Picture the scene - you're at Birmingham airport at a relatively sensible time in the morning, standing in a queue for 75 minutes for bag drop, because a certain airline who we will call SneezyWet have only got 2 check-in desks open, and one of those people keeps wandering off.
End result: despite arriving at the airport in plenty of time, there's barely time to grab a sandwich, let a lone have a pre-flight beer, before it's time to board. Oh, and then the plane gets delayed for an hour while you're sat on it, leaving you dangerously close to... continue reading »

Cumbria is a long way to go for a weekend, especially when you get stuck in traffic jams and roadworks and general Friday evening M6 fun.

We were relatively short on time, and the weather was doing its usual thing for January/the Lakes (ie rain), so took the dog for a walk all the way around Buttermere.

It would have been nice to get up a bit higher, but it would have been rubbish with the cloud and wind.  Anyway, the scenery at lake level isn't bad:

Starting at the National Trust car park, our walk was just under 8km, and took less... continue reading »