Derbyshire 95 - Chesterfield /Bottom Road /125 days and counting down

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Rain - it can be quite therapeutic . When it patters on Gabbys roof it can lull you into sleep . When it hammers down it is worse than listening to Ginger Baker and Keith Moon on their drumkits on the roof. It does the garden good . But lying in bed listening to it keeps me awake .

I guess my mind is all over the place . Even though we are not heading to Canterbury after work I cannot stop wondering if I have locked the windows . Are the plants Ok to be left until we return? Have I put enough clothes to wear in Gabbys lockers ? I know I won't be going on holiday but the ritual of making sure everything is ready is a ritual hard to break . Eventually sleep comes and it is time to get up. Today would be 6 hours of work before meeting the driver just after lunchtime. He would be busy during the morning making last minute checks to Gabby . Filling her with water . Inputting Canterbury into the sat nag. Instead we have 125 days to our next holiday . 4 months away. No doubt over the next few weeks or months I will counting not days to the holiday but minutes and seconds . I can only say a silent thankyou that we got away at Christmas otherwise it would have almost six months since our last trip to Europe . A wasted year so far . With only months left until we finally leave the EU time is frittering away . How will we cope with losing our unlimited travel . For over 40 years we have been allowed to travel freely across Europe and stay as long as we wanted . Free movement has its advantages . The new rules will limit us to 90 days away . We will have to return home after 90 days and stay home until we are free to head off for Europe again for another 90 days . Or the other alternative spend 90 in the EU in the Schengen zone and spend 90 days in Turkey or Morocco before returning to the Schengen zone .

Today I head off to the imaginatively named Bottom Road . The last of a trio of roads , Top , Middle and Bottom that wind their way through the woods. All are deadends . I can work out no circular route through them . I had failed to find a way from Top Road to Bole Hill Quarry . It was there through the woods but uphill and very steep . Slippery enough that a fall could result in a broken ankle. As I walk alone that was one prospect that I did not relish so I never made it to the top of the hill . There are walks there . Glenn told me of picnics he had gone on in the 1950's

I had found the private Cross Street between Middle and Bottom Road . My plan was to investigate Bottom Road and find the pathway between the two. I was late setting out . The half hour difference meant more walkers . A lady wrestling with three small dogs. A couple walking and talking behind me. I headed for Bottom Road knowing I would lose my talking companions . I prefer the solitude to the natter natter. No I am not anti-social but I prefer my own company when I walk . I don't want to share my walk with someone else . I don't want to listen to their banter . I just want me and my own thoughts . And there are lot of thoughts going on at the moment . By now I would have been in work . Emails read , coffee drunk, I could not stop thinking about how the day would have gone had we been heading for France .

It was a lovely walk along a potholed lane. Some prestigious housing . Large palatial affairs rather over the top. 4 x 4 's parked up on the drives . A few farms one with goats . A wood full of bluebells . All the houses seemed to be set in 2 or more acres. Some were in need of renovation. It was a real hotch potch of properties . One car passed me . They ignored me . The second a lady I did not know nor would meet again waved. I never found the pathway through. If it was there it was well hidden . It may have been there years ago but lack of ramblers had meant it had disappeared into the woodland . A Land Rover was heading my way . The potholes full of water . I had to choose my spot carefully. Had I picked the wrong spot I would have been soaked . The driver though waved to me and drove through the water slowly .

Most days I enjoy this aimless wandering . Most days it gives me chance to think . The lockdown has encouraged me to do on -line jigsaws and find out more about the village I live in. I didnt realise how much I didnt know.

Why is it when the dentist is closed you get toothache? I never get toothache but for some reason just because the dentist is closed my tooth aches . It will probably be nothing and will go away . The emergency dental treatment during Covid 19 is to issue antibiotics , painkillers or whip the tooth out. No thought to save it That sounds like the butcher dentists of the 1950's. We all remember them. The smell of the surgery room. The smell of ether and rubber . The dentist with no bedside manner in his white coat . Leaning over you. Not explaining anything . It is little wonder some people have a phobia about dentists .

Life is going on but in an odd way. We hope to hear tonight in Boris o'clock what ending the lockdown might look like . The rain has stopped. The sun has come out as if April is giving us one last nice day. It is the first of May tomorrow . We are 5 months into the year with most of it in lockdown. What will May bring us? We will just have to wait and see . Where will we be in 125 days? The tunnel is booked . Gabby is ready . Greece sounds good . But not sailing from Ancona again . This time overland Romania , Bulgaria , so much choice . Whichever way we chose to get to Greece it will be the best of holidays . We certainly will need a holiday after all of this .

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