daisy 

Walked to Kentish Town and back.  The lovely fruit stall by KT tube has suddenly gone, and the old market area is being re-paved and done up.  Looks like they are keeping the fine old iron canopies - perhaps restoring the market ?  If you have not been to London for a couple of years, you would be amazed at how much and how quickly it is changing.  And mostly for the better in my opinion.  Now that we are (ahem) the Olympic City, there's going to be even more of this

50 minutes aerobics at gym this morning, it was lovely and quiet, too, Marilyn the Massage lady and I had the place to ourselves.  Also did about 30 mins upper body work.  This must be one of the worst summers on record in Britain: cool, overcast, miserable.  I blame the government.

Quiet day - housework this morning, then to shops for vegetables & fish for supper.  Tim came at lunchtime, backed up Laurence's PC and bought a new router, which should improve our wifi.  The menfolk were upstairs all day, I cooked and read - not many steps

50 minutes aerobic work at gym this morning, plus 40 minutes weights and other exercises.  This account for most of my steps today, rest of the time spent reading, writing and watching the closing ceremony in Beijing

Walk to shops for newspaper, fruit and cash, reading and writing this pm, about 5pm realised only 6000 steps, so walked to Tufnell Park and back along Archway Rd, Holloway Rd and home.  This walk takes about half an hour and yields 4000 steps, including lots of aerobic teps as long as I don't stop and look in shop windows

Poetry this morning, then a pile of ironing while L tried to connect my iPod Touch to the net via our wifi - no success.  I took it down to Upper St where there is free wifi - limited success.  But on the bus back to Upper St this evening we finally got on line, so it does work.  Lovely supper at Bijou l'Ange, walk and bus home

To the Apple Store in Regent St again - returned the cover they sold me which looks great but you can't use the iPod when it's on !  Then gym this evening.  Body fat is down since last week, weight and BMI the same, but usually I'm weighed earlier in the day, which makes a difference.

Here is the gravestone of Adam Worth, a few yards away from my Dad.  Known as "The Napoleon of Crime" he was the model for Professor Moriarty in the Sherlock Holmes books.  He was from a poor German Jewish family, and emigrated to the US as a child. Injured in the second battle of the Bull Run he was taken to George Town hospital in Washington on August 30th 1862, there he learned that he was listed "killed in action" and left the army.  This was the beginning of his notorious career as a criminal.

Tanya and Annie arrived in time for a swift lunch before we bussed and walked to Highgate Cemetery.  We had a private appointment to visit our father's grave - the West Cemetery is closed to visitors (too dangerous, falling masonry) It is 62 years since he died on August 19 1946, and five years since we last visited.  Tanya had divided our Ma's ashes into three bags, and we scattered them in the area where our Dad is.  Walked all the way home from Highgate Cemetery, had tea and a rest till Brendan arrived, all went out for lovely supper at 500, put them on the bus and walked home in the rain.

A good day.  We achieved what we wanted, and what we think our Ma would have wanted.  If she had thought it possible, she would have wanted to be with him, but she never expressed the desire, because Highgate Cemetery was closed to new burials, so it did not seem possible. 

Everyone is happy now, and we had a hilarious evening - Tanya's children are so funny - made us laugh so much. 

We took several pictures, so that we can easily find the grave again. It is unmarked, he was buried in a "common grave" in the middle of a square.  All around the edges of the square are the "important" graves, and I took this picture to show where you have to go down between the huge monument and the cross.  The land falls away steeply, there are broken gravestones and mud, all overgrown with ivy, and can be quite dangerous. 

Up early, made bread and set it to rise, went to gym, despite not feeling like it, but once I got there found loads of energy and did a lot.  Back at home put bread in oven, prepared lunch for our Australian visitors.  They will stay here in February, while we are at their Brisbane apartment, this is their first exchange so they had lots of questions.  They really liked our house, so that made us happy - and their apartment has a private pool, so we're looking forward to that.

This afternoon up to Apple Store again and back for refund on a lead that was wrong.

While our our Aussie visitors were on their way here, Britain won three more gold medals, but they were magnanimous about it.  The Aussies are pretty sore - they are so used to beating us.  And then the lovely Christine O won her race as well.  Makes up for the dismal weather, anyway

To the Apple Store in Regent St, finally bought an iPod Touch. 

got to gym early this morning, on Sundays it can be hard to get a treadmill after 9.30.  This afternoon walked twice round the park to get my steps, and aerobic steps, up to scratch.  My average daily aerobic steps are now 5453

morning at desk, walk to shops and back this pm, not a high step count, but good aerobic score

To Islington Library where I met Viv, then to Starbucks where we sat upstairs and wrote our poems.  In the museum I saw the dark goggles children had to wear when getting UV "sunlight" treatment, and it prompted a vivid memory of standing round in a circle in our vests and knickers.  It would have been about 1948, food was still rationed, and we poor inner London children were deemed to be short of sunlight and therefore Vitamin D.  It was at Finsbury Health Centre, and that's probably where I went.  I also got some idea of what the war was like for my Dad - Islington was bombed for 57 consecutive nights in 1940. Although a young man, he was not fit to fight, and was involved in clearing the rubble and carnage. What must it be like to be bombed, night after night?  How do people endure it?

To gym this afternoon - have lost 2lbs - only 3lbs to go before I reach my goal - yippeee

Two walks to shops today, one for groceries from Waitrose, the second for fruit from the Seven Sisters Rd and nuts from the Kosovan Nut Man.  Am eating really carefully - Dani weighs me tomorrow and I'm hoping to have dropped a little.  Unfortunately, I've been aware of an odd sensation recently, as I stride along.  Trousers slipping down.  Am hopeless at needlework, but am not going out buying new clothes, so will have to get out that battered article laughingly referred to in our house as "the sewing basket"  Let me tell you, that basket sews nothing - I have to do it all.

To Oxford St, for various haberdashery items in John Lewis.  I was going to buy a new raincoat (have we had rain ?  do bears sh*t in the woods ?)  but tried on my old Burberry from 1975.  It's in good nick and still fits, but needs two new buttons, and it will be like new.  I remember we got it half price in the sale - £75 - a tremendous price in those days, but as I've had it for 28 years, that works out at less than £3 per year - bargain !  So I got the buttons and some elastic thread to re-string a necklace, a swimsuit in BHS sale and some yoga trousers.  There will be morning and evening yoga on Skyros next month. 

Had a look at the new iPhone, after which I have lusted ever since it came out, but the calling rates from outside the UK are phenomenal, and as I travel a lot, it probably makes no sense to buy one.  So I didn't.  But as soon a I can think of a good enough excuse...

morning at desk, then 1.5 hours at gym, which is where most of these steps come from.  Lots of wind and rain today - call this summer ?
Am keeping a running total of my aerobic steps daily average, it's currently at 5528 this month

morning at desk, then to Royal Free to collect a prescription, little walk around Hampstead to collect a few steps, and home

gym first thing, then walked to Bijou d'Ange is Theberton St for brilliant late Sunday lunch.  Walked about half the way back, then it started to rain.

Supermarket this morning, then Liz called and we walked in the rain to 500 for lunch, then more walking in the rain to M&S, bought some more cherries and bus home - could not face more walking in the wind and rain

Gym first thing, and I did a total of two hours.  I've only lost half a pound this week, but my BMI is down considerably.  If I can get down to 161 pounds, I should be able to get into my wedding dress.  Dani has calculated that 3600 aerobic steps equals an hour of aerobic exercise - I'm not quite sure how she worked this out, but that's the daily average I'm aiming for.  Watched the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing, and as usual with this sort of thing, got v. emotional.  I'm not at all patriotic, but anything which brings the whole world together gives me a kind of glow - not nationalist, but planet-ist.  Earth is the best planet in the galaxy, all the rest are rubbish.