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Bendish LodgeBendish Lodge

Published on ⋅ 3min read

Bendish Lodge, but not in Bendish;
King’s Walden, but not King’s Walden;
Near Hitchin, but not really that close;
Definitely in Hertfordshire though;
England

What a mouthful of an address! Thank goodness Rose met me at St Pancras when I got off the Eurostar, else I would have had no idea how to find her house. After an entire month of Star Wars: The Force Awakens being in cinemas, I finally got to see it! Woohoo! Thank you, Rose! (She shouted me tickets to the BFI iMax in Waterloo as a “welcome back to your birth land” present).

Now, I could go on for a long time with my analysis of the latest Star Wars film, however, I am conscious of what Mr Shakespeare wrote about brevity, souls, and whatnot, so I shan’t delve into too many details. Spoiler alert!

The wit of it: overall, I liked it. The plot sucked, it was episode 4 rehashed (come on, Deathstar already failed twice before). I enjoyed the characters though; it felt like a Star Wars film to me (which is what I wanted!) and come on, when are characters in the Star Wars universe going to learn to stay away from bridges over large drops??? Someone inevitably falls down the hole... seriously, what a trope.

I spent most of my time in England living how the English do: enjoying a pint in the pub. Of course, my pint was coca cola, but it’s almost the same. A pint’s a pint, right? So on the way to Rose’s house the first night, she pointed out her local, the Red Lion. The next day, I couldn’t be bothered cooking anything (Asia has given me a bad habit of never cooking… the problem in Europe is food isn’t as cheap…) so I thought I’d try out the Red Lion. I checked the route on Google Maps and memorised it (still didn’t have a phone and physical maps are so 2004). It was only a few miles away, so I figured it was close enough to walk to.

An hour and a half later I had discovered just how much longer miles are compared to kilometres...

However, the pub grub was exquisite, so it was well worth the time investment and effort! I spent a relaxing couple of hours in the pub, sipping my cola and reading Harry Potter in German, before I suddenly remembered it gets dark a lot earlier here than in New Zealand, so at 3:30pm I left and began the long march back home. Fortunate that I left when I did, because it was quite dark by the time I got home. A black, not very visible coat, with extremely narrow, icy country roads and fast cars are potentially not a healthy combination.

Now here’s the kicker:

When I told Rose about the my day at the Red Lion, how the glass conservatory is really nice to sit in and eat your meal… she replied, “which conservatory?” It turns out, there are two Red Lion pubs within a couple of miles of Rose’s house, and I’d gone to the wrong one. I did think it looked different to the one I’d seen in the dark the night before, but hey, I’d just walked for an hour and a half and I was dying for a drink. I wasn’t going to turn around because it didn’t look quite right! However, as I’d not achieved my goal of trying out Rose’s local, I made sure to pay the correct one a visit in the days to come.

I can safely say, though, having been to the Red Lions four times in four days, that the first Red Lion is the Best Lion. And that, if I ever decide to open a pub in the area, I’m not going to call it something boring like Red Lion. I’d pick something a bit zanier, like the Purple Dragon.

After a week of hitting the pubs, I wiled away my weekend hanging out with family. I spent a good long Saturday catching up on 12 years of life with James, and then Sunday evening, yet again in a pub (seriously, I swear that’s all there is in England), with the rest: Martin, Maureen, Rob, Zoe, George and Georgina.

I filled the other time by applying for jobs in Germany, walking the countryside, and a Friday excursion to London, where, like Paris, I walked around a lot. London actually has a very different feel to the city, in comparison to Paris. I’ve actually found it very interesting to just walk around some of the different cities: Bangkok, Paris, London, Berlin, Hamburg…