INSIDE THE WORLD OF MEETUP

  It was a rare occasion of having a meetup so close to home and to be fair a walk up Bardon hill was long overdue.  We set off from mount St Bernard's abbey, across warren hills before heading up Bardon Hill. It was a mud bath from the rain, so much so that we choose to do a longer, less steep route back down. At least the rain held off and the view was ok. We back via the footpath by the schools to Whitwick quarry. 

  Another drinking night after the days walk, met at the pitcher and piano, stayed for a couple of hours. Next stop was Das Kino just up the road, this wasn't great so we moved on to a third venue but I just wasn't feeling it and called it a night.

  The last walk before Christmas, I missed the pre breakfast but was ready to go. It was a 90 minute short walk with no stop.

It was admittedly  a long way to travel just for a walk but turned out to be well worth it. A place I'd never set foot in before so wasn't sure what to expect. A cold, but clear and calm day so no winds to bother us walking around a very flat route. We headed south along the canal, it definitely had a "nice place to sit outside in summer" feel about it. We went around the park and back through the centre of town. Stopping at the Lord Nelson pub.  At Winthorpe we re-joined  the canal and headed south to the starting point. One of the best walks.  

  It was great to have a meetup closer to home as the Leicester group came over Ashby for the afternoon. I have had dozens of nights out here but never a daytime drink.  We started off the afternoon at the White Hart, and slowly made our way around the town. The Tap at number 76 micropub was a new one for me as was The vine restaurant and cocktail bar which was severely overpriced and the beer was horrible!!!!! I did enjoy visiting the usual suspects such as Weatherspoon's, the lamb and the bulls head. Unfortunately as it started to get lively the rest of the group headed back to Leicester. I managed to grab fish and chips while waiting for the last bus. 

Headed in the usually excellent Weatherspoon's with the group from the museum tour. Passed on food as the portions were small. Talked to some of the usual crowd as well as a few new people. After a couple of hours people started leaving so I headed to the bus stop. 

  Until I seen it on meetup I'd never been aware there even was a prison museum in Derby. It was a small poorly signposted place on a side street. I met the group and we went in, because of the group size we got a guided tour. It was a very interesting hour, we heard many stories about the prisoners, the public executions and seen the graffiti on the doors. 

  I'd not had a big night out for a few weeks. Due to the massive increase in taxi fares from the airport it's more cost effective to stay in the cheapest hotel. Unfortunately it's usually booked up solid, thankfully this time I managed to get in. Beeston social was a restaurant, pub and games room all thrown into one venue. Nice place and made a bit of a welcome change from the usual city center. Caught up with some old faces and generally had a reasonable night. Some were heading into town after midnight but I'd run out of steam by that point.

  We met in the Forge mill tea room where the others had a breakfast meetup that I didn't attend.  We headed towards Bestwood colliery, there was a good turnout and the weather was fine for the time of year. I'd not been on many of these walks lately because many of them were now on Sundays where the transport. I'd also got to the point where many of the walks were repeats. It was a flat walk that finished with a lap of Mill lakes.   

  I'd not been on a walk with this group for a while because for some reason they had shifted a lot of their walks from Saturday to Sunday. This is not good since public transport home is poor.  Had to go to Ilkeston via Derby due to traffic disruption and nearly missed the start of the walk.  We headed across mostly flat open fields to the halfway point at Strelley where we stopped for (overpriced) coffee and cake. Moved on through the housing estates then to Wollaton park where we see plenty of deer. Finally heading back to Nottingham city center.