Saturday 27 October 2012

New car and Ben Lomond

The temperature's dropped considerably the past few days, which is excellent because I can now look toward sharpening all the pointy gear I last used in Kyrgyzstan. The downside is I've yet to figure out storage heating properly...

Anyways, I've been in Scotland a month now and a lot has happened. Firstly, I changed my car.

NOT a hairdresser's car. Because it's manly black.

It's a 2000 Mazda Mx-5 1.6i. AN odd choice for Scotland yes, but I've always fancied a convertible and Mx-5s are among the most affordable and reliable. I've managed to have the roof down a fair bit, with the heating on full of course.
I previously had a Peugeot 306, which was a great wee car and was a bit of a sandbox for me as I serviced it myself. It was however hard on fuel, which was the excuse to change it. THe Mx-5 does 40mpg, which is better than the 306's 32mpg (which was on a good day, normally worse than that).
And the Mazda's a hoot to drive.

I haven't got out climbing here yet, what with it being that in betweeny part of the year where it's too cold for rock climbing but not cold enough for winter climbing. But I did go for a wander up Ben Lomond today, which was lovely.
Lo Lo from Benny Lo

3 hrs round trip, via the Ptarmigan ridge and down the normal way. A grand day out. Plenty of ice and near freezing on the path near the top, but no snow yet. Snow visible on the summits further north - another couple of weeks, baby...

Work's going well, getting used to 7am starts (I hate Alpine starts) and have actually started getting a bit to do. It seems like a really good company to work for.

Winter time is training time, and I've been going to the climbing walls a lot as well as the gym. The Climbing Academy is an amazing wall - bouldering only, similar to The Climbing Works in Sheffield but bigger. After a session at TCA your skin is wrecked, and you can't climb for a few days - a sure sign of progress.

Ciao for now.






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