I’ve walked ever since I could. I love it. I have no problem walking whatever miles are necessary to reach wherever I have to reach. I like the walk.
Theory. Walking.
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
I dont drive, so walking is my mode of transport. Some friends baulk when I say I`m nipping up to the local outdoor clothing place but its only a couple of miles away! Not too keen on walking in the rain though, despite what some people say….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TamdHlPm_IA
Love walking – do as much of it as possible! Love the ‘escape to the city’ theory, walking through city centres – but equally love a stroll in the countryside.
Thin my favourite walk is home from the pub, feeling slightly merry, with the earphones in!
More of a statement than a theory, but as a fellow walker I salute you. Novelist Geoff Nicholson has a regular blog in which he does theorise about walking, or at least addresses others’ theories http://hollywoodwalker.blogspot.co.uk
Everyone seems to have become Californians. “WALK?? But it’s 300 yards away! I’ll die if I don’t have to waste precious minutes of my life finding a parking space!” Perhaps its the exposure people don’t like, being outside their own controlled space.
I set off from work – I know exactly when I’m going to get home, to the minute. Times like that, not driving actually feels like luxury.
Same here. It’s the merest fraction under two miles to work (I use mapping programmes in my job and have measured it carefully), so I know if I want to finish the podcast I went to sleep to I should rewind to 32 minutes from the end, which takes me from door to door (unless I stop to feed the ducks on the river – something else I couldn’t do from the bus).
I get ducks as well.
And, less picturesque, Jehovahs Witnesses.
My journey to work is the length of a Goon Show if I wheel past the Max Geldray and Ray Ellington musical spots. (In Max’s case I always do, but sometimes I let Ray go)
The witnesses are in the process of building a new national headquarters a few miles from me, between Chelmsford and Billericay. They have issued reassuring press statements promising that this doesn’t mean the local area will get more doorsteppers than anywhere else.
I’ve grown more tolerant towards them since finding out what’s happening to them in Russia. Sometimes I even smile as I say no thank you. And to be fair, they’re always immaculately turned out – which makes them stand out a mile in Hull.
Doesn’t excuse their gay-bashing – but hey, two wrongs don’t make a right.
Whenever I’m stuck at work I’ll go out for a walk. I’ll usually come back with at least one idea. I don’t think we evolved to think sitting down. There’s something about being erect – steady now – and moving – oh go on then – that gets the juices flowing (sorry).
I either walk or cycle for an hour / hour and a half every day, and both are great for generating ideas, or solving problems. I always take a small notebook, to jot stuff down, in case I forget when I come back home. Have I had my tea yet?
I don’t drive anywhere these days, unless it’s a long distance that can’t be got to any other way. I cycle a lot – my commute is about 7 miles each way – but on a fine morning I’ll happily set off earlier and walk it. It takes about 1 hr 20 but there’s no finer way to start the day. Music or a podcast in my ears, the sun rising through the trees, the river sparkling. It’s wonderful.
I live about 2.5 miles outside the centre of our town and almost always walk in. If I’m in a hurry I’ll cycle but walking is nicer. Today I cycled in, dropped the bike off at the shop for a service and walked home. It’s been a lovely morning.
I find that a walk can solve or improve almost any problem. I’m in the process of an amicable divorce right now, and having quit my much more high-paying job for something on 60% the salary, money is pretty tight. I went to the bank this morning, came out fretting a bit, and by the time I’d walked home, perspective had returned and I felt just fine.
I love this advert…all done in one take right at the end of the day after the other “one takes” didn’t work out because of mistakes in timing etc.
This is my fave in that ‘genre’…
Walking to/from work, earbuds in etc is all good, but walking is also the very best way to hang out with friends; walking and talking. Just aimlessly meandering through the city while going through everything from the heaviest of subject matters to the silliest of jokes, for hours and hours (taking micro-breaks at spectacular views and a café when the energy fades).
Me and my older sisters are always meeting for walks & talks (sometimes the three of us, but mostly two at a time, which makes both the walking and the talking easier).
And I also love going on photo safaris on foot, because I love documenting the changes in the city (and I have a photo fetish for big cranes and covered up buildings and landmarks…)
Cranes is it? You should go to That London more.
The first thing that struck me when visiting the smoke when I was a boy was the ubiquity of cranes on the skyline. And each time I go back I look up at them and think “….Haven’t they finished London yet??”
I find walking in company difficult. I’ve always used a good walk as a way to be alone with my thoughts and find it impossible to pay attention to anyone else.
Same.
I enjoy walking very much once I’m about five minutes in. The problem is summoning the enthusiasm to drag myself out into your world. Fortunately, I have discovered the solution, which is the company of a dog, Dogs are already at the pitch of excitement I shoot for during the last twenty minutes of my dj sets once the mere idea of a walk is raised – their joy is kinda infectious…
Walking with a dog on the beach is as almost good as life gets. The galloping…
Take a voice recorder and you can write at least 2,000 words on a five-mile walk. (Quiet rural surrounds not included.)
I used to walk everywhere, and based holidays around walking – Lake District, Peak District, Brecons, Black Mountains, Cornwall, North Norfolk, South Downs etc etc etc. Then I developed arthritis in my hips which has got progressively worse, and recurrent plantar fasciitis in my feet, and it’s all I can do now to walk to the garage to get the car out. As someone once said, as soon as you get your shit together your body falls apart.
Can’t beat a walk, tho’ I find solitude a better companion to bring together all the competing thoughts that otherwise stress. Planning some of the long-distance UK trails, having done the West Highland and Cotswold Ways previously. Having said, nowt finer than stepping out in a city known from its sights, and drawing them together into a mind map. Did that for Paris recently, the side streets, as ever, holding more charm than the boulevards.
Let’s have a walk round the neighbourhood.
I said it in 1991 and I’ll say it again – that ain’t Bristol.
Quite right. It was filmed in a single continuous shot from 1311 South New Hampshire Avenue to 2632 West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.
That’s disgustingly precise.
It’s probably partly inspired by the promo for Straight Outta Compton, which I think inaugurated the trope of Flaming Trash Cans In Hip Hop Videos.
That, and Eye of the Tiger.
They don’t do that much actual walking, do they?
Funnily enough I have this week completed a sponsored “walk to work” – sixty miles from my home in the Staffordshire Moorlands to Birmingham City Centre (no surprise that I, too, love walking given my “nom de blog” although it also handily uses my wife’s maiden name). I used the canal network to make life easier (navigation was a doddle and there was little in the way of climbing beyond the occasional lock) and it was a wonderful four days. If anyone’s interested I posted a few pictures on a walking blog that I frequent (although not as often as I do here)
http://www.walkingforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=34506.msg495747;topicseen#msg495747
I’m someone who loves solitary walking but is equally happy to walk with one or two close friends – as people have said above, it’s a wonderful way to unwind and there is no pressure to be constantly talking; you can spend hours and say nothing and still enjoy each others’ company in a way that’s impossible in other activities.
Makes me think of Morrissey’s Autobiography where he meets up with Michael Stipe and they spend the day together walking through London. As evening approaches, Moz becomes aware that Stipe is getting a little more purposeful and is heading them in a particular direction. They eventually end up in Hammersmith and to the stage door of the venue where REM are playing that night. He joins the band backstage and then they stroll onto the stage to begin the show.
There’s a 15-minute movie in that.
On easily the worst tour of his career, wearing some of the worst clothes he’d ever worn… he still looks absolutely f888ing incredible.
I didn’t learn to drive until I was 33 so I have done a helluva lot of walking in my time. Trudging through icy grey slush to unsatisfying suburban jobs were highlights of my career in the 80s/90s.
Non-driving is more noticeable in the suburb or in the country. When I eventually worked in Central London it became less of an issue because nobody drove their car to work.
I love walking. I’m coming back to live and work in the UK this summer so I can do a lot more of it. It’s impossible to do much of it here; too hot, crap pavements/crossings and crazy drivers.