NorthDownMuse

Retrace

The plan this morning was to retrace my steps--cab to Abergavenny, train to Newport, train to Bristol, shuttle to airport, flight to Belfast, taxi home. One of the hikers offered me a lift from Nythfa House to the airport. Brilliant. This allowed me to switch from an 8pm flight to

Hay Day

Today was another 10 mile hike with possibly a similar degree of ascent. We get a bus to the start of our trek and each day descend a lot more than we ascend. Which is tough on the old knees. Today's hike took us up an escarpment called

Pen Y Fan and Corn Du

Today's hike was up to Pen Y Fan, the highest peak in the bottom half of the UK. We covered about 10 miles and also hit the peak of  Corn Du on the way down. Total ascent in the 1750 foot range. I got so sunburnt yesterday that

Tuesday hike

I am writing this a few days on and can't recall the name of this hike. It was probably in Welsh, which is impenetrable, so the name doesn't really matter. Ha, just found it. Fan Brycheniog. About 8-9 miles. 1,500 feet climb. None of my

Changeover

You can book a 3 day or a 7 day holiday with HF. Coming from Belfast, I always go with the 7 day to make it worth the trip. Today was a day off from hiking. It allows staff to strip and clean rooms between the 3 day bookings. New

Laid back vs. leg stretcher

Not that it matters a jot but the easiest hike (yesterday's) is called laid back and the intermediate, which I did today, is called leg stretcher. I did 10 miles today in a new pair of boots and have no complaints. Achilles holding up very well and the

Leg Stretcher part 2

Internet speeds are really slow here so I didn't get all the photos from the first day's hike uploaded from the phone to google and downloaded to my laptop. Here are the remaining photos from the first day's hike. The previous post was photos

Leg stretcher

I hike with HF Holidays, which covers all my needs: Three good meals/day with vegetarian choices. Trip leaders, who allow me to avoid reading maps Lovely accommodation. Each day you pick from three levels of hikes: leg stretcher, moderate, and full on. Today I went on a 6-mile leg

Transit

On a map, the Brecon Beacons--mountains surrounding the town of Brecon in south Wales--are not that far from Belfast. However. To get there meant a taxi at 6:30 am to Belfast Internatiional Airport, a flight to Bristol, arriving around 10 am. A 30-minute shuttle to the Bristol train station.

Editing

The last two weeks have been characterised by multiple iterations of editing a 40 page paper on integrating ESG factors into municipal bond evaluation. The head of fixed income is, let's say, very engaged in the process. I love her enthusiasm but I'd say she'

Emma’s visit

Emma arrived Wednesday night. I gave her a choice of restaurants and we ended up at Five Guys, burger and shake for her, veggie sandwich for me. We went to Botanic Garden and ate on a bench then I threw a Frisbee for Paddy for a little bit. He hadn&

Spring Bank Holiday

Another 3-day weekend. There are two in May in the UK for some reason. My niece Emma arrives on June 2 so this weekend was spent whipping into a shape a house that has suffered from golf-related neglect. Saturday up to Carryduff to a lumber yard looking for moulding to

The first of the last

Today is the first day of my new job, reports editor for the Principles for Responsible Investment. I expect this to be the last job of my career, which spans 12 years of newspaper reporting (at three papers); 18 years of financial writing (at two mutual fund companies); a break

Ladies Competition

I'm taking half day vacations on Tuesdays so I can compete in the weekly golf competition. My handicap last year started at 54 then dropped to 49 when they introduced a new system for calculating handicaps (it wasn't because I had improved!). A 49 handicap means

May Bank Holiday

Three day weekend! One accomplishment was removing the last of the wallpaper from this wall. Sunday was a lovely day so my friend Marek and I headed to Castle Ward for a hike with Paddy. He'd never been and, as a GoT fan, was keen to see Winterfell.

Citizen Casey Part 2

More cards and presents arrived today. The thoughtfulness and generosity of my friends feel like an affirmation of the decision to up sticks and move across the ocean, to start over again in a new city. The main reason I wanted to move back was the sense of community I

Citizen Casey

Well today was a big day. Not only did I turn 59 but I also was awarded UK citizenship via Zoom--the end of a seven-year journey including three visa applications, a Life in the UK test, and the citizenship application. It was like navigating a maze successfully to reach the

Knock on effects

After walking Paddy at Belvoir Forest (more swimming), my choices were: *remove wallpaper behind the former wardrobe *sand the floor under the former wardrobe *saw through a shelf in the larger attic/crawl space so I can fit a garment rack in the attic *hang a clothes rail from the

Fire on the mountain

I was determined to do something fun this Saturday. So I headed to the Mourne Mountains to meet up with my friend Aelish. Sadly, there were fires all over the mountain. This was as I drove into Newcastle. When Ireland is dry and full of tinder, it drives home the

Morning glory

I got out for golf twice this week--the weekly competition on Tuesday and early morning Friday. My shoulder is painful if I use my arms at certain angles, for instance trying to lift something above my head. But a golf swing doesn't hurt. Keeping in mind that I

The weekend grind

I was saying I find my job makes me irritable. Part of it is I'm not really making the most of my weekends. The upstairs lounge project continues to consume my weekend energy--plus attempts to clean the house. It's really just that and walking Paddy. I

Reports Editor

I applied for an editing job at PRI last October. I was passed over in favour of a candidate with search optimisation and data analytic skills. The hiring manager said he wanted to hire me--due to my experience in financial writing and editing. But he was overruled by his boss,

Happy Easter

After a month of physical therapy, I'm slowly trying to start running again. Something I haven't done since mid-January.  The shoulder is fine and the swollen Achilles tendon is still tender but I'm allowed to run 5 minutes, walk 5 minutes for a half

Vaccine 1

I rode my bike into Belfast this morning, caught the train to Ballymena, and walked about 15 minutes to a leisure centre, which was providing vaccines on a massive scale. It all moved pretty smoothly. I sat down across from an NHS nurse and my anxiety started to rise. I

Outings

On Saturday I walked 6 miles at CastleWard with my friend Chris. I didn't realise we were walking that far and became very hangry--hungry and foul tempered due to reservoir dipping too low. I had spent nearly two hours cleaning windows before leaving the house at 9:45