Aches

In the middle of last week I got an email from my friend Kerry asking if I fancied going for a walk on Sunday. I said yes, so yesterday I got up early (in Sunday terms), got the bus from London Bridge to Friern Barnet (Muswell Hill is rather attractive), and then we drove out to Aylesbury. The walk is six miles along a side-branch of the Grand Union Canal; when this canal started operating in 1815, the price of coal in Aylesbury halved overnight. We walked to the Grand Union proper, which is in a town that just happens to have several pubs, so we had a good pub lunch and then walked the six miles back.

Very pleasant, though by the time we got to the car I felt I could not walk another step. My feet are fine today, but my muscles seize up if left too long in one place. I must walk more regularly (it doesn't have to be 12 miles), especially since, over lunch, I persuaded Kerry to do a 100 km hike with me in Chile in October 2006. We'd talked about it before but this time I had the map with me and everything, and now it's definite. Kerry's girlfriend A doesn't know it's definite, but I'm sure it's exactly how she would want to spend her 2006 holiday.