It’s been a poor few days. I managed to hurt my back in work on Thursday and then I woke up on Friday morning feeling very ill indeed. So much so that whilst holding my head in my hands in my bathroom at 6am I said out loud to myself “I do not feel well at all!” I talk to myself quite a lot but I’m not really worried about that because basically everybody does don’t they?
I ran a marathon in November and due to lots of other and I must point out enjoyable commitments I haven’t had a day of rest since the run in about 6 weeks. So I decided last weekend that on this Saturday (today) I would do absolutely nothing if possible except for going for a walk in Sefton Park taking photographs. I decided to do this because I knew the park would look beautiful due to it being Autumn and colourful. My walk was put in jeopardy by me not being well yesterday and I was going to go to work but my two colleagues (Cam and Carmel here’s looking at you) convinced me not to go in and that they would be able to manage everything that was required.
The day of rest did me the world of good, so thanks you guys.
I had a bad sleep and woke up this morning in a lot of pain but decided I was still going for my walk because I knew by next week that everything might look different. So at about 8.30 I wandered out with my ipod on. I never do this because I feel really self conscious walking around with my headphones on (I did however wear them on the bus to the Doctor’s yesterday) but I must say I really enjoyed it and from now on I’m going to do it a lot more often. I put the play on random just to see what was thrown at me.
I stopped off for a takeaway coffee on Lark lane where I saw the terrible news about the huge crash on the M5 Motorway on the TV that has 43 people confirmed dead so far. It made me really sad to realise that 43 families were waking up today to a totally different life due to an accident. I’m ashamed to admit that a few minutes after walking into the park I forgot all about the crash because everything looked truly beautiful and for about an hour and a half I lost myself and wandered around taking photographs (I think I took about 70.)
I’ve become pretty addicted to Instagram on my iphone. Anyone who knows me will know that I’m on it all the time and constantly posting pictures (username @novicemathematic if anyone fancies following me.) I used to like photography in secondary school but my enjoyment of it has been totally rekindled by the app so it’s fair to say a lot of pictures from the morning’s trip will be making a showing. The park looked stunning and on more than one occasion I exclaimed out loud at some of the sights I was seeing.
It was kind of life affirming really. I know that’s a massive statement to make but it really made me think about stuff and how there’s much more to my life than my all time consuming job. It reminded of the reasons why I love Liverpool, I thought about people far away, I thought about my friends, I had an idea for a play, I thought about my family and the things that I’m lucky enough to have the opportunity to do, I mean I get to act, I get to create music, as a teacher I get the chance to have an impact upon people’s lives. With all this in my mind I got genuinely excited for the future. So it was kind of life affirming really so I’m standing by my bold statement.
I was also proved wrong by a group of lads and I really like it when that happens. As I was walking by the lake I saw a group of three boys, let’s say they looked like scallies, hoodies, whatever you want to call them and they had about 5 Pitbull type dogs with them. I immediately thought of the stereotypical news stories about lads with aggressive dogs being bad owners etc (I know it’s a massive stereotype but hey what can I say?) So I watched these guys as they walked towards me and what I saw was three lads who obviously really cared for their dogs and were simply enjoying an early morning walk in the park. The dogs were chasing round after each other without a care in the world and they and their owners looked happy to be out…Exactly the same as me. I gave myself a ticking off for falling on stereotypes and walked away. I saw them again several times on my walk and on one of the times I saw that they had befriended another dog owner and were actively talking to them and enjoying meeting their dog. I gave myself another telling off and walked away again.
I’m heading back to the park tonight to watch the fireworks with some of my closest friends and I know that it’s going to be great. It might not be a life affirming experience but I know I’ll wake up tomorrow glad that I went and didn’t stay in watching TV or something similar.
Life’s pretty good when you think about it.
