No not Prince Phillip himself, but some of his expedition groups, training for their Silver and Gold Awards. Just before Easter I spent a few days in the Yorkshire Dales in fine conditions running training expeditions for St Albans Girls, whilst towards the end of the month I was in the Peak District with groups from St Clement Danes School in Hertfordshire.

In between, I went for a paddle in my new canoe down the River Severn from Attingham Park to Coalbrookdale in dry but cool conditions.

Like everyone it seems these days, I have to attend training and workshops as part of my Contiuing Professional development. I went to the MLT conference at Plas Y Brenin after Easter, and picked up a couple of new ideas for teaching leading. I also showed colleagues a new toy, the Trango Cinch (see the picture), an American belay device, that is very quick in locking off. I'll be writing up a review of this for the AMI magazine.

I've also been carrying out some inspection work for the new Quality Badging system for Learning Outside the Classroom - this involved visiting and inspecting outdoor centres and testing their systems for quality and consistency.

The weather boffins tell us we might have a barbecue summer this year - I'd like it just nicely hot, not too hot nor too cold please, so the crags dry out and the routes are pleasant!