Climbing in the Spring Snow

Having lived in Scotland for 20+ years, I have mastered the art of moaning constantly about the weather.  Every year, come October time, you'd hear me complain, "it'd been terrible climbing weather this year" or "we ended up spending the whole time watching a mini waterfall run down our climb".  Realising that I'm fast transforming myself into a grumpy old woman, I needed to do something about my climbing plans this year.  Ever resourceful, my climbing partner suggested kicking off the climbing season south of the border, where it's rumoured to be warmer and drier.

Here's our first outing this season, in May, at Crag Lough, Hadrian's Wall, Northumberland:

Four Oh

It's been an action-packed few months since the last post, both at work and at play.  The most important update is Golf Boy turning 'Four Oh' earlier this year.  He celebrated the occasion with a boys' trip to Myrtle Beach.  Not quite there yet myself (ahem...), I haven't really given this much thought, but forty is clearly a significant milestone in adulthood.  Not only did he do all the packing entirely on his own, there was a lack of late and wild nights while they were away.  It seems that playing a minimum of 18 holes each day has resulted in a carnage of sleepy bodies on sofas by 10 pm each evening.

*sigh*  The rock n roll days are over.

Dear Santa
For Christmas this year, I would love a pipe and a pair of slippers.  
Golf Boy x

Scheme $6000

Let me just start with a declaration of interest - Golf Boy and I would like to thank the HK Government for sponsoring our 2012 January adventure.

In HK, Government budget surplus in times of recession has resulted in the proposal of injecting HK$6000 into the retirement savings account of each resident.  However, in a perfect demonstration of the principles of discounting, the Government was soon pressurised into handing out the cash now rather than later.  Economists will tell you that this is not necessarily a bad thing, as a good proportion of the money would no doubt be immediately re-injected into the local economy.  Interestingly, a straw poll on family, friends and friends of family and friends soon revealed that there were really two key beneficiaries of this exercise: (1) The Hong Kong Jockey Club and (2) Apple - on the sale of iPad 2 and iPhone 4.

My $6000 pretty much all went towards a week of R&R in Penang and Langkawi with Golf Boy.  We had a fantastic time exploring Georgetown and sampling all the amazing street food on offer, followed by a very relaxing time on the island of Langkawi.  The highlights of the trip included: watching a family of long-tailed macaque through our balcony window, seeing dusky leaf monkeys in the wild, snorkelling around a coral nursery, visiting a bat cave and kayaking through the mangroves (in a double kayak with Golf Boy).

Taken by Golf Boy

Clearly couldn't have been doing his fair share of paddling!

Our January adventure ended with welcoming the Year of the Dragon with family in HK.  Four consecutive nights of banqueting for 20 with the whole extended family, can't say we hadn't celebrated in style.

January photos shall be appearing soon on flickr.

Bring on 2012!

Ah, at last January 2012, Golf Boy and I are off on holiday!

We're currently sitting at the airport, waiting for our delayed flight to London, then hopefully onto to HK.  Those of you who are familiar with my travel stories will know that they are rarely uneventful.  Following a mad couple of days of sorting out work and the flat, organising fish-sitter, shopping for presents to take home and packing, we went to bed last night thinking "that's it, R&R time from now".  Not yet, it seems - this morning, I found myself wide awake at 6 am.  It must be the excitement of finally off on holiday I thought, but soon realised it was the noise of the lead capping on the roof flapping against the chimney that woke me.  Also, the Met Office had issued a red alert earlier, and no flights have left or arrived Glasgow before noon today.  Having left our keys with our neighbour and run off, we're now waiting in hope that our's will be the first flight from Glasgow to Heathrow today...

... a day later, I'm wide awake at 6 am again.  This time however, is due to jet-lag, so no complaints.