Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means
All of our Sport related categories and posts: Triathlon, Windsurfing, Surfing, Kiting, Swimming, Cycling, Running, Mountain Biking and more…
With another bank holiday weekend on offer and the weather looking good, it was time to head to the hills again to bag some more Nuttalls. I wasn’t working on Friday, so it was a long weekend for me and there was no rush to get started. I headed out for a little mountain bike...
Running around the Isle of Man Coast Path has become a slow but steady project. Each trip adds a few more miles, and although I’m moving more slowly these days, the scenery — and the small adventures along the way — make it worth every step. This weekend, with a tweaked back and patchy weather, I managed to tick off another stretch between Niarbyl and Peel.
With a long Bank Holiday weekend on offer, it would have been rude not to bag a few Nuttalls. I left it until the end of the break to do so, though, as Friday, Saturday and Sunday were taken up with other things—including lots of shopping and gardening. So, on Monday morning, I set off...
Anna keeps telling me that I need to just accept that I’m getting older and embrace it – but where’s the fun in that? It’s much more fun to don a rubber suit, strap myself to several thousand pounds’ worth of carbon fibre and monofilm, and draw some lines on the water!! It’s been blowing...
Day 6 – Surfing Today we had a surf lesson planned. I wasn’t sure if it would be any good or not. I was hoping that Anna would enjoy it, catch a few waves, and finally understand what it’s all about. But as a surfer of 40+ years, I wasn’t sure how it would be...
Our afternoon itinerary featured an e-bike tour, so we spent the morning exploring the coast and dunes, heading towards Flag Beach in search of the windsurf centre—which we never actually found. Along the way we found some popcorn sands which are fossilised algae that form sand that looks like popcorn. These form from marine algae...
The weather last week was gorgeous – clear blue skies, light winds, and temperatures in the mid to high teens every day. Every day, that is, until Friday when I had a day off. Typically, Friday was forecast to be cloudy with light rain. I wasn’t going to let that stop me though. Despite having...
Endurance events always come with hurdles: injuries, other commitments, the unpredictability of life. But nothing tested me more than the global pandemic and, ultimately, my unexpected heart attack. That moment changed everything. It forced me to question whether I would ever be able to finish what I had started. For someone who thrived on pushing limits, the uncertainty was crushing.
Yet, A Thousand Mile Run isn’t just about setbacks—it’s about overcoming them. It’s about resilience, persistence, and adapting to the unexpected. Completing this journey meant finding new ways forward, learning to listen to my body, and redefining success.
We had a fairly average weekend weather-wise here in Wales. With nothing much planned I decided a day in the hills would be nice. It would be an opportunity to bag a few more Nuttalls too. So, after packing a day-pack on Friday evening, I headed north early on Saturday morning so as to arrive...
Various factors had conspired to keep me off the water lately. A lack of wind—or, on occasion, too much wind—weekends away, and work were the usual culprits. Adding to the delay, the construction of a new shed, which is now almost finished, had left my windsurfing kit inaccessible for over a month. One Last Hoorah...
Fitness / Technology / Triathlon
Fixing the Altimeter on my Garmin Forerunner 910XT
Monday, March 17th, 2014
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Hiking / The Welsh Nuttalls / Wales
Backbreaking but Beautiful: Nuttall Bagging in North Wales
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025
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Friday, April 18th, 2025
