Day 8: Conyer to Faversham

Under Watered

I felt below par at the outset of today’s walk. What could it be? Then I wondered if I was becoming dehydrated. It’s easy to underestimate the amount of water needed in warm weather when walking long distances.

I redoubled my water intake and feel better.

Totting Up While Tottering Along

I have totted up a rough calculation of the work ZANE has undertaken in Zimbabwe over the past twenty years.

We have always looked after pensioners and veterans in homes and living by themselves and it numbers over ten thousand. Then there are six and half thousand treatments to correct child clubfoot that’s children who can now live normal lives as opposed to living in the shadows. . Thousands have benefited from our medical aid programme. Many thousand veterans across the Commonwealth now have access to two meals a day. The pop-up classes in the slums of Harare have been a great success. ZANE has brought relief to sufferers of cholera and political violence. A few years back we assisted the embassy deliver necessary medicines in the COVID scare.

It’s quite a story, all due to ZANE’s amazing teams.

And all worth walking for.

A Grumble (with Gratitude)

Some things in today’s world just get on my nerves! Here’s a grumble through the ghastly, the baffling and the just plain naff…

Things I Find Naff

• Men with Windsor knots.
• Calls to utilities that put me on endless hold, tell me my call’s important, then play ghastly music as a consolation.
• The question, “Red or white?”
• Comb-overs.
• Halitosis so strong it could be used to club a baby seal (amazingly common).
• Vicars wading into politics during sermons (often on subjects they know tiddly squat about and which have nothing to do with salvation) and saying “er” and “um” relentlessly.
• People telling me about the problems in Zimbabwe, as if they were new to me.
• Short socks.
• Politicians squawking at times of disaster, “Our hearts go out to the victims.”
• Being told, “No worries” or “Have a nice day!”
• My call being answered by someone whose accent is so impenetrable I cannot understand a word.
• Piped music in restaurants.
• Electric cars.
• People who encourage me to “enjoy” when food is served.
• Waiters who interrupt a meal to ask if everything is all right (I’d tell them if it wasn’t).
• Face masks.
• T-shirts with slogans.
• Fat men in shorts.
• “Smart casual” as a dress code.
• Tattoos and face piercings.
• Online petitions.
• Walking around with a water bottle.
• “Elf and safety”.

Things I Miss

• Petrol attendants.
• Train journeys with dining cars, tables, white cloths, menus and a waiter.
• Cinemas with usherettes selling choc ices in the interval.
• Walking unsearched onto a plane.
• Coal fires.
• Parking for free anywhere.
• Robinson Lemon Barley Water.
• Crisps with small blue packets of salt.

Things I’m Grateful For

• Jet travel.
• Showers (no one had them in 1950s England).
• Frozen peas.
• Kitchen foil.
• Mangoes and avocadoes in UK shops.
• Jeans, shorts and slip-on shoes.
• Modern medicine and dentistry (not the bills for the latter!)
• Interflora.