Author Archives: essiep

Crippling taxation.

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17°C, humid and rain
I’ve had that car a year now and the first tax renewal has arrived. £20 whole pounds! What am I going to do? There is, hidden in there, the option to pay £1.75 a month.

One year on, the car still seems like the best choice. The only problem is the occasional lack of power in some circumstances. While travelling by myself, low power does not matter. It’s when you carry passengers that you feel it. Overall, I get 68 miles per gallon. On some motorway runs, the gauge reaches 74mpg. The best ever was 86mpg.
This is why the car tax is so low.

Decent ride on the Racelite.

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I rode Racelite with MapMyRide+! Distance: 58.87km, time: 02:29:01, pace: 2:32min/km, speed: 23.70km/h.

http://mapmyride.com/workout/1721092376

Getting back into cycling. I always forget how long it takes to return to form. This time, the layoff includes weeks of hiking so it’s different exercise ratios than a real layoff.​

I may actually receive that new bike tomorrow, the Raleigh Mustang.It will come with a rack and mudguards. I have an old seat-pack but no speedo yet.

Wasps’ nest

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23°C, clearing to blue sky. No real wind.
I have a wasps’ nest in my house. It’s actually in an air-brick to the front room. Last year, I blocked the air-brick because ivy was growing through into the room right behind my stereo.
I discovered the nest yesterday when trimming a sapling Ash tree which is trying to establish itself next to the house.
Early in the morning, strange scratching sounds house can be heard from behind the stereo. Moving closer, you could clearly hear buzzing.
I presume they were warming themselves up for the day, or even cooling the nest because the sun shone on the vent.

This presents a problem- what to do, if anything, about it. Continue reading →

Summer cold.

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23°C ,cloudless blue, perfect day.

What a day to get a cold. I have so much to do here at home. Garden, marking and decorating.
At least this may explain why the last few days hiking were not as energetic as normal. Often, I get back feeling that my stamina is indefatigable. Mike R. had a cold mm last week’s expedition. That’s where it came from, no-one else has one.​


More:
My partner pointed out that I have just been on a very demanding (physically) course, in bad weather where I get cold and wet. With all that on top of wind, rain and lugging a heavy load, the expedition was lead by a guy who had a cold.
It’s not surprising then…

Crash sites.

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Up to now, I have found air crash sites while hiking. Remote mountainous areas are a threat to low flying military pilots. Our intended camp was confirmed when we found aircraft wreckage by a small lake. We all pitched together by some crags.
On Mull, a Dakota; Dark Peak, a Lancaster and the Carneddeau, a Camberra.

This picture was taken on the Dark Peak near Kinderscout. The plane was well scattered such that I only saw one engine and some pieces of fuselage. The engine was a radial, possibly a Hercules.

RAF Camberra , here is a turbine engine of the type common in early post war jets.​

This next shot shows what I think may be a tail pipe, also from an engine.​