Random acts of senceless lethargy

Yes I AM mad!

2009-09-28T13:34:08Z

I have decided (read have been told) to do the Yorkshire 3 peaks again this year.

Thankyou for all the support I got this year, if you sponsored me in 2009 I won't be expecting you to do so again for 2010!

For anyone who does want to give to a good cause (Red cross of course) here is my new page.

Stooopid cat

2009-07-14T19:58:30Z

Jasper is back in the cage.

We couldn't find him last night, eventually he turned up at 9:30, not using his left front paw. On further exmination he has a couple of very nasty grazes on his face and 1/3 of his left canine missing.

Took him to vets at 10:00 where he was given lovley opiates, he promptly fell asleep on the floor.

Had X-rays today and we can't be sure if he has broken his leg or if the shadow on the plate is an old injury.

Needless to say he is a very sad mog.

vet bill £300+ already. (to be claimed back later, thank goodness for pet plan.)

Ian would like to announce. . . .

2009-07-12T13:20:31Z

. . . his death from exhaustion!

Well nearly, three peaks completed, for a more in depth account

After spending the night with 19 Red Cross volunteers in the bunkhouse I met up with John (my walking partner and reason I was doing the walk) and we set off from checkpoint 1 at 6:17.

Pen-y-gent was conquered by 8:15, understandably John (a very large, unfit gent) took more rest stops than I wanted to but was REALLY trying. Checkpoint 3 came after a few miles of walking down from Pen-y-gent, much nicer than the scramble up. At this point John announced his intention to stop and no amount of encouragement would change his mind so, after a bottle of water and a banana I set off for check point 4, only 3 miles away.

I needed to make up some time if I was to make my 12-hour target and so didn't stop for a rest until cp4. Another bottle of water and 5 mins sit down and set off for cp5. Once again no stopping over this 8 miles apart from a photo op at the trig point on Wherneside. But after cp5 things changed, until then my target was to keep overtaking others to make up lost ground, then became not to be overtaken myself, then became to just finish.

Ingleborough although close to the end is the toughest simply by being after you have already done 17 miles and two 2000+ feet hills. Stopped several times but pushed on with some new friends from Manchester and N.Ireland.

Checkpoint 6 on the top of Ingleborough stamped my card and told me it was only 5 miles to the end and it was 4:15. 5 miles in 2 hours is no problem for most people but as anyone who had done this walk before might agree, those 5 miles were the longest of my life. One hip screaming at me and both knees aching meant that I only managed about 2 mph on the decent.

A spurt on the flat home leg meant that I stumbled into cp7 at 18:04. 11:47 minutes after starting.

Slept well though.

A huge thank you to all that sponsored or encouraged me.

Now a hot bath. . . . . .

Sky!

2009-06-19T06:08:21Z

Is anyone looking at getting sky TV at all, we're looking at upgrading ours and if we get a friend to join we get the new box for free as long as the new person says we recomended them.

Thought I might as well ask.

And so my birthday comes to an end.

2009-06-13T22:34:18Z

Today was the big day, me, a qualified pilot, one 60yr old tigermoth and 1000 feet of nothing below. It was the flight that tallbint got me for my birthday, flying from duxford, not only the site of the Imperial war museum but also a lot of history.

I was introduced to Steve from Leeds, my pilot and after a longish chat about aircraft geekery he got us into the air and gave me the controls.

WOW! the only thing missing was a vickers machine gun and the red baron. OK so I didn't do anything worthy of being called areobatics but I have to say that it is deffinatly the most fun you can have with your clothes on (in this case a genuine WW2 era american sheepskin airforce jacket with helment and goggles).

The time flew by (no pun intended) but it felt like more than the 20 minutes I was due but after a very smooth landing a wretch79 grinning like a cheshire cat shook Steve's hand and smiled all the way round the museum.

We visited the new British and Commonwealth hangar to pay respects to our relative Grandfathers , the restoration hangar and the American hangar, quite a moving spectical as you exit this one. A plate recessed into the wall states "dedicated to the 30'000 American servicemen killed during WW2 flying from bases in the UK" and all around the building, 6 foot glass plates have on them indevidual sillouettes of every single aircraft lost and it goes on for a LONG way!

We departed Duxford (after watching "Old Crow" (A P51 Mustang) being put through her paces) I dropped tallbint off at her parents in stafford for the weekend and came home to the grumpy cat (Now happy and snoring).

All in all a very satisfying day.

All I have to do now is find somthing equally as amazing, once in a lifetimey to organise for tallbint, any ideas?

Time for bed.

2009-05-17T21:25:23Z

Well it has been a nice day overall. Although I'm not officially 30 until about 11:30 tomorrow morning the party was had today. I want to thanks all my fantastic friends and for snack food, sausages ona stik, banana, nutty smiley cakes and a HUGE cookie cake (nom!) and thankyou for all my fantastic presents, you are all amazing people and of course the house of rat for hosting the party due to icky weather, i'm glad I let tallbint convince me to celebrate my birthday.

P A R T Y

2009-05-11T20:46:42Z

Against my better judgement there has apparently beena party organised to celebrate my 10th 21st birthday party, it is a joint affair to celebrate Ruby's 3rd and rich's ahem 30th!

At the moment I belive it will be happening on saunday in ruskin park and I'm told there will be snack food to be eaten.

Thats all for now.

And relax.....

2009-05-10T19:50:02Z

...or maybe just collapse in a heap.

Just made it back from Lynne and Will's wedding, before the light started to fade (tallbint does not drive well in dusk or dark as she has relatively bad eyesight unless in full sunlight)

More importantly though, Wedding was fab! Congrats to the happy couple and thanks for a very relaxed event (I can take no credit at all as unlike others I did nowt to help out)

No public till 12, out at 5 and no pressure to have to do anything to entertain, the way forward for events methinks. public bah! who needs them?

wretch79 @ 2009-05-03T19:35:00

2009-05-03T18:50:13Z

More potentially boring walking stuff.

tallbint's dad came over again so we could go walkiong, did 18.5km (11.5m) Down into and then west along Lathkildale then through Youlgreve to the east end of the dale, back along then climb out. Plus a little walk to the trig. point over Bretton clough.

Saw lots of D of E-ers quite a few complaining "I've got a headache in my leg" etc. One did have a legitamate issue though which led to having a chat with one of the paramedics as the helicopter flew the unfortunate kid to hospital. Also very strangly saw a bat, a little one looking a little confused flying around in the day.

wretch79 @ 2009-04-28T13:23:00

2009-04-28T12:31:15Z

Back to work again. Not bad though I will be in sheffield all week so late mornings and early home. Its a 4 day weeks due to being off on monday and looking forward to a 4 day week next week. Will keep all interested parties up to date with walking plans. Have just updated my Amazon wish list as well so it has my real n ame not just Wretch.

I am still reluctant to do these lists as I find them a little odd.

3 peaks updatery stuff.

2009-04-19T20:05:15Z

Did another walk, 14.6km (9.1m) walk over Higger tor, Houndkirk moor, Ringlow and past Redmires to Stannage pole, finishing by going down Stannage edge. 5 Hours (slowed considerably by stopping for a pint at the pub). Thanks to father and brother in laws for the company. Came home after visiting the hospitality of the house of rat, loaded in laws volvo up with junk, and re-painted shed.

all in all a rather productive day.

More 3 peaks

2009-04-11T21:02:34Z

Another training 11 1/4 km (7m) walk along footpath to Cannock chase, then around Mere valley, Coppice hill and Brockton field. Investigated sites of WW1 POW camp training camp and training trenches.

Dog (in-laws setter) seems more tired than me though.

Planning next walk to encompas Higger Tor next weekend.

3 peaks update stuff

2009-04-07T11:59:38Z

Just finished first 3 peaks training walk.

Did 8km (5 mile) in approx. 2 hours. fields, woods with pleanty of up and down. Also discovered another very nice wood only a mile from our house, in a month or so it will be 100% blue by the look of the number of bluebells growing.

Feel just warmed up so thats good and almost no leg pain, methinks mostly thanks to a back proddle from Ceehoss yesterday.

keep up wiht the progress at

www.justgiving/ianpoulton

OK so it's official

2009-04-06T10:46:58Z

I AM doing the yorkshire 3 peaks with a friend from work.

If anyone wants to sponsor me to do this 24 1/2 mile walk arround Pen-y-gent, Whernside and ingleborough please accost me when you next see me or even easyer try going to my justgiving site

www.justgiving.com/ianpoulton

Now to get in shape and do some training.

Quick before the internet fails again....

2009-02-21T13:35:35Z

...just a quicky to say

a) not dead!

b) anyone interested in doing a sponsored walk? 3 yorkshire peaks to help raise funds for my employer (Red Cross) maybe some of the gents might be up for it 'cos we don't have a race for life to have a go at

11th June if anyone is interested.

c) still not dead

As promiced.

2008-06-22T21:32:00Z

As promiced here are more

the seat is twisted sideways 30 degrees or so. . .

The roof is lower . . .

and the offside is now convex, if you look closely you can see the shape of a Merc C200 bonnet.

so now we see what the insurers have to say.

Needless to say I will now claiming for a new copy of the Mothers Ruin CD thats stuck in the CD player that tallbint has already bid on e-bay for and for my work first aid kit that they might charge me for, it is trapped as the drivers seat has been sheared off its mountings and is squashing it. (ten minutes with a crow bar couldnt get it free).

anyway thats all for now, looking forward to relaxing in europe for 2 1/2 weeks.

Mirror, Signal, Oh S@?T

2008-06-21T13:10:41Z

Many thanks for your messages of support, I am OK, just a couple of scratches from putting my hand in broken glass on the floor whilst crawling out.

Started feeling stiff this morning, my neck aches as does my back on the right hand side.

Let this be a lesson.

Wear your seatbelt!

In case this happens

more pics to follow.

Lego Indiana Jones Lives

2008-05-18T09:00:06Z

I'm not dead.

I am old though!

More later.

I AM BACK!

2007-09-08T15:59:55Z

OK, so Manchester isn't that far away. My first 4 days of training are done, just a billion more to go. Had my induction to the BRC yesterday. There are now 4 annies in the garrage, creepy.

Owwwieeee!

2007-08-29T10:04:17Z

So there I was minding my own buisness cleaning out the grubly goldfishes when my back decides its had enough. Que intense back pain meaning it took me 15 minutes to get out of bed and walk down the stairs this morning and two attempts to walk around the house to the garage for the car (second attempt sucsessfull mostly due to Co-codamol.

This is NOT what I needed 5 days before starting my new job!!!!!

Grand day out

2007-08-12T19:28:49Z

So after the fab meal with Edy last night we went for a picnic/bike ride in clumber park today with me wife, Ken, Ebru, Dave, Erica and Paul. All in all quite sucsessfull. fed 7 people (mostly pie and mini sausages) got on a bike for the first time in 5-6 years and got Jenny on one for the first time in nearly 13 years and she wants to go again. She wasn't even put off when teh rear wheel of SODs tandem collapsed under her (yes this was after the pies but in the interestes of self preservation i state that it wasn't BECAUSE of the pies).

Anyway now rather tired

At last some good news.

2007-07-31T19:01:17Z

So, at last some good news from chez poulton.

The red cross have offered me a job. I'll get 2.5K less than my last job and do quite a bit of traveling but a job is better than no job. Plus I will get lots of training and qualifications to boot.

I start the first week of september!

And just when you thought it couldn't get any worse....

2007-06-26T14:49:50Z

As mentioned in an earlier post Jenny worked just over 24hrs during the floods. She then came home and only managed 4 hrs sleep. This has led to her having an Epileptic seizure at about 1:15 this afternoon.

She is mostly OK now, just minor cut on her nose and tongue and aches a lot and has been seen by a Paramedic and our GP. Needless to say this is a HUGE setback as it means she now cannot drive for a year.

She is in bed again now and plans to sleep as much as possible until we go to Germany/France on Thursday.

My job now seems to make sure she is not disturbed for the rest of the evening.

What should I do with my life?

2007-05-29T22:31:22Z

One of the below apparently but to be honest i'd take anything.

Redundancy sucks like a limpet!

Your Career Personality: Original, Devoted, and Service Oriented

Your Ideal Careers:

Art director
Book editor
College professor
Composer
Film director
Graphic designer
Novelist
Stage actor
Psychiatrist
Writer

The Quick and Dirty Career Test

Dare I say this now?....

2007-01-31T22:26:46Z

Well, January 2007 will be over in a little under 2 hours and I cant say I wont be pleased. Lets look what this blessed first month of the year has brought us.....

1) Car accident involving me, a large jag, a lack of stopping in time and more than a £1000 worth of work to put mine back together again

2) off sick from work wiht very closed up throat and mostly deaf in one ear (mostly better now thankfully)

3) 1st flight out on holiday canceled due to the high winds

4) half of the roof we had put on the house 2 years ago decides it has got vertigo and thinks that next doors garden is a much nicer place to be

5) 2nd flight out on holiday canceled due to the same high winds

6) after eventually getting to go on the holiday, was attacked by a giant squid (approx 100 feet long and taking three of us to subdue it) nearly drown in mud fighting it off and it took my shoes (can only assume it had already stolen the shoes of three other people because a squid only wearing two shoes would look silly)

7) after eventually getting to go on the holiday, arrive back home to find the temporary fix on the roof only seems to have fixed it so that a nights entire snowfall has converted the attic into an aquatic dreamland, complete with water bed.

8) off sick from work for the second time

9) still not got my car back after 21 days

So next year will begin on the 1st day of the new month that I shall name Detcemburary, this will last for 31 days.

Anyway rant over with

P.S The giant squid episode REALLY happened!!! if anyone tells you differantly they are liars!!! LIARS!!!!! I did NOT get stuck in the mud whilst night fishing, only an idiot would do that.