23 November 2013

Seeking an adventure

Last weekend was Lumiere festival in Durham. 
Three days of beautiful light installations around the city. 
My housemates and I had seen the installations on both Thursday and Friday and come Saturday me and A were sitting together seeking an adventure...


"We're never spontaneous" she said. "let's do something spontaneous tonight". 
In typical "us' fashion, we started planning. (Not spontaneous I know, but we tried!)
That evening we grabbed two rucksacks and whilst she filled a flask with hot chocolate I packed the hot water bottles and a big blanket. 

Our bags packed we headed into the cold Durham evening, our plan to go sit on the wall by the cathedral and watch the projections lit up on the cathedral walls whilst snuggled under a blanket drinking hot chocolate. 
Idyllic? We thought so. 

So together we set out into the night. 
We weren't counting on the queues. 
It was Saturday night and this was a bi-annual festival so it should have been expected. 
As Students we tried to find all our short cuts to get into the city but to no avail. 


We ended up waiting in line. For 20 mins, then half an hour, to an hour. 
We found the whole thing funny, the amusement of having an adventure and simply standing 100 yards from our house in a queue. We had hot chocolate to drink to pass the time and in a stroke of brilliance A. pulled from her bag a packet of marshmallows to dunk in our warm drinks. 

Time passed and we chatted. 
We shared laughter and deep thoughts and future plans. There in the queue we so enjoyed each others company. 
We eventually reached the front of the queue and there was a man. Standing on a box, with a megaphone. He told us that the queues were too long to get up to the cathedral. 
Our glorious cosy plan wasn't going to happen. 


A and I looked at each other and then around at the street. 
A lovely little cafe she had never been to was next to us. 
One look was all it took. 
Ten minutes later we where in the warm, giggling over a cup of tea and piece of cake, at eleven at night. 

Spontaneity happened right there. When we least expected it. 

11 comments:

Karen said...

I love that you turned what could have been a disappointment into an adventure!

ally said...

The best nights out are those that are unplanned

scrappyjacky said...

Sounds like the adventure ended delightfully.

debs14 said...

I saw it on the news and wondered if you would go into the city centre to see it. Seems like the whole of the north of England decided to go too!
Sounds like your evening had a happy ending though.

Miriam said...

I was there with you, laughing at the notion that we would be the only ones with this brilliant idea! It happens to Paul & I all the time. A lovely post Abi

Maria Ontiveros said...

What a lovely story and sure signs you and A will be life long friends.
Rinds

Sinead said...

Love this Abi! Such a lovely story and I love that you both ended up in a tea shop at 11pm. What could be more perfect?! :D xx

Alison said...

A very 'you' ending to the story...I don't get the impression that you let many things become too big a disappointment!
Alison xx

Beverly said...

So glad that you turned the wait into lovely time together while I may have at that age, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't now :/ Also, nice to see that you were indeed spontaneous!

alexa said...

How wonderful to have tea shops open at eleven at night! Your beautifully told story kept me reading to the last engaging line and I am in awe of your ability to stay out so long despite the lack of getting anywhere :).

Anonymous said...

I love how you didn't let it disappoint you and made an adventure out of it.