Wow, isn't this great!

Hello All,

Kathryn has just showed me how to post things on here. So exciting! So I thought I would share my day of interview with you all. I went to a school to be interviewed for a biology teaching position. I gave a lesson and the kids were great! They asked good questions and had lots of ideas. But I'm not sure if I would miss my research, as there is a job coming up at the zoology department here in Oxford too. But on the other hand, the school would pay well and I get a subsidised flat to live in!

Right, Li'l Bear and I are off to the pub.

Take care, y'all
Simon

Breakfast of Champs

Not sure if this is quite everyone's cup of tea (I seem to remember some derisive snorting when I mentioned it at Hannah's), but on THURSDAY 5 OCTOBER my mates down at Breakfast of Champs are putting on another of their legendary UK Hip-Hop nights in Hammersmith, and it'd be great to see you all there. Entry's four quid, and it's probably the only chance you'll get to see any live urban music without being stabbed to death (if you are stabbed, Charing X hospital is next door).

For more info see:

http://www.breakfastofchamps.com/

PARTY!!!!!!!!

Time to get out your diaries and your bluntest 2Bs, as my student chums and I will be having a house-warming party on FRIDAY 13 OCTOBER in the merry city of Cambridge. More details will follow closer to the time, but at this moment I CAN reveal that it will be AT MY HOUSE and you are more than welcome to stay for the weekend and play with punts in the rain.

Love and hugs,

Your bestest pal,

Al

xoxox

Hola everyone!

Impressed? - Steph's finally drummed up the courage to enter the world of blogging.....
so far so good.

Thanks to everyone who came to our Tapas & Tequilla Evening - hope you all had a good time. Apologies for my excessive festiveness this far from Christmas - what can I say? all that 'chilli' must have just got to me....! We'll have to do it again sometime!!

Would love to compete with Torran and share all the amazing and exciting moments going on in my life - though sadly that amounts to being delayed on trains going to/returning from Bath, and more generally being baffled by excel.
On that note think i'll confine my day to day dull chat to myself.

Hope you're all welll -Torran, hope you're keeping warm - photos look amazing!

Steph xx

Climbing!!!

I've just spent 10 days climbing in the Canadian Rockies. After rock climbing for 3 days, Timmy, J (another instructor from the centre I work at) and I climbed the highest peak in the Rocky Mountains, Mount Robson. This was pretty intense. The hike in is 12km and the overall heigth gain is 10,000ft - thats more than from Everest base camp to Everest summit! We climbed it in a 44hour trip, van to van.

Our stupid plan worked. At 8pm we set off from the van and did the hike, frigid river crossing and 5000ft of ascent in the dark. We only got 1hours sleep and then it was dawn so the three of us simul-soloed up 3000ft of rock and ice. The photo of Timmy and J on ice is where we roped up. After the butress we came to the feared Gargoyled ridge. We had a stop for a cup of tea here (what else was there to do?). The Gargoyles are feared because you traverse 1km of knife edge ridge with 8000ft drops down either side. The crest of the ridge has crazy and unstable ice formations - the Gargoyles - that you have to weave your way through.

We summited 25hrs after leaving the van. As it was getting dark and we couldn't see the descent we dug a trench in the snow and covered it with a tarp. Needless to say it was very cold all night so we got no sleep. The descent was tiring but we were rather pleased with ourselves.

After two days rest we did the first ascent of the 2000ft East face of Mount Cline. This is now the hardest mountain rock route in the David Thompson Corridor! The photo is of J and Timmy below the hardest pitch up the summit headwall.

Hope you're all well

Torran

away up north

Hannah has insisted that I shouldn't worry about posting twice in a row so here is another update on the massey-in-scotland adventures. Anyway, you only have yourselves to blame- get blogging people!





Joe and I ran away up north a few weekends ago- took a few extra days off and hired a wee micra for our expedition to the mountains. Follow our journey on the handy map!


First we nipped over to Ayr so Joe could go to an open day. Embarrassingly, at some point in the day (I had to mooch about for a few hours) I must have switched on the headlights without noticing and then rang out the RAC for an 'electrical fault'. The battery was flat. Luckily no-one was there to see my shame except the nice RAC guy, who promised me it happened every day and anyway, it made an easy job for him.

After Ayr we pushed north as fast as posible, through glasgow up along the stunning Crianlarich road to Glen Coe. Here Joe knew a spot behind an old bothy where we could camp. There was a volunteer worker for the Natural Trust in the bothy when we got there but he said, "Yo dudes, camp away, no worries, fancy a dooby?" Well maybe not 'dooby', I think he just kind of waved the baggy at us. So that was cool.


The next day and it was raining, not drizzle or spitting but lashing and hurling so we pushed on north, breaking ahead of the rain as we came inland.

Driving past some stunning mountains, wondering where to stop for the night we passed a sign that says "Warning, do not pass in Winter, No Caravans, No wide Loads, No Learner Drivers. Inclines of 1:5 and hairpin bends". So off we went.

This was hidden pass to the secret peninsula of applecross...well, secret if you don't count the german tourists and the yorkshireman running the only pub! I didn't hear a highlands accent until at least the 20th person we met! We camped on the beach, and the seals watched us putting up our tent with mild curiosity. Unfortunately we couldn't have our enticing pasta-based meal (no gas) so were forced to have just about the best fish and chips I've ever had.


It rained all night, and having only trainers (my hiking boots are still somewhere in Malawi), I wasn't too keen on plashing through the sphagnum bogs thereabouts (one of which we realised we were camped on top of) so we pushed north again.

This time we didn't go as far and stopped at a beach a little up the loch from Poolewe. We camped on the beach of Loch ewe, a sea loch, and enjoyed a beautiful sunset behind us and the milky way! You see people, it can be seen from britain! Even the midges kept away and it was stunning.

The next day we had to drive all the way back to Edinburgh, phew, one hell of a drive, but through even more stunning places. We did get to stop at the House Of Bruar, which is the Queens motorway service station, providing cashmere boutiques and top quality highland fare. We bought a reduced haggis for 50p and some kipper pate (also reduced, naturally). The other reduced item was some foie gras, £45 down from £70.