Day three: physical and mental exercise
... not to mention it being my birthday (hence the timing of Philippe’s visit). I’ve turned 31, so for the occasion we went to Stirling, site of my alma mater, to indulge in a bit of nostalgia. There was a time when I made an effort to spend each one of my birthdays in a different place - I think I managed it pretty well between 18 and 28 or thereabouts - but have since come to appreciate that while the place is of importance, it should still be secondary to the company you’re in. Apart from a slight impatience on my part at the time Philippe took to take some photographs, I couldn’t complain.
We were running a little bit late so didn’t get on the train until 10:30am for a 50-minute journey, some of which we spent reading (Alan Hollinghurst’s The line of beauty is proving quite an absorbing read, even if I still prefer Patrick Gale), though Philippe, being new to this route, did spend some time taking in the view. Our conversation throughout the day revolved around telling him, as much unprompted as in response to his questions, about student life in general and my experience of it, the only long silences coming as we conserved our energies walking up Dumyat, the hill behind the university.
This walk was a favourite student activity, on of those things you had to do at least once during your time at Stirling (which’d usually mean right in your first semester and then never again). The height and distance you walk isn’t always obvious - it’s 418m high but doesn’t look it and there are times when the peak looks deceptively close - but it still makes for a very enjoyable couple of hours. We met maybe a little short of a dozen others along the way, some dressed more appropriately than others, but most of all we concentrated on the beauty of the landscape, Philippe’s photography providing numerous pauses in the ascent. He was keen to get at least one close-up of a sheep, which proved quite a challenge.
There’s actually a choice of two peaks, each topped with what would make a good beacon for a fire, tall metallic baskets invariably filled with stones placed there by walkers. From a distance, they look like little protrusions atop two mounds, so in our student days we referred to them as nipples. It wasn’t unusual to be asked, once you’d got back to the campus, which nipple you’d been to.
Our route up Dumyat was the standard one, at least once we got through the wood behind the university and onto the road, but we improvised a bit on the way back down to avoid retracing our steps. It was about half-past three by now, time for a late lunch at the student union and perhaps more importantly an opportunity to rehydrate at subsidised prices (I’d foolishly not thought to take any water on our walk). Our legs were pretty tired by now, though after a good sit down we felt up to going to the base of the Wallace Monument on the other side of the university campus - we’d left it too late to go up the monument anyway, so that was that question answered - so after a few more photographs and the end of Philippe’s film we got on a bus back into Stirling and then on the train home.
We could have stopped there, only one of the pubs across the road was holding its weekly pub quiz and I’d invited the neighbours along (they came about halfway through). I only just had time to put the washing machine and breakmaker on before rushing to the pub, only to find we were half an hour early, though that said, had we got there any later we wouldn’t have got a seat, let alone a table. It was all great fun, with the occasional taxing question, the most challenging of which was identifying the ten countries (besides Germany) with the highest number of German speakers - nothing to do with proportions, so I was wrong to say Liechstenstein, however clever it sounded. We did get nine of the ten highest grossing Disney films between 1991 and 2003 though (the last one was Dinosaur, apparently).
We stayed for another couple of pints after the quiz ended (no prizes for us), then came home and went to bed pretty well immediately. As birthdays go, this was a good ‘un.
We were running a little bit late so didn’t get on the train until 10:30am for a 50-minute journey, some of which we spent reading (Alan Hollinghurst’s The line of beauty is proving quite an absorbing read, even if I still prefer Patrick Gale), though Philippe, being new to this route, did spend some time taking in the view. Our conversation throughout the day revolved around telling him, as much unprompted as in response to his questions, about student life in general and my experience of it, the only long silences coming as we conserved our energies walking up Dumyat, the hill behind the university.
This walk was a favourite student activity, on of those things you had to do at least once during your time at Stirling (which’d usually mean right in your first semester and then never again). The height and distance you walk isn’t always obvious - it’s 418m high but doesn’t look it and there are times when the peak looks deceptively close - but it still makes for a very enjoyable couple of hours. We met maybe a little short of a dozen others along the way, some dressed more appropriately than others, but most of all we concentrated on the beauty of the landscape, Philippe’s photography providing numerous pauses in the ascent. He was keen to get at least one close-up of a sheep, which proved quite a challenge.
There’s actually a choice of two peaks, each topped with what would make a good beacon for a fire, tall metallic baskets invariably filled with stones placed there by walkers. From a distance, they look like little protrusions atop two mounds, so in our student days we referred to them as nipples. It wasn’t unusual to be asked, once you’d got back to the campus, which nipple you’d been to.
Our route up Dumyat was the standard one, at least once we got through the wood behind the university and onto the road, but we improvised a bit on the way back down to avoid retracing our steps. It was about half-past three by now, time for a late lunch at the student union and perhaps more importantly an opportunity to rehydrate at subsidised prices (I’d foolishly not thought to take any water on our walk). Our legs were pretty tired by now, though after a good sit down we felt up to going to the base of the Wallace Monument on the other side of the university campus - we’d left it too late to go up the monument anyway, so that was that question answered - so after a few more photographs and the end of Philippe’s film we got on a bus back into Stirling and then on the train home.
We could have stopped there, only one of the pubs across the road was holding its weekly pub quiz and I’d invited the neighbours along (they came about halfway through). I only just had time to put the washing machine and breakmaker on before rushing to the pub, only to find we were half an hour early, though that said, had we got there any later we wouldn’t have got a seat, let alone a table. It was all great fun, with the occasional taxing question, the most challenging of which was identifying the ten countries (besides Germany) with the highest number of German speakers - nothing to do with proportions, so I was wrong to say Liechstenstein, however clever it sounded. We did get nine of the ten highest grossing Disney films between 1991 and 2003 though (the last one was Dinosaur, apparently).
We stayed for another couple of pints after the quiz ended (no prizes for us), then came home and went to bed pretty well immediately. As birthdays go, this was a good ‘un.
posted by Anthony at
09:10
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