Another trip to London to meet two old friends in the crypt at St Martins in the Fields. I`d been there before with B.Wiggins and also Jumble (daughter J`s dog) with no problems,but this time, there was a bossy woman running the gift shop who said NO DOGS. I was exhausted after jumping on and off buses and trains, and felt I could not walk another step, so I managed to smuggle him in under my coat,, but felt very uneasy that there would be a heavy hand on my shoulder and I would be turfed out on to the street just as I was tucking in to my lunch. In fact I don`t think I will ever go to London again, well not with a dog anyway. It is no place for old crocks like me.
I saw a sad film at the Village Hall that evening called Still Alice about a woman with early onset Altzheimers, beautifully acted - you saw the world through the eyes of Alice as the awful disease progressed. It showed how none of us really know how to cope when friends and family lose their memory and become lost and confused.
Grand daughter M is working in schools in Ghana for six months, doing environmental science, related to global warming and climate change. She writes a splendid blog, but she is finding it very hard, partly because of the heat and dryness, but also because all her colleagues are men and she craves female company and misses her friends in London and also her family, so she is very homesick. Another thing she finds difficult is that everyone is always late, up to an hour and a half sometimes. The only time she has felt at ease and happy was when she went riding round the lake.. As soon as she gets on a horse she feels at peace with the world.
So lovely today to have a hard frost, so I could go up the hill without sinking into claggy mud. Dog walks have been no pleasure lately. But my dodgy hip and knees don`t help either. I am going to a recommended Physio this afternoon, so perhaps she can sort me out. Also daughter J`s acupuncture treatment works a treat. I find that most things get better in time but then I get something else, that`s what happens when you`re eighty five and a half.