27 Jan 2010

Day 0392: Want To Come White Water Rafting?


Photo from Quite Lucid

Well, do you?

Day 0500 of my 1001 days is coming up in mid-May and I want to celebrate it properly. So we're going white water rafting. :)

Here's the details: 22MAY2010, a Saturday, at the National Water Sports Centre in Nottingham. The 14:15 slot. £50 per person.

I've picked an afternoon slot so everyone can make their own way over there in the morning and then hopefully come for a drink after the rafting somewhere in Nottingham city centre.

You don't need any experience to come along, the session lasts a couple of hours and allows for about 4 runs. It's guaranteed to be memorable fun. :)

If you want to come along you need to do just two things:

1) Can the Centre's booking line on 0115 9824707, book and pay for your spot on the 14:15 session on 22MAY2010. Or if you want to do it online, go to the Centre's website, pick Individual Rafting and make sure you pick the right date/session.

2) Send me an email/DM on Twitter/leave a comment here to let me know you're coming. I need to ring the day before and arrange for us all to be in the same raft(s) and it'll help me organise drinking afterwards. :)

If you've got any questions, let me know!

Hugs and Life Jackets,

Ms Alex

Email: 101ofawolf at gmail dot com
Twitter: @101ofawolf

26 Jan 2010

Completed: Collecting Seashells On A Beach


On The Pier at Whitby

I'm going back and adding posts for any 101 in 1001 goal that's been completed and hasn't been blogged about.

Some of my 101 goals are complicated, some are expensive. Some are neither. It took me longer than I thought it would to get round to collecting sea shells and that really proved the point of having it on my list. You see, collecting seashells is my version of 'stopping to smell the roses'. I don't live anywhere near the coast and work tends to send me to cities rather than seaside resorts so to go and collect seashells means taking time out to go and be by the sea for no other reason than I love being there. For one reason or another it took me nearly 11 months to take that time out. Which made me re-assess how often I do things just for pleasure rather than productivity. :)

I collected my seashells in Whitby when I was there for Hallowe'en.

October was a tiring month - I worked as a volunteer at the Leeds Film Festival (another one of my 101 goals), worked half the month up in Edinburgh and Glasgow and ate raw vegan for the whole month which left me feeling like I was eating and thinking about food constantly. I needed a mental holiday.

It came in the form of a cold, stormy weekend with lots of goths creating a suitably atmospheric atmosphere in a town famous for literary witches and vampires. Myabe not my first choice of holiday destination (I like Whitby but I am far too chipper to be a goth) but I had an invite I didn't want to pass up. :) I got to look in rockpools, walk on the beach and go take pictures on the pier. I ate far too much candy and went on a tourist boat around the harbour. Just what I needed. :)

Goal complete, lesson learned.

25 Jan 2010

Day 0390 Progress Report: Travelling A-Z

I know there's a lot of interest in the travel goals and how I'm doing with them. The 101 in 1001 goal I get asked most about is the travel A-Z goal, travelling to one new-to-me place for every letter of the alphabet. So, to bring everybody up to speed, here's where I've been so far:


12 letters completed, and still 610 days to capture those trickier letters... X, I'm looking at you.

Hugs and Carry On Luggage,

Ms Alex

24 Jan 2010

Day 0388: Saltaire, Shipley And The Leeds To Liverpool Canal


13 Very Colourful Miles

More photos on Flickr.

Yesterday I explored Saltaire and walked from Shipley to Leeds alongside the Leeds To Liverpool canal (LLC).

Titus Salt was a Victorian businessman who built the entire village of Saltaire for his cotton mill workers to give them better living conditions. To specifically plan and built such a scheme was nothing short of revolutionary. As recognition of this, Saltaire is now a World Heritage Site. I was expecting to love the place but actually found myself hating it's oppressive atmosphere. Every street, every building is so full of Salt and the strict rules he set about how his workers should live their lives (no hanging washing in the street, no political debate etc) that it's hard to see how anyone living there could ever escape his prolifically bearded, authoritarian shadow:


The Man, The Beard

After rambling about Saltaire and Salt's Mills for most of the morning I was very ready to head onto Shipley to start the walk back to Leeds. A quick train journey, a five minute walk and I was at the 13-miles-to-Leeds canal marker shown at the top of this post and ready to begin.

The LLC was a pretty audacious building scheme when it was proposed too. Way back in 1776 a group of businessmen came together to agree a route and costs for a canal across the Pennine hills. Moving goods along the canals was much, much cheaper than moving them by roads and they were anxious to connect the mill towns of Yorkshire with the export opportunities of Liverpool's port. In the end it took until 1816 to complete the main canal but it was a success story - the canal did much better than it's rivals and was able to compete with the railways for business right up to the start of the 20th century. These days the only trade it sees are chandlers and canalside pubs but it's still worth exploring.

Canal paths are ideal if you want an easy walk. They don't require a map, are fairly socialable, the paths stay usable even when the weather's bad and there's plenty to see. You can peer into the locks, look for canal mileage markers and wave at the narrow boats passing you by.

Because of the extremely cold weather we've had for the last three weeks all the narrow boats were trapped into their moorings waiting for the frozen sections of the canal to melt.


Fully Frozen In Places

The canal was still busy though with walkers, happy, muddy dogs, cyclists, fishing folks and aggressive swans that laughed at me and tried to eat my bootlaces:


 
Yes. I have swan-attracting boots.

Despite curious swans and taking lots of photos along the way, it took me about 2hr40m to walk the 10 miles back to Kirkstall Brewery. A time I'm happy with as it means that even when being a busy little shutterbug I walk 14-16 minute miles consistently. :)

In total I walked 17 miles yesterday, 3 miles around Saltaire, 10 miles on the canal, 4 miles round and about. I felt fine last night and I feel good today... I'm obviously fitter than I give myself credit for. :)

All of this walking is 101 goals related by the way. It's all in preparation for climbing Scafell Pike. A friend who knows about my 101 in 1001 goal of climbing a mountain asked me if I wanted to go and climb Scafell as part of a group in April. My answer was, of course, YESYESYES. But now I need to spend the next nine weeks making sure I'm ready to go and conquer a mountain...

23 Jan 2010

Day 0388: Gone Walking


Leeds to Liverpool Canal Marker

There's a faint glimmer of light in the clouds and the torrential rain from yesterday has stopped... So I'm going walking.

It's a while since I went on a proper walk so I've chosen an easy route following the Leeds to Liverpool canal for 10 miles or so. No map needed, no mudslides from the recent rain to dodge and no hard-to-get-to start point. I'm going to combine it with a trip to Saltaire. Should be fun. :)

This walk marks the (very gentle) start of my preparation to climb a mountain in April... something I will tell you more about tomorrow since climbing a mountain is one of my 101 in 1001 goals. But for now, I need to grab my boots and go. :)

Hugs and Muddy Boots,

Ms Alex

22 Jan 2010

Completed: Volunteer At Leeds Film Festival


Ponyo being screened at LIFF09

I'm going back and adding posts for any 101 in 1001 goal that's been completed and hasn't been blogged about.

November was busy. Hectic. When I wrote that I felt I was 'in the eye of the storm' I really was. In October I'd debated writing a novel in a month for my NaNoWriMo goal, decided I was too busy to write that much... and then promptly signed up to volunteer at the Leeds Film Festival for this goal. My logic was I couldn't write every day but, even though I had a lot of work and travel to do in November, I could commit to specific film festival shifts in the evenings I was around. And it did work, sort of. I was pretty tired by the end of the three weeks.

The Leeds Film Festival expanded in 2009 from two weeks to three weeks which seemed to work well - in previous years it was way too easy to miss films or be forced to choose between two clashing screenings. This year the audience seemed far more relaxed and part of that was probably down to a programme that was far easier to navigate. It also made it better for those of us that volunteered. The rotas group volunteers into teams based out of specific locations around the city which would normally mean you miss out on clashing shows. But, because the most popular films were being shown in multiple locations on different days, we could volunteer and still see the films we'd circled in the programme. A definite improvement!

I was based out of the Hyde Park Picture House which is my favourite cinema in Leeds, it's a small gas-lit place which used to be a hotel and has a great atmosphere. Being part of a small team of volunteer folks helping the regular HPPH staff with the film festival screenings was a great experience. It ended up being a nice trade off between promoting the festival/helping the audience/tidying up/chatting to other volunteers and getting to see films for free. Oh and meeting some of the VIPs and festival critics as they went about their business. :)

In the end, I managed to volunteer for 32 hours over 6 shifts. Which, considering I went on three work trips to opposite ends of the country and was out of town for half the festival, I'm really happy with. It means my goal to volunteer for 101 hours is 1/3 complete. I'm not likely to volunteer at LIFF in 2010 - I need to get that novel written - but I'd recommend volunteering to anyone interested in seeing more films and getting to hear some of the gossip about the VIPs... ;)

Hugs and Ratings Cards,

Ms Alex

21 Jan 2010

Carbon Offsetting And Biodiversity Schemes


Posing Macaw by Kaitlyn Rose

At the beginning of the year, when I was deciding what data I wanted to capture for this Annual Report goal, I decided to track how much carbon offsetting I needed to do for all my travelling (I was already offsetting my flights). Since I started the 101 goals in 1001 days I hold myself far more accountable for my choices and actions. It's not guilt-driven but I think far more about how I can make a more positive impact with my money, time and energy.

I'm aware that carbon offsetting is not ideal and there are flaws with most schemes... but my general feeling is that making an effort is better than not so I started looking for a good, easy to use carbon calculator and a
biodiversity offset scheme to donate to.

My ideal scenario was a site where I could create a user account, log in on a regular basis to calculate a week or month's worth of trips and then donate to a biodiversity scheme. Simple. Instead what I found were complicated calculators (none of which calculated train journeys), donations I couldn't direct to specific projects and sites that didn't seem to expect you to visit more than once. Oh and carbon offsetting websites are routinely badly designed and un-user-friendly. Frustrating!

I did eventually find a great calculator that allows me to calculate flights *and* UK train journeys. Hurrah for CO2balance... it's a shame their projects don't match what I want to donate to.

But I came up with a workaround.

I now calculate my carbon every couple of weeks using co2balance, add the figure to the Carbon chart on this page (the figure's low at the moment because I've only done a handful of train journeys - it'll increase rapidly once I start flying to the US again) and then every three months I'm going to make a donation to offset my carbon total to the World Land Trust who do cool things like protect rainforests and wildlife reserves.

It's not the all-in-one solution I was looking for but I'm happy that it's achieving what I wanted.

Hugs and Protected Habitats,

Ms Alex

20 Jan 2010

Completed: Message In A Bottle



I'm going back and adding posts for any goal that's been completed and hasn't been blogged about.

On Day 0258 I was up in Scotland for work. I was staying at the Dakota hotel in South Queensferry and I was desperate to escape my room about 5 minutes after checking in. It's a nice enough hotel, it's just a total testosterone trip. Everything in my hotel room could be catalogued as either chrome/mirror/dark brown/a huge wall mounted TV. It's clearly a hotel geared to single businessmen. Oh yes, and there was this on my wall:



No, I don't get it either.

Anyways I was desperate to go somewhere with decent lighting and a little less chrome so I headed into South Queensferry in search of food. It was just starting to get dark and as I was taking photos of quaint old streets and clock towers I suddenly realised that Queensferry isn't just on the banks of the river Forth, it's at the estuary (Firth) of it. since the Firth of Forth sweeps things out to the North Sea I could fling a message in a bottle into it and cross Goal 018 off my 101 goals in 1001 days list.

I just had to find a suitable bottle when none of the shops were open, write a message even though I didn't have a pen and throw it in the water in the next ten minutes before it got dark. Erm, yeah. For once my planning wasn't so good.

All the shops had closed at 17:00 but I managed to find a bar selling ginger beer in nice brown glass bottles with a decent cap. The guy behind the bar lent me a pen and he and a couple of regulars watched me with amusement as I quickly drank the ginger beer and scribbled a note before sticking it in the bottle. They even gave me a hand removing the label from the bottle and jamming the cap back on to make it seaworthy. :)

A very fast scamper down to the beach, jumping from rock to rock and trying not to slip on the seaweed as light faded and I was ready to take a photo and (gently) throw the bottle out to sea. It bobbed up and down for a moment or two but then it settled and stayed afloat.

Goal complete!

19 Jan 2010

A Little Clarification

I was asked the other day about the 'bigger picture' of my job etc and I thought it was worth explaining here on the blog.

I work as a software trainer. I teach audit management software for a small but successful company who are based in Leeds, up in the north of England. The software is complex enough that new clients need a couple of days of training to get to grips with it, which it's my job to deliver. Since our clients are based all over the world, I travel a fair bit.



The chart above show where I spent my days in 2009. The largest chunk is days I spent in Leeds, the rest of my time was spent in 38 other cities - you can see where I went by clicking the image. I rarely spend more than three or four days somewhere when it's work - it's normally two days of work and a day or two of exploring added on if I can organise it.

I'm pretty good at getting the most out of short visits and a spare hour here and there. I find saunas in airports, swoon over Renaissance paintings, go looking for deer and generally don't sleep much because I am too busy whirling about wide-eyed with curiosity.

When I'm in Leeds I am normally to be found planning day trips to the British Museum, walking miles here, there and in the Yorkshire Dales, learning things at local geek or photography events or enjoying a good book.

Wherever I am in the world I'll have my camera close to hand and be working on my 101 goals. Say hi if you see me. :)

Hugs and Hope That Explains Things,

Ms Alex

3 Jan 2010

Day 0366: An Icy Plunge In Ilkley



I can't quite believe it is already 03JAN. The last couple of days have flown by in a haze of good company, good food and anticipation of the year to come. That doesn't quite let me off the hook though, I should have blogged about the White Wells challenge already. Here then is that post.

31DEC's celebrations involved new swishy people, bottles of port, chilli and Tom Waits amongst other things. It was also snowing. As New Year's Eves go it was pretty damn yayworthy. After getting a taxi home and 3.5 hours sleep though it was time to get up, get dressed and grab a swimming costume before walking into the city centre of Leeds to catch a train to Ilkley. Leeds was very quiet as you might expect at 09:00 on New Year's Day. When we got to Ilkley it was a steep walk from the train station up to the Wells on the moor's edge. The ground was icy, there was still snow everywhere and the wind was bitter. By the time we got to the top I was glad to see the friendly faces of Mike and Meg, Mike's the fellow who talked me into doing the plunge last year. A quick catch up and a nip of whisky before the baths opened and then it was time to register for the dip. (Everyone who dunks themself in the well water signs in and can get a certificate afterwards to say they took the challenge.)

Mike was first in as usual, the photos are over on his very excellent blog - Yorkshire Soul. There seemed fewer people taking the challenge this year so I ended up going in next with my boy:



It is as cold as his expression suggests. I'm wearing a 1920s style, red and white striped swimming costume. I dunked myself fully under the water, JP didn't. It would have damaged his bowler hat. :)

After fully submersing myself I definitely didn't feel like hanging about, it was definitely colder than last year. Warm towels and clothes, hot black coffee up at the golf club and two very sleepy but accomplished challengers headed home. With certificates. :)

I hope your start to the year was equally awesome.

Hugs and A Sense of Oh-Yeah,

Ms Alex