Today, Tuesday, I did the 30 minute pavement walk during a break between the rain showers.

A young man walked towards me near the post box. I offered him a religious leaflet. He studied it briefly and then said:

“I can’t read or write!”

He returned the leaflet to me as I stood speechless.

I next met S and her bichon frise. T is a very friendly cheerful little dog. He answers to ‘Teddie’ and to ‘Dog’.

We discussed the midges on the east coast of Scotland. S knew friends who had to go to work wearing masks and veils to protect themselves from the little horrors.

Destroying the midges would bring more tourists to Scotland but what about the rights of midges?!

Two muggers were sentenced to long jail sentences today for knifing a lawyer to death for £20 and a mobile phone. It has always suprised me that so little time is spent on defence against knives and guns in martial arts classes.

I try to cover both early on in my own classes. Why spend years learning to defend against punches and kicks which may well not kill you while you neglect learning about knife and gun defences when a single stab or shot could end your life.

A month or so ago someone was shot dead in leafy, suburban Chislehurst and knife attacks take place every now and then in nearby Orpington.

Later in the evening at about 9 p.m. I repeated the walk. When I reached Kevington Drive, I heard the sound of running footsteps and a young man dressed in black ran past me. He was not a Ninja!

My right ankle was sore suggesting that walking a lot on pavements is not a good idea.

Today, Sunday, I again took the short, 22 minute, pavement walk.

As I left my house I ran into B and C who were, I think, driving on the way to buy some potatoes at a local market. They pulled over to chat as we had not met up for several weeks.

I was surprised to hear that C had experienced the labrynthitis illness at the same time as me. She also knew of others who had also been ill at that time. One lady had fainted at the airport.

I was relieved to know that the illness was not a result of old age and that I was not alone in being a victim of it. C like me had not eaten all day when the illness struck and had lost her sense of balance. She began to feel better the next day and after 5 days was much improved.

So, if you suddenly find yourself losing balance and vomiting, it might well
be labrynthitis and nothing too much to worry about.

B and C’s dog was lying on the back seat of their car. She has not been well for some time and was clearly very tired. She refuses now to go into the woods.

In the hot weather this summer, B drove her round in his car with all the windows open as she had difficulty breathing at home. She stuck her nose out of the window and took gulps of fresh air.

I told B and C that our lungs grow smaller as we age and that one way of enlarging them is to climb stairs or walk fast enough for short periods to be breathless. Walking or running up hill is another way to expand our lung capacity. Obviously, take it easy to begin with.

They both look fitter than me so perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut!

Today, I drove to Iceland after visiting PC World.

I bought a book on XHTML while at PC World; not at Iceland!

I walked round Petts Wood before entering Iceland. I bought a Christmas present for my sister. I wanted that smug feeling of being more prepared for Christmas than anyone else!

I could not find any religious Christmas cards in the main shopping street.
What has happened to them all? Christmas is becoming more and more a secular festival.

This loses the whole point of Christmas.

The woman at the counter in Iceland was brilliant. I told her she deserved an award for speed and service. She looked at me suspiciously as if I was being sarcastic. Maybe praise is too rare these days.

Today, Monday, I took the longer local pavement route.

It took me 10 minutes to reach 81 Kevington Drive where we had lived for many years.

One reason we moved was the threat of the walls cracking under the weight of my books. I have always bought more books than I could read.

However, it is a great feeling to have all that knowledge available. It gives me a lift just to walk around my house and see the wisdom so easily accessible in the books and tapes in nearly every room.

I am gradually working my way through all these books but should make more effort to read more of them more often.

As I walked up Clarendon Way, I noticed two silver birches leaning over the road. They are probably a hazard but may last a few more years unless there is a strong gale.

Today, Saturday, I was surprised to see a rabbit in the back garden. I took
several photos through the small window in the back door.

Later I did some shopping in Petts Wood and walked around Petts Wood for about five minutes or more.

I kept seeing this overweight, ageing man in the windows following me around. I really must get in shape!

At Iceland I met up with a lady that I chat too whenever we both are in Iceland. She feeds the foxes but has not seen more than one or two in the last couple of months.

I told her about the rabbit. She thought it was probably a tame one. I don’t think so. When it sensed danger, it shot away at speed.

Back in the fifties, I used to hunt rabbits with my granddad and his lakeland terrier. The terrier would chase rabbits into the gorse bushes and my granddad would wait at the exit armed with his walking stick.

A quick whack on the neck of the rabbits would kill them fairly painlessly. He once hit his dog by mistake but she survived without too much trouble.

We would often have rabbit stew for lunch but had to be careful not to swallow the small bones. Later mixa motosis put an end to this cheap food source.

Today, Thursday, I took the pavement route as it was raining heavily and then drizzling alternately.

The pavement route is much more easily accessible than the wood route as I can just walk out of the house onto the pavement.

I took the same pavement route as before but extended it to include Kevington Drive where we used to live.

I don’t often visit there even though it is so close. It brings back many memories of the past.

The walk with the extra distance took about 30 minutes. Without the easy
access to this walk I might not have bothered.

Accessiblity is a powerful motivator in anything we do. It is well worth setting up your environment both in the house and outside it to make key activities easily accessible.

It was raining on and off today (Tuesday) so I did a short 20 minute walk on the pavements near my house. I got wet but who cares when you have dry clothes easily available.

It is important to get in some kind of a walk everyday since the body is designed to move and needs daily exercise. Dogs realize this naturally and will give their owners no rest until they get them outside and on the road.

I was impressed to see J and JJ pounding the local pavements yesterday evening as it was getting dark. I called out to J but she probably thought I was some yob trying to attract her attention and she just walked on.

I hope, at least, that she did not recognize me and was not just trying to avoid me!

Dogs of course are great motivators but as I do not have a dog I need to use other triggers to get me out and about.

My motivational trigger today was the fact that I had to post a letter to reach a relative in time for her birthday on Thursday. Giving lifts and the need to shop are also useful triggers to get you on the move and ready to take a walk.

It was fairly warm in the woods today (Monday) and I met quite a few people including some I knew. I met Inge as I entered the woods.

She told me that Reg had been waiting months to see a specialist about his problems and was thinking of seeing an acupuncture expert instead.

I may have got the message wrong. Maybe he was recommending that I see an acupuncturist!

As I approached Soldiering Field, I met a lady with a Welsh terrier. It was smaller than a Lakeland and a Lakeland is smaller than an Airedale.

As I left the woods I met Ashley arriving with his Italian Spinoni called Myrtle. You certainly meet a variety of dogs in the woods.

Near the Willett Memorial I met up with Rex, a fellow martial arts instructor. We discussed how disappointing it is when a student leaves just as they are getting going.

It is especially disappointing when they have just been praised for how well they are doing!

Rex used the analogy of a train journey. Some people get on a train to Glasgow and then get off at Bristol!

Incidentally, if you have not yet seen the gargoyle of the woods, head from
the Willett Memorial en route to the warden’s house. About half way along on the left you will see the gargoyle of the woods – a face peering out of a hole in a tree. It looks a bit like a fox. Take a look at the photo.

I spoke of heroes in my last post. Yesterday and today (Sunday 12th Nov 2006) the nation remembered the heroes of past and current wars who had died for their country.

One of the most moving parts of the remembrance services is the scene in the Albert Hall when multitudes of poppies are are released from the roof. They bring home the huge numbers of men and women who have died in the wars.

In one battle alone over a million English, French and German troops were killed at the the Somme in the weeks starting from July 1st in 1916. The battle lasted a month or two and then everyone was back where they started.

I passed or noticed over twenty people in the woods today. Some had dogs with them but some did not. Before I left for the woods. My sister said: “Don’t trip up.”

Having studied a film ‘The Secret’ on positive mental programming recently,I suggested to her that mentioning tripping up would make it more likely that I would trip up.

I said that saying “You will keep your balance and have a great walk” would have been a better way of putting things. Later, as I started walking I thought that I was being unnecessarily fussy and even pompous. I should have been grateful that she was concerned enough to warn me against tripping.

In the end I did nearly fall over as my right ankle twisted outwards!
By waving my arms, I managed to retain my balance.

Many experts stress the fact that we attract what we think about whether it be good or bad. Anti-war movements focus attention on the idea of war and may therefore be doing more harm than good.

Mother Teresa always refused to take part in anti-war rallies. She said, however, that she would attend a peace rally. She had a point.

Anti-war rallies can encourage abusive and hate filled behaviour although the majority mean well. Burning effigies of Tony Blair and George Bush do not
encourage a peace loving state of mind.

It was fresh and cold in Petts Wood today (Thursday). I only met one lady and her tiny dog as I neared the exit. She seemed a little frightened so I did not ask her what breed the dog was!

I timed my walk again and discovered, what I had previously suspected, that the halfway point of my short walk is the corner of Soldiering Field where you can take the path down to Flushers Pond.

The sun was hot in the sky but the air remained cold. I heard this morning that it is so cold in the Antartic that the food in Scott’s hut is still edible. One party recently made cocoa from one of his tins.

Both Scott and Shackleton’s huts have been preserved by the cold. There are no insects alive to eat the wood etc. You can even smell the donkeys in Scott’s huts nearly 100 years after they were there.

In Scott’s hut arrangements were more formal than in Shackleton’s. The officers in Scott’s hut slept at one end of the hut. The crew slept in the other half of the hut.

In Shackleton’s hut, officers and crew did not have separate areas although Shackleton, naturally enough, had one small area of the hut to himself. Shackleton never lost a man on any of his expeditions.

Scott lost several. I don’t think this too significant. They were simply used to different styles of leadership.

The New Zealand Government and the UK Government are currently arguing about who should pay the £3 million pounds necessary to preserve these historic huts which are still full of the spirit of the brave men who lived there all those years ago.

There should not be too much argument about this. We cannot afford to lose our memories of the heroes of the past any more than we should forget our own moments of heroism or courage.