1st November onwards….Souling time again

This is the time of the year that the Warburton Souling Gang take to the pubs road to spread mayhem, disquiet, misrule….and to sample far too much ale than is good for us:

Tooled up and ready for action

 Dick (aka ‘Old Hobbs’) with The Driver

Beelzebub got fed up of waiting to get served

The lads in the Wheatsheaf, Agden, trying for a place in next year’s Play

Invasion of The Star in Statham

The Quack Doctor does his stuff

Wimmin’s talk

This is The Plan for the rest of the season….tonight and tomorrow:

Come and visit if you can, but hold on to your beer. Tight.

And after all that, this:

I know what this is, do you?

Addendum:

On a more serious note, and it was the Pieman’s Blog that made me thing I should mention it, The Play raises money for local charities. We tend to concentrate on two, raising much needed dosh for each in turn: the local MS Research Charity and Cotebrook House.

This year we’re making fools of ourselves and sending the hat round for the very excellent Cotebrook House in Lymm. They say ‘Cotebrook House offers both continuing and short term care for residents and we have experience dealing with a variety of physical disabilities.’

We say that it’s a marvellous place that offers a superb level of short and long term care for those with physical disabilities. It has a lovely homely feeling, and deserves all the financial support it can get. Last time we supported them, two years ago, we donated £1350. Last year we raised £1450 for MS.

And another thing:

 With the statue of Frank Sidebottom, the Bard of Timperley, last night. In the rain.

6th November 2013, Paramo Alta II

On offer at Go Outdoors

I’ve been a fan of Paramo gear for a good few years now, it’s not for everybody but it works for me. I’m the very proud and happy owner of a Paramo Velez and a Paramo Alta II.
An email from Go Outdoors popped into my Inbox earlier offering the very excellent Paramo Alta II for £150, not a bad deal at all – I paid £200 for mine around 5 years ago. The current list price is £245.
Have a look here. This link is for the Men’s garment, ladies needn’t worry – the offer is valid for their garments too!

The Alta II isn’t the lightest waterproof in the world, but as long as it’s cleaned and re-proofed from time to time it’s an excellent bit of kit – everything is in the right place, it’s comfortable, and of course it’s extremely breathable.
You can read the full spec on the Paramo website here.
The good bits about the Alta II for me are:
Under-arm pit-zips. These not only improve ventilation, but you can pop your arms through the open zips in warm weather – it’s almost like a gillet,
Sleeves can be rolled up, great in warm weather
Warm, although sometimes it can be too warm! In cold weather I usually just have a merino wool T shirt (Aldi, £15) and a long sleeved Helly underneath.
Decent hood, does exactly what a decent hood should do
Pockets, enough and in the right places
Oh, and it’s waterproof – PROVIDED you keep up to speed on the cleaning & reproofing. Once a Paramo garment fails, it’s TOTAL failure – water just soaks through. In my experience a Paramo garment doesn’t lose it’s waterproof properties gradually, it’s either waterproof….or it’s not. This is the bad bit, so keep it clean and re-proof it a couple of times a year – it’s not a difficult procedure.
I’ve used my Alta II in all sorts of situations, the TGO Challenge is probably the hardest test it’s been through, but it’s always come out smiling, and with me cosy and dry inside it.
I use Go Outdoors a fair amount and have found them to be on the better side of okay, if you can get hold of a sales person with the appropriate product knowledge you might be surprised.
I’m not being paid or receiving any freebies for this post, I’m just very happy with Go Outdoors and Paramo….especially when the stuff’s being sold at a damn good price!