Month: June 2014

[caption id="attachment_1633" align="alignnone" width="640"] Highland Coos[/caption] One of my favourite memories from childhood is the vision of the finest looking cattle in the UK - the Highland 'Coo' (for those who are thinking I've made a mistake in my title spelling, read on!).   The memories are not confined to seeing them grazing in the fields but I also remember them as the iconic symbol of a famous Scottish toffee known as "Highland Toffee" made by McGowans in Stenhousemuir - also famous for its football team :-)  Having researched this toffee for my blog, I just found out the firm went bust in 2011.  However, the brand survived and the toffee bars are now made in England (grrrrr, sacrilege!). The first overnight stay during the Hadrian's Wall challenge (see blog links below) was…

I met quite a few interesting people during my walk of Hadrian's Wall last month. On Day 3 when Chris and I were accompanied by Dave Taylor, we could see a couple heading up the hill that we were progressing down.  We couldn't help noticing that the male of the duo was continually stopping to talk to others and we were no exception.  His wife kept overtaking him at these points not saying a word. He got chatting to me and Dave and we worked out he was Irish.  I love Irish people and I know they like to talk - but this guy was really good at it!  We discussed where we were all from and he proceeded to tell us that most big companies in the world were run by Irish people or those descended from…

  [caption id="attachment_1467" align="alignleft" width="288"] Good Results[/caption]   You can tell there is a football competition on and they don't get bigger than the World Cup which I believe is one of the world's great sporting competitions second only to the Olympics?  Like it or not, this is a time when football fans suddenly become experts, apparently knowing even more about the game than the managers, players, pundits and commentators - particularly in hindsight after the match!  Is it just me or do you also wonder why these 'armchair pundits' aren't in the aforementioned jobs :-) Social media has increased the reach of the armchair pundits and consequently we now have to listen to running commentaries of every game and of course their disapproval of any decision or infringement against the…

One of the first tasks on return from Hadrian's Wall was to catch up with my favourite TV show Game of Thrones (GOT).  The latest story concerns Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf son of Lord Tywin Lannister. Tyrion is technically the heir to House Lannister, thus why his father Tywin is plotting to get rid of him using the murder of King Joffrey as the reason. There was even talk of him being banished for eternity to be the Lord of the Sworn Brothers of the 'Night's Watch' on the Wall to face the 'blue painted' barbarians not to mention the mysterious 'White Walkers'.  Can't wait until tonight's episode :-) The GOT writer used Hadrian's Wall as his inspiration for the Wall in the TV series.  This fictitious wall is a colossal fortification which stretches along…

[caption id="attachment_1155" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Wet but happy![/caption] Well we did it! Chris and I finished our 84 mile Hadrian's Wall challenge on Saturday 31 May 2014 around 1630 hours at Bowness-on-Solway.  The final leg from Carlisle was listed as 14.5 miles but on our app it was more like 16 miles. We headed straight to the only pub in the village for a celebratory pint!  Very happy to be finished :-) We had trained for 4 months for this challenge but it was tougher than we had imagined, particularly the effect on our feet.  That's not to say the training was a waste of time, far from it. The terrain across the walk is so varied ranging from tarmac to mud (and we mean deep mud!).   The weather could…