It’s
New Years’ Eve, and I’m painfully aware that I haven’t
published an end of year review. I have been working on one, but it’s been slow
progress, and at times like this, I’m easily distracted, and not just by
trivia. One distraction was to book a trip to the local tip – sorry,
"Waste
Transfer Station" as
Deform UK controlled,
Kent County Council like to call them
these days, although to be fair, it was the previous
Tory administration that
came up with this euphemism.
We have quite a lot of items to dispose of, and most of
these were already bagged or boxed up in the shed, awaiting their fate. Well,
that moment came earlier this afternoon when these pre-backed items were
unceremoniously loaded into the back of the car, ready to be driven over to
North Farm (it’s the industrial and wholesale area of
Tunbridge Wells). I’d
managed to book one of the two available slots for
New Year’s Eve, so all I
need do now, is drive over to the
WTS, unload, dump the stuff (carefully unload
each type of junk).
With luck there will be time for a pint on the way back,
although as I shall be driving, it will strictly be a single pint of low to
medium strength beer. There will then be the tallying up of number of different
pubs visited over the past
12 months, even though I already know the score.
Prior to my visit, I shall be calling in at my workplace to check the progress
of a major revamp taking place to our
staff canteen and
kitchen area. Somewhere
along the line, my official title of
Safety Advisor, has morphed into that of
Site
Manager, which does mean I ought to be checking up on the project. Like
HS2,
and all manner of similar projects, this one isn’t running to time. I know this
as the contractors sent me some photos earlier, but it is what it is, and at
the end of the day if the job isn’t fully complete by the time the bulk of the
workforce (me included), return to work next
Monday, it won’t be the end of the
world.
Looking back, it’s been quite a restful break that has
allowed me to catch up on, or even complete, a number of different projects.
There is one thing that has suffered, or rather has been neglected, and has
been the absence of country walks. This unfortunately followed on from the
pattern of the previous year, as since completing the
North Downs Way in
2022,
and then the
Tunbridge Wells Circular Walk, the following year, there have been
no set hikes or rambles for me to follow. And no pub walks either. I don’t know
whether this is a sign of growing older, or whether general apathy has set in,
but this worrying trend is one that needs fixing.
There used to be a
WhatsApp group called the
Weekend Walking
Group, that was linked to the local
CAMRA WhatsApp group, but that became
moribund several years ago. The absence of these organised groups shouldn’t be
seen as a barrier, because whilst my walk along the
North Downs Way started out
as part of an organised group, because I came in at the tail end of a friend’s
completion of this
Long-Distance Footpath, I was quite content to carry on from
where this individual had finished off.
The
Three River Valley Walks would be good series of rambles to look at in
2026. I already
have a guidebook for this, and in case you’re wondering, the three walks are,
the
Darent Valley Path, the
Eden Valley Walk, and the
Medway Valley Walk.
As all three of these rambles primarily follow river courses,
there is little, if anything in the way of gradients, and the majority of each
ramble is potentially flat. So, these trails are easy going in most respects, although
accessing the start of the
Eden Valley Walk, takes a bit of detective work on
the ground – clue, the source of the
Eden, is in the middle of a field, and isn’t
easily accessible by public transport. There’s another hurdle to overcome, because
as the years go by,
Mrs PBT’s has become a little over-protective, especially when it concerns me walking alone.
I like walking on my own, as I can set my own pace, but even
I have to admit, it’s good to have company on such walks as well. Walking with companions
isn’t always a guarantee of safety though, as I remember a colleague who went
into cardiac arrest, whilst on a walk with his wife and daughter. Despite his
wife being trained in first aid, the CPR she administered proved ineffective,
and the wooded terrain the group was walking through, meant the air ambulance was
unable to land either. Barry was younger than me, by several years, and as a
cross-country runner, was considerably fitter, as well.
That’s enough doom and gloom for the time being, but it’s a
timely reminder that none of use know how long we’ve got on this earth, and we
owe it to ourselves and others, to keep ourselves fit and healthy, so we can
live our best lives. Moving onto more cheerful things,
Eileen and I booked
ourselves on a circular navigation of the
British Isles, cruising in an anticlockwise
direction right around
Britain, on
Cunard’s newest cruise ship,
Queen Anne. We
made a return visit to
Hamburg, a voyage on which we were joined by son
Matthew,
for his first cruise, and towards the end of the year, we visited the
Azores
plus the lovely island of
Madeira. That, for me, was a long overdue return
visit to those particular
Atlantic islands, having first visited them on an
“educational”
school cruise, at the tender age of
16. There wasn’t as much travel within the
British Isles, as I
would have liked – something I intend to rectify this coming year, but I managed
visits to
St Albans, Portsmouth, Topsham – a trip that touched briefly on
Exeter as well plus I also made a return visit to
Farnham, scene of my
NDW
completion, three years ago. The sea voyage took us to
Newhaven (Edinburgh),
Invergordon, Stornoway, Greenock, Liverpool, and
Cobh (ROI). On the home-front, we had a new kitchen installed, a job which
also included fitting a new window, plus a complete re-plastering of the kitchen
area.
We made the sensible decision of
having this work carried out, whilst we were away on the
Round Britain Cruise, which
meant we missed the bulk of the disruption and virtually all of the mess. We
were also able to have a good clear-out of the kitchen and cookery utensils
that we’d accumulated over
40+ years of living together.
That’s probably it for the time being, apart from saying that
I finished off the mini cask of
Harvey’s XXXX Old Ale. I cracked it open on
Christmas Eve, which was the day I finished work. I’m please to report that this
dark, luscious and full-bodied beer remained bright, lively and well-conditioned,
right down to the last drop. And now, after sharing that little pearl with you, I shall sign
off and wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous
New Year.
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