Walking Commentary

Thoughts and cycling from Manchester to Rome in 2023

harry mathews

Virtual Rome Journal

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Today, August 10th was supposed to be the day we walked into Rome. Two of us, hopefully still friends after a very long talk. 2700 km of talk.

The pre-pandemic plan was to walk from Manchester to Rome. Our departure date was going to be April Fools Day. The idea was to walk an average of 25 km, six days per week. We’d have made 114 hikes over 131 days. We still don’t know where we’d have washed, slept or eaten but we’re pretty sure we would have done quite a lot of each.

This Morning’s Walk in Dún Laoghaire.
A view towards our home neighbourhood, once again cloud shrouded.
The idea of dinner in Rome has a certain appeal today.
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Three Words

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‘I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: …’

I was adding toppings to the granola that Lia had prepared for breakfast shortly before I woke. My contribution was a dusting of quinoa pops and a spoonful each of yoghurt and some excellent botanicals. I cut two freshly baked sourdough loaves into four pieces, three for the freezer. It’s Saturday and there was no newspaper yet, the delivery times having slipped since lockdown started.

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Capital Dot Day

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I made some cryptic notes last November 29th when we were still living in London. I found them again this morning in a notebook subsumed during our relocation.

I had recently read Harry Mathews’ 20 Lines and was thinking about diaries at the time. I had been looking for patterns among my daily experiences that I could or should write about. I was also busy trying to build a commercial outlet for my photography, something I could continue when we moved to Dublin.

Garden: Far and Near at 600 mm © Simon Robinson 2020
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20 Lines

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What thoughts and whose ideas have a value?

Lia bought 20 Lines a Day by Harry Mathews recently. Stendhal had commented that “20 lines a day, genius or not, was a good place to start”. I was deeply impressed by Scarlet and Black when I first read it perhaps 40 years ago. A conversation with Gerry Hanley in the bar of the Delgany Inn elucidated from him that Stendhal got him writing with those same words. I had only just finished reading Scarlet and Black and was quite surprised at the coincidence, his bringing Stendhal up over a pint, my knowing who he was talking about. But I didn’t write 20 lines a day. Maybe that was a good thing?

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