I've definitely now got to the stage in life that I remember all the dance remixes from the first time round. Not a problem - but there seems to be more and more people who don't!

The latest is Infernal's remix of Laura Branigan's Self Control - which was playing in the bar I was in in Sheffield the other night. Pretty good as these remixes go - have a listen, but please tell me you also remember it the first time round!

Today is 'Heritage Sunday' - the one day of the year when loads of buildings across the country that you don't normally get to see open their doors to the general public. When I mentioned to Chris (one of my closest friends from university) that I was thinking about popping down to Manchester to do some shopping he suggest I join him and Audrey on a tour of the clock tower at Manchester's Town Hall.

Now, I don't really have a head for heights - so a tour of a clock tower might not have been the best way to spend a Sunday morning, but it was absolutely fantastic.

Manchester is a really great city - and to see it from so far up from an angle the general public don't get to see that often was something else. The weather helped - you could see the entire city right up to Heaton Park and down way past the university. There's been lots of new building in the city centre since I left in 1999 too, and we got to see buildings which don't look as good from ground level.

The building itself is fantastic. Manchester's Town Hall is defintely in the gothic tradition, and the clock tower follows the rest of the building in this respect. The staircase up is a very tight spiral one, but closed in enough not to cause me problems with the height. The bells are massive, and make a fair bit of noise (they were a set of bell-ringers in the tower while we were there). The scary bit though was being right at the top as the bells were being rung - the movement of the bells causes the tower to sway just a little, but it's very off-putting when it's such a long way down!

Grizedale Forest is fantastic - not only is it a forest (which I'm pretty fond of anyway), but there's loads of artwork in between the trees as well.

I spend a lot of time at Grizedale - it's peaceful, and a good place to go in the wind and rain because it's quite sheltered. I covered parts of the forest I've not been to before today - and came across this - multitudes of signposts in the trees.

There's more photos from my past couple of visits to the forest on flickr.

Have come to the conclusion that I'm in desperate need of some exercise. I'm working all hours at the minute, with the result that I seem to be putting on weight like never before. And I'm only getting a game of squash every couple of weeks if I'm lucky.

So, when I got home from work tonight, and it was still light and sunny, decided to cycle from Kendal to Staveley and back again - about 8 miles. Haven't cycled anything like that distance in years. V good for the mind, not sure about the body - I guess we'll see if I can walk in the morning!

On the downside - it started chucking it down with rain when I was half way round, so I got absolutley soaked. And it's still that cold winter type rain that's verging on hail. Grrr...

There was me thinking it was supposed to be the Spring now, and I awoke to a snow covered Kendal - the worst snow we've had all winter. Roads closed left, right and centre, but at least the kids seemed to be enjoying it (though I'm told they don't sell sledges at Argos...!).

Went for a wander up the castle, given driving anywhere wasn't really an option.



Sledging!!!



From the bridge over the River Kent



The Castle

The weather today was amazing - much better than it should have been for February. So I took the opportunity to do something new, and longer than I have been walking of late. A walk up Silver How from Grasmere, and along the ridge to Blea Rigg before coming down to Easedale Tarn and back to Grasmere through Easedale. Perhaps in the summer, when there's more light (and perhaps more energy in me) I can do the same thing across to Stickle Tarn and the Langdale Pikes - hadn't realised how close to Grasmere they really were.

Anyhow, some photos from today - taken on the mobile phone as someone from work has my camera for 'work stuff'.



Thr route up Silver How from Grasmere



The view of Grasmere from Silver How



Looking across to a snow-capped Helvellyn



One of the waterfalls of Sourmilk Gill above Easedale