Frank Montgomery's Personal Pages
Summary of 2014
Dear Friends and (mostly ex)
Colleagues,
Wishing you a Merry Christmas
and a peaceful New Year.
I
always knew 2014 was going to be
memorable, and it certainly was!
In
January I had a go at
snowshoeing on Mt Etna (but
bad weather meant it was mostly
done in a car park!), and
in March spent a week skiing in
Morzine, France, my first
time
skiing on the Continent
since the 80s.
Since completing the Munros I
had rather neglected
hillwalking, so it was great to
join with friends to walk 4
classic routes in the North of
England (Trespass route to
Kinder Downfall, Helvellyn
by
Striding Edge,
Cauldron Snout via High
Force, and Valley of Desolation
to Simon’s Seat).
The highlight of the summer in
Yorkshire was without doubt the
first two stages of the Tour de
France. A couple of days before
the Grand Depart, I went to see
the
teams process from Leeds
University to the new First
Direct Arena, and got some
video. For the Grand Depart
itself,
several friends came (by
bike) to my house, and we walked
literally round the corner to
watch the riders (still in
‘procession’) on the
A61 Scott Hall Road. Later
my sister (who had come down
from Glasgow for the weekend)
and I got the train from
Headingley to Harrogate to see
the finish.
Harrogate was full to bursting
(the mobile phone network
collapsed!) but the atmosphere
was really friendly and festive.
The only downer was when Mark
Cavendish crashed at the
finishing straight. The
following day I took my sister
by train to
Sheffield, where we saw the
riders struggle up the steepest
hill on the whole Tour this
year, the ‘Cote
de Jenkin Road’, near
Meadowhall.
Less than a month later I was
staying with my sister in
Glasgow for the second week of
the Commonwealth Games. I had
not managed to get tickets for
the cycling in the new Sir Chris
Hoy Velodrome, but had a very
enjoyable day at the
mountain bike races at
Cathkin Braes Park, where I used
to play when I was a kid. I
also went to athletics at the
restructured Hampden Park,
got completely soaked watching
the cycle road racing, and
surprised myself by quite
enjoying watching my first
boxing match! But I think
my abiding memory of the Games
is the little
scotty dogs that led out the
teams in the opening ceremony!
Come September it was time to go
cycle touring, and this year my
destination was Prague. I
started at Peterborough, and
stayed overnight with Mike
Wheatley, a colleague from
1979-83, who now lives near Ely.
Although we are friends on
Facebook, we had not met for
donkeys years, so it was great
to catch up. My route then took
me to Harwich and the overnight
ferry to Esbjerg, Denmark.
(Three weeks later this route
ceased operation after 140
years.) A few days of island
hopping took me via Odense to
Gedser, then a ferry to Rostock
in the former East Germany, and
thence via
Berlin and
Dresden to Prague. After
four
great days in
Prague I caught the sleeper
train to Amsterdam, stayed with
my other sister for the weekend,
then caught the ferry from
Europoort to Hull.
On
top of that, this year I went to
3 Musicals, 3 Plays, 5 Operas, 5
Films, 5 Concerts, 4 Talks, 2
Comedy shows, and bought 2 new
bikes (a Brompton folding bike,
and a
Marin hybrid). Life at 65
isn’t that bad!
This year, I have made a
donation of one pound per
recipient of this email (250) to
Mind
Best Wishes
Frank Montgomery
PS
If you wish to be removed from
this email list for future
years, please let me know.