New Start 41 - Sunny Saturday

It was great to have a day to myself with nothing planned and no-one to answer to, and it was sunny! I sent my parents off to their party then did some chores around the house (nothing nasty!) then met up with my friend Stacey and her mad dog Josie for a walk. I hadn't done that route before and it was lovely. A classic english country scene of sheep filled fields; stiles; little farm places; hills and streams. It was a good long walk, took nearly 2 hours, so the dogs were tired and happy and we'd covered all the topics under the sun by the time we got in.

Stace and I have known each other for years. We met at the College of Law in Chester in 1991 and she met her husband up here when visiting me for a weekend 4 or 5 years ago. Jim is a local friend of ours. Since then, she gave up her job as a very high powered City solicitor and moved up to the Hope Valley, did a Media Studies Masters and is now one of 2 Directors of a film making company with a couple of feature films in production! I often think about how brave and fearless she has been in totally changing her life around. She has gone from the definition of urbanite - born in Glasgow, lived in London and Hong Kong, couldn't even drive until she was over 30! - to a country wench with wellies and fleeces in her hallway. But, she hasn't compromised much on her career ambitions, merely changed the focus of them.

She and I are rapidly becoming the last of our circle of friends not to have children and we were discussing this during our walk. We have both come round to the idea of children but have reservations (me less so I think). It was good to click back into the old ways as, even though she lives so close, we don't see as much of each other as we'd like.

Anyway, we both had things to do - so after the walk I left her to her script and headed back to my garden. 3 hours of hacking away at overgrown shrubs and clearing the pond later, my arms were covered in scratches and I had a satisfied glow!! I'm really looking forward to the time when gardening is a nice mellow activity involving a trowel and a pair of secateurs, rather than a monstrous battle with great trees and shrubs and acres of mud!! One day...

Mum and Dad returned happy after their day of nostalgia - they had met people they hadn't seen for decades! Old friends and colleagues from their lifetime working in Nigeria - it must have been a real old colonial gathering!! They were full of tales of people I could only dimly rememer but I ummed and aaahed in the right places and was happy to see them so happy.

Quick few drinks in the pub with dad and then an early night. Very happy day. Hope yours was too.

D texted me from the campsite in Anglesey to say that he'd only caught one Dogfish, sea fishing was really "hard" and he was sitting in a cold tent listening to the rain beating down!! Don't think he'll be rushing back to a fishing weekend with this group of lads again!!! I'll cook him a nice supper tonight to make up for it!

Diet not too bad - a pick at some chicken but nothing bad....