I live about a 20minute bus ride from town, but there is a lovely walk from town to West Bridgford along the canal I sometimes do.
So I set off, with Camera Osbscura for company (Gutted I missed them live last summer, I had swine flu!) - my route took me out of college, which is at the Adams Building (An old lace factory) in the Lace Market area of Nottingham, past St Marys Church. Then I cut down the steps at the Nottingham Contemporary Art Gallery, down the side of Broadmarsh Bus Station, crossed over Canal Street and got onto the tow path by the Capital One buildings.
From then on I just followed the tow path all the way upto Meadow Lane lock, which is where the canal meets the River Trent. The tow path was busy with lots of people out cycling and running, there were people just sat chilling and guys fishing.
It was about 7.30pm but it was a warm sunny night so it was lovely to just wander along, the canal just seems so peaceful despite it running through in places a building site and later along side a busy main road. But I think water has a calming influence on me, so I chilled.
As I walked the last bit from the Trent Navigation pub upto the lock it struck me that the last time I went along that stretch was a freezing cold winters morning at least five years ago. Prior to getting ill I did high level kayaking and in winter we trained on a Saturday morning, it was deemed far too cold and windy to paddle on the river like we usually did so we went over to the relatively more protected canal.
I don't think I will ever miss the freezing cold training sessions, when you get into the shower fully clothed and gradually strip off as you thaw out enough to bare it. But as I reached the lock, which has had allot of work done to it recently; it looks fantastic and I stood looking out over the stretch of water between Lady Bay and Trent Bridge, the sun gleamed across and I could see Nottingham Kayak club a pang to paddle again hit me. That stretch of water was home, I spent so long out there training, messing about and having so much fun. But ultimately it was paddling and the lovely water in the River Trent that made me ill, I think I got some sort of infection from the water and its taken me five long years to recover.
So, maybe my kayaking come back isn't imminent, but I do want to paddle again, I miss it too much.
By the time I made it to the bus stop by the cricket ground it was ten to eight, but there wasn't a bus for another 20 minutes so I walked along the bus route a bit further rather than standing about. Once I had got that far I was really tempted to walk the rest home. But that was another 3 miles or so, I was starving and wearing not the best shoes. Maybe another day!
My exam was on Friday afternoon and it went really well! I have a really good feeling I wrote the right stuff for the questions. It was a re-sit of a module I did in January and it went far better than the first time, so lets hope the grade reflects it. I totally lucked out on the essay question, before the exam a friend and I were going over some sample questions and one we looked at was the role of Transnational Corporations in Development. - It was one of the essay choices! So I wrote tons of what I think was really relevant stuff. Happy!
Friday night I went to see 'The Families of Lockerbie' at the Nottingham Playhouse. My brother was working on the show as a dramaturg/researcher/assistant director - so I got some free tickets. He keeps telling me off for saying I enjoyed it, but I did. I enjoyed being engaged by theatre on a subject I knew very little about as I wasn't born when the bombing occured and was only ten when the trial took place. It was also set in an interesting way, through the format of tv talk show, with flash back type scenes.
It was certainly thought provoking about what happened and why the people tried came to be tried ect. Also it was a great reason not to watch the football.
Afterwards Georgina and I hit a couple of bars and just gossiped. Was a lovely, girly but cultured night out!
All in all a good couple of days.
Will write about the weekend soon, I'm so behind and also half asleep.
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