You'll Never Walk Alone

 

My current work set-up (dining table in the lounge) is right next to a large window giving me a good surveillance point for all the comings and goings of neighbours and their dogs. I feel like like a Spanish Abuela peering over a geranium covered balcony.  I recognise the regulars by their dogs rather than their mask covered faces and occasionally wave when they happen to glance in.  We’re all nosey like that – looking in at windows.

Read the above quote today and it got me thinking about all this walking. Maybe not today because the weather was crap, but on most days, there is more foot traffic than ever before.  Of course, with our limited freedom, it seems a shame to waste it and it’s a small attempt at reducing the extra chocolate calories going straight to my arse.  Sounds right in theory, not sure my input is being offset by my output.

All this additional walking around our 5km must be a good thing right?  We’re meeting neighbours with a wave and a muffled hello. Emilio has spent so much time out in the garden/garage that he’s picked up several new clients and had a lovely lady drop off a bottle of Spanish wine – she has a collie.

So if Nietzsche got it right, there should be a lot of great thoughts and ideas out there right? Could it be that over the next few years we’ll see a huge surge in - well everything really.  Or are people just walking about thinking what’s for dinner, dreaming of their next holiday and wondering how the hell they’re going to survive any more home schooling before turning into complete alcoholics.

Some people make phone calls (pays listening in, never know what juicy titbits you might discover about Ms Jones on the corner), some listen to podcasts and some to music. I now have a fancy new pair of wireless, noise cancelling ear buds thanks to Emi, but I only ever wear one ‘cos I worry about being reversed into and missing out on those juicy conversations.  I’ve been trying to get better at keeping in touch and making a phone call whilst on my walks, but sometimes the lure of late 70’s/80’s music is too strong and I have to play it – loud as possible.  I like to sing- a-long and maybe break out a dance move.  Do people look and think, that’s the crazy lady from number 5? Probably not. People are caught up in their own lives to really give a second glance at anyone else. Unless you’re not wearing a mask – then you get the “death stare.”  I religiously wear my mask.

Crikey, side tracked. Crikey? I don’t think I’ve ever used that word before. Where did that come from? Maybe because Bindi Irwin was in the news this week with a gender reveal.  Bit strange describing the size of her unborn daughter as a hatchling Aldabra tortoise.  How big is that? Are we talking baby mice size or new born pug puppies?  Anyway, all the best to them.

Back to walking. Sometime during my year of unemployment/freedom, I came across the wonderful Women on Walks group run by the inspiring Annie.  I wrote a story about the group a while ago.  With group walks currently off the table, Annie came up with a plan to keep us walking and connected by setting little challenges and counting virtual kilometres. 

The first lot of challenges were taking photos of “things.” Gates, door, paths that sort of thing.  All of a sudden I started noticing things I’d walked past countless times before and paying attention. We weren’t just walking around, we were on a super important mission.  We moved onto numbered letterboxes. Low numbers are easier than the high ones. The disappointment was real when after walking 15 minutes along a street, the number was missing.  I found myself walking down streets I never knew existed. I even got a little bit lost one day and admit to having to look at google maps. And now we are just finishing off letters.  So much creativity and virtually we’ve been around Australia, New Zealand, over to China and ended up in Portugal.  All our stops have been documented with awesome info and pics of all the places we visited along the way.   

Looking forward to meeting up with all the WOW’s on a real walk soon. In the meantime, I’ll keep walking and waiting for all those great thoughts to just come flooding in.