Starting from Baston Church, walk east to Main Street, cross over the road and go up Thetford Avenue on your left. At the end of Thetford Avenue, go through the gate turn immediately right and follow the path around the field until you reach North Meadow Road (track).

Turn left and walk up the track. You will do a slight 'shimmy' to the right where another track crosses, but just keep heading north until you reach the stile.

Go over the stile and up the bank to the river you are now on the Macmillan Way. If you turn left there is a nice walk that takes you to the A15, and if you turn right you are heading towards the Baston Nature Reserve.

We live in a golden age for real ale and we are spoilt for choice with over 2000 microbreweries up and down the country. It is difficult, but I have to say not impossible, to find a pub without a real ale on offer, but the special pubs are the ones who have a good range of real ales including those from local breweries.

Kelham Island is a bit like Mecca for the Sheffield real ale drinker....... I guess that's a contradiction in terms, but you get the idea, its a must go to place for real ale and everyone should go at least once. There are so many good pubs in such a small area of Sheffield, and its an easy 'hop' to Hillsborough the home of Sheffield Wednesday. I always say to my wife that if ever she left me I'd buy a flat there ..... her response is usually along the lines of "don't let me hold you back!" Well if it wasn't for the thought of liver disease I might just consider it.

Special Occasion at Hillsborough

You can't beat going to Hillsborough for a big evening game, and the Steel City derby is always a special occasion. The 0-0 result suited everyone and no one, we could have both done with the win, but definitely no one wanted to lose.

Wednesday are now 6 points off the playoffs with 8 games unbeaten and looking solid at the back. Its still an outside chance we can get to the playoffs, but lets wait and see. A couple of interesting facts for you.

I woke up one morning and decided I needed a new challenge in my life. It had to be something that didn't include heights or that would risk life and limb, plus my wife was quite insistent that it should not be anything that involved wearing Lycra!. There will be no jumping out of aeroplanes with or without a parachute and certainly no base jumping ....... although I did once do the longest zip wire in Europe, but my legs still wobble even now at the thought of it! So I've decided to keep my feet firmly on the ground and walk the Macmillan Way, a 290 mile path, that runs coast to coast, from Boston in Lincolnshire to Abbotsbury in Dorset.

That's utter madness I can hear you say, why don't you just drive there or let the train take the strain?

   
For those of you not familiar with Sheffield Wednesday, the club is going through a quiet revolution. We have been bought out by a Thai business man Dejphon Chansiri for £37.5m, His family control Thai Union Frozen Products, the worlds largest producer of tinned tuna. Its fair to say that I have never bought so much tuna, the cupboards are overflowing and we are now stacking it in the garage. Alison despairs at me, but the cats of Baston have never been so well fed!

Ellie & Meg on the boat with me

I've been back at work for 4 months now and it's always been on my mind that I have not kept my cult following (well follower) up to date with the closing stages of my Long Leave. So here goes.

I guess reality started to dawn that my long leave wouldn't go on for ever about four weeks before I was due to go back to work. I'd had a taste of freedom and now in a cruel twist of fate,  I had to return to the shackles of 9-5, train journeys and corporate speak - just on the subject of corporate speak, my favourite expressions since I have returned to work have been:-