We’re finally up and literally running. I dropped 5YO at nursery/school and took the 83 to Hendon to start the Capital Ring at section 11. It’s not a particularly auspicious start, but a clear enough signpost.
I’m expecting to get a bit lost, so I’m following the signs as well as I can, plus a route some kind soul has added to plotaroute.com. This isn’t even going to be enough, as I really managed to get well off track! More on that later.
The route is just along pavements to kick off, but soon enough it passes through little ginnels and snickets (for anyone not from Yorkshire, a ginnel is a narrow passage between two buildings, and a snicket is kind of the same, but in a more rural setting, perhaps between a building and a hedge, or two hedges), passing under and over roads and railway lines.
The surroundings were often rather idyllic, with some really well-maintained public spaces and very nice houses.
It wasn’t all like that though – there was a decent amount of boring pavement, and one predictably grotty underpass subway (I’ll spare you the photo of that).
I had a fairly drastic navigational issue where the Capital Ring signs clearly went through Queen’s Wood whereas my unknown cartographer had gone along the road.
I was up for the woodland route, however once inside, it wasn’t well signed and I veered off. Veering back onto the right route was not straightforward, but it did mean I had a very pleasant detour through Crouch End, where I haven’t been in years. It really is wonderfully chichi and just lovely in a “I can’t believe this is a place real people live”. It isn’t, of course – real people don’t live there, everyone certainly looks like a cast member, at least. I rejoined the right path for the second half of the Parkland Walk which meant I could enjoy the views from the elevated section there – it reminded me of New York’s High Line. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take photos as my Crosstour GoPro knock-off battery had died. I would have expected it to cope with 2 hours, especially as the screen had been off most of the time! It had been raining on and off and by now I was feeling a bit cold and miserable plus had something else marring my enjoyment. The battery on my phone was getting low. No massive drama, except I had decided not to bring my cash card and instead rely on Google Pay. Not a good decision. As I was in the rain in Stoke Newington, the thought of a flat battery and being stranded (I guess I could have persuaded a black cab to take me home – those guys are heroes) was preying on my mind.
I also had a needlessly stressful situation once I got to Stoke Newington station. Because I kept consulting my phone map, I cleverly (or so I thought) disabled the security on it, so I didn’t have to keep entering my PIN every time (the fingerprint scanner obviously being inaccessible due to my arm being solid). Little did I realise disabling the security lock ALSO deactivates the use of Fingerprint unlock for any apps that are using it (O2, Natwest) as well as Google Pay. So whilst shivering in a tunnel in Stoke Newington Overground station, I found myself having to re-enable Google Pay, occasionally being buffeted by waves of travellers passing from Overground to Victoria lines. Fortunately I had network access and I know my credit card details by heart, or I would have been in a right mess.
So I’ve learned a few things today:
- Don’t rely on the battery in the Crosstour (or take 2 batteries, or figure out a more power-efficient setup)
- Take your cash card with you, for God’s sake, man
- Don’t disable security on your phone, maybe a longer time-out would do, or I think there’s a setting somewhere to stay unlocked while my bluetooth headset is nearby.
My audio entertainment today was provided by podcasts “La Classe” and “French Voices” – an episode where they discuss the life and work of Jean La Fontaine (whose best-known work, Fables, I bought at Trouve Tout Livre in Le Somail!), plus Remainiacs, Athletico Mince and Madtech to keep things balanced.
Timsformational 