Tuesday morning

Orval and Manchego go so well together. I've never had Orval cheese... It's unbelievable. I've had other Moines Fromage from all over the Francophile section of the Continent, which has drifted further away in the past two years, and I'll happily get to that corner of Belgique where Orval pervades (I was so close when I met Glenn in Reims and we sped passed Sedan and Verdun on our BlaBlaCar way to Metz and a wonderful French/German/Luxembourg luncheon). So you're not meant to eat the wax on cheese... I always do, except when it's truly obviously wax: Edam, Gouda or Leerdammer.

Is it possible to imagine a life where there is nothing but walking in the hope of the salvation of work at the end of endless roads. Without a doubt this is my current occupation, but I am spared the crowds of destitute men who had nothing better to do than meander, sullen, lost and starving, in the 1930s: the destitute now inhabit the cities and their roads are restricted to the Green Belt, brown wasteland, lighted windows and grey doorways of such a cold grave: Leeds.

On Saturday I was greeted with disbelief by the girls operating BAE. They couldn't understand why I walked to Leeds. And for a while I understood nothing, then around lunch time I touched that other reality I have often embraced: solace. A unit in time without the heaviness of the pressing inevitability.

And it's done again for a few hours. Tramping off to 69 and another snoring before the return trip on the X98 to 42 with mother and Lola.

***

It has been a long two years since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, which may (finally) be leaving us free to pursue dreams? If the tension between East and West doesn't escalate into WW3. Ukraine has zero to do with NATO/EU and the UK. Can we please stop hemming in Russia. Can't we work together? Isn't that what the end of the Cold War was about?

Mother is about to go for her knee replacement on the 5th March. Soon these yo-yo bus journeys will end and I can get back on the Path which was spreading before me in 2020?