Matthew had already decided not to walk today because he was getting on nicely with James and wanted to make the most of this by playing some two-player games on the PS4. James has decided that his mission for the lockdown is to see if he can make it to end without going outside at all. Thomas was already on the prom, having ridden there on his tiny BMX, so I headed out to see if I could meet him on his way back.
And here he is. I met him about half a mile from home and, even though he was pooped from practising bunny hops by the sea, he kept me company for a little bit, which was lovely.
We stopped for a little refreshment at the park where Matthew and I saw Sirius Black last week. The bats were out, and I tried to get a photo of one — man, they’re fast. This was my best effort:
And then Thomas was off. There he goes. Bye son!
Right then, come on Rawlinson — a mile to go to the prom. Actually, at this point, I didn’t need to try to motivate myself because I was feeling awesome. I think it was the almond croissant I’d just eaten.
So I set off at quite a pace. I was actually hearing Stayin’ Alive in my head, which made it impossible to stroll slowly. It also made it impossible to walk normally and I’m afraid it did strut a little bit.
This nice road is called Broadway. It has nothing to do with theatre and probably something to do with the fact that it’s a wide road.
I could’ve used the pavement here, but I decided to walk along the edge of the grass verge, next to the road. There were three reasons for this: 1) we know that zombies lurk behind garden walls and gate posts and I had no weapons with me to fight them off, so my way needed to be clear to run; 2) it’s harder to walk on grass than concrete and I wanted to make my walk even more of a challenge; and 3) the grass verge offered a nicer view of the whole road, and you know I have a thing about standing in the middle of empty roads at the moment.
Like this:
On Broadway, there’s a bridge over the railway, but this presented no problem today because — and I say this tentatively, in case it’s not true — I think I’m getting fitter!
Here is the tree where I drop the boys off for school, in normal times:
And just beyond that — I made it! This is the prom. Aren’t James and Matthew lucky to go to school by the sea? I just said this to them and they both threw me the exact same look of complete disgust.
You’ve seen this section of the prom before. So I’ll just show you some highlights — I did take 82 photos this evening, and I think blog posts can quite happily handle that many, but I don’t think you can, dear friends, so I’ll spare you.
But I will just mention Promenade Music because they delivered our lovely keyboard last week and it’s been helping to keep the cabin fever at bay. So thank you, Promenade Music.
Here, the view across the bay, with the twinkly lights of some towns ... err, hang on, I’ll have to Google.
Okay, I can’t quite tell, but this one on the left might be Barrow in Furness.
A bit of the prom.
Another bit of the prom.
I know those twinkly lights — they definitely belong to Grange-over-Sands.
I had intended to just stop and turn back when I got to the prom, but, dang, it was so pretty, I just had to walk about a bit. And so quiet. I’ve never known the prom to be so still. There were a few people walking, and all of them said hello, which was lovely.
I made it to Baywatch tower.
And then I got the shock of my life when I saw this fella running along the beach again. Apparently, he’s here all the time, in all weathers. It was darker than last time we saw him, but you can still tell it’s him.
Anyway, it felt like it was time to head back because Matthew had called me and it sounded as though James had remembered he doesn’t like his little brother and Matthew needed some back-up. And also, Matthew asked how long it might take me to get back and I set myself the rather ambitious challenge of half an hour. Considering it had taken me about an hour and a half to get this far, that was a bit stupid.
Stayin’ Alive wasn’t going to cut it this time — I needed to bring out the big guns, so I called upon Keith and got Firestarter going as my head song. That worked a treat, combined with another bit of almond croissant. And d’you know, dear reader, I made it back the spot where Thomas had left me within 20 minutes. I was quite pleased with myself and fairly speed walked the rest of the way home, pausing only to take a quite snap of an empty roundabout.
Fifteen minutes more and I was here, beaming at the sight of our fairy lights and the brambles that deter children from stopping at our house at Halloween. My legs did not feel like jelly, my feet hurt only a little bit, and I had was very pleased with the knowledge that I had just walked five miles.
Whether I’ll feel quite so pleased tomorrow, when there are bound to be some aches, remains to be seen. Maybe tomorrow’s walk will involve me just pushing a trolley round Asda.
Until then, international readers.
WQ
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