Surprise sprint

It's reading week for St Mike's students at the moment, though I have been in touch by email and phone with a couple whose sermons I shall be hearing in situ this weekend - for me it's a rare duty-free Sunday. It was good to have the extra free day to remove computer equipment, accounts and other essential files from office to home, while our relocation to the third floor of the Motorpoint Arena south west wing takes place. With a planned trip to London to see my sister June on furniture removal day, I didn't want to return to chaos.

As usual on my visits, I got my sister's Sony laptop up to date, tidied her browser and desktop and then had a go at setting up a remote access facility so that I can do this from home, but failed miserably. Ignorance of all the technical details caused me to lose my nerve. I need someone to hand hold me through the process. In the process I discovered that her computer no longer recognises (and therefore does not charge) its battery. Is this a smart battery fault or a charging circuit failure? She'll need to take the battery to a Sony dealer for testing. If it's not that it's a motherboard failure. Will that be the end of it, I wonder? We had planned to visit to David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy, but the rainy weather discouraged us from going out.

The coaches to and from London were non-stop, and as quick a journey as could be, on return with clear roads at night. We got in ten minutes early, in just enough time for me to witness the departure of the five westbound buses, any of which would take me home. They were all queuing at the traffic light, to exit into Wood Street. No wanting a half hour wait for the next, I decided to chance it, and ran across Wood Street and into Westgate Street to my usual stop, some four hundred yards. The last of the buses in the queue to arrive at the stop was the sixty one that drops me closest to home. It pulled in just as I arrived, and I was home by the time the bus should have arrived. 

I was a little breathless, but amazed at the resilience of my legs as I ran, especially as I'd been immobilised in a coach seat for three hours. I expected to have to stop with pain or cramp, but didn't - and there was no aftermath. I have the weekly Chi Gong and Tai Chi classes to thank for a tangible improvement in my physical condition over the past year. Getting old doesn't mean you can't get fit again.