Camping around Harrogate

We went camping this weekend, instead of the usual hiking on a Sunday. I've been before, but this was the family's first time in a tent, and we did pretty well. We borrowed a tent from friends, who also went with us, although it's probably more correct to say that we went with them, as they picked the campsite.

We arrived about 17:30 on Friday evening, and we were pitched and enjoying coffee by about 19:00. Not bad considering it's only the second time we've pitched this tent.

On Saturday we went hiking around Grewelthorpe, and some fantastic scenery down in the gorge. The weather was a bit windy, but held fine, and we completed the walk in a little under 3 hours.
I struggled somewhat with my blood sugars this evening, due to the biting winds. Suffered a severe hypo during the night when my levels dropped to 2.3. Not good.

Sunday was a visit to Fountains Abbey (photos left). Stunning, but a bit windy again. Managed to trek all the way around the grounds, taking in all the recommended sights, and the Serpentine Tunnel from High Ride down to the water gardens.

We were supposed to spend a further night at the campsite, but we cut the trip short due to the prospect of bad weather. A bit of a wimps excuse, but I think we'd have stuck it out if we'd got a decent tent.

We're planning our next trip now, but first stop Yeoman's... for a decent tent

Hiking around Wellow

We went hiking again this weekend, this time around Wellow. We've done this walk previously, about 6 weeks ago, but back then barely anything was growing. We're now at the middle of May, and the paths are nicely greening up, and the forest areas really dark and full of bird life It's fantastic.

The weird thing about hiking around Nottinghamshire is the lack of people that we see. I know that it doesn't have the views of the Peak District, but it's impressive non-the-less. Still, I think I prefer not seeing many people, it makes the walks seem even more personal.

BookRabbit

I was trawling through my rss feeds this morning, and the Telegraph website had an interesting article on it about BookRabbit (link in the title above). Basically you can upload your bookshelves to it, and it will link to other people with similar tastes, and make recommendations based on your selections. I'm going to give it a go and see how it pans out

Latest Gaming Purchase - Philips G7000

I've picked up a boxed G7000 with 7 games a little over a week ago. It all works beautifully, and whilst it doesn't have a massive library there are enough games to make it worthwhile picking up. I have in my usual style compiled a list of wants for it, so we'll have to see how hard it is to collect for it.

Diabetes and Me

I've been for my 6 monthly check up today, and as I expected my diabetes control is not what it should be. This is not for a lack of effort on my part, simply that my body doesn't currently tolerate the regime I'm on. I've been given a routine to try, but I'm under instruction to come back in 2 months because it looks like I need to be fitted out with an insulin pump. And I've also got to be tested for coeliac disease, which is a gluten intolerance, managed by diet.

Hiking with Dad

Dad underwent a hip replacement before Christmas, and he's been working really hard on getting fit again. We'd planned on doing a bit of hiking around Barlborough and Spinkhill when he got fitter, and with the bluebells in full flower this weekend seemed the perfect opportunity to go. Jane and 2 of the kids went with us, and a hike of just over 6 miles took us 2.75 hours. Mum thoughtfully provided lunch after we got back.

Gaming Related Goodness

In the spirit of getting something on the blog, and because I've not updated in a while this is going to be a bit of a consolidated post of gaming related purchases and what-not.

I've finished 100%, with all skill points, Ratchet and Clank Tools of Destruction.
Another great installment in the series. Nothing ground-breaking, but it was the usual ton of fun to play.

We've bought Mario Kart Wii, and an extra wheel. It's bloody fantastic, and I've completed 50cc and 100cc modes. As usual 150cc mode is hard, and incredibly frustrating. The thing that really irritates me about this is that we bought it for the multi-player aspect, but you can't have all the multiplayer goodies unless you complete single player mode. Nintendo, that really sucks.

I had the buddies from university round a couple of weeks ago. It's the first visit they've had here since we did the garage to games room conversion. They were more than happy to spend most of the weekend working through the games collection, and we bust out the Vectrex for a bit of fun too. We also did some boardgaming, Carcasonne Hunter and Gatherers, and something about rivers in Egypt whose name escapes me at the moment. Both good fun. Oh yeah, and we drank some beer and ate Chinese.

Regular blogging is hard to do

I think it stems from having so much else to do, like my hobbies if I don't plan them in advance then they rarely happen. I never thought in my 20s that I'd have to schedule fun activities, they'd always just sort of happened. As I approach the end of my 30s I now find that if I'm going to do something, be it diy, socialising, gaming, reading, in fact just about anything then it needs to be planned, sometimes with military precision. Blogging is one of those instant activities that can always be put off until it convenient, and then you find it's 3 weeks later and you've still not made a single entry. Bugger.