This post itself is a great example of my 2018 resolution to manage my own expectations; here I am, finally putting down the words which have been jostling around my head since New Year on the first day of meteorological spring. The fact that it is several degrees below zero while the “beast from the … Continue reading
Author Archives: Nicola Underdown
On the magical power of names
I’ve been reading along with a group on twitter, loosely collected together by Robert Macfarlane. I’m encountering for the first time ‘The Dark is Rising’ by Susan Cooper – fiction for children or young adults which features a world made new and unfamiliar around midwinter, and the role of a young protagonist, Will Stanton, in … Continue reading
Corsica with a toddler
Yes, yes, it is part of France and therefore it barely counts as “abroad”, never mind somewhere exotic. But before we went to Corsica in September, I suddenly found I had a pressing need to try and answer questions that I’d never thought about before, and although the internet is a place of wonder (and/or … Continue reading
On “having kids” versus “being a mum”
I always promised myself I wouldn’t become a “mummy blogger”. I don’t have anything new to say that hasn’t already been said better elsewhere. But as the tumbleweed rolled across my blog, I decided I need to do something different. Adventure has taken different forms over the last few years since our return to the … Continue reading
The adventure continues: taking a team to a trial of a triathlon
Despite the lack of updates on the blog, adventure hasn’t been entirely absent in my life for the last year. It’s just that a couple of house moves (the most recent of which is into a house with gold skirting boards and purple grouting i.e. DIY ahoy) and new jobs (including helping to set up … Continue reading
Completing the set: the slowest ever completion of the Three Peaks
Regular reader(s) will know that I am not averse to starting a list. The Robin Hood Trail. The Yorkshire Three Peaks. As we hiked up Ben Nevis last June on what seemed like the busiest day of the year, it seemed the most obvious thing to do to propose completing the proper Three Peaks. I … Continue reading
Winter redux
Earlier this week, I chuckled along with my colleagues as we welcomed the official start of Spring with an icy blast and a sprinkling of snow. This winter has seemed never-ending, though frustratingly I am no closer to getting any real UK experience of climbing up slippery stuff with pointy things in my hands and … Continue reading
On breaking promises
I remember it clearly, the point at which I said “I promise I will never, ever again suggest a holiday like this”. It wasn’t when I looked like this: No, when I was paddling furiously across a boat lane, being sluiced with cold, brackish water and swaying from side to side in the not-insignificant … Continue reading
Thinking of Vancouver: two years on
While Dave is sunning himself in Vancouver (or, more likely, injuring himself – he is going mountain biking, after all), my mind keeps wandering to the year we spent in Canada. After a summer that most people could only dream of (the end of the Tour de France; Wimbledon; the Olympics; then the Paralympics; at … Continue reading
When the going gets tough…
…the tough go walking, climbing, biking and swimming in rivers I'll be honest; things are a bit tough at the moment. Work is keeping me busy (not least with an hour's commute each way) and Dave is settling in to a new job up at BBC North. Working nights, weekends and bank holidays, I'm left … Continue reading
Continental drift 