Love Letter from the Antarctic

The post doesn't come to and from Antarctica
very often, so...Tim got creative! :) 

Just Touched Down in Londontown

Such a good show!!

We sure enjoyed the show...can you tell?

My friend Tyler has been living and working in Spain for about 3 years now. He is another of my friends who loves an adventure, and when he found out I was moving to this side of the Atlantic, we started making plans for weekend excursions to see Europe!

One of my all time favourite people!

He had made plans to come to see London with some of his co-workers, and I’ll be damned if I wasn’t going to take the 1 hr flight down to hang out with him! Haha J We made plans to see Wicked on Friday night...ummm, AWESOME! Other than that, though, I didn’t have an agenda at all. It was really nice!

A canalboat coming out of the
lock near the Camden Market

In the end, we spent the better part of Saturday at the Camden market...in the beautiful sunshine, it was awesome! Later that day I got to meet up with an Irish friend for some friendly banter during the Ireland/Scotland rugby match...many pints were consumed!

Loving the 3D building art in Camden Town 

Pretty good London summary in art

Sunday found our crew on a mission to find Full English Breakfast. One would think this might be an easy task, but when Spaniards are involved, things don’t happen on a speedy timeline, so we didn’t get started looking until after 11:00...most places switch to Sunday Roast as their offering sometime around then! It was a mission, but in the end we succeeded and it was greasy and fantastic.

Tower Bridge from the London Bridge

I spent the rest of the day catching up with my friend Dharmesh and checking out Chinatown. Even with the expensive ticket to Wicked (well worth it!), I managed to London on the super cheap...£230, door to door, all in, so not bad at all! J

Time Flies...

Today officially marks the 3 month anniversary of my move to Scotland! Everyone told me that the British things that I’m enamoured with would grow old, that I would be miserable with the weather, and that I would really miss Colorado. Well, I am happy to say that I am still very much enamoured with most things British, the weather doesn’t really bother me at all, and I don’t really miss Colorado that much, I just miss people who happen to live there! J

Yay for at least 21 more months in this fantastic place!

Dalbeattie Riding, Rocks not Mud

You can only have a shadow in the SUNSHINE!!

When a forecast of sunshine, no wind, and moderate temperatures coincides with a weekend day, I make the most of it!! I woke up to beautiful sunshine on Sunday morning and decided to head down to one of the 7stanes trail centers, Dalbeattie. It is known for its granite and rocky features, and I was quite excited about the prospect of riding some rocky Scottish trails!

Just me, my bike, and my lil red truck

I got off to a bit of a late start, in typical Neven style! (I really wish I could be a morning person, but I’m just not!) I didn’t get going until a bit late, but the drive down to the trails was gorgeous the whole way! I set off, not knowing what exactly to expect, or how long the route would actually take, and promptly slid off of a chicken wire covered bridge about 5 minutes into my ride! L My elbow and knee were screaming at me, but there wasn’t blood gushing through my clothing, and somehow I hadn’t ripped up anything, so I decided to carry on...albeit with a little bit more caution!

The classic and beautiful stane at Dalbeattie

I’m so glad that I decided to go the extra distance to Dalbeattie! What amazing trails! This was definitely the most technical of all of the red routes that I have ridden at the trail centers here in Scotland! There were several occasions were I was nearly caught off guard by the technical nature of the trails, and I definitely was loving all of the rock!!  In the end I got a decent 2 hr ride in, albeit with several photo stops, and loved every minute of it!

The moss on the trees in the forests makes trail
riding over here absolutely magical!

I ran into some locals in the parking lot who commented on how they couldn’t believe that the day had turned out so nice after the rainy/snowy/torrential winds they had in the morning...sometimes it pays off to be a Night Owl! J

A New Hobby!

The Main Building at Glagow Uni

Upon arriving at the University of Glasgow, one of the first things that I decided to do was to join some of the groups on campus. Although I am technically not a student anymore, being a post doc affords one a few “luxuries” that you have as a student. (There are plenty of NOT luxuries that go along with it as well! Haha)

I have learned over the years that one of the best ways to meet new people and potentially tap an unlimited resource for learning new things is through University Club Sports groups. I still have amazing friends that I met through the rock climbing club at Texas Tech University oh so many years ago!

Anyway, I trolled through the list of student groups and decided to really get out of my comfort zone and skip right past the cycling club and join a group that does something I’ve never done before but have always been quite enamoured with...CAVING! I’ve always really loved exploring caves and roped climbing and all of the associated rope techniques are my favourite type of climbing, so I thought, perfect!

The idea isn't to keep from getting all wet, it's to
be able to stay warm once you ARE wet!

I turned up for a couple of training sessions to start learning the SRT (single rope technique) necessary to get your butt back out of the cave that you abseil into, met the club members for several Thursday night pub nights, and finally had time to go on a weekend trip with the group! We went to the Yorkshire Dales and had a fantastic weekend!! This is the only picture I really have from the weekend (and Tim has mentioned that it’s not the most flattering of photos! Haha gotta stay warm, though!), so I’ve included a link to some pictures that some other group took on their trip to the same place.

Basically, the cave that we did involved walking through cave streams, skirting around deep pools of water, climbing up a waterfall, crawling (or rather slithering) through one of the tightest spaces I have ever found myself (The Cheese Press) in...honest to god I really though I was stuck for a little while! Check out (again) someone else’s video of getting through the Cheese Press. It really makes you think twice about eating too many sweets and not going to the gym! In the end, we used some caving ladders to descend down onto the ledge that you can see in the other girls photos and were treated to an amazing view of the waterfall and entrance to a deeper cave below us!

All in all, I had a fantastic weekend learning a new skill and meeting some cool new people! I can’t wait to go again!! J

Exploring Scotland: Castles and Coasts

Mmmmmm...yum!

One of the best things about moving somewhere new is that no matter how close or far you go from home, for at least a little while, you’ll always be exploring somewhere new! J  I have spent a considerate amount if time in Scotland over the past 5 years, so it has been my goal to try and explore in places that I haven’t already spent a lot of time at! Get out of that comfort zone!! Haha

On Friday night, the weather forecast didn’t look so great for Saturday, so I decided to have a cheeky lie in and catch up on some sleep. I woke up to sunny blue skies, so I quickly scrambled out of bed and decided to head out to the coast. On the way there the weather turned to the forecasted weather and I seriously contemplated turning round and just making it a Saturday sightseeing drive, but I decided to carry on and at least see how the weather was where I had intended to go walking anyway...it was sunny! J

Sheeting it down!

5 miles further along...gorgeous!

I had a lovely, albeit flat, walk around the coastline finding some amazing seashells along the way.  The wind was a bit unpleasant, but other than that, I had a wonderful afternoon...with the only thing missing being my Antarctica residing boyfriend, Tim!

MTB ride finished up the castle lane!

Amazing what and how things grow with so much rain!

Sundays forecast was meant to be a bit nicer, so I decided to go to Drumlanrig Castle to do a bit of MTBing. While these trails aren’t officially part of the 7stanes trail centres, they’re smack dab in the middle of several of the Scottish Borders trail centers, so I was excited to see what they had to offer. Whilst several of my friends were racing around sandy, cactus strewn trails and battling through the night in the 24 Hours of Old Pueblo in Tucson, Arizona, I decided to find balance in the MTB cosmos and ride wet, muddy, rooted twisty turny trails...all widing about a cool castle! J The trails were great fun, full of roots, mud, turns, and amazing moss strewn trees. I certainly was not disappointed! I’m not sure when I’ll be back to the trails, though, as there are so many other places in that area that I want to explore!

Classic Scottish hillside...always dotted with sheep

I LOVE Glasgow

Amazing sunset overlooking the Glasgow Harbour

Today being Valentine's Day and all, I thought, I have fallen in love with Glasgow, so what better day than today to resuscitate my blog! I haven't had my camera when I've been out exploring, and when I have had my camera, I haven't felt inspired to snap photos. The sunset on my way home from work tonight was breathtaking, so I took a break from pushing my bike home (long story!) and just say and enjoyed the view!

People all told me that I wouldn't see the sun for months and that it wouldn't stop raining here, but (knock on wood!) that certainly has not been the case, and I am loving the mild winter, albeit one that is a bit wetter than what I'm typically used to! I'm definitely starting to feel at home here! :)

This place is amazing...more to come soon, I promise! :)

Antarctica and the UK

King Penguins in the Falkland Islands

In December, I moved to Glasgow, Scotland, and I promise to start updating my blog again very soon...until then, you can check out the blog that I started for my boyfriend who moved to Antarctica at the end of November. All I can say is that he is having the most amazing experience ever! I'm so proud of him for going all in and taking the chance...it's paying off big time! :)

Check out the blog about Tim's adventures in Antarctica!

The Land of Cheese and Chocolate

The Aare in Thun, Switzerland

Every year we go to some pretty amazing places to race our mountain bikes, and each time I go to new place, I think...this is even more beautiful than the last! It's funny how they can all seem even MORE beautiful, but most of the places we travel to are places where fairy tales are dreamt up and life just doesn't seem "normal".

A lovely view of the Alps from Bern

Mountains as picturesque, valleys as deep and narrow, and houses and people as cute and cliché as they sometimes are just make some of these places not seem real!

Wine, fields and mountains. I could get used to Switzerland!

Downtown Bern with the distant Alps

The Hosts with the Mosts: Adrian and Marika

Homemade Raclette dinner

Marika and me

Last week, we stayed with friends in the capital city, Bern. I have never been treated to such amazing and thoughtful hospitality as we were by our friends Adrian and Marika! Adrian took us dirt jumping and swimming whilst Marika took us site seeing and shopping! Bern is an amazing city! I'll definitely be heading back their in the future!

The beautiful Rose Garten in Bern

Currently, we are in Champéry, Switzerland for the 2011 Mountain Bike World Championships, and I am in awe every time I walk out of the door and look around.  It is truly, truly beautiful here!  The cows walk around with bells around their neck, all different pitches, which creates a symphony of bells on the hills of the countryside! It's pretty amazing!

A cow bell symphony in a picturesque Swiss setting

Not a bad place for World Champs

Jo Jo, me, and Lea...Go Team USA!

4x practice starts here at the World Champs tonight, so the sitting around and waiting will finally be worth all of the Pomp and Circumstance!

Crested Butte Race Report

Although I am not quite done with my PhD requirements, I decided to take a much needed break and head up to the Mountain States Cup “Wild Flower Rush” downhill and dual slalom race this past weekend. The race was a regional MSC race, but it was also the 4^th race in the ProGRT National Downhill Series, meaning added national talent in the race fields. Crested Butte provided a picture perfect race venue for the weekend, with nearly cloudless blue skies, perfect mid 70º temperatures, and amazing racecourses. On Friday we had a few hours to practice both the downhill course and the two slalom tracks. I hadn’t been on my Ellsworth Dare DH bike in a few months, so it was nice to get back on and let it rip down the rocky, rooted, winding DH track! The dual slalom course was, in just a couple of words loose and rough! I may have been better served with my Ellsworth Moment, but I elected to bring my Project Pink Ellsworth Specialist (it has a special place in my heart since being named “Pauline”, after my grandmother who is a breast cancer survivor). Riding a hard tail on a bumpy slalom track just means that I had to be that much more focused on the track and what was coming next! The MSC guys did a good job of making a challenging slalom track that was a ton of fun to race. I had a couple of really good rounds and a couple with a few mistakes, but in the end I was very pleased with a 4^th place finish in a very talented women’s field. Sunday brought more blue skies and the DH race. I gave the finals everything I had, which included tumbling through the rooty section of the course, putting me in 12^th place. I was happy with both of my finishes on the weekend, especially since there were several World Cup racers in attendance. I am happy to get my 2011 season off to a good start, just a preview of great things to come this season! Special thanks to my two title sponsors this year, Ellsworth Bicycles and Smile Generation.