#65 OOPS BEN, WHERE’S YOUR (WATERPROOF) TROOSERS?

Rain, rain not going away… welcome back to dreich, drookit and LEJoG Day 65 Day 65 pre-amble Back to those Scottish phrases again for this one. I guess most people will be somewhat familiar with the song ‘Donald Where’s Your Troosers‘, by Andy Stewart, from 1960. Well I certainly wasn’t until Simon Mayo started playing […]

#64 LEVELLING WITH YOU

Welcome to LEJoG Day 64: feel that Central Belt around a perfectly flat waist Day 64 pre-amble This is a landmark three-day week for 50FootHead. Perhaps it has to be, to compensate for the lack of variety or excitement in the terrain and scenery. These three days (#64 to #66) will be spent walking two […]

#63 FOURTEEN MILES / FOURTEEN YEARS

Welcome to Edinburgh in an unusual August: LEJoG Day 63 Day 63 pre-amble Under normal circumstances I would never have considered arriving in Edinburgh for LEJoG during the month of August. Ever since 1947, Edinburgh and August have been synonymous with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. As a result of coronavirus, the Fringe was cancelled for […]

#62 A BONNIE DANDER (AT LAST)

Scotland (finally) welcomes me… LEJoG Day 62 Day 62 pre-amble Nothing too complicated here. A “bonnie dander” is Scottish slang for a lovely walk. On my fifth day here, that’s exactly what Scotland gave me. I thought about writing “aboot time an ‘ aw!” in the brackets. However this is the second consecutive day of […]

#61 OWER DREICH AND DROOKIT

Welcome to LEJoG Day 61 – drying out slowly Day 61 pre-amble Obviously Airplane II: The Sequel isn’t as good as the original Airplane! But there are some memorable moments, of which one is the “Over Macho Grande” sequence. Watch in full (it’s under a minute) to understand the full context, but the key exchange is: […]

#60 HELLWALKING

Abandon hope all ye who enter… LEJoG Day 60 Day 60 pre-amble Most of the time I just call it walking. But yes, my hobby developed by scaling mountains and hills. So “hill walking” makes it sound slightly more challenging. In the Lake District especially, those hills and mountains are often called “fells”. And I […]

#59 MONK ON

Welcome to LEJoG Day 59… the poor man’s abbey road Day 59 pre-amble I grew up in a place which is geographically part of Derbyshire, but has a Nottinghamshire postcode. The inhabitants of these ignored and unlamented borderlands around the Erewash Canal have a distinct accent not often heard on television and radio. Subtly different […]

#58 “…. I’LL SEE YOU IN SCOTLAND”

Welcome to LEJoG Day 58… We made it! Day 58 pre-amble Almost a year after crossing the border, we return to Scotland to continue the trek from Land’s End to John o’ Groats. The reason for such a long delay is obviously the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, as discussed here. My original plans to walk […]

H7: ANATOMY OF A BREAKDOWN, PART I: “AND I MUST BE AN ACROBAT”

And I must be an acrobat To talk like this and act like that And you can dream, so dream out loud And don’t let the bastards grind you down (U2, ‘Acrobat’, from the album Achtung Baby (1991). Hewson/Evans/Clayton/Mullen) Well. It’s time. Time for my three-part epic about how I got here. Each of the […]

H6: LIVIN’ LA VIDA LOCKDOWN

Well, I guess everyone gets that title, right? Not just that, but a quick Google will confirm that everyone’s thought of it already. Which, under normal circumstances, would compel me to think of something more original. As you may have noticed, these are not normal circumstances. One month on… It’s just over a month since […]

H5: “WHAT’S NEXT”, INDEED…?

The best laid schemes of mice and men Go often askew (Robert Burns, To A Mouse, 1785, English translation) Behind the curtain (meta stuff) It’s almost exactly a year since I published the first post on 50FootHead (the Pre-Amble). It’s been a very quiet winter on here, in spite of the expectations I had. The […]

#57 BORDER JOLLY (OR, A BIT OF PHILLIP AND SARAH)

Welcome to LEJoG Day 57, and to Scotland Day 57 pre-amble I toyed with several options for this post title, marking the momentous final border crossing between England and Scotland. Eventually I went back to my first idea, rhyming with the favourite dog breed of both my auntie and one of my anonymous blogging inspirations. […]