The Best of Hiking with Dana

·         Slowest eater: Tony

·         Creepiest village: Over Haddon

·         Best dressed man: the guy on the train to Birmingham

·         Most demanding porridge: the guy on the train to Birmingham

·         Strongest resemblance to a Christmas tree: Dana on Sunday

·         Best newly learnt word: stile

·         Most painful injury: dana

·         Best stew: Friday eve

·         Most relaxing movie: snow-white and the huntsman

·         Biggest deception: dana’s Vietnamese soup

·         Biggest deception (2): the traffic on Sunday

·         Ugliest city centre: Sheffield

·         Prettiest city centre: Bakewell

·         Word of the weekend: unit

·         Quickest appearance: the ghost runner

·         Quickest disappearance: the ghost runner

·         Best parking: dana on Saturday

·         Worst parking: car-owning Sheffield on their public roads

·         Best part of the hike: magpie mine

·         Making the biggest mess: Dana and Tony in the bakewell tea house

·         Greatest hospitality: Dana’s parents

·         Most frequently spotted mammal: sheep

·         Most frequently spotted mammal (2): horse

·         Least allergy enhancing mammal: the dog in Dana’s garden

·         Worst navigator: Dana

·         Second-worst navigator: Tony

·         Weirdest meadow colour: blue

·         Least reliable: the British weather forecast

·         Plural of die: dice

·         Best story: the desert one

·         Best at solving (most) riddles: Dana

·         Toughest hindrance: the first barbed wire fence

·         Still somewhere in the countryside: Dana’s debit card

·         Most relaxing train journey: Birmingham – London

·         Least desirable company: the bum on Birmingham central station

·         Most desirable company: Dana

·         Best wine: from Tuscany (the first bottle)

·         Friendliest waitress: the smiling one at Little Hanoi

·         Most redundant information: spot the ash tree

·         Best shower: after the hiking

·         Longest perception of 5 hours: during the hike

·         Shortest perception of 5 hours: after the hike

·         Most futile attempt: finding the debit card

·         Best from afar: the manor house

·         Best weekend: This one! Thanks so much for the lovely time Dana it has been fantastic!!

Edinburgh

Booking a ticket departing at midnight, arriving seven am the next day, saying “sleeper” on the ticket and on the train, I figured I would get a berth. Or a chair that would flatten. Or something that one can sleep on. In India the British legacy leaves a smoothly functioning train system, with three or four types of sleeper trains, the cheapest one features berths only, and the most expensive one providing pillows and blankets and wake-up tea and what not. So after drinks and dinner last Friday in The City, with David, Roswitha plus bf, and some friends of theirs, I headed well ahead of departure for Euston station, with the nice prospect of a good night’s sleep while thundering through nightly meadows and agricultural land to final destination Edinburgh. Well, the only thing that made this train a sleeper was that its passengers are provided with a unit to cover one’s eyes with when sleeping with the light still on. And that was it. Regular chairs, which couldn’t be moved, and the heating so strongly on fire that whenever I dozed off I wake up from the warmth shortly afterwards. So you may understand my physique Saturday morning when walking through the awakening Scottish capital wasn’t best prepared for an awesome weekend with my ex-co-trainees (Minke Julia Iris Quin Bob Roelant) from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, almost two years back already. But apparently the torrential student’s rhythm that my body was once used to left a legacy of its own, as I felt great during the morning and afternoon and evening and night until I fell asleep at four pm, after a wonderful day out and about, cooking at home (@ Minke’s) and pubbing and clubbing until late. Climbing the mountain, pub lunch, catching up with our differently evolving lives since the time that we were all interns at BZ… Great times, great reunions, and the vibe was at it always had been, even though we hadn’t been together in this composition for well over a year. I loved it!!

The preceding week was a great one too. Sunday brunch and fireworks with Vasiliki and Michael, Monday watching Skyfall with David, Tuesday watching football with Martijn and Marjolein (Dutch colleagues from work), Wednesday running ten miles through nightly London, and Thursday muscle ache and drinks at the Australian High Commission (they don’t have an embassy). Each droplet of leisure time available is filled with great undertakings, sometimes alone, mostly in lovely company. Coming home from Edinburgh today already felt a bit like truly coming home, a most peculiar feeling I developed in New Delhi, Katowice, and Sanmenxia as well, and which is already materialising here too. Two months have passed, only two more weeks to go. Which I will enjoy to the fullest!

week seven

Massive train delays were responsible for the cancellation of my date with Dana on Monday, but Tuesday that was all made up for! The French restaurant that Dana had in mind was great, with a large variety of different small dishes to share, and exquisite wines. I notice that London still hasn’t grown used to me not tipping the 12.5 percent that is quasi blasé added to each bill, charged unless mentioned by the customer. The fun continued in a familiar looking bar that I yet had never been to, with beers and tequila (“surprise me”). This time I did feel a little drowsy the morning after, but naturally that was well worth it! And though I was very sure I wasn’t going to have drinks that evening, I was, with Martijn and Jochem and Marry and Thijs and some other people from work. Chilling out on Thursday eve and on Friday even some dance moves, the first ones in London! The real clubbing is saved for the very last night though. Today was sleeping in for way too long and watching Tottenham play Wigan in White Hart Lane! Superb! Even though the home-side lost 0-1 (the worst result for a spectator) I enjoyed being in a new stadium tremendously. And of course yet another scarf is added to the ever growing collection; the white and blue of The Spurs shall proudly be in my walk-in-closet among its functional souvenirs brethren from all over the world. Tonight either Tony-time at home or some drinks with David and his visitors, and tomorrow loads of Vasiliki! And it’s still sunny! See picture (that’s my apartment). 

night

The night feels a bit cold; a dark blue night sky dotted with fast moving clouds. I zoom on my Barclays bicycle past cars and busses, and well past peak hour I can cross most junctions without bothering about the traffic lights. Plenty of drinks enhance the joyful feeling further and make it seem I’m floating, through the night air, inhaling deeply and tasting the scent of autumn. Through the City with its remarkable configuration of skyscrapers, pubs and old churches. Two turns and crossing a street, leaving the river behind me the scenery changes swiftly, with train rails high on my left and ramshackle sixties’ building blocks on my right. Whizzing past a second hand car dealer, barbed wire and small towers of tires. The route feels familiar, the bike feels familiar, London feels familiar. The night isn’t cold anymore as I speed on, left turn, old warehouses turned expensive apartments on my right. Dodging the road bumps, crossing the last main road, stalling the bicycle and entering the apartment. I could almost call it home.