England: latest update

On Sunday I did a six-mile walk through Hemingford Grey, Hemingford Abbots, Houghton and St Ives. It’s so easy here to go on a longish walk, or bike ride, without having to worry about personal locator beacons or wear lycra. It’s all so much more accessible. You don’t even have to wear helmets on your bike here (I’m not saying that’s a good thing, but they are a hassle). I walked past our old house, my grandmother’s old house, the tennis club, the school I went to until I was eight, and the place where my playschool used to be (it has been replaced by a smarter building and only the old sign now remains). I saw the water mill in Houghton in operation and watched a narrow boat make its way through Houghton Lock; it was travelling upstream. As I watched the lock fill up an old lady remarked how wonderfully slow and calm the process was. Being early October the blackberries were out, and in enormous quantities (I might fill up a shopping bag and make a pie tonight, but I’ll only have two evenings to eat it). The stinging nettles were everywhere as they were as a kid. The thicket linking Houghton and St Ives, following the Ouse, that I must have walked and cycled through hundreds of times to see my grandmother, had that same distinct smell. This time I didn’t see a muntjac deer. When I was almost home a brass band was playing on the Quay.

On Saturday I met up with my university friend in London. He was with his girlfriend from Normandy who, after just two years of living in Birmingham, is fluent in English which she speaks with a Brummie accent. I was blown away. What’s the secret?

We met in Covent Garden and saw one of those street performers who unties himself. We walked along the Thames, got some food from an outdoor market, then spent a couple of hours at the Tate Modern (trying to figure out at least some of the exhibits) and a couple more at a pub before finishing up at a pizza place on Tottenham Court Road.

The highlight of London for me was the pub, because that gave us the chance to chat. We talked about Brexit quite extensively. My friend was amazed by the result; he’d expected something along the lines of a 60% Remain vote. I’d expected a close vote, and although I was bitterly disappointed by the Leave result, I wasn’t all that surprised (as anybody who for some bizarre reason read my blog in June would have seen). We agreed that Remain failed to make an emotional case for their position (peace in the region since WW2 being the obvious one to make); otherwise they probably would have won. Following Theresa May’s speech on Sunday it appears Britain will be out of the EU (but I’m still not sure what that really means) by March 2019. My friend and I for some reason ended up discussing my mum. He said that you don’t win by having the most shit when you die. Mum would do well to understand that.

Yesterday I went to Cambridge, which is a beautiful city, especially on a lovely sunny day like yesterday. I tried in vain to find a Romanian dictionary. Well, they were there, but in short supply and well beyond what I was prepared to pay. My best bet would be to wait till I get to Romania. I know there are all kinds of dictionaries and apps out there, but with a physical dictionary you get to see adjacent words and I think you learn more as a result. I went into some clothes shops, expecting to find the more interesting items that you’d never get in New Zealand, but I was sorely disappointed. Unlike what I saw the previous times I’ve come back here, everything was deeply drab. Maybe austerity under Cameron and Osborne is to blame. In Oxfam I found David Crystal’s Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, a large tome that I bought for £2.50 and will remain at my parents’ place until I next come back here.

I see this is my 100th post.