Got in my car yesterday afternoon and I went for a drive. This is something that I very rarely do, just going out in the motor for the sake of it, but the weather was nice and bright and all week people had been saying on the radio how glorious the colours of autumn were this year. So decided in my mind to drive cross country to St Albans, ancient place of pilgrimage although for the vast majority of souls who now inhabit this island that fact is long forgotten and probably not even known about at all. Been to St. Albans many times over the years, mainly because it is on the way to my parents place in Harpenden, or it is on the way if I choose not to go up the A1.
Usually if I go to St. Albans I do so by the shortest possible route which is a 20 minute westward swing around the M25. Yesterday however I drove straight on up through the forest to Epping which as usual was congested and full of Essex twat. Through Epping I then took a B road out into the country on the way out to Roydon. Music wise on and off (at least to begin with, later in the ride much more on than off) was Coldplay's X & Y, an album which I have only just gotten into. One which I have to say I am very much enjoying, mainly because it is so derivative and it is really rather entertaining picking out the influences on each of their songs; U2 and Peter Gabriel spring to mind, but there are others as well like New Order, The Smiths and even a bit of Beatles.
At Roydon the road was closed and I had to backtrack a couple of miles east to Harrow in order to pick up the A414. From that point on it was due west through Hertford, Hatfield and into St. Albans, most of it on fast road, dual carriage wherever possible. As soon as I hit the A414 the countryside seemed to open, the skies suddenly got bigger and up above there were some really quite spectacular cloud formations. Made the earth appear what it really was; a planet deep in space, rather than grey, full of concrete and a constant source of pain and suffering. Many cars bombed past me, people no doubt in the middle of their working day, rushing like hell from A-B, B-A or wherever it was they had to get to in such a goddam hurry.
There was no real reason for me choosing to go St.Albans other than that it was somewhere to drive to and it has a nice cathedral. The only thing I thought of doing there was picking up a copy of the remastered version of AC/DC's Ballbreaker from the HMV in the middle of the town. I had seen it there a few weeks ago when I had happened to drop in on my way to my folks. I had the orginal Ballbreaker however so it was hardly that urgent, even though I was kind of curious to hear how the new one sounded. The original was produced in the mid-90's by Rick Rubin and in my opinion it is one of AC/DC's best albums.
When I got to St.Albans I wandered round for an hour or so but in an aimless kind of way. I felt my energy dissipate as I looked for a place to get a drink a cup of coffee, but was put off by the fact that everywhere was full of noisy schoolkids, or students, or whatever it is they are called these days. Got to the point where I didn't even have the energy to go with a copy of the re-mastered Ballbreaker to the counter at HMV and hand over 9 quid for it. After a desultory search for some clothes to buy I gave up when I was unable to find a Next. Finally after much walking around the same streets and lanes I grabbed a coffee to go which I took back and drank in my car. There had been a market in the middle of the town which had made the streets and pavements seem really crowded; trying to walk fast was certainly not a good idea, something which out of habit I had ended up doing. Slowing down sometimes and just taking in the view was, it seemed, a lesson that I still had to learn.
When I had finsihed my coffee I cut my losses and got back on the road. Back on the A414, eastbound this time until I picked up the A10 at Hertford. There was still enough life in the day to make the ride home stunning in parts, western sun blazing on tarmac, 21st century humanity rolling through space, you know, things like that...By the time I got back Woodford it was 5 and I was fully recovered from my aimless non-productive walk round St.Albans, remembering that that had not been the point of getting in the car and going for a drive in the first place, that the 3 hours or so out there in the bright October light had maybe not been so pointless after all.
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