Flim Flânerie

 

Last week I decided to play “left right” on my afternoon walk. The premise is simple: walk a bit, then turn at the first right. Then turn at the first left. Turn at the next right, next left, and so on, until you’re done. I intended to play it for a half-hour, but my route got out of hand.

The number of dead end streets in Oak Bay is astounding. The area is riddled with narrow lanes and crooked offshoots that lead to gated driveways if you ignore the “no exit” signs – I discovered this when daring to approach a grand old house at what I thought was the end of the road but actually wasn’t. The pavement wound past the house and up the hill, where it forked in two directions, each of which led to an aforementioned driveway. So I trekked back down the hill and resumed my walk along a known through road – but that was on a different flânerie.

This one involved passing no fewer than three “no exit” signs before I got to a sort-of main road, where I turned left. I walked past grand old houses and gorgeous gardens in search of a right turn It took a while. By the time I finally got to one, I was flagging pretty good and still had to get home. So I turned left instead.

I walked a bit then turned left again, on to what I thought would be a shortcut because there was no “no exit” sign but was in fact a cul-de-sac bordering a tiny park with a creek running through it. I recognized the creek and decided to follow it west, toward the avenue and home. I heard voices ahead, lots of them. Kids’ voices. The path trickled through a scrim of trees and I found myself on a running track behind a school. I had no idea which school; there isn’t one near my place.

But there is one – two, actually – at the main intersection a significant distance from home. The rec centre is also near that intersection, and that is where the kids’ voices were coming from. I had somehow made my way around a hella long loop and come out further north than west.

And, since I had left both my phone and my limo pass at home, I had to walk the whole way back. Which I did, and happily, but no wonder Ter looked at me when I came in and said, “I was about to send out a search party.”

Just when you think you know where you’re going …