August Bank Holiday Weekend

It’s been a few weeks since I posted anything on here and that’s partially due to my own laziness and partially down to being back at work after a brief period of being furloughed, I managed about a month before I was asked back into the office, and clearing the backlog that being away from the office, for even the briefest time, creates.

The weekend just past was the last bank holiday before Christmas, and the only time off I currently have between now and then, and I spent the long weekend taking in some pretty spectacular views up in the hills of deepest, darkest Shropshire.

It's been a while so it was definitely good to get out and hiking again, though I did manage to hurt my back and mildly sunburn my face.

I stayed in a lovely little shepherds hut, with a nice log burning stove, a comfy bed, a composting toilet and nothing or no-one else, other than the farm it is situated on, for miles around.

My car had a hell of a work out getting there, it's a little, low slung, 1.4 litre hatchback. It isn't really designed for steep hills and rough roads, but it managed admirably and, other than a few extra scratches, doesn't seem any worse for wear.

It's Tuesday now and I'm back at work, which is a hell of a come down, but at least I have some nice photos, and a sore face, to distract me.

Fear Is The Only Logical Response

This is the war cry of a truly vicious creature, the dreaded attack squirrel. Tremble before it's glorious might and live in constant fear of invoking it's squirrely wrath.

Sometimes I spend so much time stuck in my own head, trying to make my own world work, that I forget to look around me. I spend so much of my time being introspective and self critical that so much beauty passes me by completely unnoticed.

The Downwards Spiral

Since my last post I've been trying to shake off the downwards spiral I've put my life in general into over the last few months. I'd been feeling really low, I was letting the negative thoughts get to me and I was getting to the stage where I wasn't connecting with the things I enjoy and care about. In order to pull myself together and get back on track I need to make positive changes to my lifestyle, I need to reconnect and I need to improve my general health and well being. Losing a bit of weight, getting myself back down to the size I was a few years ago and improving my health in general seemed like a good starting point.

For me the obvious first step was trying to cut down on my alcohol consumption, over the last few months this had steadily increased to the point where it had become an issue. It was a primary factor in my recent weight gain and was starting to become very expensive. I'm mainly a real ale and craft beer drinker, so I'd been spending as much on beer as on almost all of my other expenditures combined. I'm not going to make out like it was an epic struggle, I am not and have never been dependant on alcohol. Though with that said I was definitely using it as a sort of comfort blanket, slipping in to the gentle mellowness that comes on the edge of being drunk and using it to shut off the negative thoughts that are almost constantly running through my mind. The way I saw it the solution was fairly simple, do not buy beer, either by avoiding the temptation entirely or by going in with "do not buy beer" set at the forefront of my mind. So far this solution has been very successful, I haven't bought beer and if the beer isn't in the house then I can't drink it.

The second step is a little harder for me to face, I need to cut down on my snacking and tweak my general diet to include less junk and more healthy food. This is always particularly hard for me as I'm a bit of a foodie, eating is hugely important to me, I derive more pleasure from eating than almost anything else in my life. Combined with the fact that my general food preferences largely consist of meat and meat based products means that my day to day calorie intake tends to be fairly high. For me the easiest part of getting my eating under control was to cut down on the snacking, I've done this by initially replacing my normal unhealthy snacks with fruit and veg before slowly cutting the number of snacks down to just a couple of pieces of fruit a day. Once I'd got snacking under control I moved on to adjusting my breakfast routine, for me breakfast usually consisted of something along the lines of a ham and cheese sandwich, beans and cheese on toast or toasted bagels and chocolate spread. I needed to replace this and decided cereals would be the way to go, after testing several different cereals I came to conclusion that no added sugar or salt muesli offered the best compromise between flavour and being healthy. Now I'm starting to get my eating under control, my calorie intake is down and I'm eating more fruit and veg, it's time to introduce the next step.

The third step is to try and exercise more, now I'm never going to be the kind of guy who spends his life in gym, that is definitely not for me. Instead I decided it was time to get out and about and start walking at weekends. When I was younger I loved going camping, hiking, etc. I loved to get out into the country and just enjoy being outside, away from the hustle and bustle, away from the town centre crowds. Part of me would love to re-capture that outdoors spirit and the freedom I felt, part of me just hates being surrounded by people and loves the solitude. Either way the last few weekends I've spent heading out into the middle of nowhere and following one of the many planned walking routes. I have to say it's been a very nice experience, I've seen some beautiful countryside, some gorgeous woodlands, charming villages and wonderful wildlife.  I don't know if it's physically doing me any good, I haven't noticed any weight loss, but it's definitely lifting my mood and I'm definitely rediscovering my love of the English countryside and the great outdoors in general.

These are changes that I should really have made a long time ago and realistically, if I'm genuinely going to get my life back on track, there's a long way to go and a lot more changes that I need to make. I know I don't have the best track record with this kind of thing, I'm definitely guilty of procrastination and I nearly always take the easy way out, but I'm genuinely hoping I can keep this up and can actually start to make the changes I need to be the person I want to be.

Walking and the Great Outdoors

Second Time Around

Last week my partner and I decided we were going to make our first attempt at geocaching, we weren't exactly successful. We found a grand total of zero caches, which was slightly disapointing, although we did have a lot of fun trying. Coming to the conclusion that last week we'd been a little over ambitious with our choice of caches, we decided to make our second attempt this week but this time we would head off in a different direction and search for some caches that are easier to find.

This time around I can gladly say we had a lot more success, we found our very first cache after just a few minutes of looking. We signed and dated the log before leaving a small item and replacing the cache where we found it, being careful to make sure it was pretty well hidden from site. Shortly after we found the location of a second cache, which had unfortunately been vandalised and was awaiting replacement by its owner.

Though we had originally planned to continue along our route and seach for a third cache, in the same area, the discovery of the vandalisation of one of the local caches had left us feeling a little disheartened and some what annoyed by the mindset of someone who would do something like that for no other reason than it was there and they could.

Though this has far from put us off from geocaching, in fact we are planning on heading a little further afield and maybe making a day of it this weekend. It has made me think twice about planting a cache of my own, something I wanted to do in a small local park not far from our house. I dont think I will ever fully understand that disrespectful, destructive mind set.

Geo Adventuring In Kirkby

My partner and I live together on the outskirts of a small town called Kirkby-in-Ashfield, the area we actually live in is the old part of town and is surprisingly rural. Basically all you have to do is walk for 5 minutes in most directions from our house and you will literally be surrounded by fields and small areas of woodland. That said we have actually explored very little of the surrounding countryside, despite the fact that both myself and my partner enjoy walking.

Last weekend we decided it was time for that to change. Several months ago my partner had stumbled across a passtime known as geocaching and although we both thought the concept was interesting, neither of us had really done much in the way of research into it. That was up until a couple of weeks ago when one us downloaded the android app and discovered that there are in fact several caches within a couple of miles of our house. Knowing that these caches are so close made us curious and last weekend we set out to find our first cache, after a little deliberation we chose which cache we wanted to head for and consulted the map to work out the best route. The cache we chose is situated by a small stream in an area of woodland a little over a mile from our house.

Having located the rough area we were heading for, we packed a small bag of essentials and set off. Less that 10 minutes into the walk and we were absolutely surrounded by corn fields, we followed a public footpath right through the middle of some truly picturesque country and down into the woods. We were both surprised by just how dense the patch of woodland is and how pretty it is considering we were literally a 20 minute walk from the centre of Kirkby. After double checking our map to ensure we were in the right area we headed into the woods and selected the path that looked most likely to take us in the right direction. As we headed further into the woods we noticed that the ground was starting to get muddy and my partner Kelly started to get a little anxious about falling in. We spent the next 45 minutes or so slowly trecking through the woods, investigating every nook and cranny, poking in to holes in trees and taking photos all in the hope of locating some hidden cache of mini treasures so we could sign the log and swap one of their nicknacks for one of our own. Eventually we ran out of woodland and, feeling slightly disappointed in ourselves, we decided to head back, taking a slightly different route just to give ourselves one last chance at success. This it turned out was a mistake as the path we chose led into some heavily muddy areas and both my partner an myself ended up slipping over on more than one occasion.

Unfortunately we made it all the way back home without finding a single cache, this hasn't dampened our spirits too much though as we are already plotting our route for this weekend with high hopes of our first cache find.

Lost Thoughts

Over the last few years I have found that I tend to do my best thinking on my walk into work. Whilst this might, at first, seem like an odd time to be lost in thought, in reality it is not. By that point in the morning I have been awake and active for some time, I have generally showered, eaten a fairly healthy breakfast, of porridge and dried fruit, and drank at least one large glass of water or fruit juice. Bearing this in mind I am actually well primed for my working day, both mentally and physically. However being well prepared for work does not mean that I am actually ready to face spending yet another 10 hours surrounded by people I despise, doing a job I can barely stand. To help prepare myself for this, as soon as I step out of the door my body goes into auto pilot and my mind becomes lost in private imaginings and thoughts. Unfortunately this means that by the time my working day is over, and I’m back and my parents, I have completely forgotten any ideas that I may have had.