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

I WALKED TO WORK IN THE SNOW THIS MORNING

Manchester saw a huge down fall of snow over night, so when I walked to work at 6:15am in the dark, the snowflakes were still falling on me as I walked.
I was able to make footprints in the fluffy snow before anyone else had a chance!!

Beautiful.

PRAGUE

Second time around for Matt and I, and first time for Lynda and David, Prague was just beautiful! God blessed us with glorious sunshine, so much so that Lynda had to buy a pair of shorts! We spent time in the Prague Castle and in particular in St Vitus, which is the Gothic Church within the castle walls. Magnificent, with beautiful stain glass windows on every wall, and ornate gargoyles acted both as drainpipes and as a way to ward off demons. Some our favourite times was walking along Charles Bridge in the sun, listening to the live jazz band, drinking Czech beer in the Old town square right underneath the Medieval Astrological Clock, moseying along the cobbled stones window shopping and of course, the Opera!
A good friend of Matt and mine from Platt (our church), Jonny, has a friend who lives in Prague, who is an Opera Singer. Martin Barta was performing in La Traviata at Prague State Opera at the time we were going to be in Prague. So…off to the opera we went! What an experience! Exquisite! Champagne during interval and even a backstage pass afterwards. Martin met us at the stage door and he took us to his personal dressing room, and showed us the stage. We took him for a drink at a very nice bar near the Opera Theatre; and then he took the tram with us and walked us all right to our door. Wow, what an evening!
Prague is a beautiful city; definitely try to get there if you can!

Budapest in the Sun :)

Just a quick one to say that Jo and I are sitting in the sun in Budapest. We've spent the last 5 days with with Ben and Ksenia. More info to come, I'm not going to spend time in Budapest blogging when I could be out soaking up the vibe :)

Road Trip

For the beginning of the first week of Lynda and David’s stay, Matt was in Geneva so Lynda, David and I went on a road trip; north to Scotland via The Lake District. Following trusty Tom-Tom we made our way to our first stop – ‘Hill-Top’ in Ambleside, the home of Beatrix Potter, author of the Peter Rabbit Tales, (see photo opposite). Though, to get there Tom Tom lead us to a lake saying ‘Ahead…get on the ferry’! And before we knew it we on a ferry in our car crossing Lake Windermere! Hill Top was so beautifully romantic we felt like we were in the tale with Peter Rabbit, well, Lynda and I did. ☺

We headed north again following the sweeping green hills, lined with stone hedges, to Stirling. After a huge meal at The Portcullis pub, we slept soundly in our hostel right near the castle and next door to The Church of Holy Rude, where Queen Mary of Scots baptised her only son James V1 of Scotland, (who also became James I of England).
Our trip to Stirling Castle was brilliant.(see photos - part of the castle) The castle, the stone hedges, the history was magnificent. David, with his Engineering mind could not stop saying “I just don’t know how they built it!”
From Stirling we travelled due East to Dundee where we met up with Matthew and stayed with him in his hotel, which was a lovely treat. We shared a lovely meal with him and a colleague that night, which also happened to be David and Lynda’s 32nd Wedding Anniversary! While Matt worked the next day, we caught a train to Edinburgh and visited the castle, and walked around the beautiful gardens and shopped! The sun was gloriously shining, with warmth like I’ve never experienced in Scotland before! We saw a beautiful bride in an old car driving to the wedding we assume, and then when we arrived at the castle visiting St Mary’s Chapel, we saw the same bride getting married in that same chapel! Throughout our castle tour, David still commented, “I just don’t know how they built it!” The next day we all travelled back to Manchester from Dundee; about 6 hours drive in torrential rain!

These two photos are at Edinburgh Castle; Lynda and David are on the left. The canon is still shot every day at 1pm.

Mum and Dad Wysel

Well, Mum and Dad Wysel have arrived in Manchester, bringing some lovely weather with them. For the first day in a few weeks, it didn't rain, for a whole day!!! Although, it didn't take long for mum and dad to get an idea of the weather of Manchester. It drizzled consistently all day today.

We've had a very lazy couple of days, jetlag is a killer!

We are so excited to have them here with us and are looking forward to our next few weeks with them.

We''l keep you updated with photos and more stories soon.

x

Going Grey

Had someone at youth group remark that I had started to go grey... little did she know that I started to grey a while ago but I've been wearing a wig so nobody noticed.

(This is Vincent and I in CO a while back)

Single Speed and a Mountain Goat

Matt, Paul (friend from church) and I went biking in Llandegla (our usual place to go in Nth Wales) the weekend before last. I've spoken before about how lovely the trail is, being a plantation set up by the Forestry Commission. I've also mentioned that there are loads of hills; you can guarantee the first 45 minutes of the ride are UP! And that's just the first hill.
Now, I'd like to think that I've improved my biking fitness and skills with all our biking adventures, and I have...but I still need gears to get up a steep hill that lasts 45minutes!!

Matt on the other hand had to use his Specialised P1 (ride around town jump bike) because his Cannondale (other bike) was in the bike store for maintenance. The jump bike is not only triple the weight of his Cannondale Prophet but it is a single speed bike, ie: doesn't have any gears!!

I thought...yes! Finally, I am going to get up the hill before Matt just this once! But, alas, no....Matt managed to do the whole 28 km course - twice! - with NO GEARS! I couldn't believe it!

My husband is a Mountain Goat.

New Record

I stopped at a road-side service station to fill up this afternoon - during my 7 hours, and 400-odd miles in the car today (yay) - and paid a record £81 to fill up.

Nothing special about the fuel; just 58L of regular diesel.

eighty pounds.... and that was the cheaper diesel...

Mountain Biking and the NHS

If you remember last August when we went camping with the Evans boys, I stacked my bike and sprained my wrist, or so I thought. It has never healed and has consistently been sore. For a long time I thought I was just being a ‘girl’ but now I realise I actually did some damage.
So…in true NHS style, it has been a long time coming to find out the exact problem with it. Here is how it went:
I first visited my GP who referred me to a physiotherapist, who then referred me to get an MR scan. After the a 6week wait for the results of the MR scan, the physio diagnosed some damage and that I would need to see a consultant orthopaedic surgeon. So, an appointment was made for the consultation and I waited another 6 weeks for the appointment. When the appointment finally came around, the scans had not been sent from the physio to the surgeon, making the appointment a waste of half a day off work. In the mean time I had an X-Ray, which of course showed nothing because the problem was always with the ligaments. So, by the end of that appointment, the surgeon assured me that by the time I came back for a follow-up appointment the scans would be in her possession and to come back on 25th June.
After writing the date in my diary I went out to the receptionist for confirmation, and found out that the surgeon is on leave on that day, go figure? I left the hospital without an appointment but with a promise that I would get a call the following week to give me a time. The middle of the next week came and went, so I called physio clinic myself to find out if the scans were on their way to the surgeon. No on had sent them on.

If you want a job done???….. I organised the scans to be forwarded myself, rang the surgeon’s secretary to give them the heads up about the mail they should be receiving, and asked about the promised appointment. As it turns out, that the surgeon wasn’t on leave on the 25th June at all and that the receptionist had made a mistake, which also meant that the earliest appointment at 8:30am (which I had requested) had gone and the next available appointment was 11am, meaning I wouldn’t make it to work that day at all! Thankfully, I was able to negotiate my way in to a 9am appointment.

A couple of days later I received a confirmation letter about the appointment. The time on the letter stated that my appointment was at 11 am! WHAT?! This is ridiculous, I thought, can they get anything right?!
So…again I called the surgeon’s secretary myself and after a little ‘chat’ she said that I could ‘come in at 9am and she’ll see what she can do, but can in no way guarantee that I will get in straight away’.

The appointment finally came around, great!...The surgeon told me that the MR scan report had been sent through, great!...but…the scans themselves, because of some NHS legislation could not be sent on to the hospital. The surgeon who is going to perform open surgery on my wrist does not, by NHS legislation have a photograph of the damage of my wrist!!

So, from the report (which could have been faxed over on the first consultation) the consultant confirmed that I would need open surgery as she suspected making an incision 2” long, drilling into the bone, putting a nylon stitch to reattach the ligament and cartilage to the bone and then out me in a full plaster for six weeks. ☹ Turns out that my ligament, cartilage has completely detached themselves from the bone. Maybe I wasn’t a ‘girl’ after all.
Oh…and there is a waiting list of about 14 weeks.

Gotta love the NHS!