Burger Paradiso

It has been just over a year since I was last in Keswick with lockdowns and mixed memories combining to keep me away.

With a blank diary for the weekend and wanting a change of scenery, I was in the mood to exorcise some ghosts, so I slung the camera and a waterproof in the trusty rucksack and set off. The drive there was sound-tracked by Rob Brydon’s podcast and chuckling away at his conversation with Bob Mortimer.

The footfall was already in full flow by the time I had arrived, but fortunately I was able to get down to the lake and pick up a looped walk, which took me away from the hordes and gave me some precious time to think, take in my surroundings before embracing the memories and letting them go.

Purchasing a baguette stuffed with stuffing, pork and apple sauce, I sat in Hope Park and munched away as an old lady to my left sat contentedly reading a book and casually feeding the inquisitive jackdaws. It was so nice to just stop and watch the world go by.

With the amount of people piling into Keswick officially making it “heaving” I picked up a couple of bags of jelly babies from Friars (basically The Law when you go to Keswick), I headed home, this time with Ludovico Einaudi’s scores lending a new majesty to Thirlmere, Grasmere lake and Rydal Water.

I treated myself with the preparation of an immense bacon double cheeseburger (see extra) before finishing the second series of the Movies That Made Us – highly recommended. The opening notes to Petricor by Einaudi were haunting my head, so I looked them up and found that it is just four notes, which means that I can officially state that I can play the opening bars of an Einaudi piece. 

The day ended in perfect fashion with a long overdue viewing of Cinema Paradiso, which was simply magical (the themes of which also eerily echoing my own thoughts today) and the ending, which would bring a tear to the eye of the most hardened soul, was easily one of the best and loveliest ends to a film I have ever seen.

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