An unfortunate day for the sandwich delivery man, & the many talents of Mick Blamires

I came into work on Monday morning, and the first thing Mick said to me was, "The sandwich order is stuck up Hardknott Pass, they had to call out Mountain Rescue." Not yet being fully awake, the first image that came into my head was of the Wasdale MR team airlifting several packets of tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches to safety. My mind had bypassed the fact that there was obviously a vehicle and a driver involved. Thankfully there was no damage to either, although when the driver was finally able to make it down the valley he told us that this day had stressed him to the max. It was only later that we were able to find out the full extent of things. Not only did he need rescuing from Hardknott Pass, it turns out that while he was making a delivery to the hostel in Coniston, unbeknown to him the manager's cat had jumped into the van whilst the door was open for unloading. It wasn't until he reached the hostel at Langdale and reopened the door that the cat jumped out, naturally giving him quite a fright! It was perhaps unsurprising that it was a different gentleman delivering the sandwiches on Wednesday! 

Mick is a man of many talents, but these past few weeks he has somehow managed to exceed himself. It all started one pleasant evening when he picked up two green traffic cones and threw one of them up and caught it inside the other. This probably doesn't sound very impressive, but the video of it on the YHA Eskdale Facebook page has had over 200 views (which is practically viral by valley standards). Plus, everyone else struggled to replicate his success, even Fiona who, by her own admission, did have a very good tossing action. Mick's unique skill-set was further highlighted a few days later when he very proudly announced that he had got his average water ballon filling time down to 20 seconds per balloon (60 balloons filled in total). Rachel was somewhat doubtful at first..."Does that include the time taken to tie them up? Because you do know that it's quite important to tie them up?!" When Mick assured her that they were all tied up and ready to deploy, Rachel simply said, "In a fair world that would make you king." To top everything off, Mick found the missing key to the display cabinet in the dinning room (the contents of which we had all resigned to becoming antiques). He was especially pleased to discover that the lone packet of Starburst was only 4 years out of date, thus rendering them (in his mind) entirely edible. 

I was delighted that my friend Jane was able to come up and visit one weekend, especially as it turned out that she'd bought 2 packets of Percy Pigs for all the staff! Mick wasn't entirely sure about them, though. Not at first anyway. "I put one in my mouth and my initial thought was how disgusting it was. But by the time I was halfway through chewing it I had changed my mind slightly. After eating about 10 more I decided that they are actually really nice." And that is how the first packet disappeared before Rachel had even had chance to see them. The following morning at breakfast, Fiona was chatting to Jane, and I couldn't help but hear her ask, "What is that religion where you get to choose to come back as an animal?" I suggested that it might be Buddhism, to which Fiona added Hinduism, or maybe it's the Methodists who believe that. She didn't seem too concerned either way, but was in no doubt that she would come back as a well loved cat, or a chaffinch. 

Work has been pretty busy these past few weeks, and with other things going on, it's all so easy to get 'swept away' and washed up in some place where you don't really know your own mind anymore. Because of this I've been making more of a conscious effort to take some time, to go out running, walking, skinny dipping, or just to sit and think. One afternoon, clouds low down on the hills, I took a walk up to Eel Tarn. I could hear the birds singing, the wind, the beck flowing, and the endless silence that surrounds everything. And I knew that the silence was sadness, and that it had been and would always be there. For the beauty of life is also the sadness of life, and some days we are more attuned to one than the other. It is that knowledge beyond words, it is that melancholia or joy which can only be felt, that haunting realisation that all is futile and that both everything and nothing matters. It is perhaps in desperation of all this that one clings to a sense of freedom, but only a sense of it, for (as Dylan sang) even the birds are chained to the sky. So we make some big 'decisions', claim back what little of our mind we can, grieve our losses and the hurt we've caused -  then put it all down to experience and carry on much the same as before. What is it that we're doing here. It's obvious. I get back to the hostel and Rachel says, "Coo-eee Ki-Ki! Look what I bought - a bottle of alcohol free beer reduced to 43p. Do you think I should have got a few more?!"