Before I go any further a quick reminder that this Saturday sees the Fron Four fell race taking place near Caernarfon so good luck to race organiser, Mike Blake, & all those taking part, carrying fluids might be prudent. Now back to Manchester & that Why? Well it certainly wasn’t due to a lack of breakfast as my pre-race stopover at Kean & Sandra’s for the night saw me being fed a breakfast fit for a King, or runner at least so why had I lost so much energy so quickly? The main reason related to parking & no race

Well that was to be the title (but with an exclamation mark) of my previous blog but with hindsight I am glad I changed that blog & it’s contents because it has allowed me to indeed clear my head & believe it was a self induced blip. This more positive reflection was helped by a half decent performance in last weekend’s Goldrush in my own backyard. O.K. so my time for the Goldrush of 1:14:07 was a little outside my pb’s of 2016 & 17 (yes that was when I ran the same time two years running) but it was

We will be extending our Opening Hours again this year so with a great weather forecast in the offing there is no need for you to rush off the hills to secure that favourite piece of cake or dine on one of our specials with a glass of wine or refreshing beer. So here are those opening hours:- Good Friday, Saturday & Easter Sunday: 07:30 to 20:00 Easter Monday: 07:30 to 18:00 Just remember that last hot food orders are half an hour before we close. In addition to several of our regular Specials being available Gaby is cooking Slow

The weekend before last saw me up in The Lakes for another road race, the Coniston 14 which is what it says, a 14 mile road race around Lake Coniston starting & finishing in Coniston where a good friend, Rob, whom I met in Nepal in 2012 lives. Having run the route at leisure in 2016 the day after Rob had helped me complete the Wainwright’s I had some idea of what I was letting myself in for but the size of the event (1,300 runners) took me a little by surprise. The quality of the runners (it being The

Thank you Nick, I think (as in Livesey). Having come up with my route for this years charity run in aid of Reach Out for Nepal & loosely calculating it’s stats from the Harvey’s Snowdonia North Map, Nick kindly offered to plot the route on his computerised mapping system (aka something I’m not really sure what it’s called) so get some more accurate stats. He’s recently e-mailed his findings:- Paul’s Guess: 41.9 Miles. Nick’s findings 46.2 Miles. Paul’s Guess: 11105 feet of height gain. Nick’s findings 13,674 feet. Paul’s Target time: 13 Hours. Nick’s findings 57 Hours, I can only

I had the title for this blog all sorted a few days ago, it was to be ‘Running away from age’ & would focus on my predictably annual birthday run. However I am never too old to learn (despite admittedly failing to frequently) & upon completing the reading of a 2nd memorable book last night, in the space of less than a fortnight, the blog & it’s title just re-wrote itself instantly, so here goes, draft 2:- Book 1 – East of Eden, John Steinbeck Having been mesmerized a couple of months ago by Steinbeck’s writing in ‘The Grapes of

Details of this year’ event have just been updated on the Events page of our web-site, for full details simply click on the page & go to 22nd June 2019. In addition we now have 3 New signed photographic prints by Doug Scott displayed at the Café, these are signed by Doug & Chris Bonnington & can be purchased on a first come first served basis with all proceeds going direct to Community Action Nepal (Doug’s charity).

We are delighted to announce that Ali Bramall the race organiser of the Original Everest Marathon (OEM) has agreed to give her presentation at our Café on the night of our Reach Out for Nepal day – 22nd June 2019. This is extremely fitting as it not only takes place in Nepal but also raises money for Community Action Nepal. If you are interested in taking part in the OEM (Paul is running it this year & Dorina is supporting as a Marshall) come along & find out about it & enjoy a Nepalese evening. Non-runners can still enjoy a

Well the wished for abating of those winds needed a bit of patience over the weekend didn’t it. Coming over the Crimea at 7:00 am on Saturday it was clear there would be trouble ahead. Clearly the rain had been lashing down through the night as the roads were the worse we’d seen them since Boxing Day 2015 & that’s saying something. Arriving at the Café it took me a minute or two just to open the car door & sprint to the protection of the café. The afon Llugwy was already in full Speight & still rising, un-like the

The Sheep tracks race is long gone but was a great route tackled in that glorious weather of late February. My recce with Steve the week before paid great dividends but still saw me make one howler between Checkpoints 11 & 12 which saw me waist deep in the dreaded gorse with no path to turn to. Over two weeks on & despite wearing leggings to protect me from such an eventuality I am still easing bits of thorns out of my scarred legs. Earlier in the race I was almost in splendid isolation between CP3 & CP7, having not

I am going to start this one with naming & shaming a woman who quite simply should know better at (dare I say it) her age & a professional too! Having set out on a ‘new’ running route last Wednesday I was two thirds through a 20 miler & battling a ferocious headwind between Llanwrst & Betws when two gentleman cyclists passed me from behind. Having kept diligently to the right hand side of the footpath there was no need for them to ring bells or yell ‘get out the way runner’ allowing the 3 of us to concentrate on

As some of you will know sadly it is the latter for 2019 at least. Quite simply because returning from an excellent skiing trip to Italy with Dorina & Chris the next day I found out the Chinese have changed their climbing regulations adding literally thousands of £’s to the cost. Fair play to Tom & his team at Jagged Globe who as the week progressed came up with some alternatives including Manaslu & Lhotse but for me, it is Cho Oyu that’s been on my mind & so after much soul searching (Dorina could read the turmoil in my

2019’s Café events got underway in the same vein as those at the end of 2018, both seeing a full house & an enjoyable night for all. First up saw Nick Livesey on 5th January give his very personal presentation about his former years & how his live turned around as he led himself towards mountains, photography & Snowdonia. It was both dark & stimulating & told in Nick’s inimitable style. Nick also volunteered that all ticket proceeds should go to our Reach Out for Nepal fund meaning that 100 tickets at a fiver each added a fantastic £500, simply

Just a final reminder that this Saturday sees the return of Bandabacana to the café, they are celebrating 15 years, so dust off those dancing shoes & come along & enjoy the fun. Full details on our events page.

My running is now firmly back on track which a great thing to be able to say, the latest outing saw me join in with a very good turnout for ‘Rory’s run’ yesterday morning in memory of Rory O’Donnell who tragically died last year at an all too early age. It was a new & unique experience to be a part of a very special run. My lead in to Cho Oyu in now firmly underway, the running mileage has increased, the Core Exercises have begun but the most important step so far was last weeks visit to Scotland with

Whilst I was away in Scotland last week (more of that in my blog later) Eric Jones paid a visit to the Café & Dorina jumped on him, not literally I hope, to get him to sign the copies of his books we have to sell. Ever the gentleman that he is he duly obliged so we now have approximately 20 of Eric’s book ‘A Life on the Edge’ available for sale. These are in addition to signed copies of Doug Scott’s books (Up & About & The Ogre) as well as Julie Carter’s ‘Running the Red Line’ & of

We are sad to announce that tonight’s Open MIC Night has had to be cancelled, on behalf of Alan Mannouch who has had to commit to an un-scheduled work shift we offer his sincere apologies. Alan hope to make up for this in the coming weeks so watch this space.

Well it has been some time now since I’ve prattled on about what I get up to but before I offer apologies or justifications for my absence let me first get to a more important point. A huge thank you from all of us involved at the Café to all our customers & supporters who voted for us in the TGO Magazine annual awards helping us get top spot in the ‘Café or Restaurant’ category winning their Gold Award. After some very near misses in recent years it really was appreciated by all of us & helps maintain enthusiasm to

I am delighted to announce that Nick has agreed to give an illustrated presentation of his ‘The Journey of a Mountain Photographer’ at our Café on Saturday 5th January. Our apologies for the Short notice but we felt the time was particularly apt as it follows on from the very successful launch of Nick’s superb book, signed copies of which are available at the Café & on the night itself. Full details of the presentation are listed on our Events page, we hope you can make it.

We are delighted to announce a couple of new dates in our Events diary. Firstly our ‘very own’ Nick Livesey long awaited photographic book on Snowdonia has now been printed & is available from this Thursday. I am pleased to announce that Nick has agreed to do a book signing event at the Café to coincide with the forthcoming Christmas Quiz (in support of OVMRO) on Saturday 15th December. So to secure your signed copy simply put the date in your diary & come along between 5:00 & 8:00 pm to meet & talk to the Photographer/Author, aka as Nick.