Tag: adventure

Last nights pub crawl

Just back from our break away and some of us are still in the holiday mode, itchy feet the decision was made to take a short train ride out to one of the areas I patrol at work – Barrow upon Soar, a small town between Leicester and Loughborough.

Barrow-upon-Soar is a parish and large village, which gives its name to a Poor Law Union district, and a county court district. It has for ages been celebrated for its excellent limestone, and is pleasantly situated on the east side of the navigable River Soar, and on both sides of the Midland Railway on which it has a station 2 miles N. of Mount Sorrel, 3 miles S.E. of Loughborough, and 9 miles N. of Leicester. Barrow township comprises about 2510 acres of land and had 1099 inhabitants in 1801, 1638 in 1831, 1800 in 1861, and 1973 in 1871, the increase of the last ten years being ‘attributed to the opening of the limeworks.’ It is in East Goscote Hundred, but its parish comprises also the townships of Mount Sorrel North-end, Quorndon, and Woodhouse, all of which are in West Goscote Hundred. The area of the whole parish is about 9160 acres, and it had 5857 inhabitants in 1871.

Wikipedia

On the train we soon arrived after a 17 minute ride, and as always the difference between city and town is so noticeable, life is a lot more serene and uncomplicated in these small towns surrounding the city.

We tried four different pubs, had a lovely meal in one, took a nice walk on the canal, and ended up sitting beside the river soar to complete the evening. It was lovely and finished off the break away just fine. We now have the joy of a new working week to look forward to. Roll on next holiday….

Here’s a few pictures:

A rather pleasant pub crawl

Have a wonderful day. Thanks for passing by.

Beautiful memories

Been looking through some old photos and this one instantly hit me as beautiful.

A very young Alf staring out into a big old world

This was our little Alf back in 2013 at Camber sands in Sussex. We had a family day out there on a beautiful sunny, but wind swept day where we were all suitably sandblasted. It was Alfs first ever visit to a beach as he was only about five months old here. To me I see a young creature just starting his life looking out into a big old world of adventure and learning. To me it’s beautiful as it has a wonderful story connected to it.

We are all mortal and one day our time will be done. All we have in the end are cherished memories and they can never be taken away.

Peace.

Stupid volcano

I know this sounds like a stupid title for a post, it is really, it’s one of those impatient child like statements that we, so called adults make from time to time.

We’re off to Iceland again this weekend and it’s always been one of my dreams to be able to witness an erupting volcano. However not a massive one, a small inconspicuous non invasive one would do just fine.

Picture courtesy of Perlan

At the moment the weather in Iceland is actually warmer and better than it is here in the East Midlands, and that always confuses me due to their proximity to the arctic circle. I lay money on it, what usually happens is we head on home and then the land blisters and there is a new eruption for a few months. But when we plan to return the land seals up like a small surface cut and then scabs over.

It’s quite frustrating

Icelands volcano cams

I constantly check in with the local news streams, as well as looking at the large amount of Volcano cams that are online and providing live coverage of the most susceptible areas.

That said we are really looking forward to our break in the land of ice and fire, however at the moment there doesn’t seem to be much of either.

Happy days.

That’s a no from me

How much would you pay to go to the moon?

Much that I admire those adventurers who throughout my life have risked all, for the sake of these journeys, I wouldn’t pay a penny for the chance of going there.

Nope, I’m an old fashioned kind of fellah who is quite content keeping his feet on the ground. If at sometime this old world decides to go “Pop” then I’ll also be going down with it.

My sense of adventure doesn’t quite reach to the moon.

Have a great day all.

Throwing a relation out of an airplane.

Well not me in particular but we have paid for an elderly relative (73yo) to fulfil a dream and today he will be doing a tandem skydive from 14000ft above Nottingham in the East Midlands. This post will cover the day.

I did my skydive in 2009, I was in my mid 40s then and I did mine at the London Skydiving centre based at Chatteris airfield in Cambridgeshire.

My certificate of completion

I did my jump to raise funds for Watford Hospice, we did quite well from what I can remember however the total escapes me as time has erased that figure from my memory banks.

Anyway, today is not about me it’s about my brother in law Terry, affectionately known to the family as El-Tel and that’s how I will refer to him throughout this blog.

This is El-Tel’s day…and what a day he’s going to have.

We head off to Langar skydive centre in Nottingham, it’s 11:30 am and El Tel is due to jump at 13:00.

Langar airfield
On a caravan
A casual warning sign in the club house

We arrive in plenty of time however the weather isn’t playing ball. It’s cloudy, quite windy and no planes have gone up yet due to this.

All we can do is wait. Many people booked in earlier are leaving as they have other engagements and they have rebooked for another day. However we’ve decided to hang about a bit, we’ve had a snack and plenty of coffee and the afternoon weather looks promising.

Snug
Swinging
Photo discussion
Safety brief

So off he goes for training where he gets his harness put on and goes through safety procedures and landing protocols.

The clouds have cleared, the sun is in the sky and the wind has dropped.

No time to waste it’s in to the plane and off to the drop zone.

The aircraft is a Cessna 208 Skyvan reg: G-FBPS.

Cessna 208 Skyvan

It takes about 15 minutes to reach the altitude that they are jumping from, this little video below is what we can see from the ground.

Our view 14000ft below

El-Tel has also booked a video and picture package. So a camera man will be jumping with him as well.

Just about to go up
On board
Out you go
Above the clouds
Superman
Wow

And a few minutes later it was all over. A once in a lifetime time experience. Would he do it again? Just like me it’s a firm no. We’ve had the experience and we’ve got the memories and that’s what it is all about.

He’s got his wings
Langar

He’s had his day and thoroughly enjoyed it, we’ve all enjoyed it and it was a lovely family day out even if throwing the oldest member of the family out of an aeroplane was a bit extreme.

Life. To be lived, to be enjoyed and occasionally it’s exciting 😂👍