Thoughts on love, sex, death and everything else.

There is an article on the news advising that there is a chance we may have a heatwave this summer, with temperatures possibly rising to over 30 degrees c. The article advises all sorts of tips to cool down including painting your house white believe it or not. I did check the date of the article to make sure it had not been written on April 1st....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8057528.stm

I'm going with a friend tonight to watch Star Trek, the new film. I've got high hopes for it because I read quite a favourable review on it a while ago.

Have also been to Harewood House today, quite a nice place, especially the bird garden.
I especially wanted to see the Stupa there, it a representation of the Buddha's mind. They say that it's good luck to walk around it in a clockwise direction. I walked round it a few times which guarantees that I'll be reborn as a human rather than a slug!

I've just come back from a walking weekend with a walking group. We stayed at a bunk house place near Pateley Bridge in Nidderdale and we did a big walk on both Saturday and Sunday; by big I mean 10 miles or so with some hills. The weather was not too bad, it stayed sunny in the morning and rained a bit in the afternoon, but we didn't get too wet.

I like walking for several reasons:
1) It gets me away from my home town and I get to see lots of lovely scenery; sometimes I get taken by suprise by what I find or see on walks, it's like dipping into a box of chocolates when you don't know exactly what you are going to get, but you know it's going to be something nice.
2) It's an excellent social activity, meeting friends and making new ones, and I know that I'm not going to come across any one unpleasant because everyone is too busy enjoying the country side to be unpleasant.
3) It's a hobby for me too because I am learning how to read maps and navigate; I went on a navigation course last year and it spurred me on to start to lead walks. The group I am a member of is like a cooperative in that they like people to volunteer to lead walks and I am more than willing to do this to enable me to practice my skills.

Did anyone watch that drama on ITV last week? Wasn't it strange the way things panned out, a bit far fetched as they say. It was supposed to be based on a Jacobean tragedy, whatever one of those is when it's at home.

I 'slept in ' today, until about 10 a.m. which actually means that I woke up at about 7 am and then lolled about, just drifting in and out of sleep for the rest of the time.
I had some breakfast got ready to go to the gym and then went to see a friend nearby for a while before actually going to the gym (anything to put it off!) but when I got to the gym I actually enjoyed it quite a lot. The staff there are quite friendly and helpful and there is plenty of equipment; I tend to stick to just a few: the treadmill although I only walk on it, at the maximum incline of 15 degrees, so that walking at 5 km per hour really gets the heart going; I then go on the cross trainer for a few minutes, followed by the stair master which is an endless staircase, makes you feel like a hamster. Then I do a few muscle building exercises such as the calves which helps my walking.
When I got back home I had some food, watched snooker for a while and tidied up the living room. I am now on my computer and will go to a meditation class this evening, and then tonight I fancy watching that drama on ITV1 called Compulsion. I like a good drama because it is better than most of the other dross that is on tv these days. If its not a cookery programme, then its a make over programme either for the face or your house, or it's about a fat man's attempts to lose about 20 stone in a month; basically cheap tv where they just stick a camera in a room and watch people doing stuff and talking about stuff. There was a diy disaster programme recently which showed some promise to show some good diy techniques. However it just depicted the team acting the fool most of the time, rather than doing anything useful; the home owners were invited back to see the handy work which was very nice but we were not privy to how it was done. A big disappointment.

I thought I would have another Blog session since it is so long since I last did one. Over the past few years I have got into walking more and more, I joined the local walking group and eventually went on a navigation course where I learned how to read a map, plan a route and walk it, using landmarks, contour lines and any other clues at my disposal to follow the route using an Ordnance Survey map. Since then I have led a few walks and there is alot of pleasure to be had by looking at a map, planning a route you would like to take taking in features you would like to see or walk through, and then actually doing it with a group of people following you, who (usually) appreciate it. Today I co - led a walk in the Calderdale area and it was really nice, despite the fact that it rained a bit near lunchtime, but hardened walkers take it in their stride; if you have the right gear then weather is not a problem. We finished off by having cake and drinks in a local wholefood cafe.