Malvern Moments

“Even if you start the day late, don’t give up on it.” More of my wise grandad’s advice. When applied to my life the advice becomes punchier. More like – NEVER GIVE IN, NEVER SURENDER!

My son Joshua had a melt down before I even got to the alarm clock to turn off the nagging ring tone. I knew it was going to be a busy day and as I wrestled four children and two dogs into place, the clock was on me. We were supposed to meet as a group at Worcester train station. The black little car I drive beat on surpassing a very surprised looking BMW driver. Just at the edge of the town centre I thought I’d caught up; but Forgate Street was a wall of buses, pedestrians walking in and out of the traffic. It was almost as if the walking masses were laughing at us. We who are in metal cages in an assembly line begging this world to move that bit faster. 2 minutes until they (my group) get on the train to Malvern I had found a parking space. Looking up the hill from the car park to the station a good 3 minutes’ walk away; I decided I best not bother putting by £4.50 in the meter. Jumping back into my warm black car I thought “I could beat that train to Malvern, it’s not that far, and it’s not rush hour now.”

Go on, you can laugh, I don’t mind.

As you can guess of course I didn’t catch up with them. Two wrong turns, and arriving at Malvern Link station and not Great Malvern station where the group had gone to. This meant I had to surrender the one target for today.

However, I am a chirpy and up beat kind of Miss, so I explored Malvern on my own. I knew that our tutor had set one task of travel writing and I was guessing the other was a life writing task. So I set about finding a car park and getting lost some more.

Malvern is brilliant, and very steep. The Worcester Way Walk which I followed was a glute burner of a walking track. Yet all the huff and puff pays off to a remarkable view. Looking down at the town’s mishmash of different styles of buildings from tall spired medieval churches and grand Victorian homes to the jolly clad Georgian and the wacky modern architecture. Then I looked out for miles of Worcestershire countryside. More of the cloud was lifting as the day had now warmed. Bit like me too who was peeling off layers of coat and hoodie.

I found a rose garden on a hillside, and a beautiful park. As I wandered round Great Malvern, I explored the different range of home-grown talent hidden in the art shops and cafés. I found hidden sculptures and hidden springs in the public parks. I may have been traveling downhill to my car but the pleasantness of day was surely picking up. Lazily day dreaming on a wooden bridge over a duck pond was rudely interrupted by that blasted alarm clock on my phone. It was time to head back to the university’s campus.