So Ken Clarke’s ministerial career has ended. I knew Ken 35 years ago when I was a simple back bencher. Ken told me once that he loved Westminster so much he would have to be carried out in a coffin. I hope that does not happen soon. Ken was very kind to me on one …
Category: 2014 Walk
Jul 15
Day 15 – Derby, Death and Lust
We are not too keen on south Derbyshire. Sorry, but it ain’t a patch on the beautiful north. Today we faced vast expanses of scrubby grass randomly blotted with humungous clumps of elephant eye nettles. Fine fun if you are a flea but a stinging misery for us. The farmers who grow their miserable crops …
Jul 14
Day 14 – Talking to the Cleaners, Taken to the Cleaners?
Please tell me why it is that, when you ask people how they are, they usually reply: “I’m good!” I haven’t questioned their moral status, so it’s a wierd reply when you come to think of it. The second mystery to me is: why do we have Brazilian cleaners who can’t speak English, working very …
Jul 13
Day 13 – Capability and Browns
We walk from Longford to Hilton through flatter and less picturesque country. The paths are overgrown and prove nigh on impossible to pass. At the end of the day we both look like damp wrecks. We stayed last night with a capable and dynamic couple from Zimbabwe who are building up their lives in the …
Jul 12
Day 12 – Talking the Walk, with a Passion
We walked through the Derbyshire Peak DIstrict, which Jane and I hunted over in days gone by. We were regaled about Zimbabwe by one ancient farmer, who told us that charity starts at home and that Mugabe was “spot on” in his views on the homosexual community. Jane and I decided to cut our losses …
Jul 11
Day 11 – Last of the Summer Wine
Tyred and Emotional We walk at Olympian speed and soon we are staggering through a derelict bog set on the side of a cliff. I now know why we have’t seen another walker since the Lakes. They have more sense. When we arrive at our lunchtime rendezvous there is no sign of Richard. We wait …
Jul 10
Day 10 – All the World’s a Stage
And I Marched Back Down Again… I presume you recall Julie Andrews carolling away about the hills being alive and all that? Can I remind you that she was trilling away on top of a mountain. They kidded us that this was in Switzerland but I am sure it wasn’t…It was sited just outside Macclesfield …
Jul 09
Day 9 – The Guide Dog and the Elephants
What a dreary morning! After someone drove into the car a funny little light went on which we think we must be seen to by the official agent; this has introduced a degree of uncertainty into the proceedings. We have decided to take each day as it comes, and on we plod as we await …
Jul 08
Day 8 – Your Place or Mine
Today was a trial. Someone backed into our car: it poured with rain and we were soaked; the dog seems to think it was a bird and “flew” out of the car window (fortunately unhurt); we got lost and wandered for what seemed like hours getting increasingly frustrated. But we are postive! We have arrived …
Jul 07
Day 7 – One Man’s Meat
We switchback out of Blackburn playing matador to the vast number of fancy cars that seem intent on goring us. Half way down a precipitous hill and a mere foot away from the trafic rode a pretty little girl on a bike at great speed. I reckon she was about eight. I asked her if …