The walk that wasn't

Ever seen the 1970 film Out of Towners? Jack Lemmon stars as a guy from Ohio going for a job interview in NYC.  His well-laid plans to indulge his wife with a room at the Waldorf and a gourmet meal the night before gang very aglae as fog closes the airport in New York and the plane diverts to Boston. And that's just the start of their woes.

I watched the film on Wednesday night, and felt I was living a, thankfully, tamer version on Friday. 

We were going to walk about 11 miles, starting around 9.30. With luck we'd have a decent walk before the forecast rain began in the afternoon.   Crossed wires - well, misunderstood emails - screwed up our meeting point, but hey this happens, and luckily there was Benjamin Grosvenor playing piano on Radio Three, so I wasn't fretting.    

We eventually met up, and I was driving quite happily along a narrowish country road, when some nameless unknown character drove a little too close to me and with a flamboyant bang destroyed my offside wing mirror.  

Hell - we needed some coffee now, so a change of plan took us into a convenient garden centre café.  No problem and it was past 10 am, so I was up for my caffeine shot.  The lack of a wing mirror was niggling though - it's quite possible to drive without it, but takes some getting used to. 

Second change of plan - we headed to Oakham to see if anyone could fix it. As they couldn't we parked the car, kitted ourselves out in walking gear - boots, backpacks, maps dangling from our necks, the works. You can guess the next thing - the rain turned up on time and settled in for the day.

Here is Hudson's life story as a royal favourite, then as a slave in North Africa, his return to England, and later imprisonment as a Roman Catholic traitor.

So, a mile round Oakham, lunch and a return home.  As we walked back to the car, someone smiled cheerfully and said, "Not much of a day for walking, is it?"  Little did he know.

Oakham's butter cross and stocks

Oakham Castle - Great Hall