Emergency Alerts

The emergency alert testing came when we were at the Repair Cafe.  It was interesting to see other people's reaction.  It is sad that some people think preparedness is a joke.

National Three Peaks - Day 3

The team came back down unscathed.  The road out from Wasdale was still full of sheep, I also encountered a frog and a mouse.  I drove us back to M6, then Jason took over.  From the motorway to Wales, were all motorway, so we all managed to have a little sleep.  We picked up James and went to park up at Yr Wyddfa, aka Snowdon.

Matt has recovered, so leaving Jason and me at the van.  We witness how many buses and coaches dropping off hundreds of walkers and there was a fell running event.

Jason and I managed to dose off for a bit ready for more driving later.  The team took longer than expected to come back down due to human congestion on the hill.  And Jason drove to drop himself off, James and Simon hopped off also.  Then we dropped off Steph and Chris in Chester.

Finally, I drove Matt back home, all motorway from Chester, so back on cruise control, absolutely godsend.  He picked up the car and I did more unloading and tidying of the van.  Driving challenge completed!

Drive distance ~180 miles, Lake district rural roads and motorway.

National Three Peaks - Day 2

We all had breakfast at 7:30am, we all ate them quite quickly.  I had some potato scones, they were quite fried.  Somehow nobody did porridge.

It was a short drive to Ben Nevis and off they went.  There was some internet at the bottom of Ben Nevis, so that gave me hours to entertain myself with Japanese and chess.  An hour and a half later, Jason turned up, his knee was playing up, so he came back down.  He really wanted to do Ben Nevis, which was a shame.  However, that meant we now have two dedicated drivers, which was a blessing.

As the day goes on, the car park was filling up, Ben Nevis is also popular with Europeans.

A few hour later, Matt turned up, his thigh was playing up.  He was so close to the top.  Then everyone else came back.  We went to the supermarket for lunch.  Jason drove us to Carlisle.  From Carlisle, we got some dinner and I drove the Wasdale Head.  Typical Lake District rural roads, which was not fun, even less fun when in a van.  There were a lot of sheep and an owl.

Jason and Matt stayed at the car with me, we tried to have a little sleep.  We succeeded in varying degree.

I drove ~80 miles, short shuttle to Ben Nevis plus Lake District rural road.

National Three Peaks - Day 1

Matt came to my house to hop on the van.  We also picked Steph up as her train was delayed.  Only when we joined the motorway, we realised the van was speed limited!  I do love the cruise control.

We stopped at Penrith for lunch and went to Glasgow to pick everyone else up.  By then, I have already driven for 5 hours, so I passed the key to Chris for the last leg to Fort William.  On the way to Fort William, I told Hayley about this, and she correctly called this a driving challenge.

Once we checked into the hotel, I did my Japanese learning then we had a dinner together.

Everyone was resting early for the long days ahead.

I drove ~222 miles mostly motorway.

National Three Peaks - Day 0

I don't think I have the fitness to do the three peaks, so I volunteered to be a driver.  The van was delivered, so I loaded up my driver's essentials and took pictured of all the existing dents.

I also brough a stove for making hot water in the hills in the middle of the night.

Maud Foster Windmill

We had Maud Foster windmill's flour before, but we only got them from the farm shop.  I finally got to see Maud Foster Windmill.  It is a five sails windmill very centrally located in Boston.  I tried to ring the shop to see if they would open up for me to buy some flour, but noone was answering the phone, shame.

As it turns out, Maud Foster was named after the Maud Foster Drain, and Maud Foster Drain name origin is not known.

Heckington Windmill

I stopped by Heckington to look at the eight sails windmill.  The site is well established, with different business and tempting flours.  It is quite pretty too.

Golden Kiwi

I was made to try some Golden Kiwi.  It tastes a bit like a soft ripen pear.  Either way, I will take a good apple or a good orange anytime, and for the price of that, I don't see why I would ever buy them, they are very much not a treat for me.