It’s been a full day, I had an unbelievable amount of energy while travelling and I still have one more run left to accomplish. I decided, just for tonight, to complete my running plans.
We checked into our hotel around the Lake District Hotel name: The Coniston Hotel Country Estate & Spa We arrived just after 6pm, there was no entertainment at the hotel and we couldn’t sleep this early, so we all put our bags down and went out for a walk. I changed into my sportswear and was ready to measure the quiet countryside with my feet.
Behind the hotel was a small road, similar to the Keegan Road in China, with grass on both sides, and then grass at the end, and black and white cows strolling freely on the grass.
The path was still a bit wet and I didn’t see a runner until I had run 1km. The road just stretched on without people, the greenery and the light dark clouds in the sky stretching on.
At regular intervals, walls of short stone stakes half a man’s height were built into the grass.
This is the legacy of the famous English enclosure movement, where landowners and the bourgeoisie enclosed land for private use. The wind picked up at night and hummed across the grass, a vast expanse of land where I became very small.
I like to run in circles and take a shortcut to a road that is not wide, full of cars, and the cars don’t slow down when they see people, so I am frightened and choose to go back the way I came.
Running here is infinitely closer to the earth, and the whistling wind still echoes in my head. When I run in China, right in Huangzhong Park, there are a lot of runners and walkers, and to run so quietly and calmly is only possible late at night.
Getting up early and continuing north towards Edinburgh, we stop midway in a small town, Gretna Green a town in southern Scotland famous for its escapades, once the first village in historic Scotland, which links the route from London to Edinburgh.
So we are in Scotland today and the town resembles an accent piece on the blue sky and green grass. The colour of the buildings is mostly white and the houses are not high, a kind of quietness with the times.
The three ladies of Downton Abbey, Sybil Crawley and Branson, are not of the same class. Sybil is the daughter of an earl and is of noble status, she is brought up to be favoured and dares to break all traditions, she bravely falls in love with their family chauffeur, a Scottish lad, Tom Branson. The two of them plan to elope to the wedding town and marry quietly in order to pursue their love. Fortunately, Mary, the eldest sister, and Edith, the second lady, arrive just in time to persuade them to return to Downton Abbey.
With over 5,000 weddings taking place in the wedding town each year, the air here smells of sweetness. Over the centuries, it has witnessed countless loves.
We didn’t get a scarf at Lake Windermere and our guide gave us time to shop in the runaway town, we dug into the shops where most of the goods were locally made in Scotland, especially the scarves, the Babbage scarves were more expensive and actually made locally on behalf of the family, said the scarf from this family was also made for Babbage. People want to bring gifts for their relatives and friends, and this is the place to go.
The Chinese are commercially nimble and so many people want to buy the products, so they lobbied the shopkeeper for a group purchase and after a long communication, the shopkeeper agreed. The tour guide said that the British are actually learning from the Chinese way of doing business, which they would not have agreed to before. The Chinese do have something to be proud of!
The shopkeeper had his hands full and the cashier was packed. It took the cashier girl ages to get us sorted. The adrenaline rush from the shopping, the red faces, the smiles of contentment on our faces.
Little Liu’s wife and Linda were very efficient and precise in their shopping. We carried our handbags and our beloved objects, and the world would be brought closer to beauty by the objects. I think this is the ultimate goal of shopping. Perhaps the world is too lonely to be recognised for the objects, the type of belonging, and the value the objects bring.
