Flights of Stairs

Happy Wednesday readers. Walking is an activity I've come to quite like. I also still quite like not walking, sitting on my scrawny arse and drinking beer. I've done a little of all those things today as well as walk up and down 14 flights of stairs. (a strange expression, and can you get 'flights of' anything else?) All in aid of getting fit for Hadrians wall walk.
Yesterday we in 'hadrians walk crew' had a meeting (of which I still have to summarise.) We talked about a walk around Graffham water on 17 March. It's 8.2 miles around. Hopefully I will know where Graffham water is by the time I need to walk around it and will work out how to add maps etc to this blogspot.
Meanwhile I'm testing out this swipe method of typing on my phone. You just connect up the letters in a word and it works out what you are trying to type. It is tricky at first but I'm getting used to it. It means that there could be dozens of typos massive doodah.

Ok I'll just leave you with a joke that I was sent today :

Magic Apples

Daydreaming

Tip 1: All those expensive mini shampoo travel-size bottles... Don't throw the containers away.. Simply refill them from your large bottles ready for the next trip.

Idea 1: Ok so I heard this woman say how she pushed her baby around in a buggy all day for miles and miles. I thought of a Segway buggy. Mum just steps on the back of the pram and goes. Pram and Segway could detach and be used separately.

Dry Hands

Hello readers.
So. The fitness thing...I'm trying, I really am! I knew I was unfit. The piddley amount of exercise has exposed me as a skinny wasting breathless flump. I'm at the phase of realising the full extent of my 'unfitness'.

Playing badminton on Friday evening at Harlow Badminton club was brilliant. All the members were friendly and had varying ability. I soon felt relaxed in my first session. Thanks to Sandra for setting up the club and making me feel welcome.

This morning I went walking with friends Karen and Gareth and their dogs Penny and Poppy. Big thanks guys for your support. Five miles around rural Stortford was a great starter walk. The star of the show was Poppy who never ran out energy. (I was so impressed I'm considering eating dog food and chasing sticks for a training regime) =0)

Blogging, I have discovered, can be a conduit for many types of old guff. I'm struggling to nail mine down to one type but found that it's part diary, part opinions, part conclusions part information and part complete 'bollards'. Primarily its going to be focused on Hadrian's Wall training. Every now and then though.... That's right the inevitable 'guff' creeps in.

This might be Guff to 99.9% of you all as it's for our very dear friends whom Alison an I met recently. I noticed you both had dry hands. Try rubbing in each others hand cream. It might heal hands and hearts.

Thank for coming to the Gooseberry Bush and reading this far, chat soon. =0)

The old Vic.

London underground. The Victoria line - old and very over-crowded. Friendly commuters sometimes try to spark a conversation and say 'we are packed in like sardines in a tin'.. Which is of course the 'standing' joke. The seated people never say it.
From Tottenham Hale you can get off at Seven Sisters, and wait for an empty train where you can get a seat for the rest of the journey which is typically to Oxford Circus. I don't do this. Instead I stay on the over-crowded tube.
Firstly, this is because I don't trust that there WILL be another tube so I stay on one I know is running.
Secondly, I find it weirdly interesting to watch people's reactions to being so close to strangers that their personal space becomes a matchbox size area just in front of the nose. I have seen some real gems from the classic 5ft girl's nose up against a 6ft armpit guy to the shopper plonking her John Lewis bag on someone else's pushchair/baby!

Coffee

Hello again reader!

I would like to make a suggestion that 'The Gooseberry Bush' web-space  is like going down the pub.
If you went down the pub with me, this is the sort of *bollards* you could be listening to, which may make you think twice about a pub lunch.

Ok so I'm on this fitness thingy effort thingy sort of thing. I checked out Harlow Badminton club. I'm going Friday to check it out. I'll let you know how that went. Blah blah blah.

The meat:
The big news today is that I have given up mobile wii and pc games. Yep that's right. In an effort to get more out of life I have uninstalled all mobile games from my phone. This is a massive deal for me. Last month I gave up alcohol. This month, I was straight on it but it wasn't that hard. Unlike no more gaming. At least I get a few hours back each day! My brain feels less cluttered.

So the new blogging jogging and de-clogging Darren has emerged.... Mid life Crisis, or am I just waking up and smelling the coffee? Hmmmmmmm

Btw, Hadrian's Wall gang, I have suggested by email that we meet on Tuesday 26th 8pm at Grahams house.

In the begining

Good Sunday, all people of the world!

And we are off....my first blog, an experiment in talking bollards.
                                                one sec ....

WOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

(That's better. Excess excitement has now been released, no more woohooing needed for a while.)

So, me the writer and you the reader. Me the producer and you the consumer. It's my duty now to provide you the best consumable readings that my three and a half brain cells can muster.

Alison just told me to keep my blog simple as she hates ramblers, that's the talking sort  not the walking sort, which brings me to the meat of my first blog.

The Meat: This year I'm on a mission to fight back against the pop belly thing that thirty something males get apparently by drinking beer and generally being lazy bums. So during 'Dry January' whilst Graham was doing 'Wet Thursday', (and was quite wet) I suggested that we exert ourselves and do a challenge like Hadrian's wall. Wet Graham then agreed and so the plan was hatched! In September, Graham, me and others will cross the country coast to coast along Hadrian's wall, 84 miles over 4 days. More details will be coming at you in this new corner of web-space.

Health progress: Only a week of walking about 3 miles a day has already made me feel a bit healthier. I played badminton with Adrian a few days ago but now groin and wrist muscles are all stiff. There now you know.

 'Who are Alison, Graham and Adrian?' I guess you ponder...ah, all in good time.
Until next time...Keep Smiling =0)