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Today we set out to see if we could follow NCN11 all the way to Stansted Mountfichet, where it apparently runs out. On the way (and before we set off) we did our best to make a start with our copy of the Usborne Spotter's Guide to Birds, which was a present from mum (she gave us each a copy, and kept one herself).\n\n
NCN11 review: much better than expected. It has some of the usual flaws (trying to use the pavement on busy stretches, with dismounts for side roads, and some slightly long detours) but once it got to Hinxton it was actually lovely, with some great single track roads, and the one big detour was a lovely route so well worth it, and probably only added a couple of miles. It needs a better route between Shelford and Hinxton really we were wondering if it's the ford/mini-bridge at Duxford that puts them off the Little Shelford/Whittlesford/Duxford route instead.\n\n
It's been an absolutely gorgeous day, even if a bit cold. Cold enough that we found there were a few places which still had snow on the road, never mind icy puddles, and one tiny one-track road had a 100m section which was basically ice the whole way across the road. We got off and walked up that bit! Totally beautiful though, and we had a lovely time, and got to Stansted Mountfichet just 15 minutes before the hourly train home, which couldn't have been much better timing!\n\n
Route map extracted from the GPS here: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/201
And here's the birds we've seen:\n\n
We're fairly sure we saw both rooks and crows, given a good look at legs and beak with the binoculars, and the crows being in pairs and the rooks in larger groups. The gull I'm less sure wasn't a Herring Gull though: from a distance it's hard to tell size, but the book describes the common gull as being more northern, but sometimes southern and inland during the winter, and doesn't mention the herring gull coming inland, which is what made us initially decide that's what it was. Herring gulls score fewer points though, so I suspect since we saw several more later on that that's what they were. The fieldfare was definitely a treat though, since I don't think I've seen one before, and from the drawings it couldn't really have been anything else: the pale front, rich brown back and grey head were very distinctive.\n\n
Brilliant day out.\n\n
Now with added Photos: over on Facebook (public link)
This year I got re-hooked on LibraryThing, and as an approach to gradually cataloging my books I've made an effort to add and review every book I read this year. The result is 64 books finished, and two borrowed ones I'm partway through. Quite a few were re-reads, and a reasonably large selection were children's books, or the total would be rather lower. I shall continue cataloging next year, although perhaps I won't keep up the reviews. You can see this year's selection here:\n\n
I'm surprised to find that once round the block is nearly 2 miles. Just far enough to test my new Nuvi 550 that Mike spoiled me to for Christmas. And to discover that it really was far too cold for cycling without gloves. And having come back in I've worked out how to translate the data into a format I can import into bikely for a map of where I've been. Yay!\n\n
I wonder if embedding works:\n\n\n
\n\n\nApparently not, oh well, I'll leave this one anyway.
Dropped a prescription off at the GPs today. We're supposed to leave 2 working days before collecting at the local chemist. The note on the drop-off box this morning said they'd be available next Wednesday afternoon. That's over a week! Now I know it's New Year, but that's only one day of bank holiday. Interlink Express aren't doing deliveries today or tomorrow either, so the parcel I missed before Christmas can't be redelivered until I'm back at work.\n\n
In non-rant news Christmas was lovely. Just under a week at mum and dad's, and grandad was staying for much of it, as well as Steph, Dave, Oliver, Em and John staying overnight on Christmas Day itself, and an uncle and aunt and small cousins round on the 23rd too. We might not have done much, but I think we all had a lovely time, and it was really relaxing. (Photos largely contain the baby, so are not public).
\"List the towns or cities where you spent at least a night away from home during 2009. Mark with a star if you had multiple non-consecutive stays.\"
\n\nNo photos, because it was too dark, but last night we got to watch a fox wandering through the snow in the field out the back. It was even better than the barn owl we've seen flying out there a few times. Just magic.
I rarely seem to have enough to say to make a livejournal post about these days. So, what have I been up to this month? We had a lovely early Christmas party round at Karen's, helping to decorate, or mostly watching other people do so :) Mike's work Christmas do was a fairly low key affair at Chiquitos but was fun: not only do you get crackers but mini plastic sombreros and fake moustaches, brilliant! The Christmas shopping is more or less under control, and I'm about to go wrap things. I've sent Christmas cards (at least to family and a few friends, if not everyone). We've played lots of Super Mario World for the wii, which is great fun. And this week it snowed, as I'm sure you know by now :) I've taken far too many photos and put them all on Facebook. Click through the example below to see them all.\n\n
I'm hopeless about writing about things as they happen, but there've been a few things this week that have been ace enough I want to make a note of them.\n\n
Tuesday night was the night of the Leonids meteor shower. The peak was supposed to be around 2am, but no way were we going to stay up that late. So after dinner we wrapped up warm and headed out up the hill to Gog Magog down with binoculars and a blanket. It was clouding up a little, and we only saw three meteors between us, but it was still a lovely evening, and so nice to be up there on our own in the dark. The wind was funny though: cycling up the hill was much easier than usual and instead of free-wheeling back down at a vast pace we actually had to pedal! Fab.\n\n
Thursday was my birthday, and I had a lovely day. Opening presents in bed is always fun, even if you only have 10-15 minutes before Mike really has to get up and leave for work. Dropping the lid of a le creuset paninni press/grill thing on your leg is not recommended, even with a duvet for padding. Mike made me laugh by buying me a pack of four lovely field mushrooms as a treat. A strange present, but very romantic coming from someone who really doesn't like them. I had most of them for tea, along with a nice steak slightly overcooked in the grill thing (a present from mum and dad). I got lots of lovely things from other people too: I'm very lucky. And it was even a nice day at work :)\n\n
We saved going out for Saturday night, with a brief stop in HMV to buy the part of my present from Mike which was inconveniently only released on Friday - Super Mario World for the Wii! A half of Old Rosie in the Mill was followed by dinner at Loch Fyne, where we had the most enormous seafood platter in the world (or so it seemed) complete with a whole crab and a whole lobster. An utter treat, and we were stuffed by the end, so we didn't stay for pudding but went home again on the bus (such style!) and spent the rest of the evening playing Mario. And we played quite a bit more on Sunday - today I have a slight case of Nintendo thumb, and struggle to peel a clementine at coffee time.\n\n
Off to the Dentist after lunch, which I'm not really looking forward to, but hopefully it should all just be routine. And then on Wednesday afternoon we're off to the Register Office to give our Notices of Marriage, an appointment for which Mike had to take time off work. They're too busy at the weekend doing weddings :) And on Friday we'll have been officially going out for four years. Brilliant. Did I mention how lucky I am :)
Rae and Adam invited us and Fluffy for dinner on Saturday to say thankyou to Mike and Fluffy for being bridesmaids. So we got the train to Cardiff arriving late Saturday afternoon with just time to take the dog for a muddy 45 minutes walk before it got dark. Dinner was lovely, with good company and much playing of estimation whist and then hearts after dinner. On Sunday we got up and out of the house about 10:30 and took the dog for another much longer walk, about 2.5 hours with me on the lead for much of the time. I'm still surprised such a small dog is so strong, and so hard to wear out! We ended up with a nice walk along the cliffs though, and Mike and Monster made it down to the beach, although it was a bit too muddy for the rest of us to attempt. We finished off the weekend with a cheap and very plentiful lunch in the pub, and a lovely pint of Brains Dark, before Adam dropped us at the station.\n\n
Having gone all that way it seemed like a good idea to take a couple of days off work and go visit Mike's parents too. So we got a train to Newport, and the bus to Chepstow and a lift home from there to their house, for a lovely curry for dinner and much amusement for me with Gina's Wii Fit Plus: I've already put a copy on my amazon wishlist but Mike now tells me I may need to remove it again :) After dinner Evan dropped us at Phil's house for a pleasant evening of gossip and Rock Band.\n\n
On Monday we got up late and headed out after breakfast at nearly 12 for a nice little bike ride. 23.1 miles and 2100ft of climbing (and descending again!) in around three and a half hours rather completely wore me out, especially after all the walking the previous days. So we slumped on the sofa for the rest of the afternoon before trying to take Evan and Gina out for dinner. But despite us saying it could be a late birthday present to them they still insisted on paying for their half!\n\n
It was lovely to see them anyway, and we had a nice time, and have spent today travelling home again without having to worry about anything more disruptive to the rail network than a cow on the line at Roydon leading to a 15 minute delay. Tired now!
We've booked our wedding venue, and will be getting married on 18th September 2010 at Queens'. We're very excited. Have to go do the Notice of Marriage at the Register Office in the next few weeks, and next weekend me and mum are going to look at wedding dresses. I shall try not to go on about it too much :)\n\n
No new health news :) Back to Addies on Monday to get rescanned to see if the kidney stone has really gone. Still waiting for the results of the blood tests they took at the end of September to see if my hormone and calcium levels have gone back to normal. Otherwise pretty well though, scar is already visibly fading, and I'm still slowly losing weight. 5.5kg to go until I'm no longer obese, at which point I might think about trying to maintain my weight instead. We'll see.\n\n
A couple of lovely parties fairly recently for Laura and Karen's birthdays. Other than that life's been pretty quiet: lots of reading, lots of watching DVDs, not much else. It's all good though.\n\n
Oh, and I'm vaguely considering upgrading to Windows 7, since I can get it cheap as an academic, but it seems my graphics card isn't compatible with their shiny new \"Aero\" style desktop, I'd need new drivers for my ethernet card (not so bad), my AV won't work on it, I'd need more memory to run the 64-bit version, and it's not clear whether any of my games and so-on would run on it. Oh and it definitely won't do the virtualised WinXP compatibility stuff. So it's not looking like a great move really. I might just buy the extra memory instead :)