A Time-out A-Z

What does a lexicographer do on her day off?

That's not the start of a corny joke, but a real question I found myself asking last week. After working flat-out on back-to-back projects for the past 5 months without a day off, I suddenly realized I was absolutely shattered and really needed a proper break from my desk. With some form of lockdown here in the UK since last autumn, it hasn't seemed worth taking time off because, well, what would I do with it? You can't go anywhere, nothing's open and you're only allowed to go out for exercise locally, which for me means as far as I can walk from home.

I enjoy walking and with my mileage dropping off over the past few weeks, I resolved to spend a lot of my week off getting some fresh air and exercise. But I've been stomping round the same handful of routes for the past year. On Monday, I did a long loop of Ashton Court Park, one of the few accessible large green spaces on this side of Bristol. After a slightly grey start, the clouds cleared and it was a lovely, sunny, 6-mile amble with a longer than usual (takeout) coffee stop and really nice not to be thinking about getting back to my desk:

On Tuesday, I had a lovely socially-distanced walk-and-talk with a friend around Bristol harbour in the morning, then with rubbish weather forecast for the rest of the week, went out for a wander around Leigh Woods - the other accessible green space - with my partner in the afternoon:

But what about the rest of the week? With all my usual walking routes already ticked off, I had to get creative ... and what better for an off-duty lexicographer than a city A-Z. I planned out a route that would take me along streets starting with each letter of the alphabet in turn, photographing each street sign as I went. I started out with two streets I've previously lived on and spent the next few hours squiggling my way around Bristol in a mix of sun, rain, wind and a massive hailstorm! This was the result ... and yes, I know I cheated a bit on J and X, but hey, my game, my rules!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The full A-Z was exactly 9 miles and lots of fun despite the weather. Many of the streets were familiar, but I went down a few I'd never explored before and just generally enjoyed doing something completely frivolous for nothing more than the satisfaction of completing it. And well, you gotta love an A-Z!

Total walking distance for my week off: just under 40 miles (64 km)!