Unlike normal people, Stephen is different. He doesn’t often get weekends off work due to his rota. Obviously this sucks, and any weekends he does get off work, get booked up about 6 months in advance. Couple that with how busy I am at weekends and up to this point having had a normal 9-5 job, and it can be about 3-6 months between us seeing each other. We have been best friends since secondary school so this is not a problem, but I do really wish we could hang out in the evenings, something that is just not possible when living over 100 miles apart.
So, now I’m not working a 9-5, and he has some midweek days off, we planned a trip to the Lake District. Nothing anything more special than turn up in our vans, camp, walk up a hill, make a fire, drink and talk crap. With so much that has been going on recently, this was a really nice simple plan to hang out again.
However, the Lake District, is about 250 miles away from Banbury………… SOOoo FAR!!!!! And took about 4 hours to get there with the traffic. I swear it has never felt so good to get out of the driving seat and use my legs as nature intended them. They just weren’t meant to be pumping a clutch for 4 hours, granted a lot of the journey was on motorway, but slow traffic is hard work in a manual geared vehicle. Also, I’m 6ft 2in tall and the seat doesn’t slide back far enough really to make it comfortable. Even as far back as it can go, I’m a bit bunched up with my knees resting uncomfortably on hard sticky out bits of plastic. I’m sure they are specifically designed to rest against that soft fleshy bit between your kneecap and shin bone. And to make matters worse, the steering column does not adjust at all. So I’m driving along with my arms sticking out straight in front of me like a zombie…..for 4 hours…
Stephen only had a 2 hour drive from Sheffield so he went ahead and found us scenic layby to camp in for the night. When I turned up and tumbled out of the van in a sweaty uncomfortable heap, he was found feet up with a beer in hand watching the view. And it was an amazing view worth watching. Just above village height at a lookout point layby with all of Derwentwater stretching out ahead of us. The sun had just dipped below the hill casting us in shadow, but there was still plenty of light for the next few hours, and warmth from the summer air and fire pit next to us.