Autumn begins in London
Tuesday morning - went to Forever Fit class. I had been on the waiting list for a week but managed to get booked in late on Monday evening. However there were over 30 people there, with many on the waiting list showing as ticked in - so annoying! Hardly any room to move. It was taken by Adil - so lots of stuff with bands (which I did with weights) and not very much bouncing around. Spent the afternoon sorting out my Kent walks - preparing route cards etc - and updating my blog. I tried Active Circuits for the first time on Wednesday - and rather enjoyed it. On Thursday I got up early to go to Aerobics - Linda was away and the replacement leader was rather energetic! I hardly had the energy to do anything else for the rest of the day.
Went walking with Maryanne in pouring rain on 8th September. It was a new walk from the book we were recceing for the first time and was supposed to be 5.9 miles - however we ended up doing about 8.5 miles and walked for nearly 4 hours! We were doing well until we got to Nettlebed - by which time Maryanne's photocopied instructions were papier mache! Mine were dry but we decided to keep them dry for the time being and rely on the map (a photocopy which itself deteriorated later). We spent some time trying to find a way down the A4130 - but without a pavement or footpath we decided to jiggle the route away from the road and pick up the official route further up. Then we got completely off route in the woods and spent a long time and several attempts at finding the official way (using the map on my phone) and eventually forged our own path through the woods and worked our way back to the route on the other side of the woods and perimeter road. We were back on track for a while - but towards the end missed a right hand turn (because of difficulty in using soggy map or instructions by this time) and walked quite a long way through Priors Wood before turning back and finding the correct route. My new boots turned out to be now completely non-waterproof - having been so good on Intrepid - and I could actually wring water out of my socks when I got back to the car. Map below - yellow line is the route we were trying to follow and red line is where we actually walked! The flag shows the start point.
We intended to go to The Fox at Christmas Common for lunch - but tried a new route and passed The Crown at Pishill and decided to try that as by that time it was 1.45 and we were concerned about pubs stopping serving lunch. We had a really nice lunch there - I had a steak burger without the bun which was delicious. When I got home I was quite tired and when Mike asked me to ring in the QP at Barnes I decided to have a kip to recharge the batteries. We got a QP of Cambridge called by Rod and some of it was quite nice. The practice was lively too. I didn't think I would be hungry in the evening, but found I was when we got to the pub so I shared a Mediterranean platter and chips with Mike.
On Saturday Mike went off in the morning for his "Health Check" and then on to the District Meeting at Sunbury. I had a very productive day at the computer and significantly reduced the amount of paperwork on my desk. In the evening we went to a Kitchen Supper being held for the Barnes ringers by Jo and Paul Teverson at their house which was most enjoyable - even though I was staying sober to do the driving!
Did the usual round of service and bellringing on Sunday morning and in the evening went to conversational evensong with John Rutter at St Nicks. I was worried we wouldn't get a seat so persuaded Mike to get there ridiculously early - and of course the church was empty! It soon filled up and was very full by the start. Monica elected to sit nearer the front but Jan (piano teacher) came and sat with us, and then also Andrew HS and Fiona. It was a very good evening - he was a very good speaker and had many opinions that were in tune with mine (the benefit of morning assembly at schools for learning to enjoy sacred music, the beauty of the King James version of the bible etc).
I tried Group Cycling for the first time on Monday morning - it was very good and a much more intense workout than anything I had done before. Rang handbells at Chiswick in the evening before the practice and had calamari for supper in the pub.
Went walking with Maryanne in pouring rain on 8th September. It was a new walk from the book we were recceing for the first time and was supposed to be 5.9 miles - however we ended up doing about 8.5 miles and walked for nearly 4 hours! We were doing well until we got to Nettlebed - by which time Maryanne's photocopied instructions were papier mache! Mine were dry but we decided to keep them dry for the time being and rely on the map (a photocopy which itself deteriorated later). We spent some time trying to find a way down the A4130 - but without a pavement or footpath we decided to jiggle the route away from the road and pick up the official route further up. Then we got completely off route in the woods and spent a long time and several attempts at finding the official way (using the map on my phone) and eventually forged our own path through the woods and worked our way back to the route on the other side of the woods and perimeter road. We were back on track for a while - but towards the end missed a right hand turn (because of difficulty in using soggy map or instructions by this time) and walked quite a long way through Priors Wood before turning back and finding the correct route. My new boots turned out to be now completely non-waterproof - having been so good on Intrepid - and I could actually wring water out of my socks when I got back to the car. Map below - yellow line is the route we were trying to follow and red line is where we actually walked! The flag shows the start point.
We intended to go to The Fox at Christmas Common for lunch - but tried a new route and passed The Crown at Pishill and decided to try that as by that time it was 1.45 and we were concerned about pubs stopping serving lunch. We had a really nice lunch there - I had a steak burger without the bun which was delicious. When I got home I was quite tired and when Mike asked me to ring in the QP at Barnes I decided to have a kip to recharge the batteries. We got a QP of Cambridge called by Rod and some of it was quite nice. The practice was lively too. I didn't think I would be hungry in the evening, but found I was when we got to the pub so I shared a Mediterranean platter and chips with Mike.
On Saturday Mike went off in the morning for his "Health Check" and then on to the District Meeting at Sunbury. I had a very productive day at the computer and significantly reduced the amount of paperwork on my desk. In the evening we went to a Kitchen Supper being held for the Barnes ringers by Jo and Paul Teverson at their house which was most enjoyable - even though I was staying sober to do the driving!
Did the usual round of service and bellringing on Sunday morning and in the evening went to conversational evensong with John Rutter at St Nicks. I was worried we wouldn't get a seat so persuaded Mike to get there ridiculously early - and of course the church was empty! It soon filled up and was very full by the start. Monica elected to sit nearer the front but Jan (piano teacher) came and sat with us, and then also Andrew HS and Fiona. It was a very good evening - he was a very good speaker and had many opinions that were in tune with mine (the benefit of morning assembly at schools for learning to enjoy sacred music, the beauty of the King James version of the bible etc).
I tried Group Cycling for the first time on Monday morning - it was very good and a much more intense workout than anything I had done before. Rang handbells at Chiswick in the evening before the practice and had calamari for supper in the pub.
