DORSET

Well, that was a quiet week.
Been away in rural Dorset. Which, in many ways, is much like rural East Lothian - only with "added money"! Every where you look there are large, ostentatious, "cottages" for the well off. Each one seems to be complete with a large "fuck-off" fence and one, or even two, larger "fuck-off" guard dogs.
It has the appearance of a place where folks with a bit of cash go to retire. But then spend half their time  trying to protect what's theirs (nothing wrong there I suppose).
Strange thing is though, that once out of their well protected houses the people were really friendly (don't think we walked or ran past anyone who didn't say "hello").

The place we were in was small and quiet but did boast a very nice pub that sold 37 different types of beer, and god alone knows how many ciders!!

Now. It's a little known fact that Dante Alighieri was a piss head turned tee-toatler. It's an even lesser known fact that there is an often over looked stanza in "The Divine Comedy" that sees him and Virgil not in another circle of hell, as such, but more in a sort of "annex" to hell that closely resembles a real ale pub that sells thirty odd different beers - beers that he cant drink - but only one type of cola!! (to be fair, both these facts are "little known", because I just made them up!).

Did a fair bit of running when we were there. That was a bit strange too. Loads of nice, narrow, country lanes - but they all had hedges about 12 foot high all along either side. It got to the point where you felt as though you were running through a tunnel, or a maze for morons - with only one turn every mile or so. The countryside may have been stunning - I couldn't tell you, because I couldn't see over the hedge!