Last night in the Castle Hotel the ambience and furnishings were to a high standard. Food was excellent - seared loin of cod on a bed of artichoke hears and other secret ingredients with a subtle sauce and sauté potatoes, not to mention the starter and pud. BUT once in bed there was a noise from outside that sounded like the base beat of a distant disco. The low frequency was such as to have me conscious of my ear drums bring disturbed. It was impossible to sleep and more than that torture - it went on all night and I never slept. I complained in the morning and was told it was the equipment to keep the cellars cool - I thought cellars were cool more or less by definition? I was only speaking to the breakfast lady and nothing was achieved.
I felt quite sprightly after a good breakfast and trogged through varied scenery, now more pretty country walking than agricultural fields.
There are many kinds of stiles and gates encountered whilst walking. One that can be irritating is the swing gate in a triangular enclosure where often the apex of the triangle is too small to get through with a rucksack. One has to climb with both feet onto the opposing bottom rails to gain height and freedom for the rucksack. Full marks to one of that ilk encountered today, I could have walked through backpacking a walk-in-fridge.
Turnip fields no longer appear; turnips must be fussy about their locale. Ploughed fields were now the most evident. These fields really are massive and often like a crown green bowling green so you can't even see the other sides. They (not sure which They) inform me that modern tractors have GPS and I'm not surprised. I reckon if Farmer Jones is out in the middle it will be like bring lost in the Sahara, and God forbid ( or whoever else is in control) that Farmer Jones breaks down out there- one can hardly call for Green Flag.
I watched two of these monster tractors at work, harrowing I think, but despite their size it was going to take them a long time to cover the huge field. They were trailing behind clouds of dust the terrain out here in Norfolk are very dry.
I am now at Weatherspoons in Beccles and from my memory of the Arthur Ransome books this is the first place that gets a mention; I think it is regarded as The Gateway to the Broads so I'm looking forward to tomorrow. This ha Benin a great walk so far.
I get to a point where I can't edit anymore. It won't scroll or let me place the cursor to make corrections / good old Apple that so many people are starry eyed about.
ReplyDeleteDespite your technical problems we still get the message and that is that you are enjoying yourself. You may find the bar at Wetherspoons a little noisy tonight. There is a good curry house down a lane.
ReplyDeleteBC - I am typing this from a relatively quiet corner in Witherspoons. I have just had half decent fish chips and mushy peas and a pint of Stella for £7.55 and feel strangely desperate to spend more money.
ReplyDeleteHello, Sir Hugh. A friend recommended your blog to me after reading a passage from A.H. Sidgwick that I posted. I am enjoying following your progress. It’s certainly a different world of walking from the walking I know here in downstate Illinois.
ReplyDeleteJust a suggestion with iOS, if it’s helpful: in Blogger, the HTML editing window is difficult to use. After an edit or two, it becomes impossible to move the cursor. One way around the problem: tap the box for the post title, then tap in the editing window and try again. Or tap Done and then try again. Another way around the problem: use the Compose window. I don’t know anyone who uses Blogger in iOS who doesn’t have these problems.
My top tip for annoying background noises (or just insomnia in general): audiobooks. Specifically, the audio version of a book that you like and know well. I find the story takes my mind off background noise (provided it's not too loud), and the fact that I know the story means I don't get so engrossed that it keeps me awake, plus if I become aware that I've missed a chunk of the story (another reason it needs to be a story I know reasonably well) then it means that I must have been sleeping at least some of the time.
ReplyDeleteIf the book doesn't send me off to sleep (I set a sleep timer so it turns itself off), then the worst case is that I've spent the night listening to a book rather than just getting annoyed at whatever is keeping me awake.
Hope you have a better night tonight.
Michael Leddy - welcome to my blog. New commenters seem to be rare these days. I sometimes wonder if people take my blogonym seriously. Sir Hugh Munro around 1900 compiled a list of all the mountains in Scotland over 3000dt. subsequently known as The Munro’s. There are 282. It is a long and often lifetimes project to climb them all and i finished mine a few years ago and by coincidence my middle name is also Hugh, hence my blogonym. I am not part of the British aristocracy! Thanks for the tip, I will give it a try. I only have the problem when blogging on the hoof on my multi-day walks and have no problem at home with my iMac desktop. I saw your blog recently , no doubt through the same connection. I was influenced to buy (download) the classic Ellington album you wrote about. I saw almost every well known American jazz bands and groups when there was a wealth of Uk visits back in the early 60s. They all stand out but actually seeing and hearing Ella was special.
ReplyDeleteGayle - thanks for that. In this case the low frequency was actually having a noticeably physical reverberating effect on my eardrums.
ReplyDeleteGlad to meet a fellow commoner, Hugh. I thought your title might be in fun, but one never knows. Glad to meet a fellow jazz lover too.
ReplyDeleteAn alternative cure for insomnia. There is a podcast available called Boring Books for Bedtime which you could download before leaving home on to an MP3 player. The readings are of varying lengths. An example is A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses which sounds quite riveting. Might do the trick.
ReplyDeleteLitehiker -full marks for your suggestion. I had a good chuckle as I read it after just boarding the Barrow train with two minutes to spare at Manchester - tension relieved immediately.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite fictitious book comes from Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana. The main character has to obtain a book to use for codes when he gets to Havana and in a hurry dashes into a Christian bookshop in London and comes out with The Lit Lamp.