Windows 10 and Blogger

Out of interest, does anyone use 'Edge' in Windows 10 (yep, I turned to the dark side) to surf the Internet? If you do, do you experience a strange shimmering effect from the text on the side of my blog i.e. the blog list etc?

Well I've gone and done it now....... Again!

I have signed up for another mountaineering trip, this time with Moran Mountaineering, in Scotland. The company was started up and is run by Martin Moran, mountain guide and Author. I read Martin's biography, Higher Ground, last year, which was very inspiring. His journey to becoming a mountain guide, highlighted in his biography, is very interesting with quite surprising origins. I can highly recommend reading Martin's biography with signed copies available from Martin himself on his website (www.moran-mountain.co.uk). You can also purchase his books; The 4000 Peaks of the Alps and The Munros in Winter.

Training will be beginning in vain now. Long walks with a weighted pack (off out early tomorrow morning), High Intensity Interval Training, weight training and trail runs to make sure I am fit enough for February 2017. I was not as fit as I would have liked when I went to Wales in February this year. I am fitter now than I was then, but want to turn up the wick and make sure I can enjoy myself and learn a great deal.

I will write a review after the trip. I have just had a break from the blog for a few months to concentrate on other things. But hopefully I can use writing on here to provide some motivation, along with having paid my deposit already.

www.moran-mountain.co.uk

Welsh Winter Mountaineering: A few photographs

Plas Y Brenin: Welsh Winter Mountaineering (A Course Review)

Introduction

 

Plas Y Brenin is an outdoor sports education facility with quit a reputation for excellence. Their main site is in the small village of Capel Curig in North Wales right in the Snowdonia National Park. As mentioned in December 2015, I had signed up for a Welsh Winter Mountaineering course with them. The only thing missing was the snow, but some did arrive, and we found more. I mention this separately from my review as this was the only part of the course with much to desire and out of the hands of the Plas Y Brenin team.

 

 

Time for change

 

Possibly not quite as dramatic as it may sound, but I have decided I am too sedentary and started on a road to improved fitness. Or, possibly more accurate, a trail to improved fitness. From 1991 for almost twenty years I studied and trained in the martial art of Taekwondo, including 3-4 workouts at the gym every week. I was as fit as the proverbial ‘butchers dog’. After the ‘almost twenty years’ I had to give it up due to other priorities having, by then, reached the grade of 5th Dan Master. Although I have done a fair amount of walking since my accident back in 2010, I haven’t been as fit as I had liked. I have found the hills harder work than I should have. So several months ago I began a plan to improve my hill fitness.

 

A long, almost eternal wait, has come to an end.

I’ve grown up with Pink Floyd pretty much most of my life. From being put to sleep by Wish You Were Here as a small child, to the rebellion that is The Wall, to being, as a teenager, overcome with surprise when I found they had released Momentary Lapse of Reason while on holiday in the Cotswolds. Then along came Division Bell, its echo ringing for twenty one years before finally being brought to an end by an Endless River.

Many people make the statement that they believe that they were born too late. This album makes me feel like I was born 20 years too late. By the time I realised how much their music means to me, Pink Floyd were already imploding. By the time I really started to appreciate almost two decades of their work, they had already split up. And just as I began to appreciate those first steps, ‘Arnold Lane’, ‘See Emily Play’, and the rest..........they stopped.

 

 

 

 

Fast forward 21 years and they are back. There are snippets of their past in here. David Gilmour’s bluesy, almost mournful at times, guitar licks dotted throughout. There are continued experiments with new and creative musical landscapes. It wouldn’t be Pink Floyd without them. But if you are expecting David Gilmour’s distinctly raw vocals, you may be in for a bit of a disappointment. Apart from the one track, they really don’t make much of an appearance, my one and only disappointment about the album.

 

I should feel happy about this album’s long, long, long awaited release. And in most ways I am. But one thing spoils it for me, it’s pretty clear this is Pink Floyd’s swan song. And so the twenty years too late point comes up. I don’t know how much longer I will live, twenty, thirty more years, more or less. But one thing’s for sure, it’s sad knowing there may be no more releases like this. I will, at least, have their back catalogue to listen to. It just won’t be the same.

 

So I think it is important to appreciate now, enjoy what you have, it doesn’t last forever.

Shr****d Wheat for some, Dreaded Wheat for me.

Maybe it’s me, maybe it’s the wheat, but which ever it is, we have parted ways. Feeling bloated after a meal that included either bread, pasta, or flour in some form was never nice. The painful joints, particularly my knees, over the last couple of years, worried me that maybe they were shot. Nearly 20 years of martial arts, I thought, had worn them out, and was now causing pain. It seems I may have been wrong, that life may have just taken a turn for the better.

 

By accident I came across a video on Youtube about the potential negative impact on joints in a couple of ways. That the Gluten in wheat can cause joint inflammation, and also make the effects of Arthritis worse. With a right elbow that is guaranteed, at some point in my life, to develop Arthritis, I decided I wanted to reduce it’s possible effects. I also suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), which can be very disruptive, and cause all sorts of problems. Again, there are possible links between wheat and IBS.  So I gave up on eating foods containing wheat a few weeks ago. It’s been very difficult. Going shopping has many temptations, with the majority containing wheat; Buns, cakes, biscuits, my mums homemade Parkin. But I am finding myself trying new things. I’ve reduced my carbohydrate intake, and aiming to bring sugar right down as well.

 

But has it done any good? Well some changes can take a few months. But one thing I have found is that my knee joint pain has gone. I feel like I’ve gone back 10 years. And my stomach has gone down. I look like I’ve lost weight, but I haven’t. It’s the bloating that I strongly suspect was caused by wheat. Time will tell for any other changes or improvements.

 

This post is not entirely to do with stopping eating wheat, I believe that to be personal choice. This post is more about not allowing yourself to get stuck in a rut. That sometimes it’s worth taking the chance of making a change to your life for the better. I don’t see myself as on a new diet, I see it as a lifestyle change. With hope, it’s a step in the right direction to a better quality of life. Supposedly, a change is as good as a rest, it may well be very true.

 

http://www.greenstar.coop/health/305-discovering-a-hidden-wheat-intolerance

When is a Wainwright or any Summit Truely Bagged?

I’m a little confused over what people consider bagging a Wainwright. For example, there exists in the Himalaya a ridge of summits called the Gasherbrum (translates to ‘Beautiful Mountain’ in Balti) massif. This massif is made of 7 peaks. If I climb the first peak Gasherbrum I and cross the connecting ridges between them all, summiting each peak, have I bagged them all? Or should I climb each peak individually. The worlds mountaineers seem to think so. Gasherbrum V and Gasherbrum VI remain unclimbed.

 

So transposing this to the bagging of Wainwrights, if I summit Green Gable and then walk across to Great Gable, how many Wainwrights have I bagged? I’ll be honest, I’m not out to bag all the Wainwrights, it’s a challenge I chose to ignore. I am happy to climb the interesting ones and look for nice views and meet nice people. I’m just interested in opinions on this as I find it intriguing. I certainly wont be judging peoples opinions. Please comment.

Primaloft Information to start off a series of Reviews

Okay, so I have already reviewed the Keela Belay jacket. But I thought this information might be useful to show the efficiency of different types and weights of Primaloft insulation used in the jackets I already have and will review.

Thermal insulation has a value, a CLO value where one CLO unit represents 0.155m²K/W. This is based on the difference between a persons skin temperature and the outside temperature of the material. So a higher value represents a higher difference between your skin temperature and the outer material temperature, a good thing if it is cold. This means a higher CLO value is better.

My first Autumn walk around Langsett and some gear testing.

I took the opportunity at the weekend to get out around Langsett Reservoir and test out some new boots and the Food on the Move meal previously reviewed. Autumn has finally set in properly around here. A very late year.

The batteries on my camera decided to run out early into the walk so I had to revert to my phone. I was surprised to find it has a pretty good panoramic setting. A quick preview and initial impressions of my new boots to follow.

Product Updates - Good and Bad

Mountain Fuel

Mountain Fuel, the Welsh supplement and food company are currently in the process of updating their website. According to the email I received, they are also updating their product line. Hopefully, the energy bar they had mentioned quite some time ago on their website will appear. The new website hasn't appeared yet, I was told the end of September. So possibly another few days and something should be online. Time will tell.

http://www.mountainfuel.co.uk/



Fuizion Freeze Dried Meals

This isn't good news. Having looked through the entire product range on the Fuizion website they have nothing in stock. Looking at their Facebook page, they have ceased trading. They say they are unable to make a profit, which would permit further investment. This may be down to what I consider quite a low price compared to the quality of the meals when considering similar products. This is a great loss to the outdoor industry, and my taste buds. I wish Tony and Alison, the people behind Fuizion, all the best.

https://www.facebook.com/Fuizion.Freeze.Dried.Food?v=wall&
http://www.fuizionfreezedriedfood.com/

When your blog becomes someone elses.

I decided the other day to do a search on the net and see what activity my blog is having. I was quite shocked to find at least a dozen of my posts had been ripped and posted onto another blog without crediting me as the source. That's text and photographs, including the post about my accident and injury to my arm, which I take personally. I have posted a few of the links below so that anyone interested can take a look. I say this because it looks as though they are doing the same with other blogs too. Although there seems to be no recent activity.

The other blogs posts:

http://www.pochasilva.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/trangia-triangle-burner-stand-review.html

http://www.pochasilva.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/review-salomon-cosmic-2-4d.html

http://www.pochasilva.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/a-misty-start-with-clear-finish.html

http://www.pochasilva.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/a-local-winter-walk.html

My posts they ripped:

http://www.forgottentracks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/trangia-triangle-burner-stand-review.html

http://www.forgottentracks.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/review-salomon-cosmic-2-4d.html

http://www.forgottentracks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/a-misty-start-with-clear-finish.html

http://www.forgottentracks.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/a-local-winter-walk.html

 

I wonder what other people think. What do my fellow bloggers, not the ones who take others hard work, think about this kind of activity? Have you experienced the same? In my opinion, it's un-ethical, and probably theft in some way.

Good Weather at Last

Finally the Summer is here and my run of bad luck with weather is broken. A couple of walks to post on my return plus a couple of gear reviews.