I can't think of a time in the whole of my pre-dog life that I ever went for a walk for no reason. I am usually walking with a purpose in mind, be it a trip to the shops or to someone's house, but never for the sake of just walking. Now of course I have Jack and he loves going for walks with no agenda, although he does go to the toilet when we're out so even he has a reason of sorts. Does anyone walk for leisure? 

Today I decided that I was going to take Jack for a pointlessly long walk as having a dog with you gives you the perfect reason. Nobody looks at you funny when you're walking the dog, having said that, do people look at you funny when you're walking without a dog? How do they know you have no purpose? Do I read too much into things? 

Mandi had a few bits she wanted to do in town so we walked from our house to the canal and walked along until we got to the retail park where we stopped at Costa Coffee for a drink. As long time readers of my blog will know I am not a massive fan of chains but there's nothing else around and besides, Costa went up in my estimation for what they did at Christmas, even if it was just the one branch. As we had Jack with us we sat outside but the weather was pleasant enough for this, and the staff were kind enough to give us a bowl of water.

It was getting dark by the time Jack and I headed off for the intended walk along Trent Embankment but we weren't going to let that put us off. We carried on along the canal tow path for as far as we could before crossing over at Trent Bridge to go along the river. By the time I could see the river my head was clear of all of my problems and worries and a strange feeling came over me. It was a feeling I didn't immediately recognise, calmness. I don't afford myself the opportunity for calmness anywhere near enough so this was a moment to treasure. The rain came and the two of us were soaked through but it didn't matter, you can only get so wet before you don't feel as though you are getting wetter. As Billy Connelly put it, there's no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothes. 

I could have stayed all night just watching the light reflecting off the water and the rain making ripples. It wasn't pissing it down, just enough of a pour to get you wet but neither of us were going to give up. Originally I had wanted to visit the little lake area over Wilford Bridge that I discovered with Emily a few years ago but it had flooded somewhat and it was cut off, besides a lot of its isolated beauty was ruined by the new tram line and the fact that there's a stop there now. For some reason I thought I could walk beyond this point and end up near the University, enabling us to walk home along the boulevards but I was way off as the signposts for the university turned out to be lies and we ended up miles away. We did the only thing we could do, turned round. My WI-Fi was turned off and I had no signal so I wasn't tempted to check my phone once for the whole day, not even to check the time because it just didn't matter. By the time we got home I felt a strange feeling of total relaxtion and didn't even worry that this week's podcast wasn't recorded. 

My legs ached so much I could barely move them, which came in handy because Jack wasn't going anywhere in a hurry.

Please read my January newsletter here.

The Sunday Alternative Podcast #70 is available from here.

This week's episode of The Random Saturday Sessions with Alexa Hawksworth and her magic changing guitar is available to watch here.