Weekend Walking and Exploration
So, I had a very interesting and nice weekend.
The very nice part was on Sunday, where I joined doseybat and
pplfichi on a trip out of London.
pplfichi had passed their driving license not that long ago and needed some practise. doseybat wanted some socialising time. Meanwhile, any excuse to get out of London and engage in light exercise was something I considered useful. We put this all together into a trip to Ashridge, which I have mentioned before.
pplfichi drove their father's car, while I navigated and generally helped talk them through driving long distance, on the motorway and outside of London, all of which are enough to throw anyone new. I can remember finding my first few trips out very hard, especially having to drive back after walking and engaging in exercise. I'd had my parents to support me through that, which helped a lot, so it was really nice to support someone else through that in exactly the same way. Apparently, I helped a lot.
As I've mentioned before,
pplfichi is a good driver. They also lack in confidence a bit and are maybe too careful. But, that should all pass and they'll probably become a very good driver when it does and the only cure for that is practise. Anyway, it was interesting watching them go through many of the same issues and problems I went through when doing my first long distance journeys, and being able to anticipate and help them out because of it. I know my parents had said that I was doing OK and my mistakes were normal and I believed them. But it's weird to have actual confirmation of that with someone else.
Ashridge was warm, sunny and with clear air and, most importantly, not London. The cafe was doing roaring trade again and I had some lovely sausages, while they had the burgers, which looked fantastic. The company was lovely.
So, we drive home (which, in that very particular way that happened with me,
pplfichi did both better and worse at, simultaneously, and of course they fluffed parking the car, because that totally happens after long journeys...).
At home, we tried a mobile phone game that doseybat had mentioned, called StarTeam. It's hilariously funny. You are the crew of a ship that mainly flies itself and it will give you all instructions as to what to do. Those instructions involve pushing buttons, turning dials and flicking switches. But, just to make life fun, the necessary instructions aren't always delivered to the person at the relevant console, so you have to scream out your instructions (occasionally realising that the person who needs to push that button is actually you). There are also asteroids and wormholes to contend with, which you need to do by everyone shaking the phone or flipping it over. I thoroughly recommend it.
Saturday needs its own post, I now realise.
The very nice part was on Sunday, where I joined doseybat and
pplfichi on a trip out of London.
pplfichi had passed their driving license not that long ago and needed some practise. doseybat wanted some socialising time. Meanwhile, any excuse to get out of London and engage in light exercise was something I considered useful. We put this all together into a trip to Ashridge, which I have mentioned before.
pplfichi drove their father's car, while I navigated and generally helped talk them through driving long distance, on the motorway and outside of London, all of which are enough to throw anyone new. I can remember finding my first few trips out very hard, especially having to drive back after walking and engaging in exercise. I'd had my parents to support me through that, which helped a lot, so it was really nice to support someone else through that in exactly the same way. Apparently, I helped a lot.
As I've mentioned before,
pplfichi is a good driver. They also lack in confidence a bit and are maybe too careful. But, that should all pass and they'll probably become a very good driver when it does and the only cure for that is practise. Anyway, it was interesting watching them go through many of the same issues and problems I went through when doing my first long distance journeys, and being able to anticipate and help them out because of it. I know my parents had said that I was doing OK and my mistakes were normal and I believed them. But it's weird to have actual confirmation of that with someone else.
Ashridge was warm, sunny and with clear air and, most importantly, not London. The cafe was doing roaring trade again and I had some lovely sausages, while they had the burgers, which looked fantastic. The company was lovely.
So, we drive home (which, in that very particular way that happened with me,
pplfichi did both better and worse at, simultaneously, and of course they fluffed parking the car, because that totally happens after long journeys...).
At home, we tried a mobile phone game that doseybat had mentioned, called StarTeam. It's hilariously funny. You are the crew of a ship that mainly flies itself and it will give you all instructions as to what to do. Those instructions involve pushing buttons, turning dials and flicking switches. But, just to make life fun, the necessary instructions aren't always delivered to the person at the relevant console, so you have to scream out your instructions (occasionally realising that the person who needs to push that button is actually you). There are also asteroids and wormholes to contend with, which you need to do by everyone shaking the phone or flipping it over. I thoroughly recommend it.
Saturday needs its own post, I now realise.