Note: this was liveblogged at the time. Minor amends and edits only From their site: The Ministry of Stories is a local writing and mentoring centre in east London, where anyone aged eight to 18 can come and discover their own gift for writing. What do they do: Writing and mentoring space in East London. […]
2017 Review Part 2
The second part of my 2017 Review – basically just for my records. July July started off with me doing something completely different. I headed off to Switzerland for a Beginner’s Mountaineering Course! So taxi, plane, train and finally bus took me to the small village of Les Haudere’s in the south of Switzerland. There, […]
2017 Review Part 1
As I’ve not being doing weeknotes or even month notes in 2017, I’m going to go with a Year Note. A record for me to remember – rather than any one else to be amused by :-). A aide memoire to what I was doing and where I went, based on combination of calendar, Swarm […]
A History: Jack Harrison
Time to explore the known history of another of my ancestors, this time great-grandfather Jack (christened John) Harrison. A fitting choice for a Remembrance Sunday weekend, being the only one of my direct ancestors that I know served in a World War. Jack was born 29 April 1899, at 33 Crosby Street. His father was […]
A weekend in Garmisch Partenkirchen
As the year slips into autumn, I thought it was time to get back out into the hills. After some time spent looking at options, whether to fly or not, whether to drive, I decided on a visit to Garmisch Partenkirchen, just a 3 hour train journey from Nuremberg. It’s got mountains and lakes, hills […]
EBC Trek: Back down to Lukla
After all that effort making our way up, it was a lot quicker getting back down to our starting point. Friday 23 Dec The best views of Everest from this valley are from Kala Pattar; watching the sun rise over the mountain was the plan for the morning. But not for me. I decided that […]
EBC Trek: Everest Base Camp
We were nearly there..one more trek. Thursday 22 Dec Today was the big day, our final ‘uphill’ day. We had one of our earliest starts, up at 5:30, out the door at 6:30 as dawn was breaking. Off we went, heading to Gorek Shep; minimal plants, moss and lichens with occasional grass clunps. Glacial moraine, […]
Himalayan Valley
EBC Trek: Namche Bazar to Lobuche
I’m guessing by the time I finish this report on my Everest Base Camp trek it’ll be a year old? Anyway, let’s start this again. When you last read an installment, we’ made it to Namche Bazar and had just finished our first acclimatisation day. Next we were heading further up the valley. Sun 18 […]
Volunteering at the World Athletics 2017
Optimism October 2016. I’d filled in the form and finally hit submit. After failing to get selected to volunteer at the Olympics, was trying again for the World Athletics Championships, heading to London in the summer of 2017. And so the wait started. The numbers being talked about were 15k applications, 10k interviews and 4k […]
Kathmandu to Lukla to Namche Bazar
Other reports for this Trip: Starting the trip and my time in India Namche Bazaar to Lobuche Everest Base Camp Getting back down Despite having little to do on my first morning in Kathmandu, my body clock still woke me up at 6:30am, which was probably a good idea given the next few weeks of […]
Travel: A trip to India
After 6 months of preparing, getting equipment and trying to get fit, my trip to India and Nepal was ready to go. Rubbish was put out, heating turned down, everything washed up and the final elements added to the suitcase. it was time to head off for 3 weeks, my first Christmas and New Year […]
A History: John Harrison
For around 30 years, I’ve been slowly building up what I know about my family history. Starting from occasional visits to the Family Record office in London with Mom, to look things up and order new records it slowly moved to online research as records were digitised and most of it can now be done […]
2015 Weeknotes 33-34
17 – 30 Aug Being on holiday stops you blogging, who knew!:-) Anyway, I will catch up, but I’m doing it monthly for the rest of the year. Doing: The main event was my prize trip to the Belgium Formula 1 GP, that I had won earlier in the summer from Shell. I’ve already written […]
2015 Week Notes 32
10 Aug – 16 Aug Doing I had a catch up with former colleagues, as we gatecrashed the leaving drinks of another former colleague from my previous agency. Fun was had, lots of chat and gossip, lots of drink. I decided that going camping for the weekend was a great idea! Well, not just camping, […]
2015 Week Notes 31
3 Aug – 9 Aug Doing Dinner at Marcus at Wine Club. Another Michelin restaurant, although one I’d eaten at before. They were having a dinner offer, the lunch menu at lunch prices, so we got together for some chat and food and wine. More vaccinations on saturday, final round of them, before I headed […]
2015 Week Notes 30
27 July – 2 Aug Doing some weeks I get really busy, most weeks I do little. This is another of the latter, must be because of summer! I did travel down to Southampton way on Tuesday for an away day of working, with a gorgeous view of Hamble harbour. The weather turned stormy this […]
2015 Week Notes 29
20 July – 26 July Even when nothing happened…I’m going to FINISH these for the year 🙂 Doing The pitch meeting I was working on was on the Tuesday of this week, so another night in the hotel just over the road from work, ready to be in the office at 7 for last minute […]
2015 Week Notes 28
13 July – 19 July Doing bah. nothing. absolutely nothing. Working hard on a pitch, staying over at work. On occasion, it’s just easier to get a bed in short walking distance from office rather than traveling to and from home, if you finish after 10 and back in for 7ish! Work at the weekend. […]
2015 Week Notes 27
Doing A relatively quiet week, with 2 running club events. First of all was the AGM, which wasintereting to listen to all the things that happens in the club. Secondly was Sports Day – a group of us got together to do some sports – egg and spoon race, long jump, shot put and the […]
2015 Week Notes 26
28 June – 5 July Doing Had a second day at the Formula E at Battersea Park. Overall, this was a great event, helped by reasonable weather (even if there were some showers). But I ended up watching the races from a deckchair in front of a big screen instead of watching the track as […]