Hello all
I've been quiet since my exam passed, with the exception of Pumpy Joe (who stopped crying after meeting a kindred soul in Cyberpumpkin, and who ended up being sent off in the most magnificent fashion you could imagine - stuffed full of fireworks on November 5th).
Perhaps the reason I've been quiet is also the reason I'm able to post now. Yes, the dreaded "stress" has finally caught up with me (you lot know how normally calm and collected and suave I am...). Having been barrelling along at the usual rate of knots, my body has finally decided to give up on me and demanded I take a few days off for R&R.
So with the complete approval of Lou, Line Manager John and everyone else I am spending a few days...well, the best description would have to be "bumming around". As you can imagine, this has involved a lot of lying in bed, watching DVDs (Buffy Season 5 has been getting a welcome repeat showing), listening to music (a lot of Brahms - Fourth Symphony and Piano Concerto, plus Bruckner's Fourth, Corelli's Op.6 No. 4 Concerto Grosso, a whole host of Big Band Jazz, and a lot of Pixies and Captain Beefheart), and reading (I had to give up on Proust as my poor fried brain couldn't cope, so have moved to something at the other end of the spectrum - "You Only Live Twice" by Ian Fleming, and "Le Vicomte de Bragelonne" by Dumas (because I can't QUITE give up on pretention). Have successfully avoided any trombone or piano practice so far though, (although given I've been doing 40 minutes a day on Bass Trom in the basement at work I probably need a break. My workmates do...I hear a party's been organised...)
Anyway, the whole point of this post is to share what I've just been through. I decided I needed to get out of the house and have a bit of exercise, so I headed up to Richmond Park. It was about 3:15pm so still quite light. It's culling season at the moment as the deer are a) numerous, b) randy and c) vicious, so they close the park to traffic earlier than usual. It was fantastically peaceful, and I set off with the plan to walk to Roehampton Gate, and a little beyond to the public Golf Course, as I've never been that way before.
It was fantastic - the sun was low, and as I walked, a mist began to fall across the park. I got up to the car entrance to the golf course and, as it was still light, thought I'd carry on to a rickety bridge I could see a little further on. Upon getting to the bridge, across a little creek, I saw a sign saying "Robin Hood Gate - 1 mile". As it was still reasonably light, and I was wrapped up warm, I continued on round the path. It meandered gloriously, seeming to prefer any other route than a straight line, and I confess I kind of lost track of things, and didn't notice it getting dark and people disappearing.
By the time I got to Robin Hood Gate it was pretty dark. Having no idea where Robin Hood Gate actually IS in London (it MIGHT be south of Roehampton), I looked at my map and decided to follow the road way back through the middle of the park, past the White Lodge, to Sheen Gate. It was only about 3 miles, so I thought I'd get through it in no time.
When I was about a mile in, I became aware of a large mass of something on the hill to my right. It was too dark to tell for sure, but I was fairly certain they were red deer. This was confirmed when two blobs broke free from the mass and charged down for the road. I stood still, and watched as two of the largest stags I have ever seen thundered across the road in front of me.
It was about now, given the previously mentioned points A, B and C, that I realised I may be doing something daft.
I became aware of a herd of red deer on the left of me also, but what was also catching my attention was the progress of the two stags. They kept stopping, then chasing each other again. Every time they started chasing, I stood still, as common sense tells you to do. So it was that both of them arrived on the road next to me, staring at me. Then, they turned to each other and started rutting. Really battling each other with their antlers. About a couple of metres from where I was stood.
I was transfixed, but at the same time realised that I should be getting the hell out of there as quickly as possible. So moving slowly I continued on my way. By this time it was pitch dark, but my eyes had adjusted well enough to be able to see that the path I was following was completely swamped with red deer, cutting off my access to the White Lodge. So, I took a detour across the grass, and ended up getting a bit lost. Luckily, at the precise moment I needed, I came across a dog walker, the only other soul about, who pointed me back in the direction of Sheen Gate.
After passing through some woodland (which, after having watched last week's Torchwood about cannibals living in the forest, was great for the imagination), and negotiating through some herds of fallow deer - far less scary than the reds - I finally found my way on the path to Sheen Gate. 15 minutes later at 5:15pm, I was back in the real world, by the gate, (for those in the know, outside the house with the balcony, which I'm determined to buy one day just so I can play trombone naked on the balcony as the sun comes up. After all, what's a balcony for except naked trombone playing?)
And then I came home and wrote this, and put on "Shiny Beast" by Beefheart, which right now seems to sum up the world perfectly.
