Tomorrow I shall set off on a week away, boosted by a successful trip to East Anglia with the support of my friend Darren. This time I am going alone. Other than one or two festivals, I have only been on holiday alone once before - to Dorset - although I was in a sense independent in Geneva. I am very, very nervous. Both my eyes have deteriorated in the last fortnight. I've been onto the relevant hospital to discuss. I've written down the emergency numbers just in case. The irony being that if anything dramatic happens in the first four days, a hospital will be on my doorstep with no need to go to London. My neck, throat and teeth are all not what they should be, nor is my side or my foot. However, I do know I have recently walked 30 miles. I have parents at home who are very elderly and supportive in my aims but I don't know whether they will be alive when I return. Will Dad know who I am?
Others go to America and much further afield. This feels further so why do it? It is something I have to do. I need to base myself somewhere from which I can travel to the Undercliff, one of just two parts of the Jurassic Coast I haven't been completed. Somewhere from which if I am feeling brave I can do a day trip to a part of North Cornwall I have never seen. Somewhere given that there is a train strike I can amuse myself on the first full day in the cathedral and even go to my first football match in over a decade if I feel I can do so in the moment. I have bought a ticket. The place is Exeter. It seems a very long way away. I had to think long and hard to decide where to stay in order to feel secure. Surprisingly to me, although not so surprising, I have chosen bed and breakfast at the university. Then it is off to Ilfracombe from where I want to do the Mortehoe and Lee Bay walk just one more time just as I did with my Mum and Dad so many times in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I absolutely love it but its dreams. I know that the dreams I am chasing are now in the past.
Yes, I am nervous. I'm very nervous....it all now seems different from the timetables and the maps. But sometimes you just have to do what you have to do before it is too late and in terms of holiday companions I don't have too many options than these days. It's not a holiday really. It's a need from which I hope I can do my four or five days in the north if this one is without huge problems. If any forum member happens to be in the areas I mention, please get in touch before breakfast time tomorrow - but I don't expect it. I'll do it the Sillitoe post WW2 soldier way. Whatever, if I find some internet café and feel a need, I will be posting on here - otherwise it is going to be a while. If nothing else, I can find a bit of self-respect for my leaps into such ventures when sometimes it is impossible to get to the local library. It isn't the most regular personality, this, but the circumstances are probably too common.
Others go to America and much further afield. This feels further so why do it? It is something I have to do. I need to base myself somewhere from which I can travel to the Undercliff, one of just two parts of the Jurassic Coast I haven't been completed. Somewhere from which if I am feeling brave I can do a day trip to a part of North Cornwall I have never seen. Somewhere given that there is a train strike I can amuse myself on the first full day in the cathedral and even go to my first football match in over a decade if I feel I can do so in the moment. I have bought a ticket. The place is Exeter. It seems a very long way away. I had to think long and hard to decide where to stay in order to feel secure. Surprisingly to me, although not so surprising, I have chosen bed and breakfast at the university. Then it is off to Ilfracombe from where I want to do the Mortehoe and Lee Bay walk just one more time just as I did with my Mum and Dad so many times in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I absolutely love it but its dreams. I know that the dreams I am chasing are now in the past.
Yes, I am nervous. I'm very nervous....it all now seems different from the timetables and the maps. But sometimes you just have to do what you have to do before it is too late and in terms of holiday companions I don't have too many options than these days. It's not a holiday really. It's a need from which I hope I can do my four or five days in the north if this one is without huge problems. If any forum member happens to be in the areas I mention, please get in touch before breakfast time tomorrow - but I don't expect it. I'll do it the Sillitoe post WW2 soldier way. Whatever, if I find some internet café and feel a need, I will be posting on here - otherwise it is going to be a while. If nothing else, I can find a bit of self-respect for my leaps into such ventures when sometimes it is impossible to get to the local library. It isn't the most regular personality, this, but the circumstances are probably too common.
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