This post should cover most of 2015. You'll have to excuse the lack of photos, I don't have them with me right now so I'll see about adding them when I can.
We eventually got away to the Lakes for a well-earned breather. A weekend in Patterdale just before Easter. We were both surprised by how well I coped on the fells, knocking off a couple of the lower Wainwrights (Longlands Fell and Brae Fell) was a doddle when the walking was properly paced. Only three more to do! We also nipped up to see the recently deconstructed Hayeswater dam area, it'll take some time for nature to reclaim what it had lost, but it was looking good.
Summer hols saw us back at Ty Llewelyn, and pottering about the mountains and the coast. Me and Chris went up Tryfan via the Heather Terrace, and it was a major triumph for her. She's tried before but had to stop just a few tens of feet of alt from the top due to health issues, this time she went all the way. I didn't top-out, I'd done that three times before and considered the possibility of a fall from the "bad corner" to be too great. I'm good with mountains but I'm shite with unsupported exposure to Sir Isaac's greatest discovery. We also pottered around on Moel Siabod... again. Top mountain, best there is.
Ella did better than she thought at uni and went on to start her second year on a high, and Anna got a great set of GCSE results and started what is now compulsory 16-18 education doing a bunch of A-levels at the local Sixth Form college.
After a few mini-extensions, my contractor job at TNT BICC came to an end in September, when all of their work was subbed out to an Indian company. Of the TNT "permies" a few were mapped to different positions but the majority were made redundant. That was a sad day for everyone there. They all had "TNT" running through them like "Blackpool" through a stick of seaside rock, it was a tragic waste of talent.
Our Bonfire Party was exceptionally "in yer face" - plenty of guests, lashings of hot food (courtesy of Chris), and a major surprise - my pyromaniac nephew Luke turned up with his car full of HUGE fireworks from http://www.ghengisfireworks.co.uk/ , we reckon he must have spent about £500 on them. The ground and the windows were really shaken that night!
I've probably missed a bunch of other notable things, but that brings us more-or-less up to date.
One more post should do it.
