Yesterday with the family we walked in Upper Swaledale around Muker and up into Swinnergill Kirk a small gorge but great fun to walk through. The Kirk bit indicates that repressed Catholics back in the 17th century used to hold their religious gatherings in a cave just above the gorge. We saw the Yoredale series of rock in all it's glory , a sequence of limestone sandstone and shale like a rock sandwich. The gorge had changed from when we were there a few years back and it had a great feeling of instability because of the rock falls that had occurred. Clifford put his hand on one large boulder as he steadied himself and it started to slide down so he got out of the way pretty quickly. Clambering through the gorge was fun and we saw the two shells of a small bivalve fossil sticking out of the limestone when we climbed over the waterfall. We walked back high up on the East side of the valley a walk I had never done before in all of my 40 years of going up there. Taking care seemed to be the order of the day because the path went straight to a 30 foot drop into another hidden gorge on the hillside . Well, at least I know that Miles always takes care when he is leading. A good responsibility for him. Coffee and ice cream followed at Muker , Fish n chips at Richmond and double Star Trek when we got home. A great walk and a good end to the holiday.

Yesterday with the family I had a great 10.5 mile walk in the Howgills up to the highest point: The Calf. The well rounded hills were as beautiful as ever and there had been more erosion since we were last there . Some of the ripples of soil creep down the hills, like long steps banding around the hillside had lost their topsoil and the millions of small rocks contained within the soil had just fallen vertically retaining the terraced shape of the original soil creep. Very interesting and I am going back up there soon to inspect these features and because some of them are just losing their topsoil so I can get photos of the gradations of erosion . Drift geology is a blast! After this we visited Fo's Mum at her home and went out for a meal to the "Stagger Inn" , to celebrate her 86th birthday and Fo's sister and her husband and daughter came as well. Home and an episode of Star Trek to finish a gorgeous day.

After asking the the family I'd like it if they came they wanted to stay in so I had a good 8 mile walk around York today all on my lonesome.Had a nice coffee in the Minister Gardens and then bought Call of Duty 3 for the PS3 and "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest " for Clifford mostly because I love him to bits but also as a reward for doing well in his GCSE's. Hey: a bit worrying about GCSE's :Longfield School mistakenly put him in for a Science paper, he's supposed to do it next year when they have done the course work , and he got a C anyway! The "21st Century Science Syllabus , developed at York by the way , should be binned! Its way to easy. So, after a pleasant sojourn at Waterstones book shop I headed back to Parliament St. to listen to "Rob and Ric " a slide guitar and drum kit duo. Totally excellent the only way they could be better would be to get me on chromatic harp. I love slide guitar and the way Rob or Ric was playing it . Definitly going to look them up. Hope they are local, I want to play with them! Headed off for York Uni. to have a look at birds and strecth my legs and saw one of the Great Crested Grebes on the Lake next to Central Hall and most amazing of all a heron perched on a post in the middle of the water lilies at Derwent college lake. At first I didn't know what it was because it was stooped over attempting to catch fish and I was actually looking at it from the front and could see only its back and tail feathers. It was 20 metres away and completely unconcerned with me staring at it with binoculars or the occasional person going by. It was a full grown adult and it's beak was nearly a foot long . Totally brilliant. Well, back into town and finished my Coke at the Minister Gardens, woofed a single cone and had a quick discussion with a teenager skateboarder in Rowntrees Park about the virtues of skate boarding as a way to keep fit and have fun. This lad had also been to RKade at Redcar and he thought my lads were lucky being able to go three times a week. Back home to the lovely Fo and doggies , Clifford being over the moon with his gifts. At York nearly bought Fo a necklace , it was made out of sedimentary and igneous rocks flat and polished but after some quite vocal umming and ahhing the shop lady said it might be best to bring your wife in to have look first. I said " That would be safest!" Throughout my life I have consistently found women to be wiser and have more common sense than men. Then again some of the best things in life don't require either! " Its a mans world but it don't mean nothing without a women" Right on!

The lads had a good time in the skatepark ar Redcar tonight. A mum brought two very young children in on their scooters but they were overwhelmed with all the big lads belting about so I suggested to her that she take them to a big half pipe in the far corner where none of the wild bunch were rushing around . It's great she brings such young ones to the park and once they were out of the line of fire they started to scoot and have fun. A dad came in with his three lads , he is a regular and it is obvious every time that he has just finished work ,he's in his overalls and taken his lads to the skate park. Total respect because I think the nation needs more parents that don't so much get involved with their kids but get them to activities that they can get involved in . The dad just sits quite for about 90 minutes quitetly recuperating . A nice night and I had a good read. Our youngest Clifford did well with his GCSEs today specifically getting an A at his maths which means he can go on to do Further maths at the 6th form in a years time without having to do any resits. He can just concentrate on his A Level work this year which will take the sting out of the maths next year. In maths forewarned is forarmed with knowledge .

Yesterday we had a day out in the Lake District and walked "Catbells" a hill on the West side of Derwent Water near Keswick. There was a severe weather warning for a lot of rain so I was really looking forward to it . The Lake District is great when it is wet. It was a nice hill and the clouds were low, just 2 to 3 hundred metres up and like long tankers bumping into the hills and the air pressure under them pushing them up and over the ridges . There were a couple of scrambles and I gave the lads a firm word about taking care on edges with drops. Even small 2 metre drops can cause severe injury because what you fall onto is often very jagged. Fiona and I took the easier scrambles because it was so rainy and slippy. On the path back underneath Catbells we saw an amazing series of mini-earth slumps , a big one and a landslip along side. I love seeing soil creep , the steady movement of the topsoil and turf down a hill due to the underlying instability of water moving through it and seeing the ripples on the sides of hills and streams is always very interesting but yesterday my eye was caught by a whole series of small platforms sticking out of the hill which were small slumps. The turf had remained intact proof of the slow velocity of the water but alongside all of this there had been a big landslip and from the edges of this you could see that the turf was no deeper than 20cm. Further proof of the movement of the turf on the hill is that the National Trust had restored the path and cut vertically into the hill and there was an 10cm overhang of turf as it was slowly migrating down . Good stuff and we had a nice discussion in the pouring rain about what was going on . After the walk we wanted to take a rowing boat out on Derwent Water but didn't fancy it when we realised our walking clothes were soaking wet and we couldn't be bothered to get back into wet togs just to row around a lake . Occasionally we are sensible! We ate at the Loose Box in Keswick followed by home and an episode of Star Trek. A great day and it was nice to get really wet for a change the experience having finally convinced my lads that wet walking is as much fun as dry.

Had a lovely three mile walk around Easby Abbey in Richmond N. Yorks with the lovely Fo this afternoon . No kids . Hooray. The leaves were lush with all the rain we have been getting, that August sun-soaked look with a dash of the cloudy stuff. After a super single cone we visited my Mum who had a nasty foot infection from the op she had last week to correct the op she had a couple of years ago. When you get ancient, op correcting ops are the way to go apparently. Actually I had several of those between 6 and 10 years of age, I was such a trend setter , and if you are out and about in the hills of northern UK and see a man walking quickly with a withered arm that's likely to be me . Hardly the basis for building a fan club but "Hello " would be nice ! Mum is now on Facebook at last and using the net after favoured son number one said that if she wanted to talk to us use the messaging system first. Encouragement is so New Labour and it is always best to move with the times. Early evening we watched Legally Blonde 2 : a mind boggingly funny yarn with an excellent sound track. Maths and Bahai history this evening with a peek at Lake District geology to find those sneaky rocks that seem to hide from me every time I go there! They move , I swear they move , they know I'm coming..... A good day.

With the family I have just got back from a gorgeous 4 mile walk around the outskirts of Durham and then into the center to get a pair of walking shoes for Fofo. That was a laugh because she took a while making her mind up . As Bob Dylan didn't say " She shops just like a woman". Yeah. Still the hiking shop had some good rocks for me to look at so out came the hand lens and Miles and I had a good mini discussion about rocks . I actually identified one of them : a Shap granite , made up of mica , felspar and quartz all easily visible under the hand lens. Stopped at our usual perch for biscuit break to the sounds of a Northumbrian Pipe player who was pretty good, an old fellow who looked and sounded like the real thing. What they sell in the shops in Durham is mostly fake but the buskers are the real thing! It was a very humorous walk today and Clifford told Fofo and I about a dream he had last night when Fofo and I were out walking and we were fighting over a teddy. Trying to pull it away from the other . We reckoned this dream was inspired by his howls of protest the other night when he had hurt his foot skateboarding and Fo looked at it and while she was on all fours I climbed over her resting on her to look at Cliffords other foot to compare " You're like a pair of toddlers, climbing on top of each other " he howled. Yep we are growing down not up ! Mind you we reckon we have always been pretty childish it is just that our lads are just beginning to notice . Miles said today rather ominously " You two are getting worse". Well, "Legally blond" movie tonight followed by the Bahai Feast our once a month main religious celebration every 19 days . A good day although somewhat unfinished !

Well a turn up for the books. OCR got in touch with me today about a enquiry I made something I was not sure about and told us:
"the grading rules for Maths and Further have changed since the specification was published (though the possible combinations have not) with the "least-best" rule you mention being replaced.".
So Miles got an A for his Maths A level and B for his Further maths. Bad doggie. He missed the A grade by 20 points for his Further Maths, 535/600 for Maths and 460/600 for further maths. The bad thing is he missed his target: 2 A's. The good thing is he is not bothered! Why ? For his first of 12 modules that constitute his Open Uni maths degree he got in 2009, 95/100. The interesting thing is the University's simply accumulate the scores and if you get above say 80% you get a distinction as Miles did for that year . The examination boards it seems to me are more about allowing candidates to combine and resit modules to maximise scores for university entrance as well as subject understanding. When Miles embarked on the A Level bit , something he didn't need to do, it was for firstly getting the best grounding in pure maths and mechanics to enable him to have the best chance at getting a good mathematics degree and secondly getting a couple of A Levels on his CV for application form purposes. We both knew the route he was taking would be tricky because he was doing it all on his own and he wanted to do all the modules that interested him irrespective of exam result. He believed that he had the ability and the character to come out of it all with no less than an A and a B. He was right! I found out in 2009 that the combination of units that he had done and was going to do for his A Levels was not on offer in any 6th form school private or state in the land . I wonder why. Miles did all of the Mechanics modules and Further Pure modules which will give any kid the best grounding for studying maths at degree level. I know I have said this before but is it a lowering of standards in maths ( yep that old UK middle class whinge ) if young people are studying the subject at school primarily for uni entrance and not to get a good grounding in the subject? I don't know. From what I can see looking at the Open University course work 20 years ago and comparing it with now they haven't lowered anything at all. I still believe that courses like maths should be the same modules for all kids because it is hard to compare the standard of a kids attainment irrespective of grades if a kid has done easier modules rather than the ones such as Mechanics 3 and 4 and Further Pure 3 which from my look at them and according to Miles good mathematical judgement are harder or "hairyer" as he called them. There is also the issue of resits as well! Anyway deepest apologies to anyone and everyone for getting Miles A Level results wrong in my blog yesterday.

Miles got his A Level results today a total of 995 marks out of a possible 1200, 960 marks required for 2 A's in Mathematics and Further Mathematics. He did not do as well as he expected on the Further maths papers but he cleared the 960 bar which was all that mattered. He doesn't need either of these qualifications to do his Open Uni. degree in Mathematics which he started when he was 16 they are both for CV purposes although the qualifications are useful practice for the degree work. Well done Miles and I am proud of you. You did most of it on your own which is pretty good going . Life is a lot easier as you know when you have you Uni tutor to turn to. Skateboarding and a bacon butty treat for the lad tonight! For anyone out there , you know who you are , who thinks home education isn't good for children: you are wrong!

Yesterday we went to Scarborough to take the lads skateboarding at the wonderful new skate park there. Fo and I went off for a trek around Scarborough because the tide was in and we couldn't get onto the shore under the cliffs to look at rocks. Well we had a surprise when we found out that the Rotunda Museum in the South Bay is not just a museum but a geology one! Yum, yum. We had an amazing 90 minutes limited only by having to get back to the lads because they were probably were wondering where we had got to. Straightaway I got a copy of "Yorkshire Rocks and Landscapes! a book of geological excursions mostly in North Yorkshire. This is rarely on sale and you cannot get it on the net either. There are excursions in Swaledale which I know really well so I was very excited. Seeing dinosaur footprints for the first time was very interesting I spent a bit of time thinking about that but in the kids section upstairs , joy of joys, they had loads of rock and fossil specimens to handle and I could use my hand lens , which I always carry, to really examine the samples which were mostly unweathered. A Permian conglomereate, a sort of stew of small rocks in a cementing agent (limestone?) and the Oolitic limestone were really interesting under the hand lens. This limestone is made up of oolites , little egg shaped parts made up of a grain of sand in the center with concentric rings of calcite around it. Amazing under the hand lens and 1/4 of the North Yorkshire Moors is made up of this stuff. The lads had a great skate session although Clifford really banged his foot which was quite swollen when we met up. Well we brought them up not to moan and he didn't and he had skated the last hour of the session with this injury. Good lad. Fish n chips followed at Hadley's Fish Restaurant in Whitby then home and we watched "One flew over the Cuckoos Nest" . A great day .

Yesterday we were hiking in the South Lakes area to go up the Old Man of Coniston. There is some interesting geology up there because the first part of the walk is on different rocks, Silurian, from the second part which is on Borrowdale Volcanics. There is also a nice bit of Ordovician limestone to look at. That's if you can find it. At the start of the walk we saw three buzzards close overhead and I was very excited about all the rocks we were going to see. We headed off for Goats Water and because we had to cross a Ordovician limestone belt I was hoping to see some of those rocks. But I couldn't find any or they were not exposed there. As we approached Goats Water we were on volcanic rocks and the many tuff boulders made out of volcanic ash were great to see. The whole of Dow Crag nearby is made up lava Just before we got to the lake I was desperately keeping my eyes out to see some glacial striations, grooves in the rock where the ice from the corrie mixed up with the rock that had been plucked from the cliffs had ground along the bottom of the valley as well as part of the sides. I couldn't find that either! After a small exciting detour because I thought I had found my striations but realised they weren't the rest of the family headed on up to the top of the Old Man of Coniston and I stalked around Goats Water looking for my glacial grooves and I did find them. I then headed across country off the path which was huge fun to Blind Tarn and waited for my family to turn up. While I was waiting I heard a high screeching sound down below. We had heard this on the way up. This time I could locate where the sound was coming from and I'm pretty sure it was a pair of eagles that I was looking at through my binoculars although it may have been goshawks. I have yet to confirm it either way. Because we were picking Fiona's mother up to take her out for a meal we walked very quickly the 3 miles back and that was great. Striding out going downhill is really good fun. We had a meal at the Jade Fountain in Barrow in Furnace and it was a really nice restaurant. A good day and I picked up some interesting rock samples to look at.

Fo and I have had a nice 4 mile walk around Durham this afternoon. The lads didn't feel like it after their exertions yesterday, shame on them. At the City Centre weirs we saw a young grey heron actually on the weir standing in the water and its tail feathers getting soaked at the back because of the steep angle of the weir . Didn't seem bothered at all. Had a coffee and then when we got back, crashed out and listened to Beethoven Sonatas whilst propping up the portable in bed and had a good look at the Skiddaw walk we did yesterday as well as the Coniston walk we will do sometime next week. All from the geology angle. Gosh, isn't the Internet amazing. I could have an OS map open to locate everything and several other pages of information to really get a an understanding of what we are walking on. Matrix part 3 this evening . A nice day. Family life is good!

Yesterday with the family we walked up Skiddaw in the Lake District. This hill is 3056 feet high and we were up and down it in three and half hours. The lads shot up the first bit which was the longest steep slope I have ever walked up but neither Fo and I stopped either and the lads parted ways a bit further up so they could go up Little Man and we took a more sedate path which had the better views of the range of hills behind Skiddaw. For about half the way up we had glorious Lakeland views over Derwent Water and the Scafell Range. On the way down the lads shot up Little Man again and because we took our time meeting up with them they played a Lord Of the Rings game and ran back up Little Man pretending they were Aragon and Legolas. We saw them running down Little Man and they were thoroughly enjoying themselves. We then took a boat out on Derwent Water and it was absolutely lovely that the lads did the rowing and an absolute hoot as they try to coordinate it. They got there eventually and I was quite impressed with their teamwork.Nice romantic time for Fo and me. Good doggies. We had a meal at the Loose Box and then finished off the day at home with two episodes of Star Trek. Mega nice. We will be back up there again sometime next week depending on the weather.

We have just got back from a very good North Yorkshire day getting down to Scarborough for 10 o'clock so Miles could get a two and half skate board session in before the rains came between one and four and they did come between one and four so God bless the BBC weather service. Whilst Miles was skateboarding Fo myself and Clifford walked across Scarborough North Bay to go to Burniston Bay where there are dinosaur footprints. I was mostly interested in looking at some arcuate bands which are 270 million-year-old riverbeds that have formed into meanders meandering steadily across the plains at the time and then submerged underneath mud and sand. I had seen a photograph of them in my geology book but guess what I could not find them! We could only walk so far cross Burniston Bay and then we had to get back to Miles so I suspect they are further along. Next time I will take a map grid reference. Bad daddy . We did not go down to the actual shoreline because the tide was coming in and geological enthusiasm and incoming tides are not a good mix when the only way back is up a cliff! There were an awful lot of bees feeding off the flowering thistles along the path and what was also interesting was that the Scalby Beck, being perpendicular to the coast, instead of just going straight through the ridge that we were walking on it had turned at a right angle and went to the sea that way a couple of hundred metres parallel to the coast. What we were walking on was actually a fairly narrow ridge with coastal erosion on one side and river erosion on the other. Nature is totally amazing. We stopped for a coffee in the centre of North Bay and when Fiona went to the table she did a sudden lurch nearly careering over a group of people because she had not seen a ledge cunningly located where absolutely everybody else could see it and it was no problem. What I find quite surprising is that she can negotiate and clamber over, that is scramble, quite steep slopes full of screes and cliffs and not have a problem. I loudly proclaimed this to everybody sat out on the cafe porch which they found quite amusing. She is a good laugh no doubt about it. The best. Watching Miles in the huge concrete bowl and street section which comprises Scarborough skate park he was really ripping along. He said afterwards that it was very tiring his runs being much longer due to the skate park being quite big. It was a beautiful setting at the south end of the North Bay and we will be going there again in the near future. We then went to Whitby and had a good five-mile walk around the town and the outskirts making 10 miles or so today which is nice. We rounded off the day with the usual munchies at Hadley's fish shop. For the rest of the evening we have got the Matrix part 2 to watch and then I have got a mega-reading session set up getting into my Hamlet book and some maths proofs. A good day.

This afternoon with the family we had a nice 5 mile walk around Durham. On the river banks there was an awful lot of Himalayan balsam which is crowding out indigenous riverside plants. The river was even lower than last week and pretty soon the cormorants on the weirs in the centre will just be able to walk over to the fish and gobble them up! Fiona's first broad beans were picked today and she had some for tea whilst I finished off the courgettes from the school garden. I tried her broad beans and they were absolutely delicious. Totally blew away those you get from the supermarket! We watched The Matrix, part one, whilst munching. A nice day and I am going to end it with a serious chunk of reading tonight; maths, Baha'i history, and Hamlet for the second time through!

After the walk yesterday we got cleaned up and Miles felt better so we all went out for our 22nd wedding anniversary meal at Tandoori Nights in Richmond. My mum came along as well which was very nice. The restaurant is a great place although they had just undergone a refurbishment which was only half finished when we turned up! No problem at all and the food and company were great. After 22 years of marriage my wife is still as lovely as ever and we both feel as keen and strong about our family as we did all those years ago. After a good meal we got back home and watched two episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine and that was really good. Fo and I listened to Bob Dylan "Bringing it all back home" which was totally amazing. That man is the new Shakespeare no doubt about it. Not only that both him and his band just simply rock! A nice end to a good day and another year ahead of love, work and making progress.

From the recommendation of my friend Ian I am reading Shakespeare's Hamlet at the moment and, surprisingly, I am really enjoying it. I find it harder to understand than the Lord of the Rings but it is a very engrossing tale. The expressions and metaphors and such literary devices I have not got a clue what they are called that Shakespeare uses are really good. This is a book I know I'll have to read two or three times to really get it but I also know I will do exactly that. I'm not looking at any of the interpretations or explanations for the words and I feel my 21st-century mindset does not equip me for the 16th century English audience that this work was written for. I have never thought there was ever any hype about Shakespeare it just is really good no doubt about it. I do not think anybody could ever hype it up enough. People will be talking about and reading Shakespeare thousands of years from now.

With my wife and my youngest son we have just had a 5 mile walk in the Cow Green Reservoir area in upper Teesdale. This was in part to celebrate our wedding anniversary. There were quite heavy showers and we were soaked to the skin beneath the waist within 10 minutes because we had forgot to take our over trousers. Bad doggies but mostly my fault because I usually make sure everybody has got all of their equipment. I have always found horizontal rain very interesting! The whole area is made up of limestone and the famous Great Whin Sill a intrusion of basalt which when it comes in contact with the limestone changes it into a sort of marble locally known as "sugar limestone". I am doing all of this from memory so pick me up please if I've got it wrong! The reservoir was very low indicative of the drought that we have had and when we walked across the dam and looked down at the confluence between Maize Beck and the River Tees the water levels were very low. We intended to walk a couple of miles up Maize Beck so we could see the very beautiful water erosion of limestone, the shale and sandstone commonly called the "Yoredale Series" but unfortunately those formations were several miles away and the part of Maize Beck that we looked at was just full of small rocks. So we headed back and looked for fossils and found some very small ones but only on the un-weathered surfaces. It is not good form to hack away at rocks so we did not do that. I asked Clifford to pull up this medium-size boulder but he could not yank it out because I suspect it was still attached to another rock further underground. Still, nice to know children are useful sometimes! As usual, the best geology is actually right next to the road, so in a quarry we got to see some fossils although I have no idea what the animal originally was. What was interesting was that the limestone was exactly horizontal, that is, in the same position it was laid down 360 million years ago. Totally amazing. Just down from the quarry we saw the early formation of clints and grykes the ground being at the stage of slightly rounded humps about the size of paving stones with grooves around them about the size of half a drainpipe. What was really good was seeing the profile of this formation because Yorkshire Water had put in a drainage ditch alongside the road so you could see how the rainwater was dissolving the limestone. Very exciting. A quick note has to be made about the excellent information boards which the tourist people have put up. There were six of them covering culture, nature as well as the activities that are done in the area. There was also a fair bit of geology that was nice although I would've liked to have seen a geology trail in this area like there are in other parts of Teesdale. A nice few hours out and I always feel my wife looks at her best when totally rainsoaked, bedraggled but not in this case tired for once because we never went far enough! Nice lady.

Yesterday with the family I had a lovely walk around York. About 8 miles. From the Rowntrees Park end we went up to the museum gardens in the centre and we had a good look at a group of Shap granite boulders which had been brought down by the Vale of York Glacier from the Lake District around 12,000 years ago. Whilst with the boys discussing what the granite was made up of a geologist who works at the Yorkshire Museum overheard our conversation and we had a good chat about rocks and the York Museum Collection. I just love talking to experts, people who really know what they are on about. It made my day. Through the heavy but sporadic showers we made our wet way over to the University to have a look at the new University development. But we could not find it! What we did find because of my eldest sons attentive eyes was a lovely path behind Heslington Village which wound its way back up to the University. It is interesting what you discover sometimes. After tea, we went to see some Baha'i friends, Sarah and Rick Wollny and Sarah's parents Keith and Audrey Mellard. Keith and Audrey were the two Baha'is who told me about the Baha'i faith just over 23 years ago. We had not seen them for over a decade. Like nearly all the people who have been a very good influence on my life they recommended a book to me. In this case one about the Baha'i faith so I could sort out my own thoughts and feelings about this particular religion. The teachings and political structure of the faith were interesting to me and I always believed that some form of world unity, religious, secular, or a mixture of both, would have to happen so that all the peoples of the world benefit from all the world's resources instead of the present situation which is just a few of us benefit and the majority are left in abject poverty. It still pleases me that the Baha'i model roughly splits into two areas of social action; the secular establishment of a world parliament to channel the energies and resources of all the world's peoples and establish a permanent peace; and then if a sizeable amount of people choose to be interested in the Baha'i faith the establishment of a Baha'i Commonwealth again coexisting with the world parliament and in no way superseding it so all the peoples who choose not to be Baha'is will have an equal place on this planet. Thank God eventually religious/political triumphalism will be rooted out forever and no man or woman based on class, creed ideology, nationalism or religion will be able to dominate another. Anyway, we had a really nice time with the Wollny's and the Mellards and Miles and Clifford had a nice time talking and playing with the Wollny's children Luca and Reuben. It was a very nice day out.

Last night I took Miles down to the Works skate park in Leeds. He had a very good run and was particularly interested in the new half pipe they have put in. Ripping as usual. The skate park closed earlier than we expected because they have had some problems with the teenagers due to there being all day skating for three pounds. Hanging out and serious skateboarding sometimes doesn't mix! My personal take on the lamentable behaviour and lack of courtesy from a tiny minority of teenagers is that all of them have very dubious personal role models in the adult population because in my experience an awful lot of adults I have come across appear to be interested in only their own lot and definitely lack courtesy and respect which would mean the consideration of others who seem, to them, to impede their progress in life. As I once, possibly controversially, said to a parent, "There is no such thing as a dumb teenager just a bad parent". After these thoughts, I had a very nice 4 mile walk around Leeds cut short by having to get back before the skate park closed. I must confess that, navigating my way through Leeds city centre I found nothing but courtesy and respect. Maybe that's why I really like Leeds!