Individual adventures

Well we thought it wouldn't be as eventful, but I guess we lied! This weekend has been a getaway for both of us, although to different parts of New England. So we've experienced Fall in four different states between us.

Ian headed off to climb Mount Washington in New Hampshire with one of his IAE friends, Paul. He's training to climb a peak in Argentina around Christmas for charideee so this was a practice run for him. Ian went along for the ride, moral support and for the enjoyment It is a five-hour drive from here and ended up being a seven-hour climb, but he's succeeded in reaching the summit of the highest peak in New England so it's something else achieved.

Annalie went off to the ski house in Killington with Mhairi and Steve in order to set up for the season ahead and before it truly gets started. We had made a conscious decision not to open the house up to members this weekend to ensure we could get the place sorted, but we offered two of our members the opportunity to stay anyway.

The ride up takes 2.5 hours and when we arrived we realised there wasn't much that needed doing. The owner had even left us stuff that we weren't expecting, so we had a much more chilled out weekend than we anticipated.

Friday night was a Halloween party at a local bar, the Wobbly Barn, fancy dress obligatory. Princess Leia was resurrected, while Steve went as a Will Ferrell character and Mhairi as a Ladybug - see the new Killington pictures. We tried to get some food before heading to the bar but the kitchen had already shut so we ended up drinking on an empty stomach (very wise - not!). Luckily we were all pretty tired so headed home after three drinks and spent a cozy night in our new winter home.

Saturday was filled with shopping for bits for the house and a lazy afternoon with a DVD. But Annalie managed to pick up her season lift pass so she's all set to go when the slopes open. Then we headed to The Lookout Tavern for their opening night. We only lasted three drinks again before we headed back to the house for dinner and another DVD (the high life).

On Sunday, the resort surprised us all by opening up some runs and lifts already. It wasn't due to open until the 14th so none of us had brought our gear up with us so couldn't take advantage. It's snowed a little bit this week, but there's only about 11-18 inches of natural snow. They're making the rest though so there's up to 30 inches covering some runs.

So we weren't too disappointed but if the conditions get better, we may go up for a run next weekend. Plus there's some jobs we want Ian to fulfill at the house

Elsewhere this week, Ian had drill night with the Fire Department on Tuesday and then it was back down to the Fire House for pumpkin carving on Wednesday. The House has a big Halloween party for the local kids every year so the Fire families gather together to prepare for this with pizza and beer and plenty of pumpkins to carve. Annalie held up our end early on as Ian had gone to volleyball without telling her so he wasn't even there when she arrived. He got there in the end and got his hands dirty inside a pumpkin, but still trailed Annalie.

Thursday night we trooped into Hartford for IAE's charity pub quiz, hosted by Mhairi. We teamed up with Dan and Fi, even though Fi had warned us about her quiz answering skills! Still, it wasn't about the winning but the taking part and the charidee. We did pretty badly, but it was a fun night all the same.

Not much else to report. The nights are getting very cold now and the clocks went back this weekend so we enjoyed the extra hour in bed. But it's now getting dark very early and we can feel winter edging its way towards us. On the one hand we're excited about it and the opportunity to snowboard every weekend. One the other hand, it's going to be a long, hard few months. Time to get the heating on maybe?