Celebrity cycling

I wonder how many how many of the red top reading types swooning over Pippa Middleton's rear view would be dismayed to realise how she got it?

By Order of Me

I went to see this a few weeks back (as you can tell, by the weather) on the way home from work.  It's an installation on Broad Hill, by the beach in Aberdeen.  Embiggen the first photo to read about the project.

Training

I've been sent on a training course at Glenmore Lodge to learn about products distributed by Lyon Equipment.

These include the brands in the pics below and some others - Petzl, Ortlieb, Jetboil, Julbo, Aquapac, Exped, Light my Fire, Beal and La Sportiva are supplied to my work.

I got to play with some kit that I haven't had chance to in the shop - we just don't have the facilities to, for example, take the Jetboils to bits or light them, dangle from ropes to see if harnesses fit properly or try out ascenders.

I learned some new stuff, and refreshed some old stuff. I now have had a go at ascending and descending ropes using some of the Petzl "brown box" products. I've made fire with a steel and tindersticks. I've got a list of what the different Julbo lenses actually do.  I've seen the new Jetboils that are smaller and lighter (good) and found out that the new ones come with pot supports as standard - so you can use them as a stove (also good).

I've been fed incredibly well, had a nice pint of Trade Winds in the bar and managed to get two runs in.

Obituary

These are, were, my Jamboree shoes. They came with the uniform package given to UK IST members going to the World Scout Jamboree in Thailand in over the New Year 2002/2003.

They are Salomon Exits and I have used, abused and loved them for the past nine years. They have walked, run and scrambled through various bits of England and Scotland, town and country. They have been fab. I have decided that I will not be replacing them - the current Exit model isn't a patch on them and I haven't found anything else I like sufficiently. Well, maybe the Mammut Redburn or the Berghaus Cuesta II , if I can find them for cheap...

In terms of hillwalking footwear, I will miss them - there is kind of a gap between my running shoes and my boots. What finished off the Jamboree shoes was leading hillwalking groups for a week on Red Rose last summer. They were perfect for the walks over the likes of Loughrigg and Wansfell. And scrambling wise, that rand on the toe and heel used to be really sticky, perished now though and going brittle at the joint with the sole unit.

Sadly, these lovely shoes are now consigned to the bin. In the battle against the moth invasion my wardrobe has had a cleaning and dead shoes have no place in its future.