Time to review With the New Year just days away, I thought I would write a review of 2016 and reflect on what a fantastic year I have had. Through health, fitness and outdoor sports, I have developed a lifestyle that really makes me happy and I want to inspire and motivate others to…
My Disability Cycling Adventure through the Outer Hebrides was the highlight of my year in 2016. Some places just motivate and inspire you, and Callanish did that for me. It really left a lasting impression. I have been lucky enough to write a piece for another blog Wanderlusters. This is a truly inspirational, adventure and travel…
Disabled people who rely on vital monies for mobility, that enables them to have an active life and go about their daily business, are facing an uncertain future. Many thousands of disabled people rely on high rate Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to enable them to access a car via the Motability scheme to enable them to…
The John Muir Trust is a conservation charity dedicated to protecting and enhancing wild places. Each year the John Muir Trust award a small number of grants to individuals, to enable them to visit and explore wild places. Grants are to enable people to go and experience wild environments while, at the same time, raise…
Here is a great rucksack by Vango ideal for days out in the country or for using around the city. See my review! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBzq_AhbiWg
For members of the SHRUB CO-OP, recycling and avoiding waste is second nature. Throughout the year, as one of the many community workshops they run, members will be providing sewing machines and a little guidance for students to create their own clothes and jewelry out of recycled material. We are a wasteful lot and no more…
I have been lucky enough so far to have visited a few ski resorts in the Alps, some in France and now a couple in Austria. I enjoy skiing very much and it is a pleasure to visit different places. My recent trip to ‘St Anton’, supported by Inghams Ski was particularly good and I…
First Impressions When I opened the packaging of the new ProViz reflective jacket it immediately looked like a top quality product. The material felt soft and malleable, yet looked great as well. The zips looked, and are, waterproof and have good quality toggles for ease of grip as do the draw strings at either side….
I have just returned from another fantastic week in the Outer Hebrides. It has to be one of my favourite places. The scenery is breathtaking with fantastic wildlife to observe and white sandy beaches that seem to go on forever. In September 2016 I undertook the epic cycle ride from Barra in the south, right…
Earlier this month I was very grateful to spend time with Elliot Reeves and be interviewed for his website Inspired Edinburgh. “Inspired Edinburgh is a media company Founded by Elliot Reeves. It is centred around an interview show and podcast which features fascinating people from all walks of life. The conversations are…
Overview For disabled people, or anybody doing a lot of outdoors walking, having the right footwear is absolutely crucial. As a child I remember being dragged round shoe shops to get ‘proper’ shoes and oh how I used to resent it. Now, of course I fully understand for myself the benefits of having the right…
This week the House of Lord voted in favour of cutting disability unemployment benefit by £30 per week leaving many, already struggling people, without money they need to live on. Names of the politicians who voted in favour of such a move have been published in the Independent in a so called ‘name and shame’…
Just the other week, a care worker was sentenced to four months in prison, and another two given suspended sentences, for their roles in a catalogue of mistreatment and abuse of people with Alzheimer’s disease at a care home in North Somerset. Despite the introduction of some of the tightest regulations and monitoring in the…
Disabled people have come under attack again in the latest of George Osborne’s Budgets, with unemployed disabled people set to lose a further £30 per week. Those on Employment Support Allowance are set to have benefits cut – and this comes on top a round of cuts dished out earlier this month which could leave…
Next Week begins the start of a new series on Channel 5 where families on welfare are offered a years worth of benefit, £26,000 in a lump sum, and in return are expected to come of benefits all together. The program makers and Channel 5 producers insist that this is a worthwhile exercise that has…
By far the best part of my cycling adventure was cycling over the mountains of Harris. Here is a short videos to try and show what is was like.
When I turn the key to unlock the shed, then step inside and smell the recently treated timber, I feel a weight lifting from my shoulders and a sense of peace coming over me. This happens each time I arrive at my allotment. After having my name on a waiting list for 7 years, I…
Recently there has been a wave of anti-terror laws introduced and new ASBO criteria included in order to clamp down of the spread of racial hatred on the Internet. Just yesterday David Cameron announced that ‘hate preachers’ should be silenced with the introduction of new anti-terror ASBOS to stop there from spreading their bile on…
Cycling over Harris from Tarbert to Callanish was just wonderful, the weather was fine, the road was quiet and with a cross-tail wind most of the way cycling was not too difficult. Although the mountains of Harris were truly spectacular they, without doubt, presented the biggest physical challenge. Shortly after leaving Tarbert and passing through…
Inspiration The inspiration to climb the Scottish Mountains I believe, once inside you, is a feeling that never leaves you. Twenty years have passed since I last climbed a Munro. Recently my motivation, inspiration and passion for hillwalking flooded into my system again and last weekend I had the chance to rediscover what I…