Carol goes walkabout!

What a weekend it has been!

Saturday: there was a church outing to Hever Castle in Kent. As usual, I left home in a hurry and accidentally dropped the passport photos I had put aside. I needed to make the young person's railcard to get 1/3 discount off the train ticket I had bought... but there was no time to take another photo in the booth or make a railcard by the time I got to London Bridge! There was a train that only runs once an hour to catch! Made it on with time to spare, met Jonathan on the way, and arrived at Hever station. The ticketman came, and I froze. As calmly as I could, i showed him my ticket, and to my amazement he didn't ask for the railcard. Relief. Hever Station was a rural, unmaned station. We arrived at 9.49am, leaving us plenty of time to walk that 1 mile to the castle. But less than 1 min after leaving the station, a lady called from a car and asked us if we wanted a lift to the castle. I suppose we looked touristy enough, and the ONLY attraction at Hever was the castle... How very kind of that lady - it was the first time I experienced such a random act of kindness!

It was a good day, albeit rainy. However I must add that it was the strangest church outing I'd ever been to! Everyone arrived on the bus at about 10.30++am, we went in together as a group, and that was about the last thing we did together as a group. We then all went our separate ways around the castle and the sprawling gardens. In little groups, and some even alone. It was so bizzare, as I had imagined some sort of a structure to the day, and I thought we'd be spending a good few hours sitting around on the grass, maybe with an exhortation, some singing, and maybe a picnic lunch. I even brought quite a lot of food to share! But there was nothing of the sort! I was fortunate to have James and Hannah and Jon (who left after lunch andleft me feeling like the gooseberry) to go around with.

Hannah and I on the man-made 38-acre lake.

When it was time to go home, everyonejust met on the bus. Of course, I was taking the train, and had to walk that 1 mile to the station. So i left, with my little hand-drawn map in hand. It was a rural walk indeed. I hadn't quite appreciated what they meant when they said that. It was really a walk on a dual-carriageway, no pedestrian footpath. The road was winding and went in between farms. I tried to be careful at every bend, with memories of the bicycle accident fresh in my mind. I thought maybe I could hitch a hike, but had no recurring fortune. The roads brought me alongside farm animals, like sheep and cows, and plants with blackberries and raspberries on them. There were hardly any road signs or road names so I just walked in the general direction according to googlemaps. My hand-drawn map proved to be utterly useless. After about 30 mins, I found the station. Deserted. Time-check: 4.30pm. The next train was at 5.05pm. There was yet another problem. I didn't know which platform to go to, and the train wouldn't stop for long enough for me to figure out when it arrives. I wasn't about to wait another hour! Chatted with Liangsi on the phone while waiting, until a train arrived from London at 4.49pm, which then allowed me to figure out it was the other platform I needed. More horror awaited me when I got onto the train. I spent most of the journey a nervous wreck, knowing that I still didn't have my railcard. Thought the worst was over, when I passed through all the stations and no conductor came to check the tickets. until, about 10 mins from London Bridge, they arrived. He charged me £20 for not havng a railcard, so I immediately when I got off the station, marched straight into the photobooth, paid £5 for 5 passport photos, and made a railcard for £26. Will write in to get a refund of the £20 fine- i'm not about to spend £46 on train tickets to Kent which actually cost all of £6.26!!!

Walked this kind of road for about 30mins to get to the station.

Checked out the Thames river Festival - the last festival in summer. Before I knew it, I had walked from London Bridge to Tower Bridge, and then I thought there was no point going back to London bridge to catch the tube 3 stops back home. So i decided to check out St Katherine's docks. On Tower Bridge, I had a better idea - I would visit my old flat! Gave Kelvin a call, and he was home, so I popped and had a short 10 min chat with him, and looked at the refurbished place of where I used to live back in Summer 2008. Then I decided to walk home. Figured that if I just followed the river, I would eventually reach home. And I did. Was really glad I did too! For one, it was good exercise. I also discovered a whole neighbourhood - Wapping. it is actually quite posh! Along the way there were also some riverside walks. Was curious what that was so I went to check it out, and it turned out to be a long flight of steps descending onto the sandy bank of the river Thames! Quite cool! It took me an hour to walk from St Katherine's docks back home, and my legs were aching towards the end, but oh what a great sense of achievement! I then proceeded to eat a BIG bowl of meepok. HAHA.

The Thames Festival at Tower Bridge

On the sandy bank of the Thames at Sunset (presumably at low-tide).

Total distance covered in 1 day = walk around the castle (a couple of miles in total maybe)+ walk to Hever Station (1 mile if I took the short-cut but I prob did more since I couldnt find the short-cut) + London bridge - Canary Wharf (5 miles along the river) = c. 7-8miles. That's pretty good!

Sunday was eventful too, but since this is getting way too long I might come back tomorrow. But work beckons :( and my horrible project which I have completed about 10% of (due end-Sept :( :( :( ) pray for plenty of wisdom, and super-efficiency this week.