

Another plan before Christmas was to have a bit of a winter break in Magaluf.

I’d booked 2 days off on the Friday and Monday, flights & accommodation booked and I’m raring to go.

So, after rushing around all that week to get things ready (going away, the week before Christmas was never going to be easy) I find myself sitting in my living room waiting to be picked up and taken to the airport.

The time ticks by and I’m starting to get nervous. Then, I’m wondering if were going to make it and finally I get a text saying my friend had woken up with his alarm and then fallen back asleep.

We’d missed our flight and our trip was cancelled. I was fuming.

So I did what I normally do when I’m in a bad mood (which interestingly is the same thing I do when I’m in a good one)…

… I went for a walk.

As I wandered through Dukes Drive in Chester I remembered 2009, the darkest time in my life.

A year of unemployment, each day I did my job search, had a cup of tea and went for a walk here.

Once you leave the path, you can wander for hours in the forest.

I sat down and started to think. There were 4 people who were with me constantly in 2009. Not all of them are around now, but I’ll always be massively grateful for their assistance.

Back then, just having enough money for something to eat and worrying about losing my house were all that occupied my mind so sitting there in the forest, with sound financial support and a day off work really put things into perspective.

My failed airport pickup was one of those 4 poeple. I decided there was plenty to spare in the emotional bank account and no need to go overdrawn.

I decide that in my whole life, considering the number of adventures I’ve been on, it’s only the 2nd time I’ve missed a plane which is good stats. Within an hour, without a word, he’s put all the money lost into my bank.

With 4 days to myself I get loads of stuff done in the house and a chance to really relax at home.

BARMOUTH

Barmouth is a place I’d heard fantastic things about, and in summer its impossible to find a parking space there, let alone accommodation.

So, it’s winter and I’ve put on a walk in the CDWG program and off we go.

My first sight of the place is this car park, which is a bit of a let down but I keep an open mind.

Another walking world route, we meet Brian at the station, and get the train.

From here, we wander along the coast and then inland back towards Barmouth.

As we reach the bridge back into town, we meet up with Sue who has driven over to meet us.

Sue and Brian were the first 2 friends I made at the walking group, so along with Nikki, it makes for a pretty smart day.

We find a nice tea shop, and have Tea and cakes.

After Sue and Brian leave, Nikki and I go for a long walk along the beach, get some chips from the chippy and then find a nice pub.

From here, we head to Kings hostel where were staying for the night.

A superbly run establishment, and our room is like a cabin in the woods.

Next morning we’re up and drive down the country lane to our next walk (we find out that the path running from the hostel in the other directions goes to Cadre Idris – I make a mental note, that info will be good for next summer).

Arriving at Penmaenpool bridge we set off on the Mawddach trail to Dolgellau as featured in Julia Bradbury’s railway walks series.

After about 90 minutes, we arrived at Dolgellau, have some coffee, see a bit of the town and then walk back to the car and head for home.

Another fab weekend over.

WALKING GROUP CHRISTMAS WEEKEND

My sixth walking group Christmas do, and this year it was at Grassmere in the lake district.

I selected the first days walk to a place called Sargent Man. For practical purposes I let Brian lead the walk as he’s far and away the best navigator in our group after several years in the army.

Nice to be up in some real mountains and as you can see from the picture above, there was snow on the tops.

We stayed at Grassmere YHA, and in the evening had dinner together in our Christmas jumpers.

The following day we decided to walk to Ambleside along the coffin route (in years gone by, Grassmere had a church, but no graveyard so once the service was complete, a coffin would be carried across the foothills to Ambleside to be buried).

Throughout the weekend, although cold, the weather was perfect.

NEW YEAR IN AMBLESIDE

Final trip of the year, and were back in Ambleside.

It was my 5th weekend in the lakes this year and we drove their straight from work.

Just time to check in, go out for something to eat and then a few drinks around the town.

The hotel we stayed in did a continental breakfast. That would normally be fine, but for a day in the winter mountains, a full English was needed.

From here we headed up to Red Screes.

Although the weather looked fab it was actually really cold and the wind was howling.

So cold in fact, that I struggled to put my gloves on.

Back off the hills, its now New Years eve. We had a dinner reservation later that evening at the Thai Restaurant, Jintana.

We wandered around the shops, and Nikki bought me a smart new Rohan Jumper (a Microgrid Stowaway, for those interested).

We had time for a few drinks in Fino. They have Morreti beer on draft and a dizzying array of red wines. No wonder its our favourite watering whole in the town.

Once again, a spectacular meal at Jintana, then back to Fino where we count down the New Year.

The first walk of the New Year.

We head out across Loughrigg fell towards Elterwater (no specific route, just walking in the general direction following various paths).

At Elterwater, we have a drink in the Britannia pub. Hilarious scenes inside, where 17 people are queuing in 1 line to be served and some lunatic is ordering food, reading aloud from an ipad.

Had our drinks outside, wished everyone happy New Year and then headed off.

While there, we completed an official walk from Pub Walks in the lakes, so I was able to get a member of staff to sign the appropriate page in my book and then I circled the pub in the chapter heading.

I had the same book some years ago, but I’ve bought a new one now and I’m determined to do all the pubs in the book (there are 25 in total, in the 1 year I’ve been doing it, I’ve completed 9 pubs. I’m pretty good with lists 🙂

We carry on to Great Langdale, then circle around and walk back to Ambleside (Italian for dinner at Zeffreli’s this time).

Following day, we check out of our hotel.

Some things been bugging me. I’d been on the Rohan website before the trip and had a look at some of the items in the sale. I’d dismissed a £30 red jumper as I thought the colour was awfull.

When I’d seen one inthe show a few days earlier in the flesh, I really liked it, but they didn’t have one in my size.

They were good enough to find one for me in Keswick, but it would need to be picked up.

So off we drove to Keswick, where unfortunately, it was too early in the morning to go to the Old Keswikien chippy.

Once our purchase complete, we head for Whinlatter forest for the days walking.

There are mountain bike tracks there, but lots of good walking country as well.

Inside the forest, you can see it stretches for miles.

After about 5 hours of walking, we’ve also seen several hills in the distance, which we’ve earmarked for future trips (Keswick was the first place I ever visited in the lake district and after Ambleside its my favourite.

As we drive home, I reflect on 2016 and what a fantastic year its been. I can only hope that 2017 will be half as good.

Unfortunately, me trying desperately to get organised for Christmas has meant no recent update to johnsunter.com

Sorry about that.

Off now to the Rohan shop to take advantage of the sale, then I’ll be planning loads of interesting adventures for next year.

I’m back in work for 3 days, then off to the Lake District for 4 days to do some more mountains and get my pub walks book signed 🙂

Most of you know that 2009 was the darkest time I can remember.

Each year since then I’ve tried to make gradual and sensible life improvements. This year has surpassed all of my plans and expectations.

Most of you reading this have helped to make it possible, so thanks so much for that and see/hear from, you in the New Year for more adventures.

Finally, if you aren’t doing much for New Year, make a point of watching the Accountant. We went to see it last night, its fantastic.

Happy New Year, the search for adventure continues…

Well, a couple of weekends at home.

So, in no particular order are some of the stuff I’ve been doing.

Above is a picture of me in Delamere Forest where I went walking with CDWG.

I’m massively looking forward to going on holiday.

This year I’m doing a long weekend in Bangkok (and catching up with Frank) 4 days in Luang Prabang (in Laos, a country I’ve not visited before) and then an 8 day tour of Burma, a country which has been “closed” for 25 years.

As part of Chester’s literary festival (you may remember a few years ago I went to see Jonny Rotten at the CLF) a talk was being given by Chris Mullen.

He is famous for the release of the Birmingham 6, but my favourite thing about him, is he wrote A very British Coup which I really enjoyed.

Interesting talk from a career politician. He was asked at one point about Brexit and the possibility (now confirmed) of Donald Trump becoming president.

He said simply. You cant dismiss these people. Many of the voting public feel like their not being listened to and are kicking back. It will be a few years before this is sorted out.

It a good few years since Frank and I visited Bletchley Park, the home of the war time codebreaker Alan Turing, who this website is dedicated too.

Nikki and I decided to get the train down and visit it.

There’s always a lot of confusion around Enigma, Bomb and Colossus.

Just to clarify, the Enigma is the typewriter type thing that was used to encode/decode information.

The Bomb (shown above) was used to decrypt the data using an anomaly in the Enigma machine (it could never convert a letter back to itself).

Colossus the worlds first programmable computer, will come later.

A film I really enjoyed, the Imitation Game (alluding to the Turing test) was shot mostly at Bletchley park.

I hadn’t recognised it while watching the film, but this is the bar featured in the film.

A confusing state of state of affairs exists where the British Museum of Computing is on the same site and the relationship isn’t friendly.

One thing though, is there’s all sorts of info about a very complex German code called Lorenze. Daft thing is, the Colossus computer that cracked it and has been reconstructed is in The BMC and you have to pay another fee to see it.

But its a fascinating thing and worth the money. Above, a volunteer maths teacher gives up his weekend to demonstrate Colossus.

Some of the things there are a bit querky (but its a British museum after all) and it has Sega megadrives and BBC micro’s everywhere.

I also found these 2 props from the original series of Dr Who.

Afterwards, we went to the 8 Bells for a drink (Turing rarely went out to the pub, but had drunk here)

Later in the evening we wandered into the town and watched Dr Strange at Milton Keynes.

Above is a picture of what most people think Milton Keynes looks like.

On Sunday, our train home wasn’t until 4pm, so using our map we worked out a route through parks and gardens and wandered around for 5 hours.

Above is a picture of some of the beautiful scenery in Milton Keynes and I think its sad that so few people know about it.

Speaking of trains.

I finally got my type 2 Hornby 125 re-shelled as a type 1.

I got some “grass” and bought a few accessories to set up the train set as you see it above.

The train my dad wanted me to have.

Back to Wrexham for an evening to hear a talk by Chris Bonington, one of my all time heroes.

Aged 82 now, he talked about a life spent in the worlds far away places and the joys of being the first to cut a new route and the tragedy of losing friends on the mountain.

Most inspiring was at the end. He said that I’m now 82 and I wonder what the future holds (2 years ago he climbed the old man of Hoy, so he’s pretty fit and healthy). In summary he said simply “never give up” always strive and try new things.

Back at home, I’ve been experiments making my own soup.

I saw an Amazon Echo on season 2 of Mr Robot.

I thought it looked really smart. Basically, it connects to wifi, and you can ask it questions, use it to play music, wake you up and update to do lists (it can be set up to turn on lights, but I dont really need that).

Well, with Nikki’s birthday coming around and she being almost impossible to find a present for, I bought her some really good lights for her bike and one of these.

It’s setup in my house at the moment, but its great to say “Alexa when is the next train to Manchester ?”.

I bought a Jetboil stove a few years ago. I loved my Trangia and took some convincing to switch, but its amazingly compact and can boil water in no time.

On a recently walk in Delamere forest, instead of taking sandwiches as I usually do, I made beef stew and dumplings.

Unfortunately I’d forgotten a spoon, so had to quickly carve and improvised one.

Not the nicest meal I’ve ever eaten, but a lot nicer than I’d expected (a few shared by everyone else on the walk who tried it).

Had a “lads” night out the other week with my old friend Dan (ok so only 1 other lad).

As Nikki’s sister Lyn and her husband Vic were in town, we all met up for a drink in the Brewhouse.

Also part of the Chester Literary Festival was a talk by Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

I’ve been to a talk previously, where he talked about his life, but this time he was talking about a book he’d written called fear and how he’d personally tried to overcome his fear.

But then he was talking about the knife edge ridge of the Eigre and I have to say sensing fear at that moment, is entirely sensible surely 🙂

Every month there is a Pop up Artisan Fayre next to Chester Railway station.

Nikki and I went along. There were loads of interesting things and a place where you could buy beer and pizza’s

We also found a stall where they made their own chilli sauce and we made some to eat with the fishcakes that we made.

In the Lock Keeper the other evening.

Sat in a corner, going through my to-read list and jotting down notes about trips and projects, I notice something strange.

The charming bar manager (who’s name I dont know, but is always very pleasant to me) produces a laptop from a Tesco shopping bag and proceeds to start doing some work.

I have 3 laptop bags, and the 1 I had with me wasn’t one I particularly liked.

So, against her protestations, I gave her my laptop bag and when I left took my laptop and papers home in the Tesco bag 🙂

I’m using a different laptop bag now, and I’m delighted I was able to do something nice.

The 4 tops and the Temptations are legendary musicians from the Motown era.

And they were coming to Liverpool so Nikki and I went to see them.

Some of the groups only had 1 original members, but I was struck by the vocal power of their songs.

One person was introduced. He has 35 PLATINUM ALBUMS to his name, a legend in the house tonight he continued.

Its not the sort of music I normally listen to, but I’ve put some of it on my IPod now 🙂

Tony and I went for a curry in the Bombay Pallace.

I got there all the time now, as the food is superb.

There seems to be a sort of renaissance going on in Chester at the moment. Turkish restaurants are opening, traditional curry houses are closing and places previously out on the fringes like the BP have re-invented themselves to roaring acclaim (well, from Tony and I at any rate 🙂

A comedy drama called Police Cops which was very popular at the Edinburgh Fringe, was performed in Chester at the little theatre.

With just 3 characters it parodied lots of cop shows from the 80’s. Since I really enjoyed loads of those shows, we went along.

An afternoon in Liverpool, we had dinner at the newly opened Alchemy.

Later we went to see Two Pence to cross the Mersey.

I helped Nikki to pronounce it as Tuppence the way my grandma would have said it.

Chez Jules do a cracking deal on Thursday evenings, where you get to have a 3 course meal and they put on a classic film.

Nikki and I had never seen Dr Strangelove so off we went. I couldnt believe that people were so cavalier about global destruction at the height of the cold war!.

But the dinner was nice and the film was pretty good (including the ending with people in cowboy hats “riding” bombs.

I haven’t been on a lads holiday in a while.

Since Nikki and I are at home this Christmas, I’ve hooked up with a few friends and were going to Magaluf in late December.

I’m told it has a different vibe later in the year and is supposed to be quite mellow.

See what happens.

And finally, went out for a couple of drinks in the legendary Harkers the other evening.

One of the customers was so keen to go there he’d Canoed all the way from Huntington 🙂

More stuff when I get back from Burma, in the meantime, near and far, the search for adventure continues…

why walk to Harkers when you can canoe there ?

Well, my house “do up” is finally complete after 2 years and the Barbecue I held to celebrate it went really well. I even wore a martial arts outfit, as my alter ego “The weekend Ninja”.

I’ve seen loads of interesting plays, talks and comedians recently (which you’ve probably seen on facebook/twitter).

Not long now before I go off to Burma and Nikki and I will be celebrating 4 years together while away.

For now, I’ve converted a few older pages and written this recent piece about a nostalgia inducing trip to Llanberis.

Near and far, the search for adventure continues…

Looking back on an ill fated trip to Snowdon (we were meeting my brother at the top and the train he was on broke down).

Theres always a silver lining. We walked up the Llanberis path (I’ve done all 6 routes up and down and the Llanberis path is easily the dullest) and noticed an interesting ridge off towards Llanberis.

Closer inspection on the map confirmed it as Moel Ellio.

Seed planted, I knew we’d come back to “conquer” it.

Although Nikki is my girlfriend she’s also a free individual.

As such I really appreciated all her help, now that the work on the house (much of which she’d either done herself or motivated me to do by nagging) had been completed.

Some sort of nice reward seemed to be in order. I booked us 2 nights at the youth hostel in Llanberis. We were looking forward to it, as we hadn’t stayed in that particular youth hostel and Llanberis has always been special to me.

Just like Chris Bonington, Snowdon near Llanberis, was the first proper mountain I’d climbed under my own steam.

The following summer I had an amazing trip there with Jason Macdonald, Caz, Lee Sawbridge and Jane Smith.

I’d always wanted desperately to be an outdoor pursuits instructor. Bit by bit I realised I wasn’t cut out for it and perhaps an alternative career would be better.

As I stood next to the stream near the fairy glen I made a decision. I’d build an exciting career in computers and use the money I made to fund a life of adventure.

At that moment I was sad as I knew I was giving up a dream, but I was filled with an expectant energy about the future.

Back to the present day, and Nikki and I check into the hostel.

The hostel is modern, bright and spacious. But on the lane leading up to it, there were a number of maintenance vans and we didn’t know why.

Well, the hostel had no running water!. But it was Friday night, so I just drank beer and we ate the delicious Thai Green curry that Nikki had prepared.

The following morning and were up and out on the hill.

The normally excellent instructions from walking world fell a bit short so we improvised (I love walking world with its normal easy to follow instructions, but ALWAYS take an OS map in case of the unexpected).

Steep going, then we hit the top of the ridge and follow it as it rises and falls (the wind was so strong in places that you could lean forward and not fall over 🙂

So, Moel Ellio completed. To honour the occasion, I gave it a new name.  I decided to call it the Elephants back.

We complete the walk, get back to the hostel and get showered and cleaned up.

With dinner reservations already made, we’ve got a couple of hours to kill.

That summer we spent an evening at the Padarn lake hotel. They had a normal bar and a ramblers bar.

I’ll never forget how busy it was, people were just sitting out on the flags outside in the sunshine.

Inside Lee and I found a corner and talked about the future, when Mac and Caz played Double Dragon.

Sadly today, its a sports bar and has nothing of its previous character.

But this was made up for with the award winning Peak restaurant where we had dinner.

Beef and Ale pie and Mash, washed down with Moretti and later a Chilean Merlot.

Not finery I enjoyed in my youth. Back then it was tea brewed on a Trangia and evening meal from the chippy 🙂

Off to bed to a good nights sleep (well as good as you can in a 3 foot wide bunk bed!).

In the morning, we eat another hearty breakfast at the Youth Hostel, then walk 2 miles out towards Pen a pass.

We pass a campsite I’ve stayed at several times. I remember when we came here with Caz and Yvonne(friends at the time, now married for over 20 years).

Yvonne had decided to climb the highest mountains in England, Scotland and Wales and on this weekend it was Snowdon.

We’d seen an amazing hill from the Elephants back the previous day.

Walking rules, go something like this:

Walking on open ground is about 3 times harder (and slower) then walking on a path.

Walking over rough terrain is about 2 times harder (and slower) than walking on open ground.

This was rough terrain, extremely steep and throw in some scrambling half way up. An incredibly challenging route.

After 5 hours, were rewarded with this amazing view back into the valley and the Padern lake.

Back down the hill by another way (still no proper path) but we’d worked out a smart circular route for next year.

Back at the bottom of the hill, the Vaynol arms beckons and we get a nice drink before heading back.

On the summer trip, we camped here. I remember almost everyone on the campsite headed for the pub around 7pm.

Its still got loads of climbing memorabilia and pictures of famous names like Don Whillans.

Its then that it hits me.

We’ve left the car back at the youth hostel, so we have to walk 2 miles back to Llanberis then up a big hill!.

Another brilliant weekend, then off back home for bath and dinner in Urbano 32.

	A few friends and I decided to spend a weekend at Rookin House Farm, doing activities like quad biking and shotgun shooting. Here we assemble in reception, ready for action.
We chose to stay in the Luxury Camping barn at the farm (to avoid people arriving late, cars breaking down etc) on Friday night. On a lads holiday, most people are hammered when the go to bed and the curtains matching the quilt cover is hardly an issue. Fantastically, it featured a pool table !. On the right of this picture is a stalwart all terrain vehicle, that I had previously driven.
	Frank and I arrived earlier than everyone else, so we were able to go Pony Trekking. I have sat on one many times, while someone led it, but this time, I wanted to “take the reigns” myself. The horse I was riding, was called Minstrel. I found a web site with some horse riding instructions here.
Riding, really is a fantastic way to see the countryside. The horses are virtually silent, and can travel over almost any terrain. Sometimes my horse didn’t want to go so I had to talk to him. It was great the way I could “steer” the horse with the reigns.
	With a few hours left, before everyone arrives, Frank and I decide to try out hand at fishing. We borrowed the relevant equipment, and got started. To be honest, there were hundreds of fish, and you could practically put your hand in and pull them out. In any event, we were delighted, when we actually caught one.
This is the fish that we caught, it was nearly a foot long. A very manly hunter/gatherer moment, turned to farce, as the Fish flapped about (he wasn’t the only one flapping at that moment !) and we realised what the fishing priest was for !.
	With my Bushcraft experience, I was able to “prep” the fish, and here, I eat it for breakfast.
On Friday evening, we had a big party ( a £10 night out, who could argue). Saturday morning, I cooked everyone a big breakfast. It was going to be a hard day for a group made up of mostly office workers. A short walk to our first activity, Archery. My friend Jon Knight, pictured in the Archery Barn
	The weather wasn’t great, so we were able to do Archery indoors, which increased the accuracy of our shots (no side wind). I had a go at Archery some years ago, and realized that although right handed, I “bow” left handed. I surprised myself, by coming 2nd at the Archery.
Everyone poses with their bows. In the end, it was my super competitive Brother David who won the Archery. Since then, I have actually done a course where I made my own bow and arrows.
	Next we had a ride in an Argo Cat. Its an all terrain vehicle, which is also amphibious. It was really exciting riding in it, but if you had too many the night before, it could separate you from your breakfast.
While up there, we decided to visit the The National Mountaineering Exhibition the the exhibition had closed for the day when we arrived. The exhibition, is hosted in the Rheged centre and since we were there already we decided to have a look around. We were delighted to find a real ale festival was taking place and the non-drivers got involved in that instead.
	When I have been to Rookin House farm before, I have always been fascinated by the zip wire. This time I decided to have a go for myself.
You have to climb to the top of a wooden tower. Then your harness is fastened to a safety rope. Its then a matter of sliding down the rope. The best part, is when you slide over the lake, and you can see it between your feet. There is a mechanism, so you come to a comfortable (comfortable !) stop at the other end.
	Next up, Quad biking. Here Alistair, shows us how to operate the “quad”.
Of all my hobbies, I think quad biking is probably the most exciting. Its the freedom to travel across the country side, at high speed that exhilarates me the most We went driving all around fields and forests and ravines for 45 minutes, it was excellent.
	I tried my hand at clay pigeon shooting. We were using over and under guns with auto ejectors. There were a few jokes about me coming from Manchester, and never having fire a gun etc.
My brother David, distributes the ammo.
	The instructor was a really nice chap, and taught us many useful things about shooting. For example, when hunting duck, you go for the legs.
On Saturday evening, after the days activities, its time for a night on the town. Keswick is my favourite Town in the Lakes and only 20 minutes drive from Rookin House Farm. We visited several local pubs but spent most of our time in the Keswick Lodge ,my favourite pub in the area. A few of my friends have Children, and don’t get to “do their own thing” very often. The evening really brought out the best in them. While out, I saw Steve Smith from Woodsmoke. After this we went to the curry house next door to the Keswick lodge and had a fantastic meal. After closing, a few of us went to the “loft”. A crime against God, which purports to be a nightclub. Looking at the website, you would think its quite nice. Its not.
	Next day, it was up early, and then paintballing. Everyone gears up, with face protectors, and NBC cammo clothing.
Me and my friend Lee, preparing for combat.
	What a brilliant weekend. I want to thank all the people who came along, especially Danny and Ash, who drove up on Saturday. I would also like to thank Deborah at Rookin House Farm, for Organizing everything.

	A lot of people have returned to holidaying in the UK due to the stresses of airports and flying. My brother and his wife Leigh decided to rent a cottage in Anglesey for a week, and asked me if I would like to pop down for the weekend. Sounded like a brilliant idea do me, so off I went.
Trearddur bay was our destination. We came here about 10 years ago with my mum for a family holiday. We were delighted to find that a new Motorway had been built and it was a lot quicker to get across the Island.
	We had originally stayed at a Hotel called Plas Darien, which offered all sorts of activities like tennis and golf and things like that. The place was a little run down to be honest, but as my brother pointed out, it was a superb base for a few days away.
The area around Trearddur Bay, was just my kind of place. There were no nightclubs or any of that rubbish, just loads of peaceful sandy beaches friendly shops and cafes and other stuff like that. This famous house overlooking the sea, was featured in the film Wuthering Heights.
	I’d like to tell you that I did loads of great things on my first evening, but in reality, the pace of life catches up with you, once you stop racing, and I actually fell asleep before 8pm. A storm had hammered the bay during the night. I just slept through it. 12 hours of obviously needed sleep later, I awake to enjoy bacon “butty’s” with my brother and Leigh. We head out towards Beaumaris, to see the famous Gaol there, now a museum.
There were some amazing things to see. This bathroom doesn’t exactly look like its from the Burj al Arab, but in Victorian times, prison reformers had revolutionised prisons. Before that, they had just been dungeons, with straw beds and you had to buy food from your Gaol’er
	Religion was considered important in order to help a person to rebuild his or her character. David joked, that since I spend most of my time preaching that I should pose at the front of the Church. For the record, I try to inspire people to seek adventure. I never tell people what they should do.
We head to the upstairs and the “modern” wing of the prison. I just loved this staircase, it was about as Victorian as you could get.
	At the top of the stairs, we wander around the corridors.
This was a standard cell, for an inmate. I was surprised to see, that instead of hard beds, they featured hammock style canvas beds. The doors were solidly built, I couldn’t see anyone breaking out of there.
	For the 2nd time that morning, I indulge my brother, and agree to be photographed next to the Drunkard Cell.
Some of the cells had this device in them. It was filled with Sand and Grit, and it required a great deal of effort to turn it. There was a counter on the box, and an inmate had to do 3000 rotations, in order to get breakfast. No work – No food. The thing I found astounding, was that the box served no practical purpose, and the hard labour put into it, achieved nothing in reality.
	A whipping frame, where people had their shirts removed and were fastened to it, before receiving punishment. Disturbingly, devices like these are being used in places like Thailand and Singapore right at this moment.
I was saddened to see that the Museum of childhood memories had closed down. Overall, Beaumaris seemed to have degraded a bit, since I was there last. Several new hotels were under construction and I was sure that the next time I visit, everything will be back to normal.
	We wandered along the peer and had a look at the boats.
There was a sailing race taking place, and they actually had 2 small canon to start and stop the race.
	For the 2nd time, I got to see Beaumaris Castle. I saw a program with Fred Dibnah. In it, he said if completed, it would have the been most perfect castle ever built. Work on Beaumaris castle, begun in 1295, it was the last and largest castle built by Edward the 1st.
This is undoubtedly the ultimate “concentric” castle, built with an almost geometric symmetry. Conceived as an integral whole, a high inner ring of defences is surrounded by a lower outer circuit of walls, combining an almost unprecedented level of strength and firepower. Ironically, should an attacker compromise the outer wall (no mean feat in itself) they would then be caught in a crossfire of arrows from both the outer and inner walls, with no available cover.
	This side of the castle was completed.
This side wasn’t.
	We wander around and explore inside the battlements.
The archers would have been emplaced in positions like this, and you can see just how good a position they would have been in, to “pick off” the opposing forces.
	The third bay along from Plas Darien where some people were canoeing. It was here that I joined the Circular path.
The Circular path follows the contour of the coast. I followed it for about 6 miles, it was just amazing to be back walking again.
	The path passed several other coves, this was one of my favourites and even featured a natural tunnel.
The yellow Sea King helicopter on Manoeuvres around the bay. Its always re-assuring, even in perfect weather to see this sight.
	As I pottered along, I was really enjoying the weather, the feeling of the ground underneath my feet and the general well being of the moment. I decided to go walking as often as I can now (I need to get fit, and the one activity I love doing is walking). I haven’t done much walking since Frank left for Thailand, but I’m going to start “solo” walking.
Another one of the beautiful coves, you can see the colour of the ocean and the rocks that rice out of the ocean.
	I leave the Circular path as it rejoins the road, wander along the road for a little while and then join the Anglesey Coastal path, which I know goes to the South Stack lighthouse. I wandered along for about 2 miles, before arriving at this path, which ran for a mile to Twr Elin only a foot or 2 from a 300 foot drop into the ocean.
The South Stack lighthouse. Designed by Daniel Alexander and completed in 1908. From here, there is a walk to the “stairway” then 400 steps down to the lighthouse.
	As I wander back along the road (taking the direct route home, it was a baking hot day). I stop by the original cove where I joined the circular path. Canoeists and Scuba divers return from their activities and I visit the ice cream van for a well earned Cola Lolly I was delighted to see a few lads playing the Great British game of cricket, using a ball they had found in the sea, a piece of driftwood as a bat, and a coolbox as wickets. Mad dogs and Englishmen (and Welshmen)…
I wandered passed the hotel, and made my way to the excellent Waterfront bar and restaurant to meet up with David and Lee. It really was excellent to watch the sunset with a drink and something to eat. I was really starting to relax now.
	Later on, we wander back to the Hotel. We had a couple of games of pool, but the table wasn’t very good, and the bar wasn’t just closed, it had been decommissioned. We headed down the hotel approach and visit the Trearddur holiday bungalows. They had a nice bar there, and a singer in the main bar who was pretty good, but we headed for the games room. A pretty good evening overall.
After another excellent nights sleep, its time to head home. On the way in, my brother had picked me up at Chester, but going home, I was getting the train from Holyhead. I had beans on toast with Tea for breakfast, at an umbrella table. We decided to wander around, and see what the town had to offer. The Marina was rather spectacular.
	I had packed at fairly short notice, so after wearing my jumper the previous day, the only thing I had to wear was a brand new johnsunter.com T shirt that I had received in the post the day before. Relaxing in the Sun, listening to the waves lap against the shore. My brother and Lee then left to visit the Lighthouse I had seen the day before. I had an hour and a half to myself, to wander around the town.
The port and railway station (not surprisingly) are right next to each other. I loved the way the whole thing was effectively on stilts in the bay. You can see the colour of the water in this picture. I almost wished I could go for a swim in it.
	On the train going home, my last sight of Anglesey as it crosses the Britannia bridge onto the Welsh mainland. In only a day and a half I had done loads of interesting and exciting things, spent time with my brother that I don’t always get to do and generally relax. At the prices of accommodation there, Il be going back soon.

	The trip started off well. A woman on the train, had a tiny Piccanise dog, and carried it around in a shopping bag. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of it.
Woodsmoke have moved their camp to a different part of the forest. The idea was to build and live in natural shelters for the whole week. Ben always explains theory before any activity, and uses his skills as a fine artist to illustrate his ideas. I think white boards are fantastic (I have one in my office and at home).
	A classic Scandinavian lean-to shelter, with a raised bed. This one was constructed by Dave Alty. Dave and I were on the Abo course together, its always great to see him.
A chap on the course called Phil, had asked to build the most sophisticated shelter that woodsmoke could think off. This shelter used a kind of hook at the top, and a v shaped fork at the bottom, so it sort of hangs of the tree. Its main features are that its raised of the ground, and can be moved around the tree to stay in the shade. Not so much a shelter, as a feat of engineering, I was totally impressed.
	The course was designed as a kind of woodlander part 2, and covered advanced techniques of just about every major skill. Here Rob demonstrates a pump drill, originally designed for drilling holes. It was the easiest way to make fire from friction that I have ever seen. They had 3 different types to demonstrate.
We spent a lot of time working on the fire drill. As Ben put it, its quite the most elegant way to light a fire. It required a lot of concentration to get it working. Here Jeremy attempts to get an ember.
	We were taught to construct a reed loom.
It would enable is to make reed mattresses, which could also be used for “drop-down” shelter doors.
	The finished mat. I wish I had known how to make one of these on the abo course. It was an amazing piece of primitive technology, and would enable a full nights sleep, which would transform the overall bushcraft experience.
Lisa teaches us to construct containers from Bark. She had previously been on a course in Utah, where you had to survive for 10 days, without any man made products.
	A selection of the things that Lisa had previously constructed from Bark, including a belt and knife pouch.
I constructed a container for carrying berry’s and stuff like that. For some reason, I have an expression like a child in this picture, and I am not sure why.
	I had prepared many different types of animal before, but this was the first time I had cooked Squirrel (in fact, the whole course was full of things I had never done before.) Preparing animals for cooking, is perhaps the least desirable parts of bushcraft (although actually one of the most important.) Anthony always teaches it with such enthusiasm and professionalism, that it doesn’t seem so bad.
One of the lads, loses his Knife, and ends up looking for it in a bag of guts and offal. Adds a whole new angle, on taking care of your knife, as it resulted in him being shoulder deep, and later finding that the knife was somewhere else completely !
	We put out some night lines, and I caught a fish. Pete took a picture of me retrieving it from the water Since Pete hadn’t used a digital camera before, he didn’t actually get the fish in the picture You will just have to trust me, I did catch one.
The group collect around the boat house. In the centre of the picture, are the fish that we all caught. There were some brilliant personalities on this course.
	Ben gives a general interest talk on hunting and fishing. He shows us a small bow and arrow, used by African bushmen. Next to the bow, is a blow pipe and darts, which were amazingly accurate. There was also, a traditional crossbow, but this isn’t in the picture.
I have made an otter board before, but this is one made by a craftsman (Ben). It features 4 special holes, so a toggle holds the fishing lines in place. It also had a stone underneath, to keep it upright, and a sail made from a piece of bark.
	A whole day of the course was devoted to basket work, and featured guest instructor, Phil Bradley (Phil is the one speaking passionately about basket making).
One of the good things at Woodsmoke, is that there is always boiling water for a brew. Here Lisa stops for a quick brew. In front of her, are a selection of the baskets that Phil had previously made.
	Another lad on the course called Phil, made this fish smoker. The fish that came out of it, tasted delicious.
A Roycroft pack frame. The design is brilliantly simple. The one on the right, was made by Lisa in Utah.
	Lisa show Jeremy, Pete and me about making nets. Obviously nets can be used to catch fish, but they also compliment the Roycroft pack frame, to make a functional rucksack.
Making a gypsy well. Unfortunately, this one didn’t work, and as Ben pointed out, there is no perfect formula, you just dig a few of them, and wait until one fills up with water.
	This one worked, and had reeds around the outside, so the water was cleaner. A lot of the self help books I have read, encourage you to think like a child. The idea, is that when you are young, you have dreams, and that as you get older, people encourage you to be “realistic” and in actual fact kill your enthusiasm. When I was at school, I remember a teacher talking down to me, and telling me “I bet you are one of those people who think you can get water just be digging a hole in the ground” !. Mr Evans, from 1st year science at Moston Brook, back at you pal !.
Ben demonstrates rock boiling, in one of the Swedish Doe bowls, constructed on the Axe workshop. Note the Y shaped sticks used to put the rocks into the bowl.
	The water is fully boiled, and is safe to drink. Dirt from the stones, however, makes the water a bit grey.
Something I had read about many times, but never seen in real life A box is constructed from bark and held together with small wooden pegs. As long as the flame doesn’t go higher than the water, the bark container will not catch fire, and the water will boil.
	Apart from Jamie Oliver, I don’t know anybody that looks this happy in a kitchen !.

	To Celebrate my Birthday, I hired a barge for the day, from Anglo/Welsh barges. Loads of my friend from both Chester and Manchester came along for the day, which was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.
First things first, we loaded up the Galley (it was fully featured, and had a sink, a stove and a fridge). Sarah had prepared an excellent packed lunch, and we loaded up the fridge with the various beverages ranging from orange juice to vodka, and everything in between.
	My reliable friend Steve checks the last minute details, and we are off ! .
An aqueduct next to the boat yard presented some excitement.
	We had selected a barge, as sailing in one was extremely relaxing. The added bonus to this, was that we could get off the boat, and walk in front of it, to take photographs.
Mike Delafield, an old friend from the awful Corning, and my Brother David, chat about a possible pool match.
	Some ducklings were spotted, which the “girls” wanted to be photographed.
My friends Lee and Susan came all the way from Bury. Here Susan poses next to the steering tiller (which her husband Lee commanded superbly, throughout the day.
	We headed into a tunnel, which was pretty exciting.
Inside, we activated the lights, so the boat wasn’t plunged into Darkness. An old friend, Jon Knight was able to join us, and brought his friend Claire who had joined us at our wedding.
	In the afternoon, Sarah produced a delicious birthday cake, she had made for me.
In the afternoon, we “sailed” to Llangolan, and had drinks in the Corn mill pub. What a brilliant day out, if you fancy trying it yourself, visit Anglo Welsh Holidays.

More updated adventure trips on the right.

Most of the summer trips have now been completed, and I’m in between that and some international trips in October and November.

It’s at this time of year that I concentrate on what I call adventures at home… I’ve decided to write about that, and try to capture what goes on during a typical weekend.

Nikki and I dont usually see that much of each other during weekday evenings (unless were on holiday). We normally set aside the entire weekend that starts as soon as I’m off the train on Friday evening.

On this occasion, Nikki was meeting her friend Caroline, so I used the time at home to finish off some jobs.

I’m trying to finish off my house ready for my Barbecue. Lots of friends and family I don’t see often are coming, and the day promises more than a few surprises.

I seem to do little else than organising, tidying and DIY at the moment, but I know when I eventually put up the “Weltevreden” sign it will all be worth it.

One thing I did find time to do, was make a Jamie Oliver recipe, Beef & Guinness pie.

I knew I’d been overdoing it, when I sat down at 10:30, drifted off to sleep and woke again at midnight.

So, I had an extra hour in bed on Saturday and I was up at 9.

The sun was out, and I always say, on a sunny day, there’s nowhere more beautiful than Chester.

I start by spending 45 minutes relaxing in the park.

I popped by the Chester Model Shop, where Paul and the lads had been beavering away to restore my Hornby train.

Superb job complete, I picked up my train, shake hands, pay them and then on my way.

I haven’t put a picture of the train up yet, the whole “action” is going to be launched at my Barbecue in about 2 weeks.

I found a nice pub, and did 2 hours more study for our trip to Burma and Laos.

After this, I headed over to Chester Museum to attend the Chester Globetrotters meeting. There were 2 interesting talks about Bhutan and Africa.

I was compering this time and I thought the event went really well.

I’ve recently taken over the running of the mailing list for Globetrotters, so was able to demo a system called mailchimp which I think will offer significant improvements.

A few drinks in the Eagle with the Globetrotters crew (a highly knowledgable group, I love to “trawl” information about places over a pint) and then we leave  to have dinner at Moules a go go.

A pleasant meal, service was good, but I can’t help thinking their new restaurant lacks the atmosphere of the old one.

We have a couple of drinks in Urbano 32, probably my favourite place to go out in Chester.

My drinking tastes have changed over time. It was said by Tom, formerly of Corks Out that it was better to drink less wine of a higher quality.

I do that, but I’ve also stolen the concept and use it for beer.

Instead of 7 or 8 pints of Carling or Fosters, I now drink 3 or 4 pints of either Peroni, Moretti (both Italian) or Asahi from Japan. They serve pints of cold Moretti here and I have 3 frosty cold pints to finish off the day.

We’ve got plans for the afternoon, but in the morning, there’s time for a catch up and for Nikki and I to synchronise our calendars (we normally do this on a Friday evening in Nikki’s open plan kitchen but for this project, my converted loft office is the venue).

We’ve planned and booked a weekend visiting Bletchley park and the National Museum of computing in about 6 weeks. While booking, I saw that Cats was being shown at the Milton Keynes theatre on Saturday night. I was initially very keen, but the cheapest seats I could find were £50 so it will have to be the cinema instead 🙂

I was delighted to see that Sir Chris Bonington is giving a talk at Glydwr University in Wrexham.

How could I possibly miss that?

And just to show the diversity of my interests, I’ve booked to go and see Two pence to cross the Mersey and a talk by Jordan Belfort (the actual person featured in the Wolf of Wallstreet).

Sometimes I like to “package up” a trip I know I’m not going to do for a while.

That way, when I do have time I can just pick it up and organise things really quickly.

One such trip, is Hadrian’s wall in Cumbria. Opening in in 2003, it was the first time a person could walk its full length in almost 2000 years.

Last year I worked out how many days, chopped up the route and picked places to stay, worked out the train logistics (one to Newcastle, one back from Carlisle) and a company to transfer bags.

We’ve decided to go in Easter next year, so we were able to book and organise everything in less than 20 minutes, as hard work had been done in advance.

I’m going to be writing up a plan for friends from the Chester and District Walking Group to join us, I hope to have it emailed out by the end of the week.

With all the work done, and a bath full of coffee drunk, it was time to head out.

We had some wine at Corks Out (they have a very clever vending machine there, which means you can try all different kinds of wine).

We introduce ourselves to the new manager, who seems distracted (that’s the nice way of saying he wasn’t interested in talking to us 🙁

Chester’s original theatre closed several years ago. A new theatre called Storyhouse is nearing completion and will provide a world class venue (and in the nicest way, better do, for the money its costing).

What I didn’t realise was a small studio theatre has opened in the basement of the old theatre. A retelling of the 39 steps, with 4 actors who between them play 130 characters.

It had everything I love about theatre. Genuine charisma and improvisation. No special effects: a box, 3 chairs and a plastic wheel becomes a car with 4 passengers.

Some of the off the wall humour was hilarious including a scene with a street light and picture frames as improvised windows.

Only showing for another week, if you get the chance, definitely go and see it.

In a jovial and reflective mood, we head back to Corks Out and have 3 different glasses of wine.

We’re getting hungry now. A restaurant we’ve eaten at many times at Cheshire Oaks has opened a venue in Chester near the Abode hotel.

The Miller & Carter steak house has only been open a week and were determined to try out.

The staff are quite young and very enthusiastic. The food and wine excellent, the end of a fab day.

Nikki and I walk back to my house. She picks up her bike, we kiss goodbye and she pedals off into the night.

Once home, she texts me to say she’s ok. I set my alarm, drift off to sleep and another fab weekend is over.