The problem with writing things down in such a public manner as this, is that eventually one can be held to task for what one writes. When writing this stuff, one holds on to a very faint hope that even in the unlikely event that it is read, no-one would bother to remember any of it. Therefore it was with some confidence that no-one would take us to task these words were written almost three weeks ago:
“We made a mental note of things we’ll definitely do on the way back. We will walk the new history trail in Einville, we will visit the Brewing and Cinema museums at St-Nicholas-du-Port and we will definitely take four or five days to travel the distance that usually takes us one or two, and we will linger everywhere for more than a night.”
That was the plan when we set out this morning. There can be no doubt about it; “four or five days”, we said, “usually a night or two”. We motored off into the morning gloom without hurry, stopping between squalls to visit both of the canal-side supermarkets above the first lock, while the rain held itself at bay.
Events took a curious turn after that. Lock after lock presented itself to us ready for entry, not one of them breaking down or causing delay. We watched helpless as village after village crept past without giving thought to pause. With minutes to spare before the locks closed for the night we arrived in Lagarde, a little confused and perhaps a week earlier than we had intended. Thankfully we are among friends, they will no doubt ply us with a few glasses of special counselling fluid and in the morning we won’t even remember what we missed.
No comments
Post a Comment