Author: Carleen Dekarski

Kendal – The Lake District

The Lake District, home to Beatrix Potter. Kendal, the home of the Kendal Mint Cake used by Sir Edmund Hillary and the team as they climbed Everest. A deliciously evil sweet made of pure sugar and peppermint oil. Smells great, tastes amazing and is a great shot of energy that is lightweight to carry in your pack. Disappointingly the Kendal Mint Cake is still made here but they don’t do factory tours.

The real reason we came to Kendal however was the Kendal Mountain Film Festival. Four days of extreme mountaineering, aerial, climbing and cultural movies. After 1.5 days and 9 hours of film later we are all “movied” out. With a great selection of movies, lectures, workshops and general outdoor vibe it has been a good 2 days so far. We have found however that the age groups represented here are a lot older than we are used to at similar Australian festivals and the vibe isn’t as laid back and friendly.

We are staying in Ambleside which is about a 20 minute drive from Kendal as all accommodation had been taken in town. After watching some more movies this morning we did a walk around Kendal township, bought some mint cake, had some breakfast/lunch and then took off back to Ambleside.

This evening we have been very fortunate as the annual lantern parade was on. A whole parade of people with paper laterns lit with candles. Topped off by a fireworks display. It has been freezing all day and we are expecting a bit of a snow shower tonight. Hopefully it will be OK for tomorrows trip home.




Movie: Pride and Glory

It was a toss up tonight between Max Payne, W or Pride and Glory. My choice won out this evening and I’m kind of regretting it. M and Steve have already stated that I am NOT choosing the movie next time.

Edward Norton, Jon Voight, Noah Emmerich and Colin Firth are a family of active and retired NY city police. After 4 cops are shot dead, Ray Tierney (Edward Norton) is convinced by his father, a retired cop (John Voight) to join the task force to find out what happened. As the viewer we find out early in the piece that Jimmy Egan (Colin Firth), brother in law to Ray, is involved. What we don’t know is whether the other members of the family are also in the know.

At times this movie was a bit slow. We see quite a lot of interaction with their wives and children of which it doesn’t seem to add any relevance to the story at all. We also spend a lot of time wondering what haunts Edward Norton’s character and is this the reason why his face is scarred.

In all it seemed to miss some really good opportunities to tell not just a good story but a great story. It did leave me feeling rather depressed though as even though at the end the right thing is done, you still get the feeling that the dirty cops won. I guess in many ways it scares me to think that as a society we continue to grow in our distrust of those that are meant to protect us and this movie doesn’t help to diminish that momentum. 2.5 out of 5.

Movie: Warren Miller’s Children of Winter – Never Grow Old

Being the 59th Warren Miller movie to date next year should be a cracker of a celebration.

Narrated by Jonny Moseley (US winter Olympics gold medalist) he does a good job but nothing beats Warren’s voice, humour and timing.

As nice as it was to see this movie it didn’t leave me impressed by the cinematography or music tracks. Normally I would be left totally excited and pumped from the music ready to get out there and give it a burl on the slopes. I did enjoy the street skiing as they were towed behind horses but other than this it was rather lack lustre. Here’s hoping that the 60th movie will step it up a few notches. 2.5 out of 5.

Check out the difference between before and after Warren then you decide which one rocks more!

2008 – Children of Winter

2003 – Journey

Westonbirt Arboretum

This weekend I had my eye balls burned by too much colour! We took a drive to Westonbirt Arboretum which is basically a huge tree reserve that looks like a wild forest but was in fact all designed and planted to look wild and unruly. Again an example of everything here being groomed within an inch of its life.

We clearly had missed the most spectacular show of colour coming into Autumn but there were enough leaves still on the trees and ground to do some serious retina damage. The yellows, browns and oranges were just ridiculously fluro bright. Just fabulous, I can only imagine what they would have looked like a couple of weeks back. I’m quite partial to maple trees and they looked magnificent at Westonbirt.

In a couple of weekends time they are starting the evening walks where the trees will be lit up, carol singing, mulled hot cider and roasted chestnuts so we will bring you some more news and pictures on that in the coming weeks.

On the way home we did a bit of a detour to a Roman Villa that was advertised on the road side near Tetbury. We never did make it inside the villa (a cost of 7 pound each to see holes in the ground – ouch, no thanks) but we did see an incredible number of pheasants in the area. I’m talking at least 30 in one field alone. Pheasants always remind me of the Roald Dahl book – Danny the Champion of the World and the stuffed pheasant mum and grandad have back home. They have quite amazing colours and can run like heck (which we found out trying to get photos of the cheeky things).





Book review: The Bookseller of Kabul

It has been a while since I finished a book in full. I have started many and have them stacked next to my bed to complete one day. For some reason I find many other things to do besides read which is rather tragic as I enjoy a good book.

Someone from work loaned this book to me. Written by Asne Seierstad it is set in Kabul where she was lucky enough to live with an Afghan family for a few months. If what I read is correct there has been a fair bit of fall out from this book since.

Asne lived with the family for several months where she has focused on portraying the family life. The book tells the story of Sultan Khan (not his real name) a bookseller in Kabul and his family. The business has managed to survive through book burnings, censorship and much more as the country’s political regime continued to change throughout the years. The book also tells the story of the Khan family – mother, wives, sisters and children that live under Sultan’s roof. We see the struggle that Sultan has undertaken to keep his business and the struggle that his family have against his power over them and that of the social and political aspects that they must also comply with to in order to get through each day. We also see the changes occurring in Afghanistan with the departure of the Taliban.

I am still mulling over what I take away from this book besides the obvious thankfulness for the choices I have as a woman in the western world. I also take away a tiny bit more of an understanding of the Islamic faith. It has made me curious to read some more of her work though.

Movie: James Bond – Quantum of Solace

I gather that I must have liked this movie seeing as I have actually paid twice to see it. Granted the second time around there was nothing else worth watching on so that did narrow the choice.

The opening sound track was a bit disappointing more so as it featured Alicia Keys. I’m sorry but Alicia Keys and the piano rock but what’s with Jack White? Honestly he sounds like he’s singing karaoke in mum and dad’s garage. For the first duet Bond track ever done I think they should have dropped Jack.

Opening scenes of Daniel Craig, grey Aston Martin DBS, Italian mountain motorway, bad guys on the chase, you just know someones going to get hurt.

The story picks up a few hours after Vesper died having betrayed Bond in Casino Royale. Bond is now on a mission to find out who stole the money and what it is being used for. In his search he comes across a woman, Camille, who leads to Dominic Greene a supposed environmentalist who leads a group called Quantum. Camille has her own revenge agenda and teams with Bond to help him in his mission as well.

Fab action, great scenery, getting used to Daniel Craig now as well. 3.5 out of 5.

Coastal Trail Series – Dorset half marathon

Steve has been doing a fair bit of running lately. Not just your average tarmac running but some serious trail running. They are maniacs over here for this stuff. Especially fell running (up, down, around, over through fells).  Anyway for starters he completed the Dorset half marathon trail race this weekend and in my opinion did pretty darn well for his first ever one.

Set in spectacular locations on the coasts of UK you can complete either a 10km, half marathon or full marathon run through mud, sand, paddocks, streams etc. Not only does it punish your body but the mental agility is paramount. Unlike tread mill or tarmac running you can tune out as you plod the miles. If you tune out here you could well end up falling off a cliff, turning an ankle or landing smack in the mud or worse, cow pooh! The idea of doing this type of running is rather exciting but to be honest, I’m too lazy! I’ll stick to swimming.

This months run was based out of the Square and Compass pub in Worth Matravers. Stunning location, fab local pub complete with South West ciders and warming fire place. I have discovered I need to take a navigation course as I thought I would walk to a spectator point to watch for Steve on the run. After about 1.5 hours of walking and no luck, I returned to the pub to find the runners coming back in. I had gone miles out the wrong way, not even heading towards the coast where they were running. How embarrassing. I did however get one cracking great walk in! Oops.

Anyway, by the time the runners got back they were covered in mud but incredibly still functioning like normal human beings (if you consider putting your body through this as normal to begin with). I must admit a few of the runners looked a rather nasty pasty grey colour which was a bit worrying but the ambulance didn’t seem to get any action so that was good.

Steve was stoked and did very well and is keen to do another. There are 7 races in this coastal series. One every month up to May 2009. If anything it is a great opportunity to see some incredible countryside locations in the UK. Watch this space for more in future I suppose.

Number 280
Number 280
And they are off...
And they are off...
Dorset coastline - Worth Matravers
Dorset coastline - Worth Matravers
Can you spot the runners at the very bottom!
Can you spot the runners at the very bottom!

Change is here

What an exciting night. Who knew politics could be so interesting with so much at stake. Now we know Obama is in. Now comes the hard part, getting things back on track over there.

I wanted to get up in the night to watch the results but after a hard workout at the gym I slept like a baby and never woke up until my alarm went off this morning. However I hit the TV first thing in the morning to see the well won result. I am so looking forward to watching his presidency unfold and what changes he can deliver. With his charisma I would imagine the world will follow him where ever he goes. Great to finally have some style, intelligence and charisma back in the oval office.

In the meantime here is a funky rap that is getting some popular air time on You Tube.

You can vote however you like

New site

After two years of blogging it is time for a change. Pivot has done me well but was starting to come up short with its functionality. I would like to say that I produced this new website but alas, no. There are a large number of true IT geeks out there working away producing themes and widgets to make our lives easier when it comes to finding a snazzy website to present our musings.

I should also admit that it is actually Steve that has slogged away migrating my files, adjusting all the settings, finding funky widgets for my site etc.

During the migration we noticed that Pivot had lost some of my postings. I have added the headings back in but still have to re-write the content. In addition we took the postings over to the new site but are doing the photos separately. This is going to be a HUGE task. So in the meantime I hope you enjoy the new look of the site. Don’t forget to leave comments!

Cheers – Carleen