Celebration Walk? Winter Blast!

"It's the first day of your retirement. You should do something special to celebrate", said Dawn. Hmm. Jet off somewhere and stay overnight? How about e.g Bologna in Northern Italy? Perhaps not. I'm not sure that the  coronavirus there would do me any good. I decided a nice treat a bit closer to home would be some fresh grilled mackerel for lunch at the Ferryboat Inn in North Felixstowe. And I could have a bit of a seaside walk while I was at it. Nice idea.... but the seaside walk bit?

I drove to Felixstowe. The weather on the way was not encouraging... rain pelting the windscreen. But I was not to be denied my walk. Shame I neglected to bring my waterproof trousers! I parked a bit along from the Spa Pavilion Theatre at the sea front. A chance to try out my waterproof rucksack cover and rain hat I had got for Christmas! I was grateful the former stayed in place despite the wind, but I had to literally hold onto my hat to keep it in place.

This was my route.

Here are a few pictures.

Some of the beach had escaped in places.

The sea was quite rough and the clouds lowered menacingly as the rain stinged my exposed bits.

I maybe should have turned back as the wind was rather fierce and the horizontal rain  meant my trousers weren't protected by my waterproof top. But I was determined. Or should that be stubborn?

It was a relief to reach my destination.

I was pleased to find the mackerel was on the specials menu. And a pint of Timothy Taylor's Boltmaker went down well with it.

It was delicious! But I had to apologise to the staff for the puddles where my waterproof had drained onto the floor and where my shoes had been and the wet chair where I had sat. I checked the weather. "7 degrees, feels like -1". But the rain was due to get lighter.

And so I headed back to my car. By now the tide had come in a bit and the waves grown even bigger so walking back along the seafront didn't seem a great idea. Instead I walked along the road... but still into the teeth of the 40-50 mph wind and rain. About halfway through the golf course one driver kindly stopped and asked if I wanted a lift, but I didn't take up the offer. Here's what I could see from the top of the sea cliff.

I was getting a bit cold by the time I got to my car. My top half had been kept dry by my new waterproof bought on my trip to Melrose, but my trousers and shoes and socks were sodden.

I was glad I hadn't tried walking along the sea front.

I was also glad of my heated car seat on the way home and, even with it, I was still feeling cold when I got there... a slight case of hypothermia, I think.

But I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Mission accomplished. Now. How about a trip to somewhere warmer? Maybe soon.... Today was but the start of, I hope, many years of freedom from work.

You can see details of my route here on MapMyWalk.

Retired!

Yesterday was my last day at work. It's an odd feeling to know I don't need to plan around my two days a week at work any more. And it's good to know I don't have to do that commute to Cambridge either, although I will miss my walk back to my car in the workday evenings.

After not seeing a snowflake all winter there was some yesterday morning.... here's my car windscreen before I set off.

I parked at the Newmarket Rd Park&Ride, took the bus and walked from the bus station. Parker's Piece looked suitably wintery.

 And here are the pretty daffodils in the office grounds with a sprinkling of snow.

I had a lovely day, tinged with sadness at saying good-byes and I was well and truly spoiled at my leaving presentation. A leaving/retirement card with lots of lovely messages, a bottle of Cambridge gin (labelled "For Inspiration"), to encourage me to carry out my idea of getting a little still and add Tassel Gin to Tassel Enterprises' produce catalogue, and two great books - Robert MacFarlane's best-selling The Old Ways about walkways and walking (I'd seen it but never read it) and The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart about all the botanicals that are used to make drinks. I will enjoy learning from it and applying it to the gin-making.

But best of all, and surely a unique leaving present, my colleagues had collaborated in compiling a crossword for me and got it framed (I was also give a paper copy to write on).

I'm saving it for the weekend to try and solve, but it looks a bit tricky!

About 4:30pm I handed over my laptop and said my final goodbyes. Then it was one more look at the building before my last walk back from there to Newmarket Rd Park&Ride.

The evenings are lighter now and there were plenty of boats on the river - the Lent bumps are on!

On my way, I managed to pick up the two Dinky Doors I didn't have time to visit on Monday on my Diddle-daddle.

So. Many thanks to all for their best wishes and brilliant gifts. I may not be coming to the office any more, but don't forget to invite me to any future celebrations, including, of course, the Cambridge Beer Festival.

You can see a few more of my photos here on Flickr

QC Blogging Day

Times Quick Cryptic No 1559 by Des - Ménage a trois?

I got off to a flying start with this, with the first 3 across clues, but then I discovered it was no picnic. I was pleased to get 3 of the 4 words around the outside quickly which gave me plenty of checkers for the other clues. Nothing too horse-scaring, I think, with no obscure words or arcane general knowledge. For what it's worth, it took me 5:33, which is just about my average time. Who are Helen, Jack and the reckless Violet, I wondered? COD to the 15D trilogy. Thanks Des. How did everyone else get on?

[Edit: Given the other early times, It would appear I was fully on Des's wavelength with this, so don't be discouraged if you found it harder than I did. I'm astounded to see I was faster than Verlaine!]

P.S. Oh. By the way. Excuse the self-indulgence... A bit of a milestone for me today - it's my first day of retirement. And yesterday, my wonderful (now) ex-colleagues, by way of a leaving present, presented me with a framed version of this crossword that they had compiled! No. I haven't tried to solve it yet, but it looks quite tricky.

( Read all about it... )

Dinky Doors Discovery Diddle-Daddle

On a Cambridge walk last month, we chanced across some funny little statues, one at Reality Checkpoint and the other by a postbox along the river. On researching afterwards, I found they were part of a collection of Dinky Doors.

I was invited to a "non-leaving do" in Cambridge yesterday evening (one of my colleagues resigned and then changed her mind) so decided to go a little early and go looking for more of them.

Here is the map showing where they are.

I was on the train so my starting point was at the Railway Station. I didn't have time for all of them (numbers 5 and 9 were a bit far for the time I had), but this was my route around the rest of them.

Here are my photos of them. Click on the links to read the story of each from the Dinky Doors Blog.

No 2 - Reality Checkpoint 2.0

No. 4. - 10 1/4 Downing Street. This one took me a while to spot.

No. 3 - Teleport-o-Matic. Hidden between two telephone boxes.

No. 7 - Love from Above. It helped to know where Whewell Court is.

No. 8 - Ride and Park. At the side of the footbridge.

and, finally, No. 6 - Wonder Emporium.

Well that was fun. It was just a shame I couldn't pick up the other 2 at the same time. "But your route stops on King Street, John". Yes. That's because I was at my destination for the evening, The Cambridge Brewhouse. Time for some beer!

You can find more details of my route on MapMyWalk here.

P.S. The videos on the Dinky Doors site are really worth watching, so do click the links above!
P.P.S. And don't forget to browse the catalogue of amazing products available at the Wonder Emporium here.

Addendum 28th Feb.

Following my last day at work yesterday, I managed to visit the last two on my way back to my car.

No. 5 - The Emailerator, next to a funny spiky postbox.

And, finally, No. 9 - The Dinky Flying Object

So that's the complete collection. Thanks Dinky Doors! And thanks for the comment on the blog.

My last week...

...of employment. Oh my goodness. How did that come around so quickly?

This is my last week working for Cambridge Assessment as I am stopping work at the end of February... which means this Thursday will be my last day!

This is the invite I sent to my colleagues for my leaving do this Wednesday, 26th Feb.

"After 4 years including the best part of 2 years working part-time, I am finishing work at the end of this month to spend even more time walking, brewing, crossword solving (and maybe compiling), blogging (and maybe writing a book of walks) and making music  I will be at The Salisbury Arms, Tenison Rd from 5pm for a beer or two. Please do come and join me if you can."

And that invite extends to any readers who may be in Cambridge on Wednesday evening.

New Bridleway

A short walk for me this afternoon after our roast lamb dinner...

After a visit to Home Bargains, I decided to take a route home via the underpass under the A14 and along the new bridleway.

It was a bit blustery and the clouds were blowing by. I quite liked these...

The brideway itself is well constructed and much easier walk than the muddy path it replaced.

It's a pity the A14 is so close that you can hear the traffic thundering by, but it got me a bit of exercise to walk off my lunch.

Nearly Spring

After the trip away and working Thursday and Friday this week, it was time to catch up on things at home. But I still managed my regular Saturday afternoon walk into town to see what I can pick up at the market. The spring beds in the Abbey Gardens are still to come out...

...but there was blosson along the river and a lovely patch of little narcissi and crocuses just across the bridge and along the path to Sjakers Lane.

Yes. Spring is springing.

Melrose and Bowden Visit

We are just back from 5 days away, visiting sister-in-law Jane and family in Bowden, near Melrose, and stopping off to collect sister-in-law Jilly and husband Ian on the way there (and dropping them off on the way back).

A lovely few days and some spectacular scenery while driving North from Brierfield in Lancashire across country to the M6 and then up the A7. No impassible floods on our route and we were north of teh bad weather once we got to Scotland.

Not a lot of walking, although I did get to walk from our rented cottage on the outskirts of Melrose to Bowden on Monday morning to collect my car.

This was my route....

...although there's an extra bit at the end when I forgot to turn my tracker off when I got to my car until I got to the junction with the road back to Melrose.

Here are a few of my photos (and a video).

We stayed at Harleyburn Saddlery in the grounds of Harleyburn Coach House. We were made very welcome by Claire and Donald and had a lovely spacious cottage dating from 1710.

We went to see Jane, and were brought back by her husband David late at night.

Sisters....

(click to play).

Yes, a few bottles got emptied. Luckily we had had young Bethany around to keep us in order as we played some boards games.

Here are a few views from my walk back the following morning.

Snow on the Lammermuir Hills.

Looking back to Melrose.

Some Galloway cattle.

Oo look. A rainbow.

I left the road at Bowden Loch....

...and came down the side of the Eildon  Hills....

...passing close to St. Cuthbert's Way.

The fields towards the bottom of the hill were rather muddy, but the footpaths not too bad and there were plenty of snowdrops.

The Pant Well in Bowden. Not far to my car now.

I told you the fields were muddy,

Here are some more of my photos from around Melrose, including the whisky shop, the town square, the Abbey, some Bannock, The Doocot, The River Tweed, Drinks at the Woollen mill,  and some scenes from a further short walk to Newstead and back before we left yesterday.

That was a lovely few days away and we were lucky with the weather. It hasn't been so good there for the last few days!

You can see more of my route here on map my walk and more of my photos here on Flickr.