We were both wide awake already when our alarm went off this morning and that should not have been any surprise to us because there was a time a while ago when it was regularly ringing away about ninety minutes earlier than that on our run days. Alas, it is still very dark at that time now. As we drove to our start point in Angmering Park Estate today, there was a huge ball of fire just appearing in the sky. We are in fact close to the Autumnal Equinox that my diary says in the 22nd this year although I always feel that it is the 21st. Still it is what it is after all.
The colours of autumn are marvellous to behold and we should enjoy every season with their changing colours and form, I suppose. That said, I must admit that I like the long, light days of full summer myself and many of my childhood memories are from summer days on the beach or a bus ride with my mum, brother and cousins up to the downs.
The short days tend to get me down a bit and Stephen starts to insist on keeping all the lights on in the house because he too notices a difference in me in the darker months. We have traditionally taken a winter sports holiday at that darker time because it doesn’t seem to be so bad with that sparkling white background all around. In our early years together, we took a ski holiday, every winter, well at least one, but sometimes two and did not bother with away days so much in the summer.
We are both big fans of the winter sports anyway. I adore
watching figure skating on TV although the coverage the last couple of years
has been poor. We have even been to watch some of those events live and have
enjoyed short trips to Paris, Nice, and Stockholm to see the Men’s Free and
sometimes the Pairs. We also include Bobsleigh events when we can and that has
led to a more regular visit to St Moritz, where there is the Bob run with top
flight competitions and also the Cresta Run that is very entertaining and Steve
has boldly tried that a couple of times with me as the lone groupie. Here he is :---
We are hoping that the plague season will have ended by the end of January 2021 because we would like to be in Switzerland to watch our favourite teams competing in the two-man and four-man bob and also the skeleton events. However, a dark cloud hangs everywhere at this time and nothing is sure. Normally we would have booked our winter break accommodation ages back but have been holding back with our fingers firmly crossed. We find it hard to think that there is any guarantee about holidays anywhere in the world, as we dip into rising Covid figures yet again and feel they will keep rising as long as people carry on bringing new cases back from greedily grabbed holidays. That has been the constant cause hasn’t it. Travel. Planes and boats and trains.
It has been great to see the Tour de France on TV recently but one wonders how clever it was and if any cases have been hushed up during the time those wheels have been turning all over France with not everybody in the crown wearing masks. Was it sensible to hold it even this late or was it just one more case of money getting its own way? You have to admit that it is the best travel programme France has going regularly, to showing the best of the country’s marvellous scenery, the mountain’s, those little villages perched so high, the climbs up the pass roads, the chateaux and the monasteries. Again, Steve and I have been to watch a stage now and then and the atmosphere is fantastic.
Wishing and hoping is something we are all doing; but as my Great Aunt Lot used to say “Wish in one hand and spit in the other my girl, and see which gets filled up first”.
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