For newcomers

At the bottom of each post there is the word "comments". If you click on it you will see comments made by followers, and if you follow the instructions you may also comment and I always welcome that. I have found many people overlook this part of the blog which is often more interesting than the original post!

My blog nick-name is SIR HUGH. I'm not from the aristocracy - my middle name is Hugh which relates to the list of 282 hills in Scotland compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891. I climbed my last one (Sgurr Mor) on 28th June 2009

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Sunday 24 September 2017

Two Thursday walks and an update


Well I'm still here. Two weeks without a post!

Unfortunately going back about ten days I received news of three deaths on three successive days. My old friend from the Bradford climbing days in the late fifties and early sixties Mike Dickson who some readers here would have known died suddenly, but I only heard about that a couple of weeks after the event. The next day Pete, another member of that  group now living in Arnside and with whom I walk on Thursdays rang me. Pete, along with another neighbour, have been looking after an aged gent across the road called Oswald and doing his weekly shop for the last couple of years or so. Pete had gone across as usual the day he rang me to find Oswald had died sitting in his chair, so Pete was involved with all the formalities that followed. The day after my son William rang me in tears to say his best friend Cookie had been found dead in Preston after coming off his mountain bike - it later transpired he had suffered a heart attack.

Also during this two week period my iPhone had stopped connecting to WiFi - it is out of guarantee and I had bought it outright. I made an appointment with the Apple shop in Manchester's Trafford Centre. They replaced the phone, like for like, free of charge, and also happily transferred the contents from old phone to new. Their contactabilty and service has hugely improved.

Back home I found my Memory Map maps (all of Great Britain OS 1:25000 and OS 1:50000) had not come across. After a short exchange with Memory Map by email I got the 1:25000 re-downloaded - Memory Map responded to my emails within an hour - another huge improvement in help and service. I had more trouble with the 1:50000 because the files were on my computer and needed transferring via iTunes, one of the most un-user-friendly software packages known to me. In order to get to the  page to show Apps and "device" i.e. the iPhone you have to click on a tiny, oblong unidentifiable icon about an eighth of an inch by a sixteenth. There is no  mention of the word Apps in any of the dropdown menus or elsewhere that I could find - it is like having a car manual that that doesn't mention oil or brakes. Somewhat to my humiliation I was pointed in the right direction by Memory Map.

Then, my oven ceased to work and on one of two Thursday walks with Pete I ordered a new one at Appliance Direct in Morecambe. I hesitated at deciding to pay £69 for it to be installed on delivery but it turned out to be the best money I've spent for a long time. The oven was supposed to slide in on rails which needed to be screwed to the insides of the units, but my space was not suitable. The fitting guy ingeniously took the legs off the old oven and fixed them on the new - it would have taken me all day to sort, if at all. We then discovered that the gap between units and an inward opening kitchen door prevented removal of the old oven. As the guy was pondering this problem I went back to some work in my garage and then shortly after I came back and he had managed to extricate the oven - how I have no idea.

I have had two short Thursday walks with Pete, about three miles each, partly due to poor weather and my on-going knee affliction which is getting worse. I have now confirmed the hospital have received my gp's referral and the appointment with the surgeon will be eight to ten weeks away. I can ring periodically to see if they have had any cancellations.

The first of the two two walks was down the prom from Morecambe to Heysham, and the second  walking north up the prom from the Battery. Here are a few photos.

CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

A number of water fountains spurt spasmodically - these dogs were frolicking and having a ball 

North to Morecambe and across the bay to the Lakes

Stone graves at St Peter's church, Heysham


On the second walk - across the bay to the Lakes. Grange-over-Sands prominent when you click to enlarge


Zoom to Ingleborough from my living room window - I liked the mélange of colours in the clouds

The ash tree at the top of my drive. It was only a dwarf when I came here sventeen years ago.
Now it sheds sticky seedy things onto my car and dead branches onto the grass, and interferes with my incoming telephone line, but despite all that I am sort of imprsseed with it - I just wonder how much bigger it is going to grow. The wind was blowing hard so definition suffered.


12 comments:

  1. An eventful fortnight - I'm sorry that it wasn't the cheeriest two weeks for you though.

    Have you tried out any knee supports? I've experimented with different types, the most effective (for me) is a patella strap. I wouldn't suggest that it's a cure-all but it may help you in the short term.

    Nice photographs, are you still using your TZ60?

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  2. JJ - I've not tried knee supports recently - I did in the past but never found them much help. I took the plunge and bought the TZ100 - Wilkinson's Cameras took the TZ 60 in part exchange and there was a £50 cash-back deal which I can't claim until after 5th October. The TZ100 is giving quite good results mainly on Intelligent auto setting at the moment. In particular I like the colour rendition.

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  3. I'm delighted to hear about such good service, though given the way Apple mulct their slavish customers good service might well be expected from them. I have found another terrific computer chap who visits me within 48 hours of a problem and is most reluctant to bill me. Especially when, as on one occasion, the solution took just a few minutes and he said "I can't bill you for that." I insist he bills me because I want him to stay in business. His house visits, however lengthy the work, cost no more than £35 all in.

    I eventually bought a new Motorola smartphone (powered by Android) for £85, lost patience with its fiddlyness and put it to one side. Later I visited CD Exchange where I had £30 credit which I thought had expired but they pointed out I hadn't examined the dates closely enough, that the voucher expired in 3017 not 2017. This credit plus £10 bought me an old fashioned smartphone based on Windows (albeit horrible Windows 8) which I was able to fiddle with more intuitively. At which point I reckoned I was ready for the Motorola again and GMaps (which came free) is now all set up for our forthcoming visit to Cardiff to celebrate out 57th. We will, among other things, be seeing the opera Khovanschchina with which I assume you are only too familiar.

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  4. RR - I have just kicked out BT as my Broadband and landline provider and replaced with EE - Circa £46/month versus £26/month with increased facilities including the landline on the latter. I also use EE for my iPhone and iPad phone lines. EE have a phone help system manned by people who speak proper English based in the UK and you get through to them more or less straightaway. I think many of these service providers have realised that they just can't continue with unintelligible assistants and endless waiting times. In the past I used Vodafone and I have nightmarish memories of waiting, interpreting, going round in circles, and being cut off et al.

    Khovanschchina sounds like a bundle of fun including a mass suicide, but there is some light, hopefully, with the influence of Shostakovich.

    Congratulations on your forthcoming 57th. I would have sent you a text message but I suspect that like many recalcitrant smart phone users you will have the thing turned off most of the time?

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  5. That's excellent service from Apple, Conrad. I bought my iPhone (as did Lynne), iPad etc from John Lewis because they gave an extra year's guarantee which fortunately I've never needed. However it seems that buying direct from Apple is as good as having that extra year.

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  6. Afoot - Yes. It seems you can't get much discount on Apple stuff so you might as well go to the source. I can't be bothered to research it, but I think the law stipulates repair or replacement in these kind of circumstances up to two years, but the point is that there was no hesitation from Apple in complying, if indeed they are compelled to. If not, so much the better for them.

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  7. Eighteen months ago I paid full price for my 64GB iPhone 6s Plus but earlier this year Lynne got the 128GB version for the price of the 64GB one. A rare event I'm sure.

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  8. afoot - How much of 128gb has Lynne used - it is a huge amount on a phone.

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  9. Sir Hugh - yes, it is massive for a phone. Lynne would never had paid the extra £100 for the 128gb but it seemed daft not to buy it at the 64gb price - and the colour was right...

    She's used only 15gb so far but I imagine it will increase substantially in the next year, although I doubt she'll get anywhere near using the 128gb.

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  10. Passing over the problems emotional and technical...
    Gardeners' question time.
    Conrad I would get rid of that ash tree. Next thing it will be dropping ever larger branches onto your car, ashes do that. A car was squashed outside my house from the old ash across the road, that made me cut down the one between me and my neighbour [Mike] before it grew into a monster.
    Pruning only delays the moment and becomes more and more expensive.
    Why don't I come up with my chain saw?

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  11. Sorry to hear all your bad news Conrad, but there is a bit of good mixed in. We are now back at home and looking forward to a trip up your way sometime...

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  12. bowlandclimber - unfortunately the tree is not mine. it grows on a strip between my house and the road owned by one of the local authorities (South Lakeland District Council I think) and in the present days of economies I don't think they would be agreeable to sorting it. The tree is massive and felling would involve closure of the road at some stage and could only realistically be done by professionals, but thanks for the offer. I wonder if I could sue them if it took out my car and caravan etc. if it falls?

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    Phreerunner - Welcome home. You and Sue are welcome here for a brew anytime if I'm about, but not for a walk at the moment. The odd three miles I have done with Pete recently on Thursdays has been done on the flat and at a very steady pace, but there is not much pleasure in walking for me at the moment.

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