You can take a horse to water...........

I spent nearly all day gardening on Sunday, and left Mason trying to sort out various problems with his project. I managed to catch up with a few emails which were overdue.
On Monday I went off to Pinner for a change, it is a beautiful bus ride and made a change. The weather is still terribly hot. When I got home I tidied up a bit.

On Tuesday Margaret called round, and we sat outside in the shade and had icy lemonade. Poor John was at home recovering from having a tooth taken out by the dentist. It was nice to chat to Margaret as we had not seen each other for a while. As Mas had spent all day on the computer or phone, we decided to go out for dinner at the Man in the Moon to break the monotony.
It was steak night, so we both had one. Ken came in, and said his TV had just gone wrong, and he had come to watch the football match so he sat where he could watch it, and we went off home once we had finished our meal.

On Wednesday we went swimming in the afternoon. As usual we separated to go to the changing rooms, Mas saying he would see me in the pool in a minute. I swam alone for 50 minutes, knowing he must have got talking to the guys in the changing room.
Another lady was swimming too, the pool was fairly empty, and I got talking to her. She was from Croatia, and had lived here for 15 years, she was wondering where her partner had got to, and I suggested that he and Mas were talking together; before long they both appeared.

After swimming for an hour I got cold, and with lots of protests from Mas, left the pool, showered and dressed, and walked around several football pitches looking at the variety of bushes and plants. After two hours of this, Mas came out, and we left! He had not done any exercise, just talked in the pool!

Lessons of different kinds

This morning I went off with Maheena to Darshna's house where we had a Raja Yoga Meditation session with about a dozen people. The lady who was taking the meditation had a very calm and peaceful voice, and we meditated for about an hour, and then she handed each person a piece of fruit. After talking and asking questions Darshna gave everyone a bowl of fruit salad, and shortly we went back home as she had to go to give lessons elsewhere.

I have always had difficulty meditating in an accepted way, but if I try to do it on my own I can visualise colours on the inside of my eyelids, moving rather like the shapes in a lava lamp and I watch the colours change; if I do this listening to music it produces unexpected colours.
I think when I was young it was very easy for me to think of nothing at all, in fact it was probably my default mode. This caused me no end of trouble at school and subjected me to public ridicule, and I was always told off for 'day dreaming, and living in a world of my own,' perhaps this is why I find it difficult now.

In the afternoon Mas and I went swimming. Sometimes when we are swimming, part of the pool is sectioned off for children's swimming lessons. The instructor is really good at his job and encourages the children in a very positive way. He says things like 'keep going, excellent, good boy, well done, keep it going.....' and so on for about half an hour without a pause! By the time we go home his messages of encouragement go with me too, except for the 'good boy' bit.

More aggravation

My computer is still dead, and Mas spent most of the day trying to sort it out and making various two hour long conversations with different IT people. I did gardening as I could not stand listening to it all; if left to my own devices I would have thrown my computer out and gone back to writing with ink and quill.

In the evening we were so fed up we watched an old episode of Jeeves and Wooster to relax, but I still had a poor nights sleep.

Friday was a ditto of Thursday, except that we went swimming in the afternoon, and in the evening watched a Pie in the Sky and the Mentalist, which seems increasingly stupid to me.

At a later date I found Joan had sent me this picture of spring flowers in her garden.

In the swim with chickens

Mas and I went swimming in the afternoon; it did not seem very tempting as the weather was dreary and grey. There were not many people in the pool, but Mas got talking to a man who was trying to learn how to swim. After showering and dressing we felt more lively than we had when we going into the pool.
I called Pete to see how he was, and while we were chatting his cat Calliope was meowing pitifully as she was trying unsuccessfully to bite Pete while he was talking.
There have been heavy rainfalls in some places, and in one area in Cumbria they had 12" in 24 hours which is the heaviest rainfall in the UK since they started keeping records.

Today Mas worked on his computer, and I raked and collected leaves from the garden, admiring the colours on the leaves of the cherry blossom tree. One of the neighbours from down the road stopped to talk; she was surprised to know that Salty belonged to us as he sits on her fence sometimes while he is admiring the chickens next door. I was surprised to hear about the chickens as I had recently said to Mas that I would have thought people would keep chickens while times are so hard now.

Later I saw Poppy who independently told me she wanted to have chickens, and had been looking up on the Internet how to care for them. She also said she would call for me sometimes when she was going to walk the dog, and we could walk together.

In the afternoon we went to Borehamwood and got some shopping, and a cat collar for Salty. When we got home I put a collar on Salty with the cat door magnet on it and, surprisingly he was purring all the time while I adjusted it.

Laater we had a thunder storm and hail. In the evening we watched an episode of Merlin which is silly, but fun.

Suspicious and virtuous characters

I spoke to Margaret who has been feeling ill for quite a while. I also managed to catch up on a few emails, and went for a long walk in the afternoon.

When I was doing things in the kitchen I noticed a couple of suspicious characters looking at Ben and Poppy's house, but luckily Ben had seen them and told them to clear off, which was good.
Mas went over to talk to Poppy and Ben for a while in the evening.

Despite the weather being really cold Mas and I reluctantly dragged ourselves out and away, and went swimming. As it was so cold there were hardly any people in the pool. At one point two very tattooed people jumped into the pool, and swam for about five minutes and left looking virtuous and pleased with themselves. Mas and I managed to stay in for an hour. We felt much warmer when we left, and invigorated.

On the way home we stopped off to get some food for Salty, and a couple of other things.
In the evening I began to think about what I want to paint next, and trying to whip up some enthusiasm.

Bruised but not beaten

I finished painting the cupboards, and we went swimming in the afternoon. I am beginning to wonder if gravity is suddenly getting stronger, or maybe I have been watching too many X Files, but this time a full bottle of shampoo fell onto my foot in the showers. Strangely my toe got a more spectacular bruise than when the sledgehammer fell on my other foot.

I sorted out some old photographs and Mas scanned them and sent them to Pete. It is sad looking at past photos, as so many of the people in them are no longer alive.

Today I had another hospital appointment, and the doctor formally told me that all recent tests were clear, and that I did not have to have another scan for six months.
On the way home I called into the library and took some books out. In the evening we watched a NCIS

Chores and swimming lessons

Yesterday passed in a blur of preparation to do our kitchen makeover. We found some wood for the floor, loaded it into our car together with special cupboard paint that is supposed to cover melamine. On the way back we spotted Jim and Mary, waiting at the bus stop, so stopped to pick them up, forgetting that the back seat was filled with wood; Mary however squeezed herself in, leaving Jim to come home by bus.

We watched The Mentalist, I am beginning to really dislike his character, always smirking in the face of tragedy, and the X Files. It is pathetic how little of interest there is to watch now that we have 500 channels to choose from.t

Today I dashed off to the library, getting my books back under the wire just in time. We then went swimming, feeling very virtuous as we got into the very cold water. Some young boys were being tested to see if they could swim, one could not, so he had to sit on the side while his friend swam as they had not got a responsible adult with them. Mas volunteered to look after them, and before long, with Mas teaching him, the boy could swim the width of the pool!

Swimming and The London Art Fair

We managed to go for our first swim this year which made us feel virtuous, but the water in the pool was cold which was a disincentive to stay in for too long. In the evening we went as invited to our neighbours, Glen and Barry for dinner, which made a nice change.

Today we went to the London Art Fair which is held in the Business Design Centre at The Angel. We looked at the displayed art; a lot of it seemed quite underwhelming, but there were some very interesting pieces, and as usual I liked some of Chris Bushe's paintings.

http://www.panterandhall.com/artists/bushe.html

When we left it was beginning to get overcast and dark, but this man was playing haunting Irish folk music in the street, while he was walking a tightrope.

Swimming and relaxing.

We all had breakfast in the restaurant, then Mas and I decided to swim in the pool together. We felt the temperature of the water the day before and it seemed very warm. The pool is half indoors, and half outside, separated by a large window which is raised, and very attractive.

We got into the pool, which by this time was very cold, and we swam around for a while before going into the jacuzzi beside the pool. From there we went into the sauna and really warmed up. We all occupied ourselves differently for a while, and I went for a short walk.

This is the view from the stairs to the apartment. The yellow flowers are known locally as Popcorn.