Today me and Eva were at a loss for things to do, so in the end we decided to go for a walk and then reward ourselves afterwards at a cafe that Eva said did very nice hot drinks.

We're a bit unlucky with the weather, it keeps alternating between sunshine and showers, so we did our best to time our walk between the rain. It didn't work completely, it rained a bit once we got to the forest where the walk started, but once the showers stopped and the sun came out we soon dried off.

I'm under instructions to tell you all that we had to edge around a cliff, and we saw lots of nature and wildlife. In reality we had a bit of a death-defying moment (alright, a moment where we could have fallen into a pond) on a very slippery bridge, edged our way around a tree with a very slippery path next to the river, saw a deer, and found a mushroom. The rest of the time were vaguely lost, in that we weren't sure where we were but Eva was fairly certain we were going in the right direction. There were very few maps around, and no signposts to point us in the right direction, unless we were on a cycle path. Cyclists are allowed to know where they're going, hikers just have to hope for the best :P

We eventually found our way back to the start and went to the cafe for some hot chocolate and something to eat. They had a mixed platter that we decided to share, with me eating the meat and Eva eating the vegetarian-friendly bits (olives, cheese, egg rolls and crackers).

We've now had dinner, got pizza as a reward for walking so much today. And tomorrow will include more walking as we have two golden retrievers to entertain!

Have a nice evening everyone!

Walking for the MNDA

As some of my followers may remember, last year I did a walk around Bushey Park near Hampton Court, in order to raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association. I signed up to do it again, and was all prepared to spend my Sunday strolling around.

But then I got an email early Sunday morning to let me know that due to the bad weather that was forecasted the walk had been called off. Had it rained the little room we were using wouldn't have been big enough to hold all the people that were coming, and there was a LOT of rain due! The email said that those of us who wanted to were welcome to do their own walk in their own time, but the South West London organisers wouldn't be setting another "official" date (it takes a lot of organising to set up something like this, so simply rearranging it for another day is not really possible).

Not only did it not look like the weather would be getting any better any time soon, but there are very few weekends that I'd be able to do it. It was either do it this weekend, or end up not doing it at all. Since I was prepared anyway I decided to do it on Sunday anyway.

The next problem though was location. I had never been to Bushey Park before last year's walk and I hadn't been since. It's quite a long bus ride away and I don't know the rest of the area very well either, if I wanted a cup of tea after I wouldn't know where to go. So I looked up Richmond Park, it looked big enough for me to be able to cover a couple of miles and it was close by. So I got my fleece, my QPR hat (which keeps my head dry since I'm not fond of umbrellas) and my backpack and headed off to Richmond Park.

I got off the bus at Petersham Gate. After orientating myself with the help of the map next to the gate I headed down the path towards Ham Gate. And then down to Kingston Gate, across and up to Ladderstile Gate, from there to Robin Hood gate, up to Roehampton Gate, over to Sheen Gate and then finally to Richmond Gate, where I managed to find another bus to me back into the center of Richmond where I followed my Mum's suggestion and went to Cafe Nero for a nice hot chocolate.

It was very tiring. There are more hills in Richmond than in Bushey. There's also more joggers and cyclists whom you have to evade, and you can only find a map at a gate so if you think you're lost you can't really check without finding a gate. At one point I thought I had gone the wrong way so I had to double back to the previous gate to check I was going the right way. The rain started pretty quickly once I got there so I soon got soaked, each time the rain stopped it soon started again so even if I got slightly dry I soon got wet again. It's also difficult to do the walk on your own, not only do you not have anyone pointing you in the right direction but there's also no one to tell you how much further to go. Towards the end it was getting very tiring, if I had planned on walking back to Petersham Gate I probably would have given up before that (as it was I couldn't see a direct route to it from Richmond Gate, hence my decision to make Richmond Gate my end-point in the first place.

According to Wikipedia, Richmond Park is 3 square miles. I don't know what that is in terms of non-squared miles, but my housemates are sure that I walked well over the 5 miles I had been intending. I'm fairly sure they're right, I was very tired afterwards and definitely felt like I'd walked far, far more than last year (although it didn't help that I was soaked by the rain). I was also aching a lot more when I woke up on Monday morning. If anyone wants to try and work out how much I walked using the map I linked above (I think I missed Bog Gate but I'm not sure, I might have taken the sand-coloured path by accident) then I'd be very interested!

Overall I raise £140 for the MND Association! If anyone else wants to sponsor me that can do so here- https://www.justgiving.com/Katie-Collins5

I'm currently on holiday in the Netherlands! Watching lots of TV and relaxing. Apologies for the late post, I spent Sunday afternoon getting warm, finishing packing, and resting my tired legs!

Have a good week everyone!

Walk Around London

A few months ago I saw a picture of a dilapidated church covered in vines and trees. This kind of picture isn't too unusual in the countryside, where tiny Parish churches have been abandoned as the community has moved on (on occasion the community has literally moved on, to another location, so the church spire will be the only thing left), but I was surprised to find out that this church was in London!

St Dunstan's in the East was originally built in Anglo-Saxon times, so a church has been on that spot for a very, very long time. Unfortunately it hasn't been a lucky church. Along with many others it was a victim of the Great Fire of London in 1666 and became one of the projects of Sir Christopher Wren, who is famous for rebuilding St Paul's Cathedral but who actually dealt with the rebuilding just over 50 churches in London. St Dunstan's wasn't rebuilt from scratch, it was simply patched up and given a Wren-designed spire, and then rebuilt properly in the 1800's.

However it only stood for a few hundred years before the Blitz of the second world war led to it being damaged again. Post-war it was decided that the church would not be rebuilt, and in 1967 it was turned into a public garden!

When I realised this church was in London I decided I had to go and see it, and so last weekend I packed up my camera and a book and headed from Kew Gardens out to Monument station (you gotta love the District Line). Monument is one of the stations in "The City", the financial district of London. Normally it's insanely busy and you have to dodge stockbrokers as well as tourists, but on Sunday it was blissfully quiet apart from a few people stopping to gawp at Monument itself (it's a big tower that commemorates the Great Fire).

St Dunstan's in the East

Remember when I said my camera meant I would start putting up my own pictures? Well that's what'll be in this post! That's the entrance to the church, it's a bit difficult to find as you go down a tiny side-street and practically stumble on it. But it's very peaceful and very green!

On my way to St Dunstan's I came across another church, I didn't go in but I did get a snapshot.

Random Church

I wish those bollards weren't in the way, but if I moved closer to get them out then I ended up losing the sense of the narrow street. Personally this is my favourite photo of the whole day, the Italian flags outside the restaurant and the fact that there's actual sunlight suggests you're in Italy rather than London.

I was getting a headache by this point, mostly caused by the underground journey, so I went to a nearby Caffe Nero for a drink and a tasty snack!

Tea and Syrup Waffles

With caffeine and sugar in me I felt much better, and since the rain was still holding off and it was warm without being hot I decided to see how far I could walk. I set off down Eastcheap and simply walked until my legs wore out. I kept finding churches for some reason, I don't know if God was expecting me to pop in for a visit but I always feel weird wandering into a church on my own, so I popped my head round a few doors and then left. There was one very big door I didn't pop in to though, mostly because I want to go back one day and have a proper look!

St Paul's Cathedral

Yes it's St Paul's Cathedral! Excuse the road sign but it's difficult to get a decent photo of the blasted thing as it's surrounded by busy roads, and frankly I was simply relieved that I hadn't over-exposed the sky, which is my biggest problem with these kinds of shots.

Bracken House

I have no idea what Bracken House is but I had to take a photo of the "clock" over the doorway simply for the zodiac signs! It looks even more beautiful when you're right in front of it.

Strand Station

For a year of my life I walked past this station once a week as I headed to Kings for a lecture as part of my MA. Strand Station is an abandoned underground station that is now regularly used for films. During the second world war it was used during the Blitz to store art from museums and art galleries that were at risk of being bombed.

And at this point I was started to get a bit tired, so I walked on a bit further and then cut down a road to the river and walked along until I found Embankment station and decided it was time to call it a day.

If you're ever in London and full of energy then walking from Monument down to the Strand is ridiculously easy and takes in a lot of well-known areas, along with St Paul's you also end up going down Fleet Street, where the newspapers used to be, and go past The Old Bailey, and if you carry on further than I did you'll end up at Charing Cross near Trafalgar Square. Plus there's lots of places along the way where you can stop for a drink and a sandwich.

Have a good week everyone!

The Walk!

I've just stumbled through the front door with knackered legs and worn out feet, because today I did a five mile walk for the Motor Neurone Disease Association around Bushey Park, near Richmond/Twickenham/Kingston in London.

When I woke up this morning the first thing I did was look out my window. Yesterday it rained a lot so I was praying that it would stay dry, and while it was cloudy that didn't necessarily mean that it would rain. I just had to cross my fingers. My first stop, before getting the bus to Richmond, was to the bakery for breakfast. The original plan was to get cheese straws but I realised that while they're tasty they're not exactly filling. So I also bought a flapjack too.

A flapjack like this by Marmalady, except mine didn't have fruit.

The bus journey was interesting, I've been driving for nearly 7 years now so I'm not used to buses, so the trip consisted of me worrying that I had got on the wrong bus and was going to end up miles away in the wrong direction. When the display showed my stop was next I nearly threw myself out of the door then and there XD

The set off point was the Stockyard Entrance to the park, marked out with blue and orange balloons and a bloke in a blue t-shirt who pointed me to the little tent set up where I could register. I was already wearing the MND t-shirt I was given when I went to cheer at the London Marathon, but they gave me a second one ("this one has extra feet!") and a little two orange feet badge. After that there was nothing to do but stand around and wait for the 11 am kick off. I was on my own and knew absolutely no one, but one of the marshalls wandered over and had a chat with me and explained the route. It started to rain so we all ran under cover, but it quickly cleared up so we all hoped that that would be end of it.

By 11 everyone was ready so we went to the "starting point", the gate to the Park, where a man with a megaphone gave us a few quick details and then we were on our way!

There were quite a few people ahead of me, and my intent was not to stride on ahead like I normally do but to stroll along. Unfortunately I didn't have anyone to talk to and match paces with, and I had Metallica in my ears and some of their music has quite a fast beat, so I slowly but surely began to overtake people until I was well ahead, with only two people in front of me.

The walk was very nice along a path that wound it's way through the park. It's obviously a very popular space, there were lots of cyclists and joggers and a few other walkers as well. The problem with being in front was that I wasn't sure if I was going in the right direction so I occasionally glanced back to see if anyone was following and felt very relieved when I saw the line of other blue shirts, until I ended up going a bit too far ahead and lost sight of them completely but by this time one of the marshalls, who was on a bike, realised just how fast I was walking to he gave me directions for the next section so I knew where I was going.

I spotted a deer like this! (Photo from petekdesign on Etsy)

I eventually caught up with the couple ahead of me when they slowed down to look at some deer that were in the park and talked to them as we walked. And then the rain started, properly. They paused to pull on coats and take cover under a tree but by this point I was in my stride so I carried on walking, even though the rain was rather on the heavy side. It soon stopped but by that point my clothes were quite wet, however I simply bore the damp (I HATE walking in wet jeans) and strolled on regardless, still listening to Metallica who proved to be a very good motivator.

Bushey Park by...me!

And then suddenly the sun came out! And it was at that point that I remembered I had my camera with me so I dug it out of my bag (still walking) and shot my only sunny snap of the day (again, while still walking) as I rounded a corner and found a nice green space. At this point I was starting to slow down as my energy was flagging but I knew I couldn't be too far away from the end. I had been overtaken by two people jogging (jogging five miles!?) but apart from them I was still well ahead. I finally got to the final stretch, which is always the worst part. It was about two thirds of the way up the original path from the main gate but it seemed much, much longer! The end was in sight but it looked like the longest distance in the world!

Me, massively frizzy hair is totally in fashion this season XD

Except obviously it wasn't the longest distance in the world. I walked through the same gate I had started at and wandered back to the tents. The problem with being the first walker to finish (I have no idea where the jogging people went) was that I had no idea where I was going, no crowd to follow, so I stood around like a lemon until someone in yet another blue t-shirt spotted me, asked if I had finished and sent me off to a barn where food had been set out! As soon as the word "tea" was mentioned I nearly collapsed on the floor from relief before getting a sandwich and some sausage rolls.

The next people to arrive were the couple I had spoken to, and then other people began to arrive back and wander in as well. I had a nice conversation with a lady called Kim, who is part of one of the fundraising groups and has now added me to their newsletter and who took the above photo for me, and then I headed home.

In total I've raised £275 for the MND Association! My target was £200 so I'm ecstatic about thoroughly breaking it and owe my sponsors a big, big thank you for contributing on my Justgiving page. This is a charity that is very close to my heart since my Grandad passed away from MND and is always going to be close to my heart, at least until a cure for MND is finally found. It says a lot about this illness that the first two questions I was asked this morning (and several times throughout the day) were "What's your name?" and "Who did you lose to MND?", and those weren't official questions for the registration.

Me and some of my family in Italy in 2005, with my Grandad on the far right!

Have a nice week everyone!