It was Easter weekend and I had quite a bit of fun. As a long weekend, one has to take advantage of it, and a trip up north was in order.
* WEEKEND UP NORTH *
I am ashamed to say that up until this weekend, I had never been up to either the Lake District or the Peak District. But that had to be put right. As my friend, Esther, currently lives up in Manchester, I decided to pay her a visit. Now I had no intention of staying in Manchester very long (no offence to the Mancunians), but I did want to get out of the place to see a little bit of country…
So on Saturday, with the help of Stelios and his car company’s Vauxhall Meriva, we set off out of the city. Feeling like a Top Gear presenter, I have to give a modest review of the Meriva, the real downside being that it had poor visibility all round. But I can’t be harsh on it. For the tests we gave it on our journey (see later), it did very well. Besides which, I can’t qualify to be a Top Gear presenter, as our Meriva was a manual transmission car, and I hadn’t driven a manual since my driving test… seven years ago! Thank goodness Stelios didn’t know that!
So really, the first challenge was mine. Getting the car moving and not stalling (too much!), which I did okay. But fortunately I did have the previous day to practise first before travelling up north to Cumbria and the Lake District.
The touring round the District was great. Certainly there were some very challenging driving conditions, not because of the weather but because of the terrain, coupled with the traffic. Being a bank holiday weekend, we weren’t the only ones who had the idea of going to the District. But we didn’t mind one bit. Driving across Wrynose Pass and Hard Knotpass was not only lots of fun, but it is accompanied by a lot of beautiful scenery. And I will have the photos to show for it.
Heading to Wasdale Head, a beautiful sight can be seen just before you get there as the sight of Wast Water and three of the highest peaks in England (including the highest, Scafell Pike) tower up around you.
Going round all the country roads and seeing the magnificent scenes of the lakes and the mountains, every moment was almost a reminiscence of my childhood. But those memories would be my geography lessons and how the area was formed by glaciers, rather than any memories of ever having been there! Absolutely brilliant!
A not so tall place, but nonetheless still very beautiful area is the Peak District. Situated mostly in Derbyshire, it features famous towns such as Buxton and Bakewell (home of the Bakewell tart). Whilst we didn’t head up to the Peak itself, we did go to Castleton and visit the caverns.
We stopped in Castleton for the Speedwell Cavern. Now a word of advice. If the queue reaches the end of the covered area (yes, it is small), you have an hour’s wait to go in. We waited 2 hours as it extended a little beyond that. And it was cold! Speedwell is an old lead mine. Don’t expect to see lots of stalagmites and stalactites (yes, in case you were wondering, stalaGmites Grow from the Ground, stalaCtites Come down from the Ceiling), because there aren’t (many) or a lot of caves either. But it will give you an insight into 19th century mining, and being down there gives you an eerie feeling of the difficulties of mining then, and even today.
Following our visit to the caverns, we drove round, and on a foggy day it would only get foggier. Which gave us a different driving challenge, which I relished. Visibility at one stage dropped down to less than 5 metres – it gave me a big shock when the fog closed in on one section of road. I was travelling at 50 mph and suddenly had to brake to 20 mph simply because of I couldn’t see anything! It will remain one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I’ve had, as I just didn’t know what was happening. Anyway, following that it was fine, almost like driving a rally car in the fog, like a little like an old computer game I remember, except slower and with lots of safety in mind (particularly as the computer game did have cars heading towards you at any minute).
And so that was my weekend. I guess it’s a bit bland to you the reader, but hopefully, I’ll have some pictures soon to illustrate some of what I’ve told you…
* UNCLOUDED JUDGEMENTS *
This weekend (whilst I was battling the fog) saw the Hong Kong Film Awards take place, the HK equivalent to the Oscars. No real surprises, I have to be said. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Zhang Ziyi won best actor and actress for 2046. Kung Fu Hustle won best film and Derek Yee won best director for One Nite In Mongkok.
However, whilst last year’s winners somewhat deserved their awards, this year’s offerings from Hong Kong so far have been quite disappointing. I echo Derek Yee’s acceptance speech for his other award, best screenplay. Hong Kong simply doesn’t put enough emphasis on scripts, and I feel that is what is pulling Hong Kong cinema down. But I’m sure that we’ll end up with a very good offering later in the year, as usual, and I look forward to watching them when I come out. More on the Hong Kong Film Awards can be found at Hong Kong Entertainment In Review.