There’s been a lot of rain hereabouts. Storm Gerrick while we were in Brighton and Storm Henk while we are in the north. The River Trent is in flood, but hopefully it has dropped from its peak last evening.
We are having a quiet, relaxing time with a few trips out. Matthew’s lovely cousins gave us the use of a room at the top of the house with an ensuite and we are cosy and warm. We sleep a lot but as I might have mentioned it is very dark here in the UK in Winter. Two hours less sunlight than Winter in Canberra. I did a bit of research. The flip side of that is that there is two hours more sunlight in summer in the UK than at home. I am very sunlight dependent I find. At home I’m awake with the dawn.
If we have something on I’m fine with being awake when it is dark, otherwise at 4pm I feel like it’s the middle of the night and I have this instinct to go hibernate. Weird. I can understand why some people get SAD in Winter.
So far we went to the Broadway cinema and watched a Filipino film called Raging Grace. It was a great film screened in a lounge with an eclectic mix of chairs. We had dinner in the cafe first. Then last night we had dinner with Marc at The Botanist restaurant a short walk from where we are staying. It was great to catch up after so many years. I saw Marc in 2019 but Matthew has not travelled since 2014 I think. It is hard when you really enjoy spending time with someone but you live so far apart. Anyway, we ate, we talked and were chucked out of the restaurant as it closed at ten. Hahahaha. We could have gone to the bar but it was late by then.
Yesterday we went for a walk. First to grab some brunch/lunch and then cousin Bob suggested we walk along the embankment next to the river which was in flood. We did do that walk but kept on going until we walked to Warhammmer World. We had a look around and a drink in Bugman’s Bar. I think we are heading there again today. We caught an Uber back though as it was more than 10,000 steps.
Otherwise today I’m not sure what we have planned. Maybe dinner in the pub across the road. As we were travelling in Winter we hadn’t really planned to do touristy stuff. We planned on hanging out getting to know our family and friends more and maybe write and walk etc. This is what we are doing so all good.
We hadn’t planned too much ahead but now I’ve booked some accommodation in South Shields, Newcastle on Tyne, within walking distance of the great, great, great grandfather’s house and other things so that’s kind of cool. Then we head to Edinburgh for a few days, a day in Lancaster to meet up with friends as we break our journey back to Hertfordshire.
Donna Maree Hanson, Author, Phd in Creative Writing 