England Through My Eyes #8

August 30, 1999

We went to Golitah Falls on the way back from Polperro. It looks too pathetic to be called a waterfall, rapids are more like it. Understand that it used to be more dramatic but it was blasted to improve the flow of the water. Anyway, it’s an idyllic place for a picnic and woods tramping. Stopped by and had a beer at Plymouth, where many historic voyages were launched by Captain Cook etc. As a naval base, it was heavily bombed during

WW2 , so the whole city is modern except the Barbican near the sound.

We were plagued by heavier traffic on the way back, everyone is heading towards the cities after the long weekend. No cars would like to stay behind the big backside of those caravans as it is no good for the caravans to start-stop too often, they always try to maintain a constant but slow speed.

It was the Lake District the next day. Frankly, I didn’t have much clue as to what would I be doing, where would I be staying at the Lake District even when I was on my way there. You see, I would be doing the Lake District with another internet friend. We had discussed several possibilities over emails and phone (while I was in UK) but decided to play it by ear on the details.

Paul (29yo) works in Cambridge, an IT hub in UK (the other is along the Bracknell-Reading area). He studied Computer Science in York University and is now an independent software contractor for the IT/telecommunication industry. Well, how he ended up starting his own company goes like this: after working a few years for a company, he got restless, quit his job and went to some unpronounceable places in Africa for a few months, came back, stumbled upon some websites that were looking for IT contractors, registered his company and started working on the projects. Unbelievably, the contracts which he drafted himself actually provided for unlimited travel leave. I think one must really be good enough to be on the bargaining side of the table.

It was about 2pm when I arrived at Windermere station. Paul met me there with his little red convertible. He arrived over the long weekend and did Waste Water and the Old Man of Coniston from Ambleside. Well, Waste

Water is a lake and Old Man is one of the mountain peaks. He had a well-stocked boot: survey maps, guides, sleeping bags, even a tent (just in case)! By the way, we didn’t need to camp.

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