Because we had so much fun on our Blair Witch walk a couple of days ago, I decided that I wanted to walk in the dark on purpose today. This meant we had to wait until pretty late because the clocks went back last night. Fine. It's not like we have to be anywhere tomorrow that requires us to have early nights.
It was pretty clear from the off that this was going to be a geek walk because we spotted Neverland straight away. Look, second star to the right (the first one is behind a cloud, honest) and straight on 'til morning.
Alas, no pixie dust, so we couldn't go. (People geek over Peter Pan – it's definitely a thing. Book Peter is way better than Disney Peter – that's all I have to say about that.)
So, I told Matthew that we'd just be walking round the block today. This was a bit cruel of me because he took this to mean we were having a short walk, as the proper block is just two streets and takes less than ten minutes. What I actually meant was the Big Block, which is three miles exactly. This would be our longest walk yet this lockdown – but you will know by now that we had our flask of tea to keep us fortified.
Tonight was very still and actually rather lovely. I wonder if it would have felt so still had we not been in this very strange situation. I wanted to walk this way at night to see if it felt at all eerie with everyone staying inside apart from the few people taking their state-approved exercise. It wasn't the least bit creepy – but that's not to say it didn't feel strange to see empty roads at only 9pm.
This road here รข is never quiet – it's busy all evening and you can never just cross without having to wait. Tonight, completely silent:
So silent, in fact, that I stood in the middle of it for five minutes and nothing happened. We could have sat down here on the road for our cup of tea, but we'd gone less than half a mile so we didn't. But it was kind of awesome, just standing in the middle of the road, listening to nothing. We couldn't even hear cars in the distance. I might have said that there was a little bit of a Walking Dead feel, like the town had been deserted – except that the quiet didn't feel threatening.
It was pretty clear from the off that this was going to be a geek walk because we spotted Neverland straight away. Look, second star to the right (the first one is behind a cloud, honest) and straight on 'til morning.
Alas, no pixie dust, so we couldn't go. (People geek over Peter Pan – it's definitely a thing. Book Peter is way better than Disney Peter – that's all I have to say about that.)
So, I told Matthew that we'd just be walking round the block today. This was a bit cruel of me because he took this to mean we were having a short walk, as the proper block is just two streets and takes less than ten minutes. What I actually meant was the Big Block, which is three miles exactly. This would be our longest walk yet this lockdown – but you will know by now that we had our flask of tea to keep us fortified.
Tonight was very still and actually rather lovely. I wonder if it would have felt so still had we not been in this very strange situation. I wanted to walk this way at night to see if it felt at all eerie with everyone staying inside apart from the few people taking their state-approved exercise. It wasn't the least bit creepy – but that's not to say it didn't feel strange to see empty roads at only 9pm.
This road here รข is never quiet – it's busy all evening and you can never just cross without having to wait. Tonight, completely silent:
So silent, in fact, that I stood in the middle of it for five minutes and nothing happened. We could have sat down here on the road for our cup of tea, but we'd gone less than half a mile so we didn't. But it was kind of awesome, just standing in the middle of the road, listening to nothing. We couldn't even hear cars in the distance. I might have said that there was a little bit of a Walking Dead feel, like the town had been deserted – except that the quiet didn't feel threatening.
Here, too, at the 'new road', complete stillness. Matthew and I stood here for a little while, eventually grinning at each other in a 'woah, dude, this is sooooo weird' kind of way. Because it was – the utter strangeness of this whole situation struck me afresh this evening. Matthew tried to put it into words a bit later, but he couldn't articulate it – he was only able to say that, when the schools closed, he felt a new feeling that he'd never felt before, but he didn't know what it was.
Half a mile on and things started to get a bit more lively. I didn't get a photo of a police car because they were all going too fast. I didn't count them, but I reckon we saw about 15, all with their lights flashing but no sirens blaring at all. There's definitely a strong police presence right now. A couple of ambulances flew past as well – lights but no sirens, just the same.
We decided to duck into this teeny little park for our cup of tea. Imagine our absolute shock and delight when we saw Sirius Black (also known as Padfoot when he's in dog form). Particularly astonishing because he died in book 6, so it was probably a different animagus. Or perhaps a bench.
More empty roads at the halfway point. I don't think I've ever seen this roundabout empty, ever. Several more police cars passed us here, and two ambulances.
The second half of the walk took us down one road, a mile and a half stretch of it. More police and ambulances, but no other cars at all, and we only passed one other person, who was out walking his dog.
I think we were starting to become used to the strangeness as Matthew and I trotted along this big stretch of road in companionable and ordinary conversation about things like Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon. That's when we remembered that there was a decent Pokestop close to home, so we stopped to top up.
Then I caught a Girafarig, so that was nice.
No birds again this evening. I did sort of promise ducks, but I have since learned that they do actually migrate, so you'll have to wait and see if I can keep this up until they return. I bet I can.
Until tomorrow, you crazy kids.
WQ
Sounds like you and Matthew are doing intrepid stuff out there. Lots of police car and ambulance activity though. I went into work 6.30 am-ish today to check that the fridges and freezers hadn't checked out due to lack of interest. Never seen the hospital car parks as full at that time.
ReplyDeleteCarry on team. You are doing good work. X