A rebel without a clue.

the end of a long day.

Slightly one too many Delirium Tremens late afternoon and early evening. Back to Emma's with a lightly battered special and mushy peas. To pick up Archie prior to 7am and then meander with him, allowing him to have a long sniff of Sandringham Park, then collect a disgruntled Lola who is finding Archie attention to her rear end a bit intense. She was quite happy with him prior to this. Actually she hid under the dining table to keep away from his amorous inclinations. Last night met up with Andy(allotment Andy) and Co and have decided Ian is not my sort of person: like my mum he dislikes anything which might effect his conceit and he's Conservative with a capital tosspot. On the way to the Mews there was an advert for something on in the afternoon at the Methodist church on Bank Street - something about Country Houses. And I almost went there just to try something different in Wetherby. Mother mentioned something about 'u3a' - University of the 3rd Age. Apart from going ...

So far so sober. Visited Archie's owners yesterday morning. David's parents are currently with the family prior to their visit to Bulgaria for the the summer. Discussed a few issues, but Archie is such a loving simple pup! He kept trying to eat his breakfast while between bouts of excited wrestling and helloing with me. Eventually he settled down to finish his bowl of duck kibble(it's all ever has due to a dodgy stomach) then came to me to be whispered to. A thing Snoops(deceased), Lola. Ruby and he all loved, love or are loving. Lola took me for a walk in the morning: around the town. At first I was taking her towards Deighton Bar, but then she decided she wanted to go up Ashfield, so I acquiesced (as I allow her to take me for a walk once a week). Then she took me across Law Close, up Audby Lane, across to Hallfield Lane, through the ginnel opposite Saint James's Primary on to Montagu Road, behind the Bob Shop into the Cemetery, then around it to Burrell Close, Third ...

Both is true and yet neither are. It's all a huge opinion. What is truth? It's impossible for us to know. I am listening to podcast about phages/antibiotic and which is the best/useful. Yesterday mother rushed to Harrogate Hospital for an issue with her other eye, not the one with macular degeneration, it's a constant reminder that she's almost 80. Luckily the Eye  Clinic could find no problem after tests... The problem began around the time of the heatwave... My guess is it's a result of dehydration, overheating, etc. She's not someone who drinks water. It reminds me of my father. Until the very end of his life head never drunk mineral water, as he only ever drank very sweet string tea(sweetened with concentrated milk), beer or brandy. While he was declining at Harrogate Hospital, in his final month, he was blown away by Volvic water... Imagine never drinking water regularly, because you were born before running water was a ubiquity. Yesterday Lola and I had a ...

The first morning of the long summer. Emma is in Ibiza and I am in her house until Saturday when I switch from this house to Archie's on North Street, for the remainder of the summer, as Iskara and David head to Bulgaria for the rest of the school holidays... It's a scary prospective being unable to leave Wetherby for around 42 days(6 entire weeks)! It's such a weak town with little really happening in it's small minded existence? For a small market town it just feels bland and up it's arse about nothing. Maybe I've just spent too long of my life enclosed in its crushing embrace. True, I've never felt entirely at home anywhere else, but I rarely go anywhere for more than to pass through it. And passing through villages, towns and cities does get a little repetitive as we humans have relatively few absolutes... Church, castle, tower, hairdressers, café, bakery, supermarket. On Saturday, as I travelled back from Amiens, through Beauvais, I felt the same absolu...

€1 to get from Amiens to Beauvais from quai 17 in the Gare Routiere; bargain. Must be some concession run by the municipalities to transport people in and out of that random airport - Tillé ... It's not Paris and it's technically not Beauvais... I have my habits. At the Auberge du Jeunesse I had two average machine made coffees so I must seek a third better man made allongé. Unlike that phoney Andy, from Bottle and Bean, I don't really need a coffee that does anything other than stimulate. I prefer the street vendored affairs: Place Gambetta and a LavAzza is Italian style enough: they've been roasting that way for centuries so I get a taste I like. One sugar melted and well stirred, but a petite galette I can take or leave, but for the second morning I take: I prefer a chocolate coffee bean. Am I a lost soul? The paths I move along often have little to impress themselves beyond a glancing veneer. I shuffle onwards ever seeking for nothing because there is nothing really...

People are afraid of wasps like I am fearful of people. Wasps are never fearful. They haven't the time on their 'hands' for worries. A worried hornet would be a wonderful image to cast in bronze, a la Rodin. A book is bought from a second hand book shop. Thousands of antique French novels and a small crate of English language novels and one French novel translated into English. The Heart-Keeper by Françoise Sagan. The backpack is empty so an extra short novella won't count. Sent a Blablacar request this morning, but the driver hasn't responded. There are plenty of buses between Amiens and Beauvais, but so far I had managed not to involve myself in that form of public transport. Just trains. Trains are romantic. Buses are so tedious on life's metalled highways. One tedious journey... Here we are with a basket of pain and a container of Choquoise to accompany the Gasper beer made from old French bread. Happiness is these three things and the Quai alongside the Som...

Heading out of Abbeville along the towpath( halage ), passing beneath a disused girder box bridge, on the canalised Somme, to my left, it's silent except for the crunching march of my sandaled feet, the morning calls of the birds, a distant cockerel, a train passing into Abbeville on my right hand side and a gentle rain falls: it's green. In the distance to my right hills: so south of Amiens. To my left dense woodland. From the insanity of Tuesday to the annoyance of Thursday: horseflies biting me at every opportunity. And mosquitoes adding to the desperation. Hustling down the GR800 from Long, via L'Etoile to Flixecourt and an American Diner (French Diner) with the full playlist of RCA Elvis 56 playing out and with a tear in my eye I eat a Betty Burger, fries and sauce American. Such a strange serendipity. Thinking of a night in with my girl soon with my sister being away from Saturday and I am dog/house/fish sitting until she returns and then I turn my attenti...

A cooler day. Threatening rain. I just put on my midlayer (I have no other layer) and wonder about rain and no protection. Too many cars in Abbeville. Built post war, when cars were rarer than they are now. Only a fraction of its pre-war charms still exist. Brutal Germans - they definitely went so arrogant in the 1930s that they really thought that they were destroying for a 1000 years of history in the making? By destroying unnecessarily. I understand the reprisals meated out to them once the RAF, USAAF and USSR airforce could deliver steel over their cities. Barbarity on every level? Never again in Europe perhaps? *** I bad night's sleep. Not drunk or ate badly. Just so humid in the room. Had the window open until some train track noise in the early dawn. Closing a window on a day like this... Dark clouds, oppressive, muggy. But here I am again. Another day walking. A day off yesterday and it's enough for Abbeville. In the afternoon it poured down, but it didn...

Passing a rotisserie stall at the morning Marché in Le Tréport I bought pomme de terre for the midway morning matter conversion and three large slow roasted saucisse for petit dejeuner. And I leave vast Normandy and cross a frontier into petite Picardie once more. A very elongated circular walk... With two assistances forward thanks to SNCF, when I had run out of options, and a few nice little auto-stops, when shuttling between places,and I will be back in Beauvais by Saturday for a mid afternoon flight. There is a toilet on the beach front where I can deposit spent fuel rods before another long day and the heat will be unbearable (it's 8 o'clock). *** 40% left on the phone, but a filled belly and a place to stay in Abbeville: I must just get there, or as far as is possible before my body stops me, then auto-stop  Coming down from a 'difficulty', off of the cliffs with its relentless up and down, I am on another difficuly - the flat open uncovered pan of La ...

The sweet perfume of tansy along the way, precarious near the edge of the fragile cliffs: I took no notice of the two or three signs giving me 'obligatorie' advice not to walk that way... and here I am with an April 2021 Orval in Place Notre Dame (Bar Les Cordiers €5.60). Opposite me is Chris Pizza. All along the harbour frontage folks have mounds of steamed Moules. Can it be so good in such quantities? Like fish and chips along the seafront in Whitby... It's farmed mussels. If can find a place which feels less prole and more bourgeois... Such a fool. As an erstwhile paysanne I opt for a pizza... There must be more to me? Another 35/40 kilometres. I am killing myself as I burnt the soles of feet on the exposed chalk heading up from a cleft where the ladders had been ripped off the surface, with some force(water water everywhere, but not a drop has fallen on my feet), and were difficult to manage; going up. *** Another day dawned and I am still here? Another day ...

Déville-les-Rouen for a detour slightly back on myself. Coffee and croissant. There is a stream passing north here. I guess it feeds the Seine. Am I walking today or am I sodding off back to England this evening? *** Long day yesterday. Exhausted by the time I reached Cleres, where I noticed that a train was going through at 1431 so I polished off a Galette complet and arrived in Dieppe where I found just one bed in Neuville-les-Dieppe for €63. Heading north east along the E9/GR21 passing Plage du Puys and it's memorial to the Canadian dead from the assault in 1942 This morning I was mindful of catching the ferry to the UK in this heatwave. And overall the cost of being in France for another 5 nights should be something I can manage? Newhaven to Leeds, via London, would've been expensive too... Long morning along the coast. Finding a place for food was difficult, but, finally, I have a Repas filled belly for the afternoon craziness! It is just after 2pm, which was t...

Day three and day two undid me. Two days of struggling to find accommodation which is a reasonable cost(€126.04 for two nights works out as tres expensif). The night was hot in the hotel bed. The covers were too warm for me, but the tiny window and thick curtains kept it quiet in the space and I don't think there were bedbugs... Back in the centre. Actually Mantes-la-Jolie is a bit disappointing as a city, but it was largely destroyed in 1944 as Patton crossed the Seine here. It's as average as Bastogne... Today I revert to backpacking and try to find a more reasonable option: there appears to be an Auberge du Jeunesse in Rouen, but I can't get an answer from them. Caught the 8:49am to Rouen. Mantes-la-Jolie was nothing that I expected it could be. The mix of middle eastern, north African, west African, etc, made me feel uncomfortable. Really I saw only a couple of folks who appeared 'French'. The gentleman from the Amis Saint Jacques back in Beauvais didn't kno...

A truly mammoth day. At least 45 kilometres by the time I'd paid for one night in Hotel de la Val(€76.04 - ouch) because the lady who welcomes pilgrims is on her holidays and an Abbey was at first willing and then not (but very far from the route I am supposed to take for one more day tomorrow). On the route it's impossible to find anywhere in the various ville and court I have passed (there wasn't a shop at all) and in Magny-en-Vexin the suggested Hotel was complete... It is Friday and it is mid July. If I can't find a reasonable place to sleep tomorrow: a much shorter etape, I will walk north towards Rouen and an Auberge du Jeunesse. On Monday/ Tuesday, when the heatwave returns, I really need an Airbnb somewhere. I want to head to Amiens, Somme etc... The guy on reception gave me a discount and a room with a bath so I soaked me, socks and pants. But I don't want to talk about the colour of the water! One days dust... Some wind is picking up as I sit below the Col...

It is not yet 7 and I am sat opposite the grande eglise here in Gisors. Auto-stop from Trie-Château as Le Bar/Tabac is closed and so too the Boulanger, but not coming to the main centre is definitely something overlooked by those planned the route from Beauvais. It's not a Cathedral but it is definitely a Collegiale standing proud on the horizon with the streams passing around it heading towards the River Seine. Eating pizza was not good for falling asleep. It's too rich a food, especially the old fashioned, high in phoney Mozzarella...but once I finally conked out that was it until 6am. No toilet break. The weather looks less extreme this morning and, indeed I am wearing a long sleeved midlayer: the only one I have from the lost luggage... ...and I have to walk to get back on The Way? So silly. Where am I going? There is no way of knowing, but I love the haphazardness of the end of the day yesterday - traipsing everywhere for cash, beer and food - and today hitching into Gisor...

End of the day. The final section, without tree cover, was hard going. A farmer in  Énencourt-Léage gave me a lift in his electric buggy - a golf buggy for working the Noix trees behind the Ferme - back to the farm, took me to the office,  in an old dovecote, where he gave me water, then brought me to Chez Robins - but they're full. Now I am in a Chambre d'Hotes, but she has retired and only accepts cash for the room. I think she's going to run me to Gisors to get money... But I could probably hitch there and back. Running low on energy I ate all the nuts I had since the UK - one of the only items to escape the wrath of airport logistics. Now I am heading for a shower and repose. It was a lot of nuts and I feel gassy. The gentleman of the house runs me around, but I struggle to make myself understood. It's another area of France: Vexin, but am now cradling a Rebelle Pale Ale in Villiers-sur-Trie and will walk to find a pizzeria later. The wasps are active an...

It's more expensive to sit outside than at the bar for coffee. I thought it was for the fine view of the carpark which is where the Marché was yesterday... Slept wonderfully and overslept too. I was hoping to get to the centre just on seven. But I was a couple of minutes late. No toilet visits in the evening and no outside disturbances: staying in the centre would've been slightly more difficult? Bastille Day - to celebrate the end of a regime - is marked by military parades. Ha ha ha ha. It's so phoney! One lot of individuals controlling the populace - the Ancien Regime - and now another lot Macron's cronies? Time to count the bites and deposit last night in the usual manner before Day One of several gets underway? The early human escapes the plague of Bastille Day.  The overthrow of one set of tyranny for another set: Ancien Regime to Bourgeois. Divine right to enlightened might. Off I go again. Vets Beauvais Compostelle!

Off with the facial hair and also the little head hair which sprouts from my BB bonce - €20 behind the Marché Square - there doesn't appear to be a Halles. Too many wines last night on a very empty stomach. All I can do today is stay away from all forms of café/bar this evening. I will walk tomorrow early. But where am I going? And can I be bothered to head to an out of town sportswear shop? One of the hosts (Christian) is willing to take me a little later, but I need to speak to the insurance company and find out what I can do to get funds asap? The shop offers pèlerin 20% discount. There is a department store around the corner and I've seen a shop which sells backpacks near the Marché. Perhaps losing my baggage puts into perspective what items I really need and will miss: Victorinox  Swiss army knife, the Karrimor vintage ruckpack and a nylon brush I've used for years too. And the sleeping bag... ... Back in the Grand Place (know locally as Place Jeanne Hachet...

A glass of Saint-Veran in the Saltire lounge: £12.99... what was I thinking? It's French and will be less than €12.99 a bottle, but I struggle to connect with anything at all in Leeds Bradford Airport. In several minutes I can attend the gate queue, but I thought, because it's quiet in the airport, I'd have a fashionably expensive drink. Only one. It aids digestion. And is high in antioxidants. And it's helping the economy (in France)! ... There has to be another way? Yes there is and from Tillé to the Gîtes on Rue Paris that's The Way. *** Losing my baggage. Lost in transit. Not on the airplane and not in Beauvais. Back in Leeds or on a beach in Tenerife, as that was the other flight leaving LBA. *** What a day! It's not as warm this evening as most of the evenings I witnessed in Tarragona/Costa Dorada, but it is still a bit silly. Oh and it's Bastille Day on Thursday! During the decadent 4th Republic they still pretend 1794 has any meaningful existence in ...

It's going to be a hot one. Not ideal for dog walking or working on the allotment unless I do both at the tail ends of the day: a nice swim down the Ings with Ruby and Lola before 10. And perhaps head to the allotment when the shadows increase around 5. Yesterday I watered the plot comprehensively for about an hour, almost emptying the water butt. Didn't go crazy yesterday - popped to The Mews for 3 hours. Tony called while I was there to ask me to put on the dishwashers. I asked him if, in this weather, I had to restrict Ruby to the crate when I am out? He was OK to let her stay downstairs and be able to get to her water and lounge around on the sofas. Although I always close the curtains across the patio doors, to keep it darker and cooler, it can't be nice for a dog to spend too long in the small space they have in the corner. Last night she was flaked out on the lounge sofa - we walked around Millennium Field around 8pm. At 4, when I needed paracetamol, because I really...

Early breakfast before 7. Want to adjust our walks prior to Tuesday, when I have to leave early to catch the bus back to Leeds as I think I need to change the backpack? Exchanging it for a lighter one and taking out waterproofs, etc, (as it's looking like I will arrive in Northern France in a heatwave, again, second one of the summer). At this point I really wish I still had the KarrimorSF Sabre 35 litre day pack, which had been a reliable companion, and not given it away when I upgraded to a faulty 45 litre KarrimorSF Sabre - which went back after only 2 weeks due to tue stitching around the neck. On Tuesday I will go without breakfast until I reach Leeds. Coffee is really adequate. This morning we're heading up the river to Collingham and probably back through the Golf Course in Linton. Ruby was outside for quite a while just now so I guarantee she's found something dodgy to eat? And she's such a sensitive bowels that you'd think she'd have learned not to snuf...

Just chimed 7pm on the lounge clock bringing to an end a pretty tiring day. Just about to hit the sack on this warm evening. Last night was a similar heat and I left the patio door and the first floor balcony door open to allow a breeze to follow Ruby and I into the rooms upstairs. Finished off a lovely pork meatball sweet and sour which I ate with so slightly over steamed Charlotte potatoes. Still it went down well for lunch and the small portion for dinner. Took me a while to realise but Maureen has a shelf in the freezer for me... It's the one next to Ruby's! Before this sitting I hadn't thought she meant it exactly. But I get the feeling I've been blind... Ruby and I managed a two hour walk from 3. I took water with me and we clung to the shade or shadows as often as was possible. She's away now. After her sprat and meat dinner... There is a breeze: the one ruffling the leaves on the sycamore at the bottom of their garden, on the Old Railway lines, and making th...

I didn't have much time to write anything yesterday as I set off with Lola early to collect Ruby, catch the number 7 bus the Rudding Lane and walk into Harrogate via the showground, Hornbeam and Hookstone. Once on the Stray we stopped a moment to relax then headed along to the Prince of Wales roundabout and West Park. Catching the bus back without any 'distractions' and getting back to Ruby's just as Maureen and Tony had left for Kilburn. Some kind of fundamental falling out with mother occurred yesterday and I realise I have forgotten all the miracles of the previous ten years so I am facing the same individual I left in 2013. The new miracle is seeing it. As I lay on the grass beneath the blue sky, as the clouds drifted by, I listened to a couple of songs, relaxed and went to bed. In the wee hours some noises woke me and I had to locate a high frequency sound so I could return to another two hours slumber. And I returned to the breath, as I'd switched off the culp...

Yesterday morning I booked a flight to Beauvais, again, with the intention of walking the Chemin Saint Jacques from there for a few days before I have to return and be in Wetherby almost everyday from the 23rd until the 3rd September. There is a Gîtes d'Etape in Beauvais and the town is very close to the airport so I should walk to the accommodation and depart as usual on the following day. I could walk to Amiens and the coast or from Beauvais to Paris and Oreleans/Chartres again. Whichever route I choose to depart from on Wednesday I will need to return on or before the 23rd, at the latest, as Emma (sister) flies to Ibiza on Saturday, very early (I assumed she'd be getting going at a reasonable time, but Emma's not reasonable)! On the way south from Carlisle I looked at the desolation around Settle, where all the hills stand barren and unloved, and decided I couldn't walk the Pennine Way - who cut down all the trees? Times have changed and the forests need reseeding!

When did flan become quiche? Anyway I ate one on the train back to Leeds from the day trip to Carlisle. Interesting city and possibly a place I'd visit again, but passing through the Eden valley and then the Ribble coming south the views were 'stunning' and it made me think about next week and the week afterwards... I definitely need to walk and forget the drink. Because that is all I am otherwise? And I am definitely putting on some weight. Yesterday, in Carlisle, prior to walking along the Eden eastwards, crossing the Victorian footbridge and coming back through Stanwix and down Scotland Road, I had eaten a pork pie and a sausage roll from an established butcher opposite the Market Hall on Fisher Street, but it's the wrong food! What's happening Daniel? Why are you managing that fine line less and less well. The road to hell is littered with good intentions! It was a day out. But the trip on the train was quite tiring in itself. And I couldn't just come straig...

6 am on this Tuesday morning. With an earned day off from Wetherby I am heading off for a day somewhere I've never been. Leeds station towards Carlisle along the Settle branch of the way. A day out on my own in England. This hasn't happened at all since COVID and lockdown in 2020. What a relief. Random. Something unexpected and it has got me thinking of next weeks freedom... There is an Independent Hostel in Carlisle. And I could stay overnight... And I was lacking inspiration. One day of meditation and care and I am enthused again! Wetherby... But suddenly tired as the train rattles onwards to Settle and the famous section of track between it and Carlisle.

Strong coffee this morning. I forgot what French roast was like! There is no comparison between Illy and Aldi! Aldi is rough? Perhaps two heaped table spoons is too many in a cafetière? I recall Carte Noir being a more mellow French Roast. Back payment of Carer's Allowance hit my account this morning: mother and her knee! And I've managed to clear two debts that I wasn't going to clear until the end of summer, through dog sitting duties. Lola is by my side again.  From 4 she was in my bed, from 6 in her seat and at 6:35 crawling all over me for her breakfast. Now she's in her post breakfast snooze around 7. There was a breeze blowing this morning, but it appears to be dropping? We'll have a nice hour and then I will head back to Leeds to touch base with it. Maureen thought I looked a little distracted when she arrived and perhaps I was? Even in the short space of time I was in my mum's company on Sunday morning there was the usual conflict about something and no...

Final day with Ruby. She was out for the count again around 7. Flat out on her sofa and didn't budge until I came down at 6 and gave her her morning cuddle and wriggle. Super happy in that moment she is! Now she's gone upstairs to mummy's bed once more. This morning I am collecting Lola from mum's for a wander somewhere. For a couple of hours. I am thinking of the race course, but it's Carboot Sunday so too many human waste distractions... we've not been to Crowcroft Bank this week so perhaps down Watersole Lane to there and back up to Chestnut Avenue via the Wilderness carpark below Bridgefoot? Another morning without a hangover. Since I took over from Maureen and Tony I've not gone into the bottle. Except for the slightly hungover Saturday morning I feel fine. Wetherby had a funny aspect in Bar Three and The Mews so I didn't stay for more than a pint in either one. Which meant I slept soundly.  Heading off to mum's to collect Lola for an early walk...

Penultimate day with Ruby. Mo and Tony have returned to Dubrovnik for a final night before they return to Chestnut Avenue. I've Ruby alongside me. Yesterday she was pretty tired all day from Thursday adventure to Newton Kyme, Rudgate and Boston Spa - Lola was the same. Yesterday I managed to get to the allotment for a couple of hours to dig some potatoes: which I gave away to Andy, Jason and mum's neighbours. Also I collected some peapods and ate them with Ruby before I left her to pop to the Brewery to catch up with Jason, Nick and Adrian. Too many Abbey beers and the usual cheese and cake shoveling affair, but I slept pretty well until 5 and didn't come down until 6. Just finishing off the stove top coffee prior to making breakfast - I boiled some basmati rice in the liquor I'd reserved from the steamed Charlotte potatoes I'd had for lunch. The ones I gave away were Swift variety. At some point today I will put courgettes in the space I cleared. Ruby is very used ...

For some reason I wrote nothing this morning! Perhaps I was just far too busy to write trivial gibberish? It's raining nicely and Ruby is exhausted. Lola, her and I walked to Rudgate on the Boston Tadcaster road, into Boston Spa and then caught the number 7 to The Spinney up Spofforth Hill. We did around 12 miles with a little detour into the MOD munitions ruin on the edge of Thorp Arch Trading Estate. This rain is good... And tomorrow will be a lesser day? I washed my clothes and had a bath. The allotment calls tomorrow... ...good morning. Slept satisfactory last night and Ruby didn't budge from her chosen spot on the sofa last night. Around 11:30 I came to check on her because I was fairly surprised she didn't come up to mummy's bed. Must've been fairly shattered from Thursday's long one. The rainy evening continues into a spotty morning. The plants I watered didn't need it... But you never can tell at the moment? The weather seems to pass us by. Actually ...