time flies when you have fun.......does it?

So as you may see by the date of this post and by the title I am contemplating time ....... whether it goes fast when having fun...........or drags when not...

Well last weekend saw us all packed and off to Glentress on Friday night, it was a nice evening clear skies and lots of glimpses of a beautiful almost full moon.

If none of you have been to the 7stanes site at Glentress near Peebles well it well worth a visit with the family lots of lovely walking and also some nice family trails along side more adventurous ones, very friendly people and a good social gathering place...here is a wee link to the site..http://7stanesmountainbiking.com/Glentress---Innerleithen  I love seeing families come along and out come the wee ones on the wee ist bikes ever and they bomb around the Eagles nest car park, definitely worth parking there as its central to all the fun, near the wee skills loop, walks go off from there and well there are benches for watching some of the fun and just having a nice wee sit and picnic....

Any way we found ourself with only one other camper parking in the carpark for the night, our fave spot was free so wee reversed into place popped the top and opened our sleeping bags and climbed in.... I had been warned by Joanne that the weather was to be very cold at night and she wasn't wrong it was Blinking perishing..................I know I am not known for feeling the cold but I can tell you at 3 in the morning I was so cold I very nearly woke up Rob and said OK take me back home to Dunoon and the cosy flat...............AM I GLAD I DIDN'T!

Morning found us with a weak sun shining on the Vinster and we hopped out of our sleeping bags and into our biking clothes, porridge on the stove top and cuppa tea and we were set... it was surprisingly quiet for a Saturday morning on the trails but all the better for us as we could ease into the biking.... I had looked back and it was November the last time I had been to G.T. and much too long out of the saddle.... (I continuously ask myself why I leave it so long to sit on a bike as it always means a sore deriar after the first hour.....lol so after playing on the Teenage Kicks for an hour with Rob and Nancy the tandem it was time to have another cuppa at the side of Vinnie...



To say it was chilly is about right, after a nice cuppa it was back up to the top or Teenage Kicks for some laughs and a look at the Rock garden a wee rocky section with a right bend at the bottom... this wee section has eluded us for years firstly the Green Cannondale just didn't have the clearance and to be honest though Nancy does we are always enjoying the last kicker before the rock garden that we never position ourselves correctly to master it... So this was going to be the weekend we did this... I was confident we could do it Rob was a wee bit cautious.... Anyway it wasn't happening Saturday as the snow flurries though not lying were making it not idea conditions..... We got chatting to a couple of nice lads who were complimentary to our biking skills well think its complimentary when a couple of teens say " MAD you really are MAD"  then say never thought you two would manage that...lol I do love being a 54 year old fat lady who gets wee lads to think again about what they perceive... good for them and definatly good for my ego.... that feathering of my ego makes the pain and hard work getting back into biking after a break all the more doable...

We had a really nice spicy lentil and tomato soup back at Vinnie and I rested for a wee while so Rob could go play with his solo bike... the cold still got to me and well when it was about 4 I suggested a trip down to the forestry centre below with the hot showers on offer... good move.  After warming up in the shower and a wee sit in the sun beside our Vinster it was time to go mooch around Peebles, the walk around was good for me as I was feeling a fair bit of pain again and one of the gallstones had done a move around and well wasn't too sure it was going to settle...

The evening was spent in The Glentress Hotel chatting to a lovely family of sisters who had come biking to Glentress for first time as a birthday treat for their brother... nice group and such a laugh... we also had a wee chat to the owner of the Hotel and well was sad to hear that things financially had been very tough the last 3 years and if he hadn't won the franchise for the Cafe he would have had to pull out of the area... that's so sad but it was also a bit difficult because we really support the girls who ran the Hub and made Glentress so successful and who had lost out to that Cafe and so went out of business.... to be honest the Forestry really didn't do right by any of them when they built the new centre and well it should have been possible for both business's to survive... G.T. has changed with the new set up and the old gang of riders are not going any more and that is a massive regret to us...We loved it so much the fun, the chat and the company that the girls from the Hub generated is sorely missed... in the past you would be able to go to the cafe at 6pm and have a lovely lively time all passing on tales of the days exploits... that doesn't happen the new Cafe though totally wants and tries to provide the same experience as well as suiting the casual family visitor, just doesn't and it was all the more noticeable this weekend when we went down for a shower and found an empty car park at only 5pm everyone had gone... such a shame... still for Rob and I and our limitations on skill and energy G.T. is still an awesome venue... though we do miss the old gang of riders..

That night saw me going to sleep in thermal biking tights and base layer and with the addition of a cowl I was an extremely warm and cosy bunny...

Next morning saw 4 parties waking up to the sun in the car park and a nice dry day again... I have to say that I was totally surprised all Sunday with my biking, I managed to bike all day and was only too tired by the end of the day... woo hoo longest session for a while and yep we managed to look at the rock garden and decide it could be done, once again snow stopped us trying but we did do the drop off we hadn't before and its was really easy...lol

I am including a link here of a lad who did the run before us with a helmet camera and well you can get an idea of what fun it is from his footage..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa-UxpbL55U

We had a lovely day and managed to do so much, we had cuddles from Foo as Lindsay and Chris were at G.T. for the day with Napier cycling club.  I have to say my daughter is so stylish and I am in awe of how she always looks so trendy and fit and well almost glamourous when in her biking clothes and I am not at all surprised she has been asked to be a tester for the new designer of women biking clothing  www.ananichoola.co.uk.

We also go chatting to a lovely couple who had a fawn greyhound girl which reminded me of my wonderful lad Red..

Turns out these lovely people are involved with Greyhound Awareness league (www.gal.org.uk) the very rescue society we got Red from and one of the charities we try to help when we can along with Royalheart greyhound rescue(http://royalheartgreyhoundrescue.freeforums.org/) and Scottish Greyhound Sanctury (http://www.scottishgreyhoundsanctuary.com)... these three charities are fairly local to us in Scotland and well they will be the first people we will be contacting when Milton is finished and we can finally get our selves a hound again... I cant wait and really am looking forward to the company and walks.... and sharing a duvet in Vinster with...lol no idea how all three of us will fit in but hey ho we will lol


So was last weekend fun?  Oh Yes, Was I shattered for the rest of the week?  Oh Yes!  Can I wait till next time? No I wish I was doing it all again now....lol

and did you notice this didnt get posted when written ops went into drafts by mistake lol