Plans never quite work out exactly how you want them to. Got up this morning intending to have a day out – and in that I succeeded – although my intention to get out of Manchester and get to Buxton didn’t go according to plan. Instead, I leapt on what I thought was the correct train, wasn’t told otherwise – and an hour later found myself waking up in Crewe. Not somewhere I wanted to be. And that was after having bought two new comics on the way to the station, and then succeeding in leaving them on a bench in the station, and only realising after the train was in motion. On top of everything else, there wasn’t really an easy way of linking where I was to where I wanted to be, so I had to go all the way back to Manchester and start again (although at the least, it was a fast train with only three stops). After a night’s sleep that felt more like having a fight than getting genuine rest, I was all ready to be messy and upset, and yet by the time I got to Buxton (3pm), I actually found myself in a pretty good mood, and discovering the Pavillion Gardens there was actually rather lovely. A big, sprawling set of parks, lots of Victorian (and older) buildings with some very impressive domes, and the sun even came out, making the whole thing feel restive in a way I really needed. I’ve wanted to get out of Manchester into the Peak District for a while – and hopefully today means I’ll have ironed out the bugs in the programming for next time’s journey. I didn’t used to notice the natural world quite as much as I do now, and I like being this way. I’m going to get out again, and I’m going to remind myself that however difficult and claustrophobic my life on my own may feel at times, there’s a bigger world that’s out there just waiting to be discovered.

And hopefully next time, I’ll at least try and read the comics before I lose them…