[Life, rambling] A few words' worth

I've just come back from the Lakes. Three days, divided about equally between hill-walking, miniature golf and late-night conversation with friends. Very nice.

I'd thought that, after a week when I swore myself to an hour's brisk walk daily, I'd be fit enough to handle the ascents, but Skiddaw (a touch over three thousand feet) on the first day squashed that idea. Halfway up, I was doubled over and dizzy, with no amount of chocolate rations and water helping. But we eventually reached the summit and took in the view before the clouds fell on top of us. By the end of the day I was aching all over, but evidently toughened up enough to circling Grasmere and do another slightly lesser climb without worse effects than wind-chilled ears.

The Lake District's a wonderful place. I don't think landscape has to show no trace of human despoilment to be beautiful, but there is something special about seeing houses shrunk to model-railway size and the cooling towers of Sellafield literally fading into the distance. Surveyed from a hilltop, the Earth seems bigger and richer than anything we can put on it. Which is an intimation I think we need reminding of periodically, but (for all that Wordsworth tried) you can't really generate from words or pictures.

Assorted other notes. If you want to trounce me at something, pitch and putt should be your first port of call. Mission: Impossible Il is an immensely stupid and entertaining film. And our consensus is that democracy and political debate are fine and needful but shouldn't interfere with its servants who understand their own field and maintain the delicate balance of the evolved machinery of government.

Following what flows at the moment, I'm giving cartooning and music a rest for a few weeks and turning my hand to a couple of TV or short film scripts which I aim to shoot (however amateurishly) by the end of the year. Meanwhile I'll be looking for jobs in the same broad field.