This morning Madame Pudding had the bright idea of heading out to the far south east of the city to visit the Crystal Peaks shopping centre. She was keen to use her senior travel card on the city's "Supertram" system. We would travel by bus into the city centre then near Fitzalan Square we would catch a blue line tram all the way to Crystal Peaks. Neither of us had been there in years.
Hastily, I hatched a supplementary plan which would see me spurning the retail delights of the shopping centre in order to walk in a big circle - out to Rother Valley Country Park, round the lakes and then back again to Beighton and onward to Crystal Peaks - some six miles in total.
Soon after setting off on the walk I found myself in the Church of St Mary the Virgin. Inside, a small number of senior parishoners happened to be decorating the church ready for Christmas. They were most welcoming and a silver-haired lady called Christine asked if I would like a hot drink. It seemed to me to be a very Christian thing to do so I asked for a coffee and she even brought it to me as I was photographing the statuette of Mary that stands in a stone apse and happened to be caught delightfully in sunshine.
Then off I plodded, climbing two railway footbridges and a stone bridge over The River Rother. The path led me on to Rother Valley Country Park which sits on the site of what was once a large opencast coal mine. Its dirty, industrial past is almost impossible to detect these days. The years have softened it and thoughtful authorities have planted and developed the 750 acre leisure area wisely.
Onward I plodded feeling slightly giddy - probably because I do not eat much in the morning these days - just a banana and a handful of grapes today. The sun continued to shine. Three men were feeding wildfowl at the water's edge and a few other people were out walking like me. A couple of joggers dashed by and a daft lad on a motorbike who knew for sure that motorcycles are banned in the park.
On the way home there was an unexpected and unheralded hold-up with the trams so after waiting for forty minutes, I caught the number 120 bus back into the city centre. All in all it had been another grand day out with good exercise and not what I was anticipating when I was woken up this morning by a scam telephone call that instantly made my blood boil: "YOU JUST WOKE ME UP!"Then I placed a hex on the call centre responsible.
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