McGresty
as it happens
A little winter walk
You never know exactly what is going to happen when you step out your front door. Sure, you have plans and hopes but that door has to close behind you before everything takes place. It may be good, bad or indifferent, but it is there.
During the Moroccan Disaster I was completely soaked one day, nothing I wore survived the cold, wet wind. Saying I was soaked to skin was an under statement, it was to the bone. What followed was something like a cold but worse, my nose did not stop running and I felt miserable. A pharmacist prescribed this stuff to spray into each nostril and late on the second day of that my nose began to dry up. Enough was enough so I booked a flight back to London.
Landing on the 28th of December wasn't too bad, but on the 30th this Super cold hit me with no uncertain terms. A very nasty cough hit and it was so hard and long (sometimes hours) that I was exhausted when 2026 began. A good sleep was 2 hours a day. On the 4th of January a doctor came by and said I needed some serious antibiotics to tackle the whole thing which included earaches, headaches, sore throat and lungs pretending to be the Atlantic Ocean in a hurricane. It took a couple of days for them to begin taking effect. The Moroccan cold had weakened me, otherwise I probably would have been okay, though hundreds of people in England had the same thing. Sleep was still a problem but began to get about 4-5 hours a day, which helped a little.
Add to all that, a serious coughing fit happened as I was doing a bit of work on my laptop and my hands came down on the keyboard hard and wrecked the thing. It's been sent to Lenovo for repair.
Going out for a walk did not happen, the temperatures plummeted (-3C to maximum of 5C) with other parts of the UK experiencing hard blizzards with deep snow and even colder. Airports were closed, trains not running, schools closed and silly idiots driving without snow tyres on icy roads.
Weeks of freezing weather, rain and snow had finished. Outside it was 50 degrees, the sun was shining and I boarded a train with the intention of taking a short walk. This was the first exercise in nearly a month and felt quite weak, so needed a little trek to begin getting back into shape.
After arriving it was a short walk to a sign reading Footpath (what they call trails here in England). Enroute I passed: a man carrying a 4 month old all wrapped up in a kind of front pack, a woman with a wee one in a pushchair and a couple walking their dog.
With all the rain and bad weather that had been going on, I expected the trail to a sea of mud, but it wasn't too bad as my feet began to fall on the earth. I had wrapped up good because a somewhat chilly eastern breeze was taking place, wasn't too bad though. I have to walk slow due to a bad cataract operation (lens upside down, backwards and the cornea was not properly closed) which has left me nearly blind in my right eye. Doing so I notice more, especially the winterness. All the trees are bare, most of the ground cover dead awaiting Spring's resurrection.
It was nice to be alone, away from the crowded, noisy streets of London. A couple of Crows were flying nearby and a Magpie next to the path ahead, searching for something to eat. A short while later I ran across a guy and we stopped for a chat. He is a police detective on a break. It turns out he had some training and work with an old friend of mine who was the head of Scotland Yard's division working with drug cartells, small world.
The stroll continued with the occasional break in the cloud cover for the sun to shine through and bring more warmth. Once or twice some people passed by walking their dogs. It was a peaceful trek as I looped my way back to the train station and returned home.
During the Moroccan Disaster I was completely soaked one day, nothing I wore survived the cold, wet wind. Saying I was soaked to skin was an under statement, it was to the bone. What followed was something like a cold but worse, my nose did not stop running and I felt miserable. A pharmacist prescribed this stuff to spray into each nostril and late on the second day of that my nose began to dry up. Enough was enough so I booked a flight back to London.
Landing on the 28th of December wasn't too bad, but on the 30th this Super cold hit me with no uncertain terms. A very nasty cough hit and it was so hard and long (sometimes hours) that I was exhausted when 2026 began. A good sleep was 2 hours a day. On the 4th of January a doctor came by and said I needed some serious antibiotics to tackle the whole thing which included earaches, headaches, sore throat and lungs pretending to be the Atlantic Ocean in a hurricane. It took a couple of days for them to begin taking effect. The Moroccan cold had weakened me, otherwise I probably would have been okay, though hundreds of people in England had the same thing. Sleep was still a problem but began to get about 4-5 hours a day, which helped a little.
Add to all that, a serious coughing fit happened as I was doing a bit of work on my laptop and my hands came down on the keyboard hard and wrecked the thing. It's been sent to Lenovo for repair.
Going out for a walk did not happen, the temperatures plummeted (-3C to maximum of 5C) with other parts of the UK experiencing hard blizzards with deep snow and even colder. Airports were closed, trains not running, schools closed and silly idiots driving without snow tyres on icy roads.
Weeks of freezing weather, rain and snow had finished. Outside it was 50 degrees, the sun was shining and I boarded a train with the intention of taking a short walk. This was the first exercise in nearly a month and felt quite weak, so needed a little trek to begin getting back into shape.
After arriving it was a short walk to a sign reading Footpath (what they call trails here in England). Enroute I passed: a man carrying a 4 month old all wrapped up in a kind of front pack, a woman with a wee one in a pushchair and a couple walking their dog.
With all the rain and bad weather that had been going on, I expected the trail to a sea of mud, but it wasn't too bad as my feet began to fall on the earth. I had wrapped up good because a somewhat chilly eastern breeze was taking place, wasn't too bad though. I have to walk slow due to a bad cataract operation (lens upside down, backwards and the cornea was not properly closed) which has left me nearly blind in my right eye. Doing so I notice more, especially the winterness. All the trees are bare, most of the ground cover dead awaiting Spring's resurrection.
It was nice to be alone, away from the crowded, noisy streets of London. A couple of Crows were flying nearby and a Magpie next to the path ahead, searching for something to eat. A short while later I ran across a guy and we stopped for a chat. He is a police detective on a break. It turns out he had some training and work with an old friend of mine who was the head of Scotland Yard's division working with drug cartells, small world.
The stroll continued with the occasional break in the cloud cover for the sun to shine through and bring more warmth. Once or twice some people passed by walking their dogs. It was a peaceful trek as I looped my way back to the train station and returned home.
Needed...
Jan 21, 2026
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