Tuesday and once again I wake sluggishly so I go through my emails and messages while in bed as I realise that my partner had gone out and my eldest daughter had gone to work. I get finally get up and have breakfast before putting my washing in the machine and head for the Shed. I spend all morning writing letters. It is cold this morning and it takes a while for the Shed to warm up. I get to lunchtime and my partner adn I walk the village, post my letters and get some birthday cards. We eat lunch together before my partner returns to work and I fold up my washing to put away and change into my training kit. I get a call from a friend who is cat wrangling hers to the vets for blood tests. Whenever I have these sort of conversations it pushes my fantasy about being a dog owner further into the distance.

I head to the garage, mount the rower and set off for an hours row. The garage is cold so I am in full track suit to start with. The session goes surprisingly well and I get into it. An hour later I’ve done a 15 kilometre row, and it feels good.

I return to the house to record my session, eat peanut butter and change into some comfortable clothes for the evening. I slump in front of the TV to watch the world bowls tournament. There is something strangely calming watching mostly old white blokes bowling oval shaped balls down a carpet towards a small white ball to see who can get closest. Dinner and the evening begins, my plan was to watch a football match and then read but I get an email from our next Saturday night host who casually mentions that she is looking forward to seeing us all again and is also looking forward to hearing what we have written since the Arvon course we all went on in November. I am panicking as I have written nothing new since the course. I shall of course find something in myself to take. I have a fantasy that we will become the “Muswell Hill Group” like the Bloomsbury Group, although it is a talented group I wonder if there is a Virginia Woolf, Lytton Stacey or Vanessa Bell amongst us, or even a Vita Sackville-West. Who knows we might even end up with our own Hogarth Press. So I shall watch football and see if inspiration strikes, preferable with something that I can perform. Tomorrow , the gym, work meeting and inspiration seeking.