Christmas Day

Christmas Day with Colin, Cherry, Max, Hannah and Les. The normal routine with Turkey at 2 pm. Very nice!

 

Alien Bloc

Colin and Max drove down to Alien Bloc for Colin's annual go on the climbing wall. Working on the Bumble Bees it was a fairly decent effort from Colin. Max did endurance work on Level 3 climbs.

 

Wicked at the Playhouse

With all the family home for Christmas we had a family outing to see Wicked at the Playhouse. It was a general thumbs down to greater or lesser extent from all of us. 

China Crisis at the Queens Hall

Hannah, Colin & Cherry went to Queens Hall to see China Crisis. 40th anniversary of Working With Fire and Steel. A run through of the album then a short interval then another 45 minute set finishing around 10.30 pm. Nice set and lots of chat from Gary.

 

Arab Strap at Summerhall

A good performance. Started with a run through of Philophobia celebrating 25th anniversary then a few other songs to complete the set. Summerhall again a pretty nice venue.

 

Orienteering at Bush Estate

A local event at Bush Estate in the rain. An Agatha Christie theme with various cards to complete in score format. Didn't go at all well as I missed one of the 9 controls on each card thinking I had done them all. Bit of an accident clambering over a barbed wire fence - luckily just getting some bruising on the arm. Right heel plantar fasciitis also started playing up quite badly from half way. In spite of all that was great fun. Sadly I'll need to keep off the running for a while limiting myself to just the races I've already booked in 2024. 

Billie Marten at Summerhall

Another concert at Summerhall. One of Hannah's favs Billie Marten with a nice mix of folk/rock/pop.  

Hermitage of Braid Trail Race 10K

A cold but clear Sunday morning and a fabulous well marshalled route around Blackford Hill and the Hermitage. Felt on reasonable form and was slightly faster than 5 years ago and came in with a time just under an hour at 157% of the winning time. Don't like the photo though!

 

Hamish Hawk - Summerhall

After ferry and drive back from Northern Ireland we had tickets for a show at Summerhall in the evening. Cherry had stuff to catch up on but Colin went along to watch Hamish Hawk do a gentle acoustic set. Quite a busy standing room only venue but a nice sensible volume and not too long. A very pleasant show.

 

Funeral

The arrangements were progressed quickly and the funeral arranged according to Maxwell's wishes for Friday 24 November. We visited the family grave site at Loughbrickland Presbyterian Church for the interment and then the memorial service at First Bangor Church. This was following by nibbles and drinks at Bangor Golf Club.

RIP Maxwell Ledlie

Maxwell sadly passed away in hospital on Thursday night shortly before midnight. His last week was peaceful spent in almost continuous sleep. 

Northern Ireland

Sad trip to Bangor by car and ferry to see Maxwell in hospital. A combination of Covid and Alzheimers has left him in a very bad way. I arrived on Sunday and left on Friday with daily visits. Mostly he was sleeping but when awake in a very disturbed state.

Glentress - Old Blue and New Blue

With just one rain free day forecast for this week this was an opportunity to get out somewhere nice on the bike. Parked in Peebles and had a coffee at the theatre near the car park. The blue route had some detours on it but was in pretty good shape. Very much enjoy the climb. Descent OK - even the blue feels a bit hairy for me at times. Also checked out the new taster courses and there are a new set of routes of which I tried the blue. Slow and not very good lunch at the Peel Cafe.

Not much sign of the World Championships although I guess the new routes may have been linked to that.

SOL 5 - Devilla

A very wet morning ! Pretty much continuous rain so I was well wrapped up with waterproof trousers and top. Blue course at a SOL level event always proves challenging. This was really tough. Focussed on navigation which was difficult and made 1 big error with everything else going just about OK but never terribly easily. The result was very poor the somewhat improved navigation not making up for the slow pace. 

Northern Ireland Trip

A ferry across to NI on Friday to take Maxwell to hospital on Monday for his stent replacement operation. Some delays due to high winds but overall a smooth and pleasant journey. With the central heating broken at 54 Moira Drive I was staying for 4 nights at the Bangor Premier Inn.

Ran the Bangor Park Run on saturday morning with a time about a minute off my course best from earlier in the year. Visited Maxwell at Oakmont but decided it would be a bit much for him to head out. Spent the day clearing old papers at 54 Moira Drive to take home. Financial stuff and a fair bit of family history.

Lunch at RUYC with Maxwell and Liz on Sunday. 

Hospital trip on Monday went pretty smoothly. Needed to stay with Maxwell most of the morning as they went through all the prep stages. The Op itself was quick and Maxwell was in pretty good shape when he was released around 3.30 pm.

Boat home on Tuesday morning.

Manor Water Hill Race

Straight back to racing after the holiday. Cold temperatures but clear blue skies for the longest race I've done in quite a while. Challenging terrain under foot - 9 miles long and around 670 m of climb. I was pretty slow but content with the effort with plenty of people behind me. Race time around 1 hr 50 mins.

 

Lourdes Holiday - Day 12 - London - KitKat Club

Eurostar back to London and went for a swim at Pancras Square. In the evening went to see Cabaret - KitKat Club. We had prime seats for the show with dinner and champagne. The food was pretty good, the champagne went down very well, icecream and brownies at the interval. A very nice finish to the holiday.

Friday morning was the LNER train back to Edinburgh. All the train journeys went to time and were very pleasant - the only complaint being the queuing and waiting around for the Eurostar.

 

Lourdes Holiday Day 11 - Paris

An early train at 7 am from Lourdes to Paris passed surprisingly quickly arriving in Paris just after midday. We got an early checkin at the hotel - Mercure on Rue de la Gaite - and headed for a wander around Montparnasse Cemetery and a rather disappointing garden associated with the astrophysics institute.

In the evening it was a night of jazz at La Bal Blomet watching Baptiste Trotignon perform Brexit Music - a collection of jazz takes on classic British rock & pop songs. I quite enjoyed it - Cherry wasn't so sure.

Lourdes Holiday - Day 10 - Riverside Walk

Final day in Lourdes and we went for a walk along the river. Not entirely successful today with our original planned route having a closed gate, a section on a narrow road and a dull final section. 

Dinner out in town in the evening before packing. Both of us nursing a rather large number of insect bites.

Reviewing our stay in Lourdes - whilst it was nice to not drive anywhere the public transport was a little limiting on our activities as was the very hot weather. Next time I think a hire car probably a good idea.

Lourdes Holiday - Day 9 - Lac du Lourdes

A bus out to the lake and a pleasant 6 km circuit which was generally well back from the lakeside. A very nice meal at the lakeside cafe before getting another bus back to town.

 In the evening we headed out to watch the 9 pm candlelit procession. Yet again a huge crowd out with lots of wheelchairs and various groups.

Lourdes Holiday - Day 8 - Swim & Hill / Draw

In the morning we went for a swim at the local pool which is around 10 mins walk from the flat. Around 30 mins of swim in the nice 25 m pool. Bought some very nice tarts & sandwich at the nearby bakery before heading home.

In the afternoon we split up to do some serious hiking and to do some sketching. Colin headed up Beout with a summit at 791 m at the edge of Lourdes. It was a very nice walk with a strenous climb up the back of the hill.

In the evening we headed out into town for dinner. Our first choice Italian was only doing pizzas so we ended up at the first reasonable looking place we could find. A nice outdoor seat and view at Riviera Sol. The food was pretty average.

Lourdes Holiday - Day 6 - Cauterets

A roughly 1 hour bus journey from Lourdes to Cauterets deep in the Pyrenees. For the first time in France we felt some chill in the air - at least initially on arrival. We grabbed a coffee and pastry before following our noses towards the sun and a walk. It worked out surprisingly well finding by chance a really nice route. It was a fairly gentle uphill that brought us to La Raillaire an disused former spa with hot sulphur waters.

We passed a small collection of shops and cafes which we decided would be our lunch stop later in the day before heading up a woodland path near a series of waterfalls.

Lunch at La Cascade was good. Salads, trout, pasta and ice creams. We headed back down to catch the 3 pm bus back to Lourdes.