This brought my family back to me this afternoon.
It’s been a difficult couple of weeks without them, so it was great to see them all again.
They were pretty tired after the journey over from Cape Town, but exposure to the er… “cool” Yorkshire air as the train doors opened soon woke them up.
Dad and I went for a walk in the Peak District this morning. Some fresh air and exercise to blow the cobwebs of the last few days away. We parked up at the delightfully named “Cutthroat Bridge” (map) and headed up onto Bamford Edge, where, despite the smoke from the nearby heather burning (sorry heather), we got some lovely views over the Ladybower Reservoir:
9km and a few hours later, all autumn-coloured out, and having traversed quite a lot of bogland and negotiated a whole barbed wire fence, we made it back to the car, upon arriving at which we almost instantly decided that a pint at the historic Strines Inn was called for. And who are we to ignore that sort of calling?
I have tacked the photos from the morning onto those already in this album. The Vernal/Autumnal Cross-Hemispherical Juxtaposition therein makes for some interesting viewing. See if you can see the join…
It might be October, it might be thinking about winter already, but Sheffield is still looking rather lovely, be it in the city centre:
Or out towards the Peak District:
That second one was taken from my run on Saturday morning. I took it just before I got attacked by a pair of sparrowhawks. You’d have thought that I’d have been a bit big for them to tackle, but these are Yorkshire sparrowhawks, and they know no fear.
The doctors say that the physical scarring will probably diminish over the next few years. My ensuing – and completely reasonable – terror of Northern English birds of prey may take longer to recover from.
Over in the UK, they have different adverts. Despite massive globalisation, not every brand has made it everywhere, and thus the local brands need to advertise their wares locally. Premier Inn are a hotel chain that don’t exist in SA (I guess you’d compare them to an slightly upmarket City Lodge), and so obviously, neither does the Premier Inn advert.
The advert is ok. You can see it here. I wonder how much Lenny Henry got paid for his role? I could have done that. For less.
But the music is properly nice – it’s Katie “Loads of bikes in Peking” Melua with her cover of Black’s 1987 hit Wonderful Life.
Very gentle. Very smooth. And it’s supporting children’s hospital charities in the UK, including the one in Sheffield where I had my tonsils out and my left elbow reset (in entirely separate events). So, you know, if your Randelas can stretch that far, go and find it on iTunes as well.
We’ve quickly discovered that the ±25 hour door-to-door trip from Sheffield to Cape Town can be a little bit draining. Thus, while no-one wants to waste a day with friends and family, a ‘transition day’ between the time we get back and the time that we have to do stuff (work, school, extra murals etc etc) is actually a very good idea.
This “extra” Women’s Day (the new public holiday to hate) (trash talking Heritage Day is sooooo 2013, dahling) fitted the bill perfectly, allowing us to sleep in a bit, sort the washing, do the shopping, polish the beagle, and then reacquaint ourselves with that South African tradition of having a braai.
You can’t immediately leave the UK behind though; such severance would be extremely harsh and possibly even a little dangerous. A little English culture is called for and so it’s a touch of West Brom versus Manchester City and a glass of Marlon for me this evening.
Normal service will be resumed tomorrow.