Sunday 31.5.09

Routine Sundays continue, in spite of the excellent weather. At Borders, waiting for Nick to make his selection, I picked up Around Ireland With a Fridge by Tony Hawks. This book has been recommended to me now and again and it was a best seller, I've just never read it (just like I'm the only person I know not to have attempted The DaVinci Code). It's a travel story, Hawks accepts a drunken bet that the cannot hitchhike the circumference of Ireland with a fridge. The book is his journal of what happened. It mostly goes well, he meets interesting people, suffers just about enough and gets signatures on his fridge - he chose a table-top model which I think is a little bit of a cheat really. In Borders, I read the first few chapters and the last one (Nick was a long time choosing) but I didn't buy the book because I wasn't keen on the writing style and because I knew I could get it cheaper from Amazon.

It got me to thinking about the other almost but not quite travel writing I've read. I like the books by Dave Gorman, Danny Wallace and Louis Theroux. They amuse and in a way inspire because they do things that are a little off beat and risky. I daresay though that like Tony Hawks, they have the backing of their agents and publishers. More than that, they are all men. It seems increasingly more difficult and dangerous to do anything on my own as a woman. All of those Reclaim the Night marches in the '70's have come to naught. I am less willing to go out in the dark on my own than I've ever been. Cornwall feels a bit safer, but even then, on an isolated stretch of cliff path I would get nervous. Maybe it's just getting older, I see danger around every corner in a way I used not to. My college friend J and I would think nothing of walking or hitching through Chapeltown, Leeds in the late '80's only a few years after the conviction of Peter Sutcliffe for the murders he committed in that area whereas now, I don't go to the corner shop after dark.

For a while now, I've wanted to do some proper walking. I fancy the Canal towpaths since if, in a few years time, we move away as planned, they won't be so handy. I feel that I should make the most of the Midlands while I'm here. I'll just have to hope I don't get mugged. Getting pushed in is, to be honest more of a worry because a. I can't swim and b. I'd be holding Darcy's lead and if he gets in the canal, he'd stink.

The picture above is from a fellow blogger's page all about canal boating, it's a good one: http://nbnoproblem.blogspot.com/