Tuesday 10 February 2015

Contented 2015

Yup the year is going well! I new once I got out of 2014 I would feel totally different.
First things first, I had my 3 monthly scan today, actually I only had an X-Ray and bloods taken, somewhere along the line there was a mix up over the CT scan, so I have to go back in the next week or two. Fortunately I was able to have an X-Ray, and this showed that the Mets in my lungs have disappeared, which is fab news to say the least, the Bloods also were very good. Dr Griffiths was very impressed, so obviously all the exercise and healthy eating is paying off. Now we are in 2015 my attitude and general mood has been transformed and I have hardly drunk any alcohol since the beginning of December, save for a few GnT's at Christmas, so this should all help with my general health. At the end of January I did have a week of stomach pains which was rather badly timed as it was a year since I came out of hospital, and the pains felt too much like a year ago, they have stopped now and Dr Griffiths said I would get pains from time to time over the next few years, as the internal scaring from the operation would never heal completely, also I do a lot of exercise and had had a 12 mile hike in the snow in Derbyshire a few days before, so that would have added to the stresses going on inside me.

Chee Tor Tunnels

Monsal Dale Viaduct
 
 
I have been wanting to go back to Derbyshire for some time, and with the first real snow of the winter at the end of January, it was too good a chance to miss. Train from Warrington to Stockport then on to Buxton, and then a bus to Blackwell Mill, which is quite remote and was once a huge junction of railway lines built by the Midland Railway, but most are now long closed. I don't do buses, so waiting in the cold and the snow at Buxton and then being deposited in the middle of nowhere was interesting, more to the point waiting 12 miles down the road in the dark in a tiny village wondering if the bus would turn up was very interesting and very very cold! The buses were very good and were almost to time and the drivers very friendly and helpful, so a fab day all round. Much of the old railway line I walked was covered in virgin snow, between 6"-10" deep, so it was quite hard going at times, but so worth it, I only met about half a dozen people all day, so I had a lovely feeling of freedom and space.
 
Millers Dale Viaducts
 
 
The walk I did was across the furthest of these two Viaducts at Millers Dale, but of course I wasn't content with just looking over the parapets, I had to walk all the way down (and more to the point, all the way back up) to take some photos of them from the road below.
 
 
Rock Ferry pier
 
 
A couple of days later I was out exploring again, ( this was probably where my stomach pains came from) this time closer to home, a train to Liverpool Lime St, then hop on the Mersey Rail to Rock Ferry. I presume this is the Rock Ferry that Duffy sings about, no idea what she is going on about, as its not the prettiest of places, the usual boarded up pubs and shops and a burnt out church, and also a derelict pier, which long ago, you could have got a ferry over to Liverpool, now it is slowly rusting away with each tide from the Mersey, right up my street though, can't beat a good bit of rust.
 
Last Saturday I was up in the Cumbrian Fells with my camera, I had wanted to go the week before when there was a good covering of snow, but for once I thought I should have a rest, anyway most of the snow had gone last weekend and Shap Summit on the West Coast Main Railway Line between Lancaster and Carlisle was covered in thick fog, but over the Fells near Appleby on the Settle and Carlisle Railway it was a little clearer, it was incredibly still as well, "Duchess of Sutherland could be heard for around 10 minutes before she came into view, that amounts to at least 6 miles away!
 
 
46223 "Duchess of Sutherland"