8/8/2009
The morning after a late birthday party for Bell and Andriy, Drew woke me up at 1030am. "How does he sleep so late and get up so energetic!?" was all i could think as i muttered a response to the plans for the day and resumed my horizontal meditation for another 30minutes.
Having packed food for the both of us, we left around noon into the brilliant weather upon us today. As we got along the road heading to St Albans beyond the De Havilland Campus, I felt compelled to submit the fay into God's hands and prayed a silent prayer. Thanking Him for the great day and how circumstances had lead to this, trusting that He would take care of the rest of the day. I set my expectations at "We're not getting out of Hatfield" as Drew didn't get a ride out for 3 hours the day before what more with me tagging aong. Still I was confident that we would have a great day even if it meant staying in Hatfield.
As we walked along the road, annoyed by the existence of bus stops and the efficient coverage of the British public transportation network, we walked past a school field and noticed a car boot sale going on and decided to check it out, perhaps striking a conversation with the people there could get us a ride to St. Albans. Many were packing to go off and Drew tried to ask a couple of people driving off while I tried my very best not to look like an idiot in the background.
One guy pulled up as Drew asked him where he was headed. With a line of cars behind him, I wouldn’t be surprised if he just drove off but he pulled to the side and eventually agreed to give us a lift to St. Albans. Drew looked at me with the “See? What did I tell ya?” look as I stared blankly at him. I wonder how I must have looked to him then. Probably a cross between a donkey that’ve just realised that he’s a stallion all this while and a half-flat rabbit road kill. Or something like that. (Drew insists on the latter when I read it to him)
Tuan has the privilege of being the first ride of my hitchhiking career. (Well, that’s what she said as well...) He is of mix parentage being half Malaysian and from Sri-Lanka. Excited by that fact, we conversed in broken Malay. He managed a sell out as we could see in the empty folded cardboard boxes and the tone of satisfaction in his voice. Sure, I would buy all the T-shirts and polo-Ts off him too at a price of 1-2 pounds each. I felt bad for lyig to him when he asked why we were heading to oxford to which I replied “to see a friend.” Drew shared later as we were dropped off at St Albans railway station that being truthful eventually was better for him when hitching for a ride.
We walked to the edge of St Albans past the park and were welcomed with the sight of the plains and sheep in a distance. We proceeded down the road, stopping to eat some wild blackberries on the road side when another car pulled over. The couple on the way back to Hemel Hempstead from the Saturday markets took us to South of Hemel. Once there, we made our way to a intersection and asked a couple of drivers pulling up at the lights (well not me, I looked like donkey-stallion-rabbit road kill.) A guy in a van pulled up and Drew went over to ask him. Next thing you know we were leaping over the fence, rushing into the van before the lights turned green. Turns out the guy just got off work painting and called his mate shortly into the ride to announce that he was giving two “geezers” a lift to get along the A41 before he turned off.
Having enough of being a donkey-stallion-rabbit-roa
The twins described themselves as limeys and gave a little background as to how the term came about as we chatted about names other different people would be called. Drew was labelled a redneck while there was not much to be said about the Asian dude. What can you say? I suppose we all look alike hence... As we talked about limeys, rednecks and country people they announced that although they were from the country land of the UK, they are in fact not married. We were dropped off at a parking lot in central Aylesbury where we stopped for lunch at the park around the corner. After more blackberries for dessert at the side of the road, we walked a good way out of down upon deciding to take the back roads over the motorway. An hour or two and a couple of fingers at us while we were debating over whether those that gave us the thumbs up were encouraging or mocking us until someone interrupted us with two fingers as to which we had to agree was mockery. We pondered about what went on the minds of those who choose to mock us and what compelled them to do what they did as we made our way further out along the road. I guess the fact they didn’t have to face us or deal with us played a significant factor. Sort of like how some if not many who would be bold enough to start flame wars on the internet knowing they won’t see the other person, so were the people flipping us off knowing that there is little likelihood of meeting us again after those 2 seconds. That is of course unless Drew decides to break their windshield with a rock and they have to stop and deal with us and Drew would simply stab them and rip out their hearts before decapitating them and finally punching them, of which only one is true.
As we chatted at the round-a-bout near a railway station outside Aylesbury, a car went around and did not exit the round-a-about leaving two choices, a U-turn back the way they came from or for us. “a glimmer of hope, come on!!” I yelled as we waited in anticipation. Tim and Michelle didn’t plan on going to Oxford but were willing to take us north of it. They told us about their daughter who is also travelling hence their empathy towards us. The journey was filled with stories of travel and descriptions of our favourite places that we have visited thus far. Tim and Michelle were also kind enough to point us to a few places of interest in Oxford, and they eventually went out of their way to drop us right in front of a pub called “Eagle and Child” in Oxford where Tolkien (Author of Lord of the Rings) used to drink at.
We got around oxford and soaked in the sights and sound, but I can’t help but feel that I’ve enjoyed the journey more than the destination and Oxford just provided an end for the means. (Cambridge we agreed, is a better place- Lukas would be delighted to hear that) It was rumoured that Hitler loved Oxford so much he didn’t bomb it and if he had conquered England, he would have made Oxford the capital city. Well, perhaps there was not as much of an intellectual threat as say Cambridge? (I’m going to stop before I start a war here.) Drew and I made some video recordings and talked about how we could travel on a boat around (very likely induced by the song by The Lonely Island). We walked for quite a bit more after walking in circles towards the edge of town heading east as we were quite far in town to hitch back. Having no luck so far, we headed to the gas station where the second person Drew asked had a smirk on his faced and asked if we were hitchhikers. I decided that telling him we were wanted serial killers on the loose posing as hitchhikers would be an ill-timed joke.
Eric from Slovakia was kind enough to drop us at London where he was headed to meet some friends for BBQ. He lived in Oxford for 8 years and has quite a cool, important but unfortunately underpaid job as a systems technician responsible for regulating the environment in the labs. There was a sense of pride in his worked as he described his role in the significant research in the labs for vaccines and cures for diseases. We really lucked out on this one ride all the way to London.
Coming off at Hendon railway Station, we walked a fair bit to the first gas station and walked on when we couldn’t get a ride. Upon arriving to another gas station, we asked one guy who declined and was pulling away only to stop and reversed to honk as us while Drew was asking another person. I went over and he motioned us to get in. James “Spike” Milligan is a police officer and wanted to take us downtown because an American and an Asian guy hitchhiking were just too dodgy. Fortunately for us he was off duty and I just made that all up anyway. He was planning to go the States with his mate and travel around in a caravan and looks to trade police hats with the local police forces. He had told us not to walk further down from the gas station when he declined us earlier as we were about to enter the dodgy areas he often patrols. Turns out Drew’s accent were one of the factors that changed his mind. It was really cool to hitch as ride with a police officer and not have to go to a lockup. He even sent us right to the doorsteps of the house, which was really awesome. Spike, thanks very much dude and I hope you have a blast in the States next April with your mate.
This has been an amazing experience for me and I thank God for the circumstances that had lead to this. I hope I will always remember this feeling of boldness, that conquering the world wouldn’t seem impossible now.
12 Hours, 7 rides, 2 “Geezers” and 1 Experience of a lifetime.
Jonathan’s Journal- 11/8/09
