Hey hey,
How’s yous?
Well, seems I’m going to be in the UK a few days longer than expected. Waiting on this visa is frustrating, I’m getting serious FOMO whenever I think about vasiliki. Either way, I’m having a nice time in the UK.
This week started with a 3 day cycling trip in the West Country with Josh. We didn’t really know where to aim for or how to get home – the train strikes were making things tricky – but we agreed we’d meet in Bristol, ride west along the GB Divide route and work out the details as we went.
The GB Divide is an off road route from Landsend to John O Groats that goes through some of the hillier parts of the UK. Our section passed through the Quantocks, Exmoor, and any other hills that the route organiser could find. Lots of it was off road, and our poor bikes took a beating down the descents.
A bike trip is a pretty all-encompassing kind of socialising. You spend every moment, waking or sleeping, within earshot of each other. You witness their highs and lows as the days go by, and they do yours. You support each other through sugar lows and mechanical problems. There’s no real pressure to make conversation, but as you ride along things pop into your mind, or you observe things as you pass, that leads to good chat, shit jokes, long anecdotes, and ingenious business ideas.
We wild camped in bivvy bags, which is never particularly comfortable, but we got lucky with camping spots both nights. The first night was so so beautiful. Slept in a field in the Quantock Hills looking out over the sea. Cooked gnocchi. The second was in a wild part of someone’s farm. We’d been suckered into a co-op deal, and now had too many burgers and far too many beers to get through. What a nightmare!
Don’t know why but with Josh, things are funnier than usual. Road signs, graffiti, people, each other. But consistently, the thing we found the funniest on this trip was our own misfortune. We’d look at the map during lunch and see that we had some stupid amount of climbing to go before our camp spot, and it amused us to think we were going to put ourselves through that. Some kind of masochismic schadenfreude.
I remember on the train home from Truro. We were completely knackered. Josh rose from his half-asleep state and pulled out a mars bar duo. It looked like it’d been steam rolled then drop-kicked – it was flattened, and kinked into a concertina. I think we both saw something of ourselves in that mars bar. He held it up limply and looked at it for a few seconds, then looked at me. That was pretty funny.
The back end of the week was spent in Nantwich. On Friday I went for a haircut, and the barbers were all talking about Love Island. One of them, a little guy with a skin-fade, was in the process of applying for next year. He’d even filmed his audition tape. He reckons he has good chances since he is:
- ‘manager of the most popular barbers in Nantwich’
- ‘ripped to shreds’
- ‘the best looking lad in Cheshire’
Good luck to him.
Next week, I’m off to the lake district with the fam. Will be fun, and will take my mind off this visa application!
Keen to hear how your week has been.
Love,
James
