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On Wednesday I walked along Phernyssick Road to 169. It almost killed me. I thought "Bleddy hell I've got 5 miles to do next week, I'll never do it! Yesterday I walked a lot further. Knackering but I'm beginning to feel a lot better. My confidence is growing. I walked a bit further yesterday to secure myself a new phone. The old one had become unreliable and would only work on speakerphone. Crap for speaking to my consultant in a public place.
Anyway, why walk to 169 Phernyssick Road? It's an oldish property, built c. 1780. That's in a time when Australia wasn't called Australia, it was called New Holland. Fast forward a couple hundred years and the property was owned by yours truly. I was invited over to meet the present owners who were doing some research into the history of the place. They seemed to have discovered some interesting history much of which I already knew. It's a little weird going back after 30+ years. Much had changed but I was surprised how much had stayed the same including the Rayburn I installed after buying it from the Old Rectory at Braddock. I had a nice cup of tea and talked about the property during my tenure.
Generally though I'm not too bothered about revisiting the past yet I sometimes find myself doing just that.
Take breakfast. Generally I have overnight oats, very "on trend'. They're ordinary porridge oats soaked in milk and yoghurt overnight with a generous helping of mixed soft fruits. But yesterday I had Ready Brek. (Central heating for kids). Yum! This Ready Brek was supplied when I was eligible for a covid food parcel back at the beginning of lockdown. I thought I might as well eat it. I chucked in some banana and honey for good measure. Delicious.
The last time I ate it was when I was really young, not quite Farleys Rusks young but young. Probably around the time of "Whiter Shade of Pale" or "Matthew and Son". When boys knees and shins were tanned all year round.
This is where I could get all nostalgic and go on about how we had no choice about what we had to eat or that we had to wear hand-me-down clothes, had to play in the streets, drink from a garden hose, come home when it got dark and so on. But actually I had food choice, with a family of 7 we always had a lot of food in the house. I ate what I was given because it was good and I thought, even then, if Mum can be bothered to make it, I can be bothered to eat it. A good tenet to live by and I still do. Hand me down clothes? Loved 'em. My cousin Malcolm was a bit older than me, when some of his clothes came our way I pounced, I even had his hand-me-down bike. I have a lovely "Bugatti" winter coat I bought for £10 from a charity shop in Henley-on-Thames last year. I'm still wearing hand-me-down clothes. Playing in the streets? What's the big deal? That's where we socialised, face-to-face, with other kids in the village. We knew everyone and everyone knew us. I still drink from a garden hose. But now I use the hose to fill a big plastic tank under our motorhome. It's probably more hygienic to drink straight from the hose anyway. And occasionally, in the winter, we came home after dark but we were always home for tea. Yes tea, in the 60s dinner was in the middle of the day and lunch was the first part of Luncheon meat. We're all just a product of our time.
Earlier this week I was beginning to lose confidence in the notion that I could even start our walk next Thursday. This morning I'm confident I will. So next Thursday the 15th October fill up on your Ready Brek and join us.
To find out the starting point and route follow this link https://www.plotaroute.com/route/1302081?units=miles
If you join us "ur no" give us some money anyway by following this link
And if you want to know how this walking malarkey came about look st this link https://www.memoriesofmarty.co.uk/never-too-young
Later today were taking a few days break. Me from from installing our new kitchen and Tricia from listening to me swearing while installing our new kitchen. We're about to commence a rigerous training programme starting with a couple of circuits of IKEA in Exeter.
Wish us luck.
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