Bangor to Denver

Alarm woke me up at 5.45, I'd decided to ride into Bangor to get the train rather than sit in the back of the van. It was raining a bit so there was a last minute bike change (the nice road bike doesn't go out in the rain) but it was a nice start to the day to have 35 minutes on traffic free roads.

Train to Watford (delayed), bus to heathrow (delayed) queue, queue, queue some more, buy a bottle of 16 yr old Highland Park in duty free and board the (delayed) flight. Before you know it you've been up for 23 hours and are checking into the poshest hotel you've ever stayed in.

Welcome to America, baby!

Poor pootch

Pippa's my dog. She's had a hard time lately. Anterior cruciate ligament went in one of her back legs, coincidentally the same one that she tore all the tendons in 4 years ago. That wasn't so bad, the vets can fix these things, they substitute fishing wire for ligament and away you go, after a few weeks of recuperation. She was healing well, very well in fact, doing 15 minute walks a few weeks after the op. But then she started carrying her 'good' back leg, same symptons as before.
It's an age thing, her ACLs have stretched and she's got hip displacia.

It's rubbish when dogs get old.

Tryfan

Went to Ogwen on the way home from work to go for a run, it was a perfect evening so I went up Tryfan. Ok, it was more of a scramble than a run, but was oodles of fun nonetheless. Saw the RAF rescue helicopter on my way up, seems as though someone needed help getting off the hill. I decided that as I was only wearing shorts and T shirt and didn't have map, compass, spare clothes or food with me that it might be polite to give the Mountain rescue boys a wide bearth.

Tryfan was ace though, first time I'd been up to the top. although on the way down I'm pretty certain I passed the spot I'd reached with Pippa a while ago, when I turned back in the mist, not having a clue where i was - turned out I was about 40m below the summit. North Wales rocks.

where does the time go?

I don't know how it happens, but time vanishes before I get a chance to write anything here. It's 10 days since we went to Rob and Lydia's Wedding in St Agnes, Cornwall. I didn't have any holiday to use so it had to be there and back in a weekend - left work at 4.30pm, got to Plymouth at 12.30 am - nice. had an easy dive to St Ag saturday morning, mooched around with Vic, Lisa and Bex doing flower arranging and casually checked into the B&B to get ready for the main event.
That's when I discovered my suit trousers weren't there. Oh dear! This was with just under an hour before kick off. I tried the only clothes shop in the village - women's only, they suggested a sarong (no thanks) but luckily Sue bumped into the groom, who made a call to his neighbour Paul, who provided a pair that fitted exactly.
With that little hiccup dealt with the rest of the day was superb, even without getting stupidly drunk. best wedding I've been to - hurrah for Rob and Lydia!

Snowdon

I've been quiet lately, chest infection and general clutter of life getting in he way of fun. anyway, left work tonight, made the most of some rare good weather and headed up snowdon on bike. Made it to the top in a shade over 2 hours, clear skies, no wind, chuffin ace views, sun starting to dissappear.

What a peach of a descent! Made it down in one piece, no mechanicals, just as the last smidgeon of daylight vanished. Pinch flatted on a kerb 50 yards from the van.

Does it get much better than this? I don't think it does :)