daisy 

Dentist, final visit, then meeting in Crouch End, walked back to Holloway Rd, a little shopping and back home - my delivery waiting outside the front door - hooray ! Supper with Sue and Stanley then home to bed.

Waited in all day for a delivery which never came.  Laurence stayed in for two hours while I went out for a walk and to do some errands.  I will compensate for these low step counts when I get to Kuala Lumpur and Sydney

One walk to the Post Office and back, mailed Emily's Christmas present, and my manuscript to Michele.  Rest of the day at desk, this evening Tim came round - last time we will see him now till March.  He says he's never quite at ease while his parents are out of the country !  I made real chicken soup (Jewish penicillin) and lovely lemon pudding, which should keep him going.  Will restore my month's average when we get to Kuala Lumpur.

Walk to shops and back, then gym this afternoon.  The rest of the day printing out my autobiography to send to Michele.

Here's a picture of my lovely niece Anna, which I have copied from Facebook.  She's always dressing up as something or other -isn't she the sweetest thing ?

Michéle has asked to read the rest of my book while I am in Australia, so I have agreed to send it all to her.  This morning I started printing it out, then lunch with two family members who always talk non-stop.  In one way this is quite relaxing, because you can listen and eat easily.  But if you try to say anything, you never get more than half a sentence out before one (or both) of them start talking over you, and go on till you abandon your own sentence, shut up and listen.  They always make me feel as if L and I are the most boring people in the world, as if time spent with us can only be endured if they blot out anything we say and talk about their own concerns.  I do actually love these people, and care about them, and I think they love us.  It's just that they never want to listen to anything we have to say.

Walk to shops after lunch, then back here to print out more pages. 

Walk to the beauty parlour for a pedicure, and back. Wet cold and windy, so I must have looked v. odd in woolly hat, warm coat and gloves, and bare feet in sports sandals, but didn't want smudged toenails. 

Dentist this morning - no time for a crown before I leave for Australia, and 4 months too long for a temp filling, so he's doing an "inlay" next Wednesday.  An hour in The Chair, removing all the rotted tooth (oh, the shame!) then walk to bus stop, home for lunch, then to Upper St where I was too early to Meet Michéle, so wandered round shops, got Emily's Christmas prez.  After meeting with Michéle to Vigaro restaurant where I met Laurence (he'd been to lecture at the LSE) fantastic supper, walked most of the way home.  Bumped into Nan in Liverpool Rd, sometimes I just LOVE London.  Will tell you about meeting with Michéle tomorrow when I am sober xxx

Todays pic, entitled "Look after your family" comes from my sister, who is very sentimental

Lovely day !  Got two good walks, just local errands, and completed all the tasks on my list!

When your husband or boyfriend does something that makes you angry; don't give in to the temptation to argue, fuss and fight!
Just count to ten, remain calm & after he goes to bed, Super-Glue his flip flops to the floor.

see illustration !

Gym this morning, walk to Post Office this afternoon, trying to get our mail re-directed while we are in Australia.  I will not bore you with the details, but this apparently simple process has already eaten hours of my time and is still not done.

Surprising email from my cousin in NY - she wants to become a German citizen!  She was born in NY and lived there all her life, has just retired, (was a Professor at a famous university) and now that the USA is about to get the best president for years, she said she "wants to be part of the EU"  She has emailed me and my cousin who lives in Germany to ask us what we think !  Of course her Dad was born in Germany, but then her Ma was born in England, so she could come to either, but she has chosen Germany - go figure.

Good long walk this morning, got loads of aerobic steps, and this afternoon discovered telephone walking!  Sundays are often when I have phone conversations with family, and until today I've always sat her at my desk and chatted.  But today I walked around the house, first talking to my sister, later talking to my son, and gained about 2,000 extra steps.

From now on, I'm not going to sit down for phone calls.

You only need two tools in life -  WD-40 and duct tape. If it doesn't move and should, use the WD-40.  If it shouldn't move and does, use the duct tape.

walked to shops and back this morning, final short story group this afternoon.  Nearly everyone produced one good short story (J produced two) and we've agreed to do it all again in about 6 months time.  Exhausted for some reason, and filthy weather outside, so not many steps.

Last personal training session with dani before I leave.  Sunny and dry, so took advantage and walked all the way to Angel, then back to Highbury Corner, where I caught a bus.  The aim was to achieve over 10k aerobic steps, to compensate for last two days, and my average aerobic this month so far is 3963.  October was 5532

Did not go out again today, still cold, wet and misty and still lots of bonfires.  I really miss going out, and find I don't sleep well without exercise, but I'm keeping the asthma at bay.  (it's not a cold, as I thought)  Cold but sunny tomorrow and I'll go to the gym

Laurence had his ganglion removed at the Whittington today.  They wanted to give him a full anaesthetic, but he asked for local, and got it.  His hand is bandaged and his arm is in a sling, and he claims he can't do the washing up!

How many ears has Spock got?
Three - left ear, right ear and final frontier.

A poor step count because I have stayed at home all day, tightness in my chest, it's cold and wet outside, and it;s also Bonfire Night, so lots of smoke pollution.  It's odd, because I was dying to go to the gym, getting my regular aerobic step fix has become ever so slightly obsessional with me.  But the nice doc at the clinic last week reminded me of all the things I should not do as an asthmatic.  So I pottered around doing laundry, keeping warm and trying to get as many steps as possible.

I have felt very humbled by the US election, seeing those long lines of people, waiting for hours to vote.  Like all other Brits, I have always been able to walk straight in and collect my voting slip.  Yet despite the ease of voting, at each UK election the turnout drops.  It's a wonderful day for America, and for the whole world.   

Gym this morning, walk to shops this afternoon.  First meeting with Michéle next week, she wants me to bring another 5,000 words with me, and asked how many I have, so I did a word count on each chapter and added them up.  About 87,500 - almost a book. 

Think I'm starting a cold - this always happens after the flu jab, but doc says it's a co-incidence.

There are 10 kinds of people: those who understand binary and those who don't

Walked to doctors for prescriptions, flu jab, etc.  He says I've lost 3 kilos since January. Then to shops, home for lunch, then out for a walk, but weather was raw today, probably not a good day to be outside.

Feeling a bit better today, defrosted freezer and made amazing pie out of all the stuff needed eating up.  So we had spinach, sun dried tomato, mozarella, sweet potato and pine nut pie and I'm here to tell you it was fantabulosa ! As we will be away for 4 months, I'm checking the sell-by dates on everything in the cupboards, which has resulted in some mighty strange and wonderful meals.

Gym this afternoon, will go again tomorrow if I can and get my average up.  My cousin in NY sent me this picture this morning - she said it made her happy. 

Didn't go out at all today.  Feeling rough after dental work yesterday, and short story group this afternoon.  And the rain bucketed down. 

Michéle Roberts has agreed to mentor me, and I'm incredibly proud and excited about that.  I sent her three chapters and a synopsis, she made her decision on that.  She wants meetings at 6.30 so walked to Caffé Nero and back this morning to check opening times - sadly they close at 5.30 so will have to find somewhere else.  No rush, she's gone back to France today (she lives there) so we'll sort something out.

This afternoon walked most of the way to dentist, clocking up 9 million steps somewhere along the way. As I thought, Nick didn't want to extract the tooth, as his junior colleague recommended.  He reckons it can be saved so it's root canal work - hooray !  He's been my dentist for years, and compared the x-ray with one from 1999 - no bone loss at all.  Walked most of the way back, have achieved an average of over 11k this month.