I love to go a-wandering...

I hate it when people are making small talk and ask you, "So, what did you do on the weekend?" and then you try to think of a suitably interesting yet average answer as you think, "Lord, what exactly did I do on the weekend? It was so boring even I've forgotten about it already... Or was I abducted by aliens and this is all part of... Oh yeah, it was good."

There's really not that much to say about weekends, unless you do something magnificent or totally out of the ordinary. Or at least something that's a little different. Do you go into the mundane detail? Regale them with tales of re-grouting the bathroom tiles? Delight them with descriptions of making an attempt to get the yard looking somewhat less like the jungle it is?

I guess I could just say, "Well, I well and truly learned my lesson about what local people mean by a 'walk' around here. It's not a walk. It's a hike or at least a looooong walk at a fast pace."

Went on one of these "walk" things with some local people on Saturday evening and I think it would have been about a 3km thing at a brisk pace (although I shouldn't complain - I'd walked 3kms earlier in the afternoon and that had kinda warmed me up for it, I guess). Just glad I'd remembered the last "walk" I'd been on and wore sensible shoes. But it was nice.

The first ever "walk" here was with some other local people who made it sound like it'd be a nice short wander. But no. It was a 5km hike up hill (mountain, if you will) and down dale while I was in clothes and shoes totally not appropriate for hiking through leach-country (miraculously, my open-toed slip-on shoes did not send them in plague proportions to attempt to feast on my feet - in fact, I didn't end up with any attaching themselves). Plus it was at power-walking pace, the entire way.

Unfun, to say the least...

So I guess the moral of the story is to check just what kind of "walk" people are intending to go on before you totter along in stilettos or skiing boots or flip flops. Or you may end up tramping along a trail muttering, "Kill me. Kill me now before my feet do!" under your breath.