A Man, a ‘Van and a Bike - People Watching

Another hot day with nothing planned so after a long lie in I sorted the’ van out (toilet needed emptying) then cycled down to the visitor centre cafe by Grafham Water. They’re only doing take-away but as that includes bacon and egg baps that was fine with me! 

Sat sitting in the shade of a tree, reading and looking out at the reservoir I was able to indulge in yet more people watching. 

I’m not sure how many families or people were involved but there seemed to be a huge and wide ranging game of hide and seek going on around the trees near me. The arguments don’t change, “It’s not cheating if you move hiding place!”, “Yes it is!” etc. 

An older couple had obviously found how to compromise in life, they’d brought their chairs and coolbox and set up so that he was in the shade of a tree reading and she was catching the sun. 

There was a bit of a ditch next to where I was sat, it’s dry so you could walk across but of course the kids all jumped it. One group of three, the youngest wouldn’t jump so older sister/cousin/whatever just picked her up and swung her over, simple things but great to see kids outdoors just having fun. 

As it was starting to get busy and noisy, and very hot, I decided to just go back to the site via the village community shop. I picked up a decent steak pie which I had with the last bag of salad for lunch, setting up my chair in the shade of the hedge behind the pitch, before settling down for another reading session. 

I’ve worked my way through quite a few Kindle books this holiday but after a busy and stressful, at times, few months the relaxation has probably done some good. Not that I’ve been able to stop working completely, my assistant is still relatively new and there are issues that he doesn’t yet know how to sort but it’s a learning curve. I’ve been pleased with how he’s dealt with some things without needing any input so we’ll get there. 

Annoyingly the afternoon was somewhat disturbed by an excessive amount of dog yapping on the site. Apologies to any dog owners but if they can’t keep quiet for more than a couple of minutes at a time they shouldn’t be brought away. One was literally yapping every few moments for a couple of hours.

After a simple tea of Wensleydale (I like a bit of cheese, Grommit) baps I decided another pint or two at the Grafham Trout would be in order. 

It doesn’t look much but it’s community built and owned, serving local beer at decent prices so I’ll support it. As I’m on the bike though a couple of pints is enough.