Before heading off to Eskdale for a few days there was time for one more night of madness. I'd been out walking in the dark with all of my hopes & affirmative answers to hypothetical questions, and returned to the staff house to find Rhys and Dave still awake. They talked for a while about life working in a factory, and then we turned to arguably more important matters - planning a YHA Borrowdale staff nativity scene. I was straight away given the role of Mary, which I think has more to do with the fact that I was wearing a blue Berghaus jacket (and being the only female in the room) rather than having any profound acquaintance with an angel. Rhys said that Dave would make a good Joseph, and we decided that Tref would make such a good shepherd (must be the beard), that he could play shepherd number one, two, and three. When we spoke to him in the morning about it he wholeheartedly agreed, & asked excitedly what he should wear for a costume. Bianca asked if she could be a sheep, and Glen said he'd be more than happy to be an angel. All of this meant that, by process of elimination only, the three wise men would have to be Chris, Rhys, and Zach. It was almost 1am before we decided that all the details were in place to make the ultimate Christmas card, and that we could therefore now go to bed.
I headed over to Eskdale the following afternoon, and as I drove along the valley I caught myself smiling like a lunatic. It felt so good to be back, and later that night I went for a run along the river. I asked Mick and Rachel if they'd like to join me, but they were too busy trying to work out anagrams of number one hits by the Spice Girls. Fair enough really. They actually had a pretty lucky escape, as it turned out to be a fairly hazardous run. There may or may not have been an incident involving a number of sheep nearly knocking me over in the dark. That was nothing though in comparison to Rachel's long tale of woe about how many aerosols you can legally send in the post, not to mention something about a power cut, a fire alarm, and incurring a groin strain while tripping over the dog in the dark. I only went away for three weeks....!!
I seemed to spend a large proportion of each day hardcore drinking peppermint tea in front of the fire at the Woolpack Inn. It was lovely to catch up with Harry, Paddington, & Ellie, as well as chatting to a few of the folk staying there. My brother Rory & his wifey Jen came up to visit for the weekend, announcing their arrival with a big coo-eee coo-eee what's up?! We got a fire going back at the hostel, and spent the evening listening to Chris de Burgh, & witnessing Jen's conversion to said musical genius. She was so serious about the whole thing that she insisted upon undergoing an initiation ceremony or baptism. This basically involved draping herself in a red curtain, and posing for a photo (which unintentionally made it look like she was stood behind it with no clothes on). Making the most of her current state of euphoria, I managed to persuade her to 'run' up Harter Fell with me in the morning to watch the sunrise. It was pretty chilly on top, but the views were utterly stunning. It was absolutely worth getting out of bed for, and the photos I took are going to be in the next issue of the Live More YHA magazine. I was pretty wrecked for the rest of the day, but summoned the strength to go up to Hardknott Fort with Rory in the afternoon for a sword fight. As we walked up to the walls, he turned to me and said very seriously, "I've never gone into the mountains carrying a sword before. I'm a bit worried about visiting Eskdale again, I seem to end up doing slightly crazier things each time, and I'm usually a really cautious kind of guy." I suggested that it is the type of place which can have that affect on people, but for some reason he seemed to think it was more to do with the fact that I was here.
One of many exciting things to happen over the weekend was Mick building a bed (recycled from a clapped out caravan) for the back of my van. It really is incredible, and I can't thank him enough for all his help with it! There is definitely going to be some sort of house warming party - probably comprising of a challenge to see just how many people it is possible to safely fit in the back of a transit connect (the safety element here simply refers to not spilling any tea).
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