Ness Weather Bound in a Guest House

If it's not one thing it's another, having meant to have started on our training expedition yesterday we were stopped by the rain as it would ruin our kit (only made for extreame cold and dry weather!) and today we were stopped by the beyond gale force winds (I'm not sure if there's a technical term for that!) so we have been in the guest house for another 2 nights - I am certainally not complaining as much as I'm looking forward to getting out there. I've never actually seen ice form on the inside of windows when there is full central heating on - honestly feels like the windows are going to blow in at the moment and it was a stuggle to open the door out of the guest house earlier and we had to rope it up to get out, to try and stand and walk about in the wind/get used to the chill and not getting frostbite on our faces, only about -20.... Even the one or two locals we see go by have left their bikes at home today. They litterally ride in all other conditions including over the black ice which is currently on most of the roads which make getting arround quite interesting. Most of us have had bambi moments on at least once a day over the last few weeks! May be we should have invested in some spikes which the locals fit on their shoes for getting about.

We did have a good little ski session this morning though - much easier to do on snow than around Hyde Park on wheels after a rather amusing first session on ice out here....Lou is keeping all the boys quiet (Simon) with her speedy pulk pulling and efficent skiing; apparently she had given an impression of being a dizzy blonde during our training in Dartmoor?!

Must get to bed, thank you so much for your supportive emails, really means a lot. Bring on nightly bear watches (sorry M&D I promise to be safe), using a shee wee (gulp), the cold..., and sleeping in a tent with Lee who apparently snores, although he is a fire officer so he can hopefully look out for any interesting stove lighting moments I hope not to create...

xxx