Wednesday 1st February

Seem to have a backlog… or should that be backblog?

Today has been an excellent day. Since it is my last day off before the second semester begins I thought I’d better make it worthwhile.

I manage to drag my self out of bed early to catch the train to Edale. I’ve planned a scenic tour round Kinder south using a guidebook and map combination. The guidebook prescribes a three to four hour jaunt, but since the trains aren’t too frequent and I don’t want to be hanging around, I add a bit of an extra ramble, and a slightly dangerous scramble to get the heart pumping.

Its my first time in this part of the countryside and it doesn’t disappoint me. The weather starts off bitterly cold with poor visibility. The grass around me is frozen and I skim stones off the frozen brook as I ascend towards Crowden ???. As I get closer to the top I notice that the mist is clearing higher up and so scramble directly up to CH… just in time for warm bright sunshine…

What a view, looking down on the clouds even though its only 2,000 feet up. I am alone with the exhilarating feeling and the sun on my cheeks. One of the many Red Grouse pipes up with its freakish ‘go-back, go-back’ call and scares the jiffle out of me. Onward to the twisted mushroom rocks of the Woolpacks and I feel like a visitor to an alien planet. Why haven’t I been here before now?

As I get lower down the west side things start to chill again and the mist rolls back over me. Visibility is low and the grass resumes its frosty dusting almost immediately. Edale Cross, and Jacobs ladder are my last landmarks, before a steady ramble back to Edale train station.

Oh – the food. Yes last nights chicken comes back in salad form with a simple dressing and a taste of everything else in the fridge. Eaten straight out of a blue plastic box and washed down with a flask of proper coffee. I’d send it back in a restaurant (although it was miles ahead of the rubbish I was served in that pub in York), but on the side of a hill? Perfect.

Back in Manchester I have time to check emails and shower before going out to see Prof Joseph Stiglitz talk at Manchester University. No time for politics in this blog after the David Cameron related bad karma last year, but it was OK. Mrs Jiffler calls from Nairobi while I’m on the way there, which always makes me laugh – it doesn’t seem real that one can walk down Portland street, dodging taxis, while taking into a piece of plastic to a person in Kenya. Anyway, you can.

The smell from Marhaba Café entices me in just as I arrive at my front door. I um and ah, and to hell with it… they’re just shutting up shop but have time to make me up a Karahi with a potent kick of coriander, eaten with fingers and two roti on the sofa…
Some guitar playing, some beers, a quick read of the NME and finally a listen to the Coldcut album as I’m nodding off to sleep finishes the evening off… I’ve possibly done all of my favourite things today. Well, all my favourite things to do fully clothed at least…