Under Construction ...

Ten People I Will Talk to For You B——.

1. The guy in 39A. He's flying back to the UK after a weekend trip back to Midura for his Dad's sixtieth birthday. He decided last minute to do it and hasn't slept for days. This was great because it meant he slept the whole way on the plane and I was able to ease into this talking with people malarky at a slow pace. He is a civil engineer. Living in London on a high-skill visa. He lives in Kilburn—ah, remember those great Kilburn High Street op-shops. Has lived there for three years, but possible that his expiry date is coming to an end. May go live somewhere else though rather than going home. Name: not known.
2. A guy in the train—across the train-table from me—on the way to Bath. He was in a running club. Their moniker was a cross of some sort—I couldn’t really work out what he was talking about. He was embarrassed to wear it because it looked too much like a Nazi symbol. His friends got on the train later and he got all aloof. They were already wearing their shirts. I can see why he was embarrassed.
3. Couples who Holiday in Scotland and Montgomery I: Sitting in the bar I having dinner and my favourite pint of blackcurrant juice and lemonade, I spoke for a while for this odd little couple who holiday in both Scotland and Montgomery. She was statuesquely tall and quiet an imposing woman; he was small and quiet dotty. Very odd couple. They were here instead of there because Scotland is having a really rainy year and the midges are out of control. Stop scaring me about my next trip people! It sounded like all they do is go between. I must be missing something about the attraction of Montgomery.
4. Couples who Holiday in Scotland and Montgomery II: This couple caught me on the way out of the bar area and back to my room. They had a wacky little wiry dog that accosted every passer-by. This hotel is famous for allowing people to bring their dogs. Spoke to them for a while. They were also here because there was too thripy and wet. He had spent a bit of time in the merchant navy and so in Melbourne—he raved about St Kilda.
5. A lady also travelling OD solo. I had seen her days before when I stopped along the side of the road for a drink and an attempt at stilling the chaos of hayfever in my head. No one has as much stuff as me. She was doing really well with a tiny pack and a fast pace. But she wasn’t even sending her gear ahead—her tiny pack was all she had. I suppose if I have no bivvy, sleeping bag or roll mat my pack would be so much smaller or so much more filled with other stuff. She was at the hotel in Montgomery. That was a busy night. I chatted to her there too. She had decided that this was too much unlike a holiday for her and so the rest of her holiday was going to be going around Welshpool on the side of leisure. The next day I found her on the side of the road in Forden II waiting for the bus: it wasn’t even worth the walk in the rain (it was a hard slog, but also quite an amazing space she missed out on).
6. The guy with the two dogs along the Canal who recommended the Red Lion in Ellesmere. I would also have recommended it from just the views of the downstairs areas. Upstairs was a different matter. It was the most ickey hotel I stayed in for the whole trip.
7. In Llangattock Lingoed I pushed myself onto a table for breakfast with a male who is out to run up a mountain. There was nowhere else to sit. He spoke about forest fires a lot and said the word gorse about three million times in ten sentences.
8. Man offering eighty-five pence coffee and biscuits along the Severn to OD walkers. It was such a great idea and such a wacky place. You rang a bell and either the owner or his wife came out and offered you tea or coffee. While you waited his mad chickens pecked you for tit-bits. He was mad about statistics and turning them around: if eight per cent of accidents are caused by drunk drivers, then ninety-two per cent are caused by sober drivers—it would be better if all drivers were drunk. He had gone to a lot of trouble for walkers, converting a sun room into a bathroom and sitting area so people could sit in when it rained and had somewhere to use the bathroom (nice). He had had someone early on, when they first moved in, that he found with a blown-out knee and who wouldn’t stop for help. They also had other people stopping in for water. It did them no damage to put out the sign and so if they were home they did: they figured it would help people either way and the eighty-five pence covered their costs.
9. Neil. I was desperately trying to find somewhere to stay but couldn’t find any ‘centers of civilisation’. I ended up finding a pub and going in to ask them if they knew of any B&Bs. The landlord was getting shirty with his staff member trying to assist. Neil took over. There was a B&B back at the start of town. He went outside and called the B&B and then ran me downtown. I had to walk back the same way the next day but it was a great room in a nunnery and I had a roof over my head.