Saturday 14th April saw the wedding of Ed and Bex, two friends of mine from the uni canoe club.
It was a fantastic ceremony, followed by a great party. One of the highlights of the party was Ed getting up on stage and singing "My sex is on fire" with the band. Here are a few pictures from the evening.
Ed singing with the band
Monday 9th April saw the closing of Lee Valley Whitewater Centre so that it can be prepared for the Olympics. For me, this is the sign that says the games are getting close.
I have been fortunate enough to paddle at Lee Valley a number of times since it opened to members of the public at the start of last summer - it does help that I live only 20 minutes down the road! I have seen the course develop as they tweak the blocks and I think that it will truly be a legacy venue suitable for both slalom and freestyle kayaking.
This weekend just gone was spent in Brighton, sorting out more stuff for our wedding in August. As it was such nice weather we took the opportunity to go on the Brighton Wheel. We were a bit unsure at first but now have to say that the views were stunning! It is worth going up if you get the opportunity and the weather is good.
This weekend just gone I enjoyed the stag weekend for Ed, who is getting married in April. We stayed on a canal boat near Northampton for the weekend, provided entertainment to the locals in Northampton on Friday night and then Weedon Bec on Saturday night, went racing during the day on Saturday at Northampton International Raceway and cruised along the canal on Sunday in the glorious sunshine.
I have been rather neglecting this site of late and recently decided to do something about it.
To start with, I now have a new site. My original site was written in Wordpress CMS which, whilst it served me well, didn't quite fulfil everything I wanted. My new site is written in Drupal CMS. Drupal allows me to do much more with my site, with one of the biggest benefits being the ability to link my Picasa photo albums to posts.
Benefits of new site:
Following my summer trip to Canada I was advised to take a bit of time off paddling to allow my hand to heal (I slipped on a rock inspecting a rapid on the Magpie and caused soft tissue damage to one of my fingers - no heroic story!). At the end of November I had the opportunity to join my old uni kayak club on a trip to North Wales and decided that this would be the ideal way to ease myself back into paddling.
I have been paddling a Jackson Villain for the past few months and thought I would share my thoughts.
Me in the Villain (courtesy of Simon Knox)
Lindsay and I were looking for a hotel for a long weekend break with Mike and Rach (my brother and his girlfriend). Location-wise we weren't particularly fussy. We had spent a long time looking for somewhere without success. Then I received an email from Rach about a Travelzoo offer she had seen for the Borrowdale Hotel in the Lake District. That was our location sorted!
My recent trip down the Magpie in Quebec, Canada, was my first self-supported multi-day kayaking trip. When I was preparing for the trip I spent some time chatting with other paddlers and researching on-line about what kit I needed to take. I struggled to find a list online of recommended items so, having completed the trip, I have compiled a kit list of items that I would take next time.
This trip had been a long time in the planning. Some time towards the end of 2010, Simon Knox somehow persuaded Martyn Read, Doug Johnson and myself that we wanted to travel to Quebec to paddle the Magpie river. Despite Simon mentioning the 26 miles we would have to paddle down a lake, it still sounded like a good idea and during the following months, the remaining spaces on the trip were filled by Nick Smailes and Richard Morley. This second post is a write-up of my diary for our trip down the West Magpie, Lac Magpie and then the Magpie River.
