Redemption.

"Why hello Peak District, you saucy minx you, I know what you want, you want me to run all over you, don't you? You dirty slut! Well, I'm going to run over you (point at Kinder), you (leers at Chinley Churn), you (drools at Brown Knoll), you (motorboats Mt. Famine and South Head) oh, and Lantern Pike, you filthy little thing, I'm going run up and down you soooo much and sooo hard you're going to be walking bow-legged until next Christmas!"

After a 2am Police raid on my Stockton residence (still non the wiser about that!) and a rather empty day at work I was pretty pleased to be heading home for Christmas.

I thought about listening to some Carols on Classic FM - normally I spend a lot of November/December singing Carols with choirs, but I've managed to miss that this year. However the piece they played first was enough to make your teeth rot - some kind of medley that made Rutter sound like Beethoven. So I opted for The Who's Greatest hits to guide me down the A1, then the Foo Fighters to guide me over Woodhead. It may have been that I was at the end of a long day but I was ridiculously excited about getting back home to the outskirts of the Peak District.

I stopped off at The Royal in Hayfield before going home, where I met up with Iain and a few of the family's climbing friends before Pennine rolled in from an 'epic descent off Sandy Heys' (the best descent not used in a race in the country?). I left fairly sharpish as I thought it better to actually see Ma and Sis at some point in the evening (Dad's in Congo over Christmas, after being in Chad last year). Back home to the Christmas Tree, a warm stove and my childhood favourite dish. 

As the great philosipher Noddy Holder once said: "IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT'S CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISTMAAAAAAAS!" (Thanks to my SLMM partner Bedders for that one!)

Kinder normally looks like this from the top of New Mills:

Unfortunately today Kinder looks like this from my bedroom window:

Needless to say I'll be out there at some point today, because even if the weather outside is frightful, the running will be delightful! (groan!)

Anyway, I'll leave you with a Frank song about coming home:

All that's left to say is Merry Christmas to everyone that might stumble across this page, hope you have a good one!