Saturday 22nd August 2026, 12:43
My route from the farm where I'm staying to Wells takes me through a couple of fields before the path joins a minor residential road. As I went through the first kissing gate I saw a couple ahead of me. As usual I walk a bit faster than most so I caught up with them at the next kissing gate. As I was about to walk past them the woman said "Doesn't it hurt your feet?". I said that I'd been doing it most of my life and that I was used to it.
We fell into conversation about the weather, climate change, where we come from, etc. They turned out to be Germans from Hamburg but live in Somerset. I mentioned that I come from Wiltshire, the next county but live in Norway and this prompted a conversation about the differences between here and there. I said that life was simpler in Norway less bureaucracy than in the UK. The man then said that Germany was as bad as the UK and I responded that surely it was at least better organized. He said that it might have been decades ago but definitely not now. That's surprise to me.
I said that my first stop was the charity shops and the woman said theirs was too as they had a bag of things to donate. When we got to the first on (of six according to the woman) we parted ways. After they had handed the bag over and were on the way out we waved goodbye. The woman stopped before going out and said "I don't mean to be rude but you have a lot of lipstick on your teeth.". I assured her that it was far from rude and thanked her. So embarrassing; I thought I had got into the habit of checking but obviously I've let that lapse.
