A Stroll and Mapyx Quo Maps

The Stroll
Leaving poorly Husband at home recuperating and taking his fill of day-time TV, I set out this morning with a very heavy pack and an MP3 player full of the latest Outdoorsstation Podcasts for a walk over the local fields.

For a bit of variety I walked backwards, or to be more precise, I walked the usual route in the opposite direction. It’s amazing how different everything looked from the other direction; a few times I had to stop and think about where I was and where I needed to go, whereas usually I walk this route on navigational-autopilot.

Being exceptionally brave I made my way past the ovine and bovine livestock without incident and a while later even the scary horses resisted their usual ploy of running straight at me. The worst moment was a close encounter with a Border Collie, which would usually have seen me yelping, but I stood my ground whilst its owner tried and failed to call it off (her only comment wasn’t too comforting: “It’s usually the other one you need to worry about” she said, indicating her black Alsatian-esque mutt).

The problem I found with walking in the opposite direction was that there wasn’t a convenient bench two-thirds of the way around. A quick sit down would have been nice, but in the absence of a bench I carried on, fantasising about the sofa and a cup of tea.

I got home later than expected claiming that it was the heavy pack that had made me so slow. Then I weighed it and found out that it wasn’t heavy at all. So, it was either the lack of my usual pace-setter that made me slow, or the fact that I wasn’t in any rush. Either way it was a pleasant nine and a half miles, even if it was a trifle muddy underfoot and a bit showery.


Mapyx QUO
With it being a day and a half since I emailed Mapyx to tell them that I had bought some of their mapping software but had received an error page when I tried to download it, I expected to get back from my walk today to find a response from them.

Alas no.

My chasing email was still polite but made evident my displeasure. I requested a response by the end of today.

Within an hour and a half I had a response with a link that did work. I have my maps and am happy about that.

Now all I have to do is have a play with the software and do a bit of printing.

That didn’t happen today though as I had far less interesting things to do. Those things kept me occupied for a whole half an hour until the knock of a courier at the door delivered a few rucksacks into my hands… but that’s a tale for another day.