twelve inches in a foot

I wrote this in march 2020! I have changed a lot since then, I think for the better? The world however has also changed a lot and not for the better in my opinion, I will leave most of this write up as it stands for publishing, with minimal updates! but; will make some notes at the bottom,

Imperial to metric

                11/3/20 was a big day for me! A day I left the past behind and leapt into the future? Sounds a big deal? Well it must be I’ve been putting it of for at least 25 years! On this day I switched my mindset from miles to kilometres, in order to do this I had to change my Garmin watch from imperial to metric, from now on there will be no, one mile beep on my watch it will be one kilometre beeps, my distances for all activities will from then on be recorded in meters, which is much easier in the long run(intended pun)! I had been stuck in the past

                The reason now for this big change in my early fifties? Navigation mostly! Ordnance survey maps are gridded in kilometres not miles hill elevations are also in meters not feet, I have been leaving the navigation on the hills to my mate bob for twenty years of walking climbing and ski touring together, but bobs unfortunately not doing the cape wrath ultra, i dont see him anymore i no longer have any friends to go into the hills with   SO; I need to be able to navigate even if the clag comes in (especially if the clag comes in) the navigation course is booked for a month before the CWU, it’s a full day course called navigation for runners in the Pentland hills (outside of Edinburgh I done a race at this area of the hills once called the tough ten) this change to metric is a big step toward preparation for this

                I bought a fundraising book a couple of years back for the children’s charity called Archie’s foundation, the book was all about a relay using non-motorised transport across every peak over one thousand meters in Scotland with a teddy (actually a cute long eared toy bunny) containing a GPS device being passed by a small group of participants, they named all these peaks the Archie’s stating "quiet correctly" that if sir Hugh Munro was alive today, three thousand feet would not be the bench mark it would be 1000meters, a vertical kilometre that the map benchmark would be, due to all OS maps in the UK being metric, there are 130 mountains over one kilometre high, I am unsure how many of these I have summited? having done 130 Munros (peaks over 3000ft) perhaps I could have became a completist by now had I concentrated on Archie’s not Munro`s! perhaps I should have changed away from imperial years ago

            Decimalisation - having a currency based on simple multiples of 10 and 100 - had been a long time coming to Britain. The UK made a decision to go decimal over fifty years ago it was announced to Parliament in 1966 the year I was born! then the change was done on 14 February 1971, I have a very vague distant memory of the 12 pennies to the shilling and 20 shillings to the pound. That day all that was history and the pound was made up of 100 new pence. Some three years before "D-Day" or Decimal Day, new 5p and 10p coins were introduced. They were of the same size and value as the existing one- and two-shilling coins. Which were all in circulation for years afterwards, then in 1969, a 50p coin was introduced to replace the 10-shilling note. The 50p coin was referred to as a 10-shilling coin at the time. France and the United States had gone decimal in the 1790s. Britain first thought about doing the same in the 1820s, but the idea did not gather momentum, its my opinion/desire that we should have went even further, changed road signs and speed limits to kilometres not miles, people giving their weights and heights in metric at the same time as the currency changed, if we had I wouldn’t now still be doing mental arithmetic to change my weight height speed pace and also map reading! Which I convert in my head backways!

             Hundreds of thousands of British walkers and cyclists rely on metric OS maps to navigate safely generally using either the 1:50 000 Landranger or 1:25 000 Explorer maps which provide the level of detail of landscape and contours needed. the forward-looking Davidson Committee. From 1940 onward, made all newly published maps were made on the kilometre grid first publishing in 1940. Contours were surveyed in metric from the early 1970s so at that time all newly published OS maps were thus entirely metric.

            The retriangulation of Great Britain was a triangulation project carried out between 1935 and 1962 to improve the accuracy of maps made of Great Britain, The retriangulation involved erecting around 6,500 concrete pillars (known as trig points) on British hilltops, which were used as reference points for the triangulation, Today, use of the trig points and the results of the retriangulation have been replaced by GPS stations known as OS Net, which are able to achieve an accuracy of 3 millimeters over the length of the country compared to 20 metres achievable by use of the trig point, i had a fantastic flight free adventure, on shetland visiting all the trig points all over those islands i kept a great blog (IMO) about this adventure in my kennys daunder adventure blog

            I booked my navigation course then less than a week later got an email saying it was potentially cancelled –

 Dear Kenny,

Trail Running Scotland COVID-19 planning. 

15 March 2020

This is an unprecedented and evolving situation, so there is still a lot of uncertainty around what will happen in the next few weeks and months however we need to consider how it will affect our planned events. Naturally the situation in Scotland may well change in the coming weeks and months. We would of course follow all government advice if we are legally required to cancel the event. 

·  In this instance we would be in a very difficult position as a small business and we would appreciate your understanding and help in sharing the burden of the situation. 

·  We would not be able to offer any refunds for your course fees.

·  As a gesture of goodwill we would make available a discount to be used on future bookings. Amount to be confirmed if the situation arrises. 
    Lets see what happens i just want/need the training to go ahead