Iceland 2000,

I have decided to archive some of my  pictures from trips over the years

What do you think of the format.

More pictures of Iceland coming soon,

Regards,

Carl

This weekend we will be camping at the Minors Standard pub, Winster.
If you see this pub, then you have arrived:

The camp area is behind the left hand pub car park.

http://www.winster.org/miners.htm

Kevin and Doreen Markham
THE MINERS’ STANDARD
Banktop
Winster
Derbyshire
DE4 2DR

TEL 01629 650279

Map:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=DE4+2DR&sll=53.138662,-1.64605&sspn=0.004216,0.010171&ie=UTF8&ll=53.138876,-1.647778&spn=0.004216,0.010171&t=h&z=17

The weather forecast is looking dry for Sat, maybe Sunday, so bring your shorts and sun cream.

http://uk.weather.com/weather/10day-Matlock-DE4

If anyone would like to know where we will be climbing on Sat / Sun, please look at this web site as I will be texting a tweet to my twitter which will be automatically updated in the MAC Tweet box on the right hand side of this web site -> over there…

Lets go climbing…, and botanising…, “all the gear and no idea”

Doug

Hi  Everyone,

Yes it’s going to happen, Karen and I are going to ride Tony(the tandem) from Lands End to John O’Groats. It’s going to take about three weeks to cover the 1000+ miles. It wont be easy, especially on my bum! So for all the pain, how would you like to sponsor us. You can do it online here or see us in person.
Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor us: CLIC Sargent gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

So please sponsor us now!

Cheers J, K and T.

http://www.justgiving.com/johnkarenandtony

John and Karen starting on the cycle ride at Lands End on the Saturday.

Hello all,

I don’t want to labour the point, but there are a few more examples of the madness I was talking about last time that I want to share.

The poor little girl who hurt her finger – it took 5 days to get an insurance company to agree they would pay for her to see a doctor, and yes she had a broken finger.
Someone I know had to have his appendix removed when he was 19, he had no insurance, but he had no choice either, it was an emergency. He still owes the $60,000 for this operation from 12 years ago, and it will stand against him when he attempts to get a mortgage.
Viki slipped on some standing water when she visited the doctor recently. She asked for someone to clear it up, and was told that she would need to contact the owners of the building, as the doctors office are not responsible as they just rent the premises. Viki put them straight, saying she didn’t want to sue them, just get it cleared up so someone else, possible someone more frail, didn’t slip as well. They said “Oh, that’s very nice of you” but didn’t clear it up as that would presumably make them responsible if someone got hurt later. She told her colleagues at work who were shocked she hadn’t taken photos for her claim. MADNESS.

My favourite shop out here is huge, and it sells some really huge products (my cling film is 1km long, and bin bags come in boxes of 150). They have a 9 foot BBQ for sale at the moment. This thing has 3 parts to it, one section has the normal huge gas grill and rotisserie, plus a double oven underneath. Next section has a gas stove top with infra red ’singe’ plate, with a storage area for the gas bottle and shelves for what ever underneath. The final section has a sink with flexible spout, and a double fridge underneath.If you want this, you first need a huge flat patio, but also $2500. That’s a lot of money for a burnt burger.

Talking about huge;
Our local bowling alley has 82 lanes.
There is a warehouse just up the road which has 140 loading bays down each long side. As far as I can see, it is empty right now.
Some of the houses here are massive.
The food portions used to look huge, worryingly, they don’t anymore……………
I saw a pickup truck recently with that silly looking raised suspension and over sized wheels. It must have stood over 10 feet tall.
Some of the amusement parks are just silly.

I am researching how to avoid problems with bears as this year I will be camping and hiking in bear country a fair bit. 3 snippets I found might be of interest;

We advise that outdoors men fasten small bells to their clothing so as not to unexpectedly startle bears in the area. We also advise outdoors men to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter with a bear. It is also a good idea to watch out for fresh signs of bear activity. Outdoors men should be able to recognize the difference between black and grizzly bear droppings for example. Black bear droppings are smaller and typically contain berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear dung is larger, has little bells in it and smells like pepper spray.

Bear size pepper spray has been proven effective at stopping a charging Grizzly Bear about 90% of the time.

IF A BEAR COMES INTO YOUR TENT

This is the worst possible situation. It very rarely happens, but there are a few documented cases. At night attack usually comes from a predatory bear. If you act like prey, you become prey.

Once more, don’t panic, run, or scream, but don’t remain calm. Instead, fight back with everything you have. Don’t lie still in your sleeping bag. Don’t play dead. Use the UDAP Bear Deterrent Pepper Spray. Make loud metallic noise. Use an air horn. Shine lights in the bears eyes. Temporarily blind the bear with the flash of your camera. Use any deterrent you brought with you. Unload on the bear with everything you have. Anything goes. Use whatever physical resistance you can.
No shit, and only 90% of the time…..great.

Don’t worry though, no bear will come near me, I very rarely wash when out and about, and I am usually with someone slower than me – sorry Roger.

It is not just the bears you need to watch out for, hunters are a real menace too, and far more dangerous. I was walking in the woods the other day (wearing black) when I just about bumped into someone hiding with a bow. Deliverance came quickly to mind. SQUEEEEEEAL LIKE A PIG.
Another time, before entering a hiking area, there was a sign advising against wearing a white hat or gloves in case you get mistaken for the back end of white tailed deer.
On the Appalachian trail I passed an area miles from anywhere which was ringed by signs stating “Do not carry loaded guns or notched arrows in this area, and never shoot towards protected zone”. All very comforting until you realise the protected zone was a camp site, and that if hunters could mistake your hat for a deers bum, they probably can’t read either.

On the wild life topic, I looked out of the kitchen window recently to see 6 fully grown wild turkey walking across the road. Don’t fancy their chances around here with all the hunters.
A work friend has a cabin and 25 acres up in Pennsylvania. He has a problem Black bear which keeps on breaking in. He installed motion detecting cameras to see what was around and got this great shot of his tenant. See pic.

We had another good dump of snow recently, about 8″ overnight. Great fun, we all went sledding and had a lovely time. Don’t think we will get any more now, it is starting to feel like spring. We may have seen the last of the frozen lakes too, they were covered with around 6 – 9″ of ice for over 2 months. Pictures of Amy ice fishing and making snow angels, and of Robert looking thoughtful on the local lake.

I took Robert to watch an ice hockey game at Madison Square Garden this weekend. Now this is the most sports like of the North American ’sports’ that I have seen, some of these guys even broke into a sweat.
The game is split into 3 periods of 20 mins. About 7 minutes into the first third, all the players just stopped and skated around aimlessly. I asked what was happening, and it turns out it was a stop for a commercial break for the TV network. This happened 3 times in each 20 period.
Although it is clearly a very fast game, and looks like a very aerobic, there were 13 subs and only 6 on the ring – that’s too many subs surely.
The players seem to be expected to have a few fights. This happened 3 times in the game we watched, all of a sudden gloves go flying across the ice and 2 players have a set to. Now I am all for random fights breaking out in all sports, it helps to liven up the game, but these were actually very disappointing fights. The 3 refs home in on the scrap, let them get on with it, but step in when one player has a clear disadvantage – falling over, or having your shirt pulled over head is deemed to be a disadvantage. Have you ever tried ice skating? It is hard enough standing up, let alone having a scrap, so it is not long before someone falls over and the fight is stopped. Also they wear so much padding that it would be hard to get hurt anyway. More like handbags at 10 paces than a real fight, but it got the crowd excited.
It was a very fun day out though, very pleased we went. Our good friend George got us tickets and took us, so it was great to see the game with an expert.

Finally, so you all know, anyone who is thinking about visiting and wants to do so in the summer, this summer will be the last chance, it is likely we will be home next summer. Book now, Hotel Matthews has vacancies at the moment.

Let me know all your news,

Dave and co

Here we go again.

Happy new year.

The topic today will be insurance in America. It is out of control.

Car insurance.
New Jersey suffers from the highest car insurances in America (and therefore possibly the world). Last year we paid $3330 for ours, and the lions share was to cover possible medical bills.
Many companies (including Viki’s) will not entertain offering company cars as the insurance burden against class actions is too great. Madness.

House insurances.
In New Jersey it is not too bad.
However, in parts America, like southern Florida, insurances are huge. A work friend’s mum has a $40,000 trailer down at the bottom of Florida, and the insurance on that is $1000 per month. I am no risk management exec, but that looks very much like they expect the trailer to get munched once every 4 years. What you would also like in that area is Earthquake insurance, but no one offers it, so if a big hole opens up and swallows your house, you need to throw a match in there to get any help.
This situation was always bad, but the hurricane seasons have been getting worse (don’t get me started on the warming of the oceans) so the insurances are steadily rising. I have a friend who’s sister lives in Florida (not the same area, further away from the hurricane affected bits), and she could only get insurance after she spent $10,000 to modify her house, and then agreeing to a deductable of $25,000. Yes, a deductable of $25,000. Madness.
Most American houses are made of wood. The story of the 3 little pigs comes to mind, I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down.
Even where there are no hurricanes, urban areas are within woods, and are very dry in the summer. Almost all American fire departments are run on a voluntary basis. Madness.

OK, the big one – Health Insurance.
To start with – let me just say – madness.
I have talked with many people about this. People are very interested in the UK system of universal health care, and I am not surprised. I have not always been a big fan of the NHS, especially after my knee experience, and I think there are limitations and things to change, but having seen how an alternative system might work – we’d better protect the NHS.

Here are some interesting snippets from the American health system.
If you do not have insurance, you can still get treatment, there are charity providers, and if you are truely broke, it will be free. But if you have equity, or a job, you will be expected to pay the costs in a similar way to a mortgage, over 30 years if the costs high enough.
This is not an attractive propersition for the uninsured, of whom there are an estimated 60 million (10% of the population). With so many uninsured people, there are an estimated 100,000 people who die each year as they are too scared to seek medical help.
Medical costs are huge. This is not suprising, doctors get paid for how much work they do, so they offer as much as possible. People (those who go to the doctors) are insured, so they happily accept the max treatment. Insurance companies bear the cost so put up the premiums. People pay so much for insurance, that they want the most treatment possible to get their monies worth. It seems to me that when you get your licence to practice medicine, you also get a licence to print money. So premiums are constantly being driven up.

We have seen this ‘unnessesary treatment’ often. Viki had to go to a chiropracter about her back. They sent her for x-rays of her spine. From the x-rays they were able to diagnose the problem but still wanted to send her for an MRI. She asked why (as she is responsible for the health care costs of her works plan) she needed a scan, weren’t they sure they could see the problem? Oh yes, we are absolutely sure from the x-rays what the issue is but an MRI would make sure. She didn’t get a scan.
Robert had loads of dental work last year, so much that we spent all of his insurance. At a check up they were going to take a set of x-rays (they had taken a full set just 6 months earlier). I asked if it was completely necessary as we had no insurance left – “Oh no. you don’t need them, we just do them to be safe”.
A friend on our street hurt his back. After the normal X-rays and MRI, his doctor said he needed spinal surgery. He didn’t like the sound of that, so got a second opinion. The second opinion was also surgery. He still didn’t like the sound of it, so left it. Within 4 weeks he was playing racket ball again. I am not saying he doesn’t need surgery, but when a doctor out here recommends spinal surgery (or any other expensive treatment) you find your self wondering if it is really necessary, or just to help pay for his Christmas presents.
Doctors peddle which ever pills gets them the biggest lunch. There are typically several options out there for most conditions, and you will get prescribed the pills from which ever pharmaceutical company has done the best job of bribing, sorry, selling their pills to the individual doctor. Which companies do you think have the greatest bribing, sorry, selling power? The ones with the most expensive pills. Hence insurances get driven higher still.

So how much does medical care and insurance cost.
An average birth will cost an insurance company $30,000.
An MRI scan (which is over used as explained) will cost anywhere between $1000 – $4000.

A low paid cafe waiter I met in NY State had to have an injection (1 injection), and it cost him $1500. He was uninsured so paid for this himself. He then took out insurance, which costs him $400 per month for fairly basic cover.
A typical family has to fork out $1200 per month for insurance. On top of this, everytime you go to a doctor or buy a prescription, you have to pay an extra co-pay of $20 or $30.
Most people have insurance as part of their package at work, in fact it is one of the most important parts of the package. It is often the first question people ask – “what is your health insurance like?”. But this is not without draw backs, someone still has to pay.
Companies are becoming hamstrung by rising insurance costs, it is often the highest cost behind wages. Can you imagine a small employer taking on a young newly married lady if the company is self insured? They would be thinking – children, $30000 per pop.

We have 2 good friends who met when their children were in hospital with serious conditions. They both had problems with their insurances.
Friend A recieved a bill, at a time when it looked like his child would die, for $120,000. His employer guarenteed he would not have to pay, but not before much unneeded panic and stress.
Friend B recieved a bill, also whilst his child was still in hospital, for $270,000. This took him 2 weeks to sort out over the phone, and at a time when he didn’t really need any extra stress.

MADNESS.

Here is a great little example of the madness.
We take it in turns to pick the children off the bus. I walk them all home as it is only 200 meters at most. Everyone else uses their cars. This week a child got their finger trapped in the door of the car, it is possibly broken. The mum rang up the doctor, who said they couldn’t see her as the medical insurance would not pay out as it happened in a car – the car insurance must pay. This happened in someone elses car, so the correct way to get this unfortunate 5 year old seen by a doctor is to ask the friend to make a claim on their car insurance. This would undoubtably result in a $250 – $1000 deductable, and increased premiums for the next few years. The people who’s car it was refused to give their insurance details out and saying that the mum should claim on her own car insurance saying it was their car. Meanwhile the child has a very sore finger. Madness.
This could take a few days to get to a point where they can even see a doctor, and someone will end up paying alot of money to do it. I think the finger had better be broken!

So next time you visit the doctor and have to wait for a couple of hours, be very happy about it.

Other interesting things.

Viki had to change her wording of the company policy she introduced in Texas which read “All employees and visitors must wear safety shoes on site” to “All employees and visitors must wear safety boots whilst on site” as she was told “Texan men do NOT wear shoes, they wear boots” Real men down there.

Fuel prices dropped from $4.00 to a low of $1.35 per gallon. They are on the rise again now and it costs a massive $24 to fill up. Whilst it is nice to have such cheap fuel, I wish it was higher. When it was $4.00 a gallon, it was a hot topic – why do our cars do so few miles per gallon, how can we conserve fuel, are there alternative fuels. You could not sell a truck, and you saw fewer on the road. But now people are out driving their trucks again, 10 miles per gallon, no probs.

On the environmental topic, I saw a product that so shocked me, I had to ask to see if I understood the concept properly. In America it is possible to buy a cheap DVD that you can only watch for 24 hours. It is packaged in the normal 3 layers of wrappings, and the DVD is coated in something that deteriorates, once opened, in 24 hours rendering the DVD useless, so it can be thrown away. This is seen by some people as much more conveniant than having to return a rented DVD. Madness.

The weather is proper winter now. We have seen a couple of dumps of snow, the lakes are mostly frozen over, and temps have got as low as -14C at night and -8C by day. This week we are due to get 6 days and nights below freezing before it briefly creeps up to 2 degrees for a day. It is lovely, and I enjoy getting out for walks when it is really cold. We are hoping for at least 1 big dump of snow, we keep getting 2″ or so which isn’t quite enough to get really silly in.

We went to a proper burger place last week. You can ‘build’ your own. As many toppings as you want. Robert had a 10 oz one, and I managed a 20 oz one. We are both on the hall of fame now as if you finish ‘the big one’, you get your photo taken. Strange thing was that it was gorgeous. Whilst it took a few minutes to polish off, it was so nice that it wasn’t so hard.

The children are doing well, they are happy at school, and have a pretty good social life.
Viki is hard at work and is still enjoying all America has to offer.
I am hoping for a fab year, I have started climbing and hope to meet new people to go climbing with outdoors this summer. I’d better look at my insurance first!!!

Hope everyone back home is well, send us your news, it is always great to hear from friends.

Dave and co.

MAC Xmas weekend & AGM

Friday 5th (evening) – Sunday 7th December 2008

Skirfare Bridge Barn, Kilnsey, Yorkshire

Organiser: Karen / Russell

MAC Xmas weekend & AGM

Friday 5th (evening) – Sunday 7th December 2008

Skirfare Bridge Barn, Kilnsey, Yorkshire

Organiser: Karen / Russell

MAC Xmas weekend & AGM

Friday 5th (evening) – Sunday 7th December 2008

Skirfare Bridge Barn, Kilnsey, Yorkshire

Organiser: Karen / Russell

Please send your pictures to me, to enter the competition.

No rules on content, but they must feature the outdoors…..

Feel free to enter as many pictures as you like………..

Please click on the thumbnails to enlarge to view

Entries to close by the 1st December, then I will open an online poll.

Since I last wrote, I was lucky enough to go to the first JETS home game of the season. (American Football)
This was a great experience, and loads of fun. Americans know how to put on a show. We joined a tail gate party where our group had a hummer (very big) with a BBQ (very big) which attached to the tow bar and was then winched down for use, and up for transit.
The game did little to persuade me that American Footballers are anything but a bunch of pansies. Bear in mind that only 11 players are on the field at a time – each team had 54 players. Remember this is for a 60 minute game (which took over 3 hours). They each had 2 players whose only job was to kick the ball, and as this is such a hard skill to master, they specialise further, one kicks from the hand, and the other kicks from the floor like a penalty in rugby. This penalty guy had only 3 kicks to make all game, and he missed one that I think I could have made. He was actualy the replacement goal kicker. The first choice injured himself kicking in the previous game. How embarassing. All he had to do was warm up properly, and then take a kick. Imagine how little a typical replacement kicker has to do during a season. What a great job.
On the replacements bench (a big bench as there are 43 men sat on it) there are cold air blowers and even plug in air conditioned sockets that they plug into their suits so it cools them down under all their gear. WHAT. Lesson; wear less gear. It must have taken longer to put on than most of them played for.
But the cheer leaders were nice and wore alot less gear.

In the last letter I also talked about the gun laws in America, and mentioned that Texas has some of the most relaxed.
Viki has a site in Texas and she wanted it to be company policy that no weapons were allowed on the premises. To do this she had to post notices and consult with all the staff. Fortunately no one had any problems with being unarmed and at the mercy of attack whilst at work so it is now policy. However there is not much you can do if some one wants to arm themselves, ‘It’s my right you know’.
For example, some high school teachers in Texas have it written into their contracts that they will take a gun into school and into class with them. This is to protect the children no less! Amazing. As a parent I know I’d feel so much happier to know that Roberts teacher was armed, just in case. The book is mightier than the sword, but a gun………

We have some guests in our house. We have heard them skuttling and rolling acorns around in the night quite often. The other night I was driven outside to find out what they were and where they are getting in. Can you believe they are flying squirrels. They are really cute but noisy so they will have to go. They get in and out of a small hole near the gutter, and then run to the top of the roof and jump off to glide into nearby trees. It is wonderful to see, they spread their arms and legs and stretch out their skin to form the ‘wings’.

We went up to the Adirondacs (last of the Mohicans territory) for a few days not long ago. We wanted to see the fall up there and we were not disappointed. Quite amazing colours. There are loads of maple and cherry which turn to vibrant oranges and reds, plus the usual yellows, golds and green conifers which all go together to produce a real mosaic.
There are also alot of trees. It is almost constant forrest from us all the way up (250 miles) plus the same again if you continue north, and about the same east to west. We had to travel around to get the best foliage, the ‘peak condition’ only lasts around 4 days in any one place, so you just keep driving till you get to a peak area. We stayed in a cabin on the shore of Lake George, and even popped into Vermont for one of the days which we loved, it is a very beautiful area, and rightly famous in the fall.

I am now working part time as a ‘lean consultant’. It is fun. I am in new territory in that they think I am doing a better job than I think I am doing, normally it is the other way around. I like it this way. There are some amazingly wasteful practices going on, and everything we change that helps them they are very grateful for.
No one has sworn at me, no one has told me I am useless or that my idea will never work, it has all been friendly and well recieved. My friends at UYS will know how odd that all sounds!

You will all be pleased to hear that the weather has turned. I will no longer be able to annoy you all with stories of endless blue skies and hot sunny days. It is now blue skies and much colder days. Still beautifull, sorry. We had the first snow of the season last week, about an inch settled but didn’t last long. It actually rained today, the forcast shows drizzle – the first time that word has appeared all year. It is due to be murky for a whole 2 days before retuning to clear and cold.

We went to a science museum in Philly today. Very good, all hands on for the children. They had a huge walk-in heart with educational bits all the way around. They had the attached disclaimed on the wall as you entered. What do they think might happen, that people might go home and carry out open heart surgery on the basis of what they learnt in a walk-in heart. The really worrying thing is that often these disclaimers appear AFTER something has gone wrong!

Fuel prices have dropped like a stone since the credit crisis. It is now lower than it was when we arrived last year. It seems to drop daily, it is down from just over $4 a gallon to $2.12 in 6 weeks. I think it might actualy get below $2 soon.

More soon

Dave and co