Friday - a walk with friends around the grounds of a stately home, then later a brisk walk up a hill with a suitcase to my brother's house.

Lelephant was delivered instead of the socks I ordered for my mother about five years ago. The shop said to keep him as well as the refund. I find that cuddling him helps me to keep from kinking my back when I lie on my side.

I was in Oxford today, so took a couple of wanders around there.

Okay. That's really surprising to me. I speak to everyone I meet while hiking - usually just a hello, but if we both happen to stop in the same place we will discuss the path, the weather, the view.

Brilliant news!

Lovely!

I took the train down to southern England today to visit friends and family. I had to cross London, so I took the tube to Hyde Park Corner and walked across the park to Paddington. Barely a couple of miles but at least it was something. The picture is of a mews house I saw on the way - mews were the stabling and coach houses behind grand residences, but they are now very pricy homes. They often don't have gardens, so owners put serious work into planting the frontage.

The Rest is History

When we moved to Scotland my son saw a speech therapist for his stutter - which later disappeared. The ST said that had he been a Scot she would also have worked on his soft R, but as he had a southern English mother it was harmonious. My daughter had a very musical intonation as a small child because we had a Filipina household helper. This waned when we moved away. Husband was working long hours when the kids were small, so they gained indeterminate expatriate accents with very little American.

OK. I understand the extrapolation, but I meet men in the woods all the time and don't think twice about it. That's very different, to me, from a dark street.

In addition to PT exercises, swimming has been the most helpful to me. Could you go to a pool with a friend and trade off children while one of you swims?

I don't think that you need to take responsibility for a meaningful break. So long as she's not on screens all the time, leaving it up to her to work it out is fine, even if she is 'stuck ' at home. Learning to deal with boredom is a skill.

I'm glad you managed to sleep. Monday - quick swim first thing then a walk up the Den at lunchtime. I will try for some sun salutations later.

I'm not enormously hopeful that they will go for it - it really depends how valuable I am to them at that point. I was explicitly asked not to request it right now.

My sister has been diagnosed with this and it runs in families. My doctor has run a standard fasting blood panel on me and is now seeking advice from the specialist lipid clinic.