Wild Woolly Wales - Spiffo What

An absolutely fabulous weekend Mountain Biking in Wales, a simply splendid supper with the Webb’s and John Piper's 'dropping' in tomorrow at Tyndale to write another cracking book on Desiring God - what oh! Nothing like a bit of name dropping to start a blog. Actually I found out I'm lower class - no surprises there.

Apparently there are 7 things to look out for to differentiate the upper class from the lower classes. They're in a book called 'Watching the English: Hidden Rules of English Behaviour'. There is a section called Class Indicators.

Ready to take the test?

1. What do you call your parents?
2. What do you call the meals of the day?
3. What do you call the piece of furniture that you sit on in front of the TV?
4. What do you call the course after the main meal?
5. What do you call the place where you go to relieve yourself?
6. What do you call a wealthy, well to do person?
7. What do you say when you have made a mistake?

Answers: (If you answered this way your acting like an upper class ....)

1. Mummy & Daddy (Mummy & Daddy - what about Mumsy Cor Blimey!)
2. Lunch & Supper - if it is really special - supper becomes dinner (lower classes say dinner for lunch and tea for supper. Tea for the upper class is in the afternoon and you have cups of tea and cucumber sandwiches - what ho!)
3. Sofa (if you say lounge, your out)
4. Sweets (if you say desert your Australian, the lower classes all say puddin')
5. Loo or lavatory (if you say toilet, ...)
6. Smart (if you say posh, guess what your not)
7. Pardon me (if you say sorry, sorry lower class)

Fri 10th - Sun 12th March
Wales was wild. Different country. Not sure of the rock formations around those areas, but a lot of bluestone and slate is used for everything. When you enter into a village it is on the edge, the fine edge of quaint and depressing. The natural beauty is breath taking. We were in Snowdonia National Park down on the south west part of Wales. The place where we rode is called Coen - y - Brenin. That's one of the easier ones to pronounce. Most have your lips and teeth and jaw doing unnatural things. The mountain bike tracks were very good. The write up talked it up, saying the Karrimor trail is the best in Europe. Not having ridden anywhere else it is hard to compare, but don't scorn the tracks around Orange - they're not bad. Karrimor went for 38 kms and climbed to 1110 metres. We had a big dump of snow on Saturday night which brought a different dimension to the riding. And of course your not going hard enough if you don't come off at least once. We had a three doctors with us, and one was a gynaecologist so we were right. The landscape was rugged and covered mainly in pines, so it sort of had a familiar Orange feel to it, though the pines were natural not planted. Single track, forest trail, hard technical sections, not too many jumps and no man-made burms or see saws. Got to ride a very good hire bike, a Specialized FSR XC which is a later, next step up model to the one at home. Hydraulic Disc Brakes are good! Anyway enough of the techo stuff. A snowy white wild and woolly wonderland of fun.

Mon 13th Spent most of the day travelling home, stopping in at a few quaint Welsh towns with unpronounceable names. Spent some time wondering how the church camp went. Great to hear that it went so well. Thanks for all those who emailed, commented etc. Got on the London Underground at Hammersmith and encountered signal failure. The place was in chaos. Eventually got to Kings Cross and a country train to Cambridge. Man! Cambridge is a welcome home away from home. Thanks Richard and Helen. Got in just in time to sit down for two more episodes of 24. Three more sessions to go!

Tues 14th Hooray!!! Finished my first draft of the essay and sent it off to PWB to give critical feedback. Ah! this is rare, finishing on time to send it to be assessed before a final draft needs to be submitted. Usually it is a dash to the post office at quarter to five to get a post mark on it showing the date of final submission, and if your late madly racing to Orange East who shut at 5.30! This one does not have to be in till 16th of June... Something very wrong with having everything done in a month that usually takes 6, but praise the Lord it's almost finished. Off to Spanish Inquisition next, just remember no one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

And dinner with Barry and Alison was really pleasant, a lovely warm couple who are very hospitable. It is sad that the Cambridge leg is coming to an end (maybe I'll find a foot). It has begun to feel like home. Have made good friends, done a lot of work, and had a little bit of time to play.

And John Piper is supposed to be coming. He's sharing the cubicle with my friend David Hohne who will have to be on his best, most joyful behaviour!