So another week begins, and soon another year. It's a strange time, what with working till 4am to meet a deadline and a long chat with the kids last night - and yes they are teenagers! 2 more days sees me another year older, and the next night I'll be in Liverpool with Matt and Cathy watching Bryan Adams. It's a long way from how I dreamed of things being, but I'm slowly coming to terms with the fact that ten years of photos will have to go unseen except to the three of us, that I can never write a word to or about someone who was a big part of our lives - and most of all that we'll never hear from or about them either. Just when I thought there were no tears left...........but now that's history.

 

The wonderful British summer gave me a great opportunity to really test the Paramo gaiters over the weekend, and for once I have to admit to being impressed. Now I've never been the greatest fan of the P word, although I've stuck weith their Explorer pull on over several years. The 3rd element was OK, but somehow I don't trust it to the level of the Changabang - but these gaiters are a different thing altogether. Previous GoreTex gaiters have always performed well but have a nasty habit of the zips nreaking. Now Paramo may not be the height of fashion and stick releigiously to the duller shades of the duller colours in general, but they certainly seem to live up to their claims. A wander over Kinder and it's boot eating morass put these little blue numbers through their paces and they came out with honours. The next big test will be the 27th when I return to Miller's Dale....perhaps for a last time after 40 years of going there. There's nothing like wading through running water to really put waterproofing to the test - and the weather doesn't show any signs of breaking.

 

Also due for review is a new DVD. Within 24 hours of breaking to the new sto the collected Jo(h)ns at OM and TGO the first of the new National Trail DVD's dropped through my letter box - with a real blast of the past. At 15 I cycled the South Downs Way in its then existance from Harting to Eastbourne, and this DVD is the first revisit since for me. Now extended through to Winchester it'll make interesting viewing of my first National Trail, back in the days when I was warming up for the Pennine Way.

 

Well with the clock approaching 5, and another route deadlined for midday, it's time to leave the past behind and close these weary eyes for a couple of hours before a new and uncertain time starts afresh.