Edinburgh in the Snow and Fire

Jo and I have just caught up with Catchy and Singo in Edinburgh for Hogmanay NYE, and have spent the evening standing in snow storms around an official 'Fire' installation just below Edinburgh Castle.






Super !



--matt.

Location:Stevenlaw's Close,Edinburgh,United Kingdom

More Snow, Less Riding

Jo and I have come north for a few days of post-Christmas mountain biking at Glentress, 7Stanes, Scotland and got rather more snow than we were bargaining for.
We've both ridden in snow before, and had found that so long as we stayed to well ridden paths most of the trails were generally still ridable. Not in this much snow :)
Much of the 2.5 feet of snow on the trail had thawed into slush (on the first day) and mostly refrozen (by the second day) turning the whole trail into a corrugated slip-n-slide that sometimes held your weight and sometimes sent you sliding through to the slush beneath.

Needless to say we've not put quite as many miles away as we'd hoped; we've moved slower dragging a bike through snow than skimming over trail-centre hard-pack.

Still, it's been a stack of fun for us all, playing in the thick snow, especially as it was only the third time on a mountain bike for Joanne, James' wife who both met us for the day on Monday.

Vid's coming once we get home.


Oh, & yesterday it was -12 deg, & our car battery has gone flat.

-- matthew

Location:Peebles, Scotland, United Kingdom

Snowing in Manchester

It's snowing in Manchester ! It looks like we're going to have white Christmas :) hooray.

-- jo xx

Location:Worsley St,Manchester,United Kingdom

Elbow

Found this and thought you'd enjoy it.

Elbow One Day Like This with the BBC Concert Orchestra and choir Chantage

(if you can't relate to the words, come try living in the North of England)

Christmas Markets

We had a trip to the Christmas Markets tonight in Manchester. So much fun! We sipped on mulled wine while pottering around all the fun stalls, visited our coconut man again - the macaroons are just as good as last year - and had a couple of beef burgers from a local farm in The Lakes - which smelt so good that we were lured away from our traditional bratwurst (Matthew: just means we'll have to go back again and try the German beer and bratwursts).
There were long lines for pancakes, strudel (I insisted on custard), and lots of little Christmasy-thing-shops selling things we needed. ;)

And we bought our Christmas Tree !
-- jo xx

Location:Manchester

Not Wet

The past few weeks the skies have opened with rain rain rain so the thought of going biking on a weekend has been well... Wet.

We've gone anyway- not wanting to miss anytime on the bike - and each time God has cleared the skies just for us, usually just as we've hit the trail.

Recently when Matt was away I went MTB solo & the trip to Wales was torrential, there were cars pulled over because of the rain. As I continued the drive I seemed to follow a patch of blue sky & by the time I arrived in the car park the sun was shining!

Two weekends ago, Matt & I met some friends in Scotland. They had been there all week & warned us that the rain was so bad they couldn't even eat their sandwiches outside. When we arrived on Friday nite it was raining but for all of Saturday & Sunday, whenever we were riding - not a drop.

Also, last weekend we were at a church weekend away in the Lakes & in our free time on Saturday, we went to Whinlatter, a trail centre in the whinlatter forest. Now, don't forget we're now on the fourth weekend in a row that followed a week of rain. There were floods across the road, it rained all Friday nite, all Saturday morning, & then all the way to the forest. The moment we got out of the car & put our leg over our bikes, the rain stopped! Just like that!
Thanku God!
Not wet!


-- jo xx

Weekend

Ah it's Friday & we're at the airport having hot chips on a rainy afternoon watching a rainbow outside about to hop on a flight to Brussels to see friends for the weekend.

Weekends are the best!





-- jo xx

:: matthew & joanne ::: Standard Northern Winter's Morning

:: matthew & joanne ::: Standard Northern Winter's Morning

It's amazing the transition that Manchester undergoes when we wake up and see a morning like this (instead of grey skies, consistent rain and no spiked fence).
People genuinely do walk taller, commuters smile at each other, mini-cabs congregate on blind corners and drive with a renewed sense of no-purpose, coffee tastes better.
We should do 'sunny mornings' more often.

Standard Northern Winter's Morning

Just a regular northern England Winter's morning...


Clear, blue skies; no rain; spiked fence...

Happy Birthday Moose

Just a quick 'happy birthday' to Matt the Moose


(Matt, we know it's no longer your birthday, and you're not even 40 anymore :-) but this was too good to miss). Matt n Jo.

3 Years Old

This makes it three years in Manchester - that's more than one and a half times longer than we've lived our married life anywhere else (although the actual nights-spent-here is probably less :) ).

Those familiar with Guy Fawkes Night (5th November) will know that Manchester continues to celebrate the anniversary of our arrival with fireworks spectaculars. Rightly so. :)

Matt.

Hill

YES!!! I finally did it!!!





I beat Matt up a hill, a very steep long mountain hill ..... for the first time ever !!!
Read it & weep Matthew!!! Woohoo!!

-- jo xx

Oops

Oopsy.
Woke up this morning & forgot it was daylight saving. Was meeting a friend for breakfast & she forgot too. Oopsy. But she was going to church straight after so she would either be very late or our breakfast very quick.

Madly tried to get to the cafe while Catherine was warning her house mates they were going to be late for band practice, but then realised what had happened when Catherine's Dad called and set us both on the straight and narrow: day light savings is in two weeks, not this morning!

Oopsy

Matthew

Today I feel like a very blessed woman. Matt has been away quite a lot recently with work, but last nite Matt arrived home from Switzerland, drove back from London all the way to Manchester just to see me. He arrived home about 10pm, & then promptly turned around at 5am the next morning to drive all the way down to Swansea.
Here's a map of where Matt drove. (coming)

It was worth it cause at least I got a snuggle!
-- jo xx

Time in London

We've had another relaxing day in London :-)





-- matt (on jo's behalf)

Lazy Saturday

We've just had the nicest day - once we woke up - before that it was all a bit sleepy... We've been staying with one of our friends, Joe Wood, in South Bromley, London, woke up round lunchtime, grabbed some break-lunch and have come up to Fulham to have a look around the fire station that Joe's based at.
While we didn't get to slide down the fire-pole, it was fantastic to look round the station and through the trucks. Thanks joe!
Matt's now marched me into a lovely little cafe just down the high street to boost my caffeine - though from the photo it looks more like Matt needs it. :)




-- jo xx

Kath&Warwick

Ever had that pang for an old friend you miss so much where you just want to hang out & talk? It's so much fun when it actually happens!

Last weekend we were reunited with Kath Passaportis, now Kath Schley. She has been married for almost three years now, & we only met Warwick last weekend.

It was just like ol'times. Lots of fun, lots of laughter & lots of chats. We met Warwick & Kath in Chester, walked the Walls, had a sneek peek at the horse races, & enjoyed a lovely meal at a local gastro-pub.

This was all such a blessing, but was really just the back-drop for spending time together and meeting Warwick.

Hope it's not another three years before we see you again. Thankyou guys for a beautiful time.

-- jo xx

To Diesel, or not to Diesel...?

I’m in the passenger seat of our car, Matt’s driving, Maciek is in the back reading, and we are on our way back to catch a ferry back to Dover, England after a week Mountain Biking in Morzine, France. Our ferry is at 6pm, and I think this time we may even make it….we remembered to put diesel in our car this time! Our holiday had a little bit of a shaky start when Matt, (new nick name, Diesel), accidently filled our diesel tank with petrol ! Not just a little bit either, a whole 60 L tank!

So, we had to get the car drained, filters changed and then filled up again with diesel to get back on the road to pick up Maciek who was waiting at a train station for us and get to our ferry. While we were waiting, I managed to find a sticker ‘Diesel only!’ which I promptly gave to Matt as a ‘gift’ and is now on the back of his biking helmet.

To be fair to Matt though, the AA rescue guy said he picks up at least one car a day that has done the same thing, very easily done.

His new nickname is not going to rub off very quickly though.

Feel free to adopt it yourself! ;)

Birthday Present

Long-story-short, Jo was given an iPhone for her birthday (personally, I was pretty happy with the arrangement) and I've been doing my best to fill it up with fun (free) games.
Below, Jo's in the middle of an extreme water-slide game (not any more complicated than that, really) but the best bit is watching her face as she bites her lip in concentration while she ducks and weaves around in an effort to stay on course.
Fun for me; fun for her. Everyone's a winner :-)

Cheap Flights

Jo and I have just boarded a Ryanair flight from Milano back to Manchester when I noticed a girl had snuck onboard with double-bass case. Normally I wouldn't remark (if you can get away with it and you're not inconveniencing anyone else...) but this was a new carry-on record for me...
I pointed it out to Jo and she remarked, "yeah, she had booked an extra seat for it. It must have been cheaper than paying the excess luggage.."

Photo's below; crazy times.

Cinque Terra

How beautiful is this? And the best bit is that this is at 6:30 in the evening! This is Vernazza. Gorgeous days (scorching sun), cold beer, fresh & clear water to swim in, great food and quality family time. Matt and I have decided this is where we are going to retire (little white terrace, second row back, just behind the wharf & beach).

Vernazza is one of five coastal villages in Cinque Terra on the west coast of Northern Italy. If you haven't heard of it, don't worry, we hadn't either, but check it out on wikipedia, it is absolutely beautiful. We travelled here with my mum and dad from La Spezia, just outside Cinque Terra. We visited Monterosso on the first morning where there were cute little private beaches with colourful umbrellas & reached Vernazza by the evening. I took this photo as we were coming down in to Vernazza, and the water was as refreshing and welcoming as it looks. Finally, a swim in the ocean!!

You can walk between each of the villages, and so on the second day we came back to Rio Maggiore, (the first village of the five) and walked the opposite direction toward Vernazza and ended up there again. The walk between Monterosso and Vernazza is pretty 'sketchy', if it was in Enlgand or Australia, there would have been fences and signs saying "do this at your own risk"; but the Italians, are so much more chilled out...we certainly deserved the beer and pizza at the end of the walk. :)

If you are ever in Italy, skip Rome, and go to Cinque Terra...absolutely gorgeous.

Simon and Cindy come to Manchester

Last week Simon and Cindy came to Manchester to visit! We knew 'Hey Simon!'very well from New College, but we had never met his lovely wife. Well, what can I say, Si, your bride is gorgeous! It was simply the best to have some Aussie, Christian, love in our house ;)

Simon and Cindy stayed for a couple of nights. During the day, they explored Manchester in the very unusual sunny weather. We had to have a little chuckle at them lathering on sunscreen before they set off! They took hats, sunnies and more sunscreen with them on their day out. They may as well have just worn a T-shirt saying - "I'm an Aussie!!"

The above photo is taken at the Hilton Tower in the bar called Cloud 23. You can see for miles of Greater Manchester through the floor to ceiling windows. And...the sky was even clear enough to see passed the street below!

We both forgot how much we missed how easy going, relaxed, generous, thoughtful, outgoing and fun Australians were...or maybe that was just Simon and Cindy. :)


Thanks so much for a lovely time guys, please come back soon!

Snapped...

It happened again... I've snapped my front axle... How do you snap a 3/8" thick metal rod..twice..?

No idea.

Locked In...

Not content with conquering the Black Route at Glentress - no dabs, not even on the aptly named Wormhole descent :-) - Jo's decided to up the ante and dive into the world of clipless peddles.
So here she is, locked in and moving through traffic on a sunny Manchester afternoon (with Red and Black socks on).

For those who've not felt both the pure Zen and terror of riding a bike with 'clipless peddles', imagine locking your shoes straight to the peddles with a metal clip - much like a ski-boot and skis (just without the soft snow). Much as you'd expect, the benefits are, increased efficiency (peddle up and down) and security (shoes don't come off your peddles) - which is also the main drawback: your shoes will stay glued to your peddles even as you go down with the ship - unless you can master the art of clicking your heels while trying not to fall on your head - rather like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. :-)

Summer in Manchester

What more proof do you need...? Hat and T-Shirt. Summer has come at last :-)

Dirt Jumps

Perhaps not surprisingly, I was at the local dirt jumps this afternoon enjoying the relatively rare moment where leisure time and sun coincide (I think it's called a Solar Relaxinox), when some locals pulled up and started riding with me.

Over the next little while, we got to talking, I said, "so I haven't seen you around before.." he replied, "yeah, so we've never actually got over to these mud jumps before..."

MUD jumps..!..?

Manchester's wet, but - please - not so wet that even local vernacular has succumbed to grey skies and sodden ground... apparently so.

...so here I am, at the mud jumps.

Ros is here!!

Ros arrived safe and sound this morning complete with luggage, thankfully!

So lovely to see her, and hug her.

We are about to go up town to get a coffee...and the good news is...it is not raining!

5-Days Running

We've had no rain in Manchester for 5-days running !

Vente

I'm sitting in a Starbucks near our house (is that a tautology?) reading my bible and catching up on email and I overhear a girl stop another girl on her way out asking, "was that a tall, extra-hot, hazelnut, sugar-free, skim latte-to-go..?"
"No," came her reply, "It should be a tall hazelnut, extra-hot, skim-free (?!),
sugar'd capp(acino)-to-go."
At which point the barrista chimmed in, "That's a tall, hazelnut, sugar-free, extra-hot, skim lar-tay-to-go, I'm working on the tall extra-hot, hazelnut, skim-free, sugar'd cappacino-to-go, now. Did you want that with choc-on-top..?"
(To let you know my involvement, I'm just drinking a latte-to-go - I think...)

After another few volleys, the sugar-free vs sugar'd latte/capp girls were sorted and out the door while I got back to reading just as a man's voice came over loud-and-proud, "Can I have a double-shot, Vente, hazelnut, soya, sugar-free, latte-to-go..? Not-so-hot if that's okay."

Maybe I need to try hazelnut (and buy a cardigan).

Skiing with Paul and Faye in Les Deux Alps

I've been meaning to write about our week skiing with Paul and Faye, but you'll have to be content with the photos till I get the time.

Enjoy - especially the sunset from our balcony :-)

Snow in England

This is how we were greeted back to work the first morning after our week snowboarding in the Alps. (video clip coming)
See also this clip from news.bbc.co.uk

Front Light

I've been working in Oxford this last week so snuck my bike down in the back of the car just to burn some stress.
So tonight, I *may* have been burning up through the centre of town, riding a little too fast - as I was running late for dinner with our good friend Frances Voon :) so - naturally – I took the short-cut (the wrong way) up a pedestrianised section of the high-street, riding one-handed (was on the phone with Jo and didn't have a hands-free), rear-light was on fine (did that with the hand that wasn't holding the phone) and (mum, don't read this next bit) helmet on, but not done up (two-handed job) when a police office yelled, “hey!'”..

I'll spare you (and, indirectly, me) some of the broader context about joint exposure of Driver's Licenses and bike riding, but suffice to say, I said quickly and quietly to Jo, "I'll call you right back".

The good natured officer asked me if I had a front light on my bike; "Of course, Mr Officer, I thought I had turned it on...oh… that's better..."
"Thank you laddie” he said, “Have a good night"
" ... arh, thank you, you too" peddle-peddle-peddle.... "Jo, sorry I had to hang up before..."

Freezing Cold!

It's still freezing over here.

This is a picture of my first day back at work in January 2nd. They say it is only going to get colder....oh no!

Outstanding !

I've spent a little too much time away with work recently and Jo - in her gracious, understated way - warned me not to book anything between Christmas and New Year.
Shortly before Christmas there appeared numbered, flat presents under our (real ! ) tree. On Christmas day they led me via vague pictures of Sheep, Castles and 'Mountain-Bikes-this-way' up the M6 to five days (four of them riding) past Dumfries, Scotland and eventually, to the renowned 7Stanes. The 7Stanes are 8 amazing, man-made, mountain bike trail-centres in South-West Scotland that all met Jo’s mandate of ‘no network coverage for Matt’s work-mobile’ and ‘nowhere for Matt to recharge his laptop’.

On the Saturday we warmed up at Ae Forest, a trial we’ve ridden with friends before. I was feeling pretty shaky as I hadn’t ridden for ages; Jo graciously suggested we just ‘don’t push it too hard.’ That lasted about 10minutes ☺ Soo much fun getting back out on the trial even though most of the best singletrack was closed thanks to logging.
We even met some of the locals when we tried to sneak past him in his ‘drive-over-trees style’, logging truck in our camouflaged lycra and shorts.

Sunday and Monday we rode the Black and, then Red, trails at Glentress. Absolutely Outstanding ! The Black trail was 98% singletrack and probably the best man-made trial I’ve ridden in the UK.
Jo rode the full 30km 'V' Black Trail – including most of the Diamond Descents… ☺ Well impressed. We rode the 24km Red trail the Glentress Freeride Park on Monday as we both decided we needed a rest day ☺ - and in typical fashion rode till the car-pack was empty and the trail so dark we could barely make out the corners (Mums should read this as a metaphor for something…)
At Jo’s suggestion, we rode Drumlanrig on Tuesday; while not one of the 7Stanes, it is by far the most natural ‘man-made’ trail and while the car-park didn’t make it above -7 degrees C all day and the trail wouldn’t have broken freezing, it was a blast. Most of the puddles had frozen through – those that hadn’t shattered and exploded like glass panes; the mush and thick, black muck had frozen rock hard (MTBers will know what a God-send that is) and the leaves and undergrowth snapped under tyre-weight.

Thanks Jo !

See here lots for more photos