People

When I first set off on this journey I hoped that it would provide me with both solitude and the opportunity to meet new people.
Hindering this is the fact that while sometimes very outgoing, I can struggle to find the courage to START talking to someone. I have spent time in pubs, conspicuously alone, without managing to speak to anyone except to place an order. On the road is slightly easier, passing someone walking their dog (or their horse!), allows me to greet the animal first and then fall to chatting with the owner.
The last two days have proved somewhat different. I have stopped to talk to farmers as I passed, scoring a cup of tea and a biscuit from one, and last night spent the evening chatting to a gentleman after we scored a table together in the crowded pub.
However the night I stayed in Blackwell takes the proverbial cake. I mentioned in Friday's post that the local pub offered pick up and at the time of writing I was just finished dinner, and was silently practicing chord changes on my ukulele. Mark, clearly a regular at The Queen's Arms, started chatting to me, and then asked if I'd play them a song. I must admit it been quietly hoping on a number of occasions that maybe I'd get asked to play something, to test myself in some backwater pub, to get past the nerves of performing to actual people when I consider my playing to be barely adequate to sing along to. I did not expect the amazingly positive response that I got from those lovely Taddington lads. There followed a night of ridiculous banter, requests to play some songs again and again, and sage (if slightly intoxicated) advice and encouragement. They kept me there til 1 in the morning, bought me a couple points of Guinness, and then collected up some cash to help me on my way. I could hardly refuse them.

To quote one of my new friends:
"That's proper, that is."