Still doing it apart from the day it really was tipping down. I'm boring for England on the joys of my Omron pedometer whilst walking the highways and byways, daily short walks with one much longer one each week and I'm now completely up to date with The Archers omnibus podcast .... everyone's grief at Nigel's terminal plummet is playing out slowly and it's interesting trying to predict where the plot will go next, but all I can say is that I think that baby of Helen's has read 101 Things to Do Before You Are Five and has this tucked up the sleeve of his babygro...
5 ~ Sleep Like a Baby Stay Up All Night
Lull your parents into a false sense of security in the first three days after you you're born by sleeping soundly 99 per cent of the time...clearly you're a very very easy baby.
Once the friends have drifted away and granny's gone home safe in the knowledge she's not needed, it's time to wake up and stay awake.
And it's only a matter of time before Helen develops post-natal depression I can sense it coming and I'm worried for Lily and Freddy, Nigel's children, and Jolene's obviously got her eye on Kenton and Ruth's getting antsy with David for not being around and how long before Elizabeth crumbles ... sorry, this must seem like tortuous rubbish to anyone who doesn't partake but I'm hooked in again. My only beef is that all that cooking of radio breakfasts had me starving before I'd even reached the end of the lane.
So half of The Archers podcast (and aren't podcasts just brilliant) gets me to here...
The half a mile or so stretch of green lane that does terrible things to my nice shiny shoes. I also learn from the Gamekeeper that this is called Maggie Purly lane by the locals and is haunted by the ghost of Maggie who hanged herself at these crossroads. We know no more so I have asked for a bit more detail.
So this week I by-passed the mud and headed down towards the river Tamar by more direct routes. Please note the word 'down' which will inevitably involve the word 'up' very soon after. I put it off for a while by crossing the bridge and walking part of the Tamar Valley Trail on the Cornwall side until it was obvious it had to be done.
I think you'd be proud of me because Bookhound had very temptingly suggested that if I didn't fancy the hill to home I could ring and he'd come and get me, but what is this all about, no loss without pain etc so I just want to tell you that, though it might not look like it (and how do you make a hill look steep in a photo?) this one is an absolute killer, long, steep and seemingly never-ending.
The occasional car passed me by full of enormous great big fat jolly unfit people about to tuck into a huge cholesterol and saturated fat-laden roast dinner down at the pub... well the cars probably were full of very fit racing-snake thin people, I just kept telling myself that to feel better, but to be honest by this time I'm in need of a life-support machine and could hardly see straight to be 100% sure.
The view back down to the river confirms what my heart rate and inner thermostat is telling me...that was 'upness' and I'm thinking about concealing an oxygen cylinder somewhere around this point.
Then once I crest the hill I walk along the flat for a while which is like being off life-support and in the recovery room, I then turn a sharp bend and see this...
More of the same but gentler and nearly at the 'only 3000 paces to go' point when I can ring ahead for the kettle to go on. By this time The Archers omnibus has long finised and I've caught up on Open Book and Mariella shredding Sebastian Faulks over his definition of heroes, and his slippery side-stepping of where the women fit into his new TV series... had I had the puff I'd have been singing 'Go Mariella...' as it was I left her to it and she managed fine without my help.
So at this point it's time for Desert Island Discs because in the absence of oxygen only music is going to get me home now. I'm way behind so last week I listened to Robert Harris and I liked him a lot, seems like a normal down-to-earth chap and I'm reminded how much I have enjoyed his books in the past. I am taking Howard Jacobson out with me next time because I heard a snatch of it this week and he sounded like a very normal-down-to-earth chap as well.
14,000 paces done on this journey and a lie down required... how are all you other walkers doing?
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