Spectacular

Westminster Abbey in all its glory

It has been quite a week. We are still reeling from the after effects of the rain. The fields around me are still lakes. Last Tuesday I cycled to the orchard, pottered in the polytunnel and then retired to a local café with fellow diggers for spectacular cake and coffee. It was quite a morning. Even in sub zero temperatures, we have a tea break at the orchard itself. Going to a café is something entirely different.

After coffee, I donned my fluorescent waterproof on and battled the elements along the tow path to home. I considered myself to be totally foolhardy even thinking cycling an option. I couldn’t see for the downpour. Then, I met a fellow cyclist on the Iron Trunk bridge. He was splattered with mud. He had a big blob on his cheek and I wondered if I had anything similar. He was a bit lost.  He told me he had set off from Hemel Hempstead and was cycling to Birmingham in the rain! Suddenly, it made my short jaunt seem mundane. He is truly mad!

I went to London this week. The weather was kind on this occasion. Sophie and I had booked a trip to Westminster Abbey. The building is spectacular and even more amazing for the hotch-potch way that people have been remembered. I got the feeling that committees over time had made illogical decisions where to squeeze in yet another statue. Robert Peel has a toga! William Gladstone’s statue is much more in keeping with what he might have worn; and he has a slab too. Mary I and Elizabeth I share a tomb, yet Mary Queen of Scots has a rather more upmarket burial plot. Such is the way of history!

Other bits of the abbey are dedicated to poets, theatre, science, as well as various dead kings and queens. The crowds of visitors spoilt the experience. You could do no more than shuffle along in a sea of people from all over the world. And, with this mixture of cultures, it was difficult to predict who would sensibly stop and allow someone to cross their path. Many of the slabs were difficult to read because someone was standing just where I wanted to read. My verdict! I am pleased I went there but in future I’d like to know when it is likely to be less of a sardine-like experience.

On the way home from London on the 18:56, I experienced the efficiencies of the rail system. I sat and looked out at Bushey station for an age. Then when the train finally shifted, it rolled along at a snail’s pace. That mad cyclist would have got to MK quicker! My legs were so stiff when I actually got to my station, I could hardly stand straight. I was told to claim a refund, which I have done, and in addition to that I used my FREE bus pass on the London buses for the first time. Oh, the joys of getting old! Spectacular!