Go North Young(ish) Man, A Large Gin and a Descent From The Hills

I had intended to travel up to the North East on Tuesday but, as with many good intentions, it came to naught. The Battle of the Bed Bases had left me with more than a poorly cut finger. Climbing between various bits of packing materials and taking avoiding action from a mattress that was intent on toppling over onto me I had come down rather hard on my left foot. As the days progressed it had become progressively more painful so I declared Tuesday as a day of rest and cossetted the injured hoof with a hot wheat pack and a crepe bandage. Wednesday dawned feeling much improved and so I set off on my journey north. The drive up the M6 was not without incidents. Despite the advertiser's promises my windscreen washers had frozen solid and all attempts to thaw them out were a miserable failure. I had to stop off at various service stations to spray the windscreen with de-icer so that I could see through the crap that was thrown up by other traffic and which promptly dried on impact. I had intended to play safe and go up to Carlisle and thence take the A69 trunk road. I made a forced exit at Penrith to clear the windscreen and found myself in a layby heading towards the Alston road. I took a chance and decided to try the route up and over the moors. To my relief apart from some freezing fog at the summit the road was passable with care and I duly arrived at my friends moorland village late but safe and just as a dusting of snow began to fall. I was greeted with a large gin & tonic which was much appreciated. After pleasantries we decided to adjourn to the pub before dinner and I spent the next few hours basking in the glow of a roaring fire and also basking in the glow of several pints of Black Sheep Bitter and sampling a new cask conditioned Pilsner which was surpringly tasty. Dinner and a few more gins made an agreeable end to the evening.

Next morning I set off to descend from the hills. A sneaky overnight fall of snow left the car covered in 4 inches of the stuff so some time was spent clearing that which had the bonus of also cleaning the windscreen. The snow was still falling as I set off on the way down, my friend accompanying me as we made our way very gingerly to the next village where I called at other friends there before continuing a very slow descent from the hills.

Christmas and Boxing days were spent with the family and involved the usual troughing to excess on turkey and Christmas pudding and then dozing in an armchair complete with party hat at a rakish angle. One young relative fancying her chances bragged that she had cunningly used he mobile phone in previous years to take photos of a slumbering Uncle Norm and would not hesitate to publish them if I persisted in trying to force her to eat sprouts. She really ought to know better than attempt blackmail on a thoroughly shameless old pro. I replied that she should do her worst but had better remember that I had pictures of her as a baby wearing much less than a party hat. Game set & match to the oldie!