What a glorious day

It started gently enough, with a cup of coffee in bed, a few chapters of my current book (The Islamist - Ed Hussein) and listening to the Archers. Then it dawned on me that I had no excuses - it was one of those gloriously bright sunny winter days - it's time for the training programme to start.

Together with a couple of friends, I've signed up for a charity 5 kilometre run, race for life, on 18th May. So, contrary to my usual habit of leaving things to the last minute, I figured I'd try to get with the programme early doors. It was a surprisingly pleasant experience. Sid and I walked up the road (warm up, warm up) to the entrance to the park that borders onto the canal. Once through the stile and into the park, we ran (OK, jogged) down to the canal and along the tow-path to Brentford. We estimate it's about 5km in total, and made to the destination with a couple of breathers at about 3km and 4km. The tow-path is lively place on a Sunday morning : the good burghers of Ealing go out jogging and cycling with their children and dogs. And there's a great cafe when you reach Brentford lock. By 18th May I need to do it in one stretch, and I guess I better set a target time to aim for.

After the exertions of the run, I was planning a quiet hour on the allotment, doing a bit of tidying up, then back to the homestead for quality time on the sofa with the Sunday papers. However, we had such fun on the allotment we didn't stop till it got dark. There was lots of dried up vegetation, hedge-clippings and chopped up hazel-nut tree to dispose of. One incinator, one match and a pile of cardboard later, we had a roaring fire going. I'd forgotten just how hypnotic a bonfire can be. I popped out to get coffee and cake from the cafe near the allotments. It's a lovely example of demographic change in london - it's now a polish-food cafe - and I can vouch for the traditional polish apple pie being fabulous.

Perfect Sunday methinks.

J