Lakes
Me and Andrea spent the weekend down in the Lake District with Jennifer, Alan, Steph and Dave at the summerhouse belonging to Alan’s parents. You expect a summerhouse to be a small cottage, just a little place you escape to when you need to get away from it all. And as we drove into the village that the house was in, looking around us, me and Andrea thought that’s exactly what we were in for. Little did we expect the large, open plan, modern single floored house overlooking a lake that awaited us.
After arriving on the Friday and getting over the size of the place we just sat down with some drinks, some food, some good music and chatted. And then came the international Kerplunk battle of the century, as we split into teams of three and battled to the death. Although when it was one game a piece it was decided that was probably a good time to stop before somebody lost an eye.
On Saturday Steph and Dave went off for some hard bicycle riding, while the rest of us took the more leisurely option of Alan’s car and a trip through the hills and eventually ending up at the local slate museum/mine/factory. It really is an area surrounded by beautiful countryside, and although it was a pretty quick tour there was still enough time to try and take it all in. We did make the mistake at one point of getting out of the car and hiking a small way up a hill, where the wind was cold enough to chill the wings off a penguin, but it was the kind of mistake we only made once. Back at home that night and the gang back together it was a chance for Alan to once again show why he’s the most enthusiastic player of charades, and for Dave to show us all how to play Twister with real grit and determination. The rest of us, we just got drunk on Andrea’s lethal cocktail combinations.
On Sunday we all took a walk from the house around to one side of the nearest lake before taking the 40 minute boat ride back again. I’m always reminded during walks like this how unfit I am, so it was nice to only have to walk half of the distance and instead sit on the peaceful and serene boat as it skirted over the surface of the water. Nothing makes you forget about work and well, frankly everything else, like being surrounded by mountains on a beautiful stretch of water like that.
A good time was had by all and hopefully it’s something we’ll be able to do again soon. Although I think it’s going to take a couple of days for my arm to heal after all that frisbee.
