2024’s coast to coast walk across Scotland provided great camping opportunities. On previous occasions pitches were sometimes a bit hit-and-miss with uneven, sloping or wet ground, or midges to taunt me. This year something was working in my favour. Was it good weather? Or better planning? Or maybe a helpful route-Vetter from Challenge Control? Taking […]
TGOC 2024 – 11 great pitches Read More »
The TGO Challenge:- for more information from my blogs look here. Generally maps can be dragged and zoomed within their window and images can be enlarged by a click of the mouse button or equivalent. The round-about route on day 1 brought me to the end of a ridge leading westwards from a cluster of
TGOC 2024 – from Lochailort – day 2 Read More »
I expect most people jump off the train From Fort William at Lochailort and start walking eastwards along the road as soon as possible. The sign-out point is the Lochailort Inn which had been closed for a few years. It reopened in May 2024, just in time for the TGO. The discounted room rate was
Lochailort start Day 1 TGO Challenge 2024 Read More »
One of the big attractions of the TGO Challenge is planning the route. In many places a backpacking route is made already; the challenge is to follow it day after day. Wandering away from the path may lead onto private land. In some cases this can lead to confrontation with the owners, and in some
TGOC 2024 – Starting from Lochailort Read More »
This is the route for my walk across Scotland in May. The detail has been updated following comments from the Expert Vetter at Challenge Control. Unfortunately the links to the OS Maps planning tool don’t work reliably, but thankfully Skirrid Systems’ plugin for WordPress continues to work well! Page 1 DAILY ITINERARY WITH FOUL WEATHER
TGOC 2024 Lochailort to Montrose – here we go again! Read More »
This is the third pieces about my 9+ years as a Governor and Lead Governor at my local NHS Trust. Part 1 describes what NHS governors do; part 2 shows how this has evolved and contributed to Berkshire Healthcare Foundation Trust (BHFT). This last part will include observations about how effective the governance process is.
NHS Foundation Trusts: A Governor’s Tale part 3 of 3 Read More »
Innovations on my watch All governors are different with varying backgrounds and experiences. Many have a strong urge to improve their Trust’s delivery of services, but this is the role of the Board and Management and not for the Governors. They are there to scrutinize! When I joined the Council I recognised that there was
NHS Foundation Trusts: A Governor’s Tale part 2 of 3 Read More »
My period as an NHS trust volunteer governor is nearing an end and now is the time to write a few words about the experience. I was an elected governor at Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust and for over 9 years represented the constituency of Reading. I was Lead Governor for 5 or 6 years. This
NHS Foundation Trusts: A Governor’s Tale part 1 Read More »
For 9 years I was Governor at Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BHFT). This is one of 3 or 4 pieces in which I have shared some of my experiences. All governors are different – this is one of the joys of belonging to the team at an NHS Trust. The level of participation varies
NHS Foundation Trusts: A Governor’s Diary Read More »
Many runners focus on speed. The main target is to get faster, right? I used to think like this, always hopeful on each training run that my kilometre time would be a few seconds less than before. But as you get older speed becomes more difficult. It was only when I heard about the different
Coming to running: on the heart-rate – getting into zones Read More »