Wednesday 23 March 2011

Whatever happened to my cunning plan?

Oh dear......not only is the blog the latest it's ever been - but....

I've only walked 5 miles this week! However - I've cycled 35, including a major expedition to Chichester with Jill. I seem to be incapable of either remembering to take my camera or (worse) remembering to take photos when I DO remember the camera, so when I've worked out how to transfer the pictures from my Blackberry to my laptop I'll add them to this post.

and here they are - this is Jill at West Ashling pond

and me reviving myself with a smoothie on the return journey -


The rest of life sort of took over this week - and I'm really glad it did! Jen and Heloise visited from Cardiff (Heloise taking time out from an extremely punishing schedule of finals, workshops, care work and projects) and we drove Mum off to Epsom to hear a performance by Libera at the Playhouse. Mum first heard the choir on a Waitrose advert and Jen has been 'on the case' ever since. They were just about to go on tour in the USA and the playhouse was packed. The audience included a considerable number of Germans and Japanese, so word must be spreading. We all really enjoyed the concert.

http://www.libera.org.uk/index.htm

The weekend was spent up north - at a 60th birthday party in York, and visiting Ava in Leeds.


no - Ava hasn't got her numbers mixed up. She is calculating how many more miles her grandmother has to walk and cycle in 2011!

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Moving Forward

At last! I have completed a week where the cyclist has cycled more miles than the walker has walked  (more than twice as far in fact) - and this really needs to be the case from now on, as the cycling started later than the walking, the distance is the same, and who knows whether or not we'll get snow again this winter!

The boost to the cycling came via Jill, who suggested we ride out to Compton together, take a break in the lovely village shop and tearoom and return via Walderton. It was a 14 mile round trip, at the end of which Ian kindly sprayed my chain and gears as Jill had noticed that I was "clanking a bit". I certainly felt a trifle 'clanky' for the rest of the day, but have happily agreed to another (longer) ride at the end of this week. 



Walking has just been the standard village trail, but when I repeated the cycling trip to Compton this week I picked up a leaflet in the tearoom produced by the SE Hants Ramblers. More about that if I decide to join them for some walks.

I've tried to map where I am on mapometer.com but the site has been unbelievably slow this week - so I'm not sure of my exact location(s). I have every hope though that the cyclist has turned south and that the walker is now heading north (rather than west and east respectively up til now) - I'll feel as if they will actually meet some day if this is the case!

Plans are underway to organise the first film evening for the cyclist - and I really need to work out when I will arrive in Cheddar, so that I can set a date for the Wine and Cheese evening.

So - "moving forward" on all fronts as per this week's title. On Sunday I was in London for Z-Day 2011 (Zeitgeist, Moving Forward) - an event, streamed online, at which Ben was speaking, as well as (amongst others) his good friend Will Dixon. I sat with Ben's friends Kirsty, Wiggy and Jan as we listened to the vision of these activists for a radically different future. They all speak with the passion of true evangelists about a future structured around a resource-based economy, fairness for all, mental and physical well-being and the (advancing) technology on which this vision relies. I have many questions about the movement, and don't grasp all of the concepts, but I applaud the vision, passion and goals that drive those active in the movement.

From a personal standpoint I believe that, regardless of the structures we put in place, it is the human heart that has to change - and that the teaching of Jesus and other great spiritual leaders is about precisely that. Jesus (and this is what angered the Jews of his day) didn't advocate the overthrow of the Roman Empire. He talked instead about a new Kingdom, here on earth (not after death), where attitudes are changed and lives are transformed.

What do you think?

http://www.zeitgeistmovingforward.com/

Tuesday 8 March 2011

A couple of Valeries and a (private) View

Funny isn't it - I lose my job, and suddenly there's no time to write the blog!

Wednesday found me in Surrey, visiting Valerie (known affectionately in our house as "cycling Valerie" because we met on a cycling holiday in Germany) and delighting in the blue sky and other signs of Spring. We were debating which walk to do - and I commented that it didn't really matter, as the last few times we had been walking in this area I hadn't been able to see a thing because of the mist, fog, rain - you name it, we had it. So we climbed up to Leith Tower, only to find that the view was once again obscured by mist and haze in the valley, despite the warm sun and blue sky above......


Valerie had recently returned from a walking holiday in Spain and regaled me as we walked with tales of scrambling, tunnels, flowers and almond blossom - all arranged and accompanied by her ex-pat hosts. Inspirational!


I spent a couple of hours with the other Valerie on Thursday, helping her while she prepared to fly out to Christchurch to visit her daughter - and to meet her granddaughter, born just a few days before the recent earthquake. All are, mercifully, safe. We parted after enjoying a bike ride together, now named "Valerie Loop" on mapometer.com.

The lack of a view in Surrey on Wednesday was more than compensated for by a visit with my artist sister, Jen, to Churchill College Cambridge on Saturday and to a private view of paintings by Graham Crowley.

http://www.google.co.uk/images?q=graham+crowley

I've been tinkering a bit with earlier posts and have added a "stats" paragraph to the final post for each  month - tallying up the miles walked and cycled - and the best of 2 blood pressure results - just to prove a point.