Louise’s friend Megan came to visit. Megan works on cruise ships and has a glamorous life flying around the place, the apex of which was two weeks training in Watford. Megan is cool, she’s very sarcastic, which kind of disarmed me a bit at first, but now I’ve worked it out I like her and we get on pretty well.

Louise suggested a few days ago that since Megan was in town we should do something cool and that boating at Hyde Park sounded good. With the weather getting sunnier and hotter day after day it did sound good, so off we went to Kensington.

The park was really nice. All the flora is really getting started for summer now and there were droves of people frying in the sun. It was really windy, but it didn’t affect the heat too much and I was really happy in shorts and a t-shirt. We wandered around for a bit, sat on the grass and snacked on sandwiches and ice cream before hiring a rowing boat for half an hour.

Half an hour sounds short but, believe me, my arms hurt enough now. It was great fun badly rowing around the lake, occasionally bumping into the sides due to lack of concentration and skill. Rowing is hard and coordinating two rowers is even harder. We got there eventually and had a good trek around the bit of the Serpentine they let us into.

Afterwards we went to the pub briefly and ate again, but we were all pretty knackered from the exercise and spent the rest of the evening on the sofa.

For the first time yesterday I went for a run. I don’t get out of the house much, I have to make myself go out for an hour a day and I’m trying to increase the amount of exercise I do. I have collected a little bit of “stored energy” on my belly, but that’s not completely why I went. I do need to do more regular exercise anyway. The trouble is, if I think about being unhealthy, I just start thinking about the fact that 16 months ago I stopped smoking and I haven’t had a cigarette since, which makes me feel unduly great about myself. Megan was a personal trainer for a long time and she advised me that I could burn my “stored energy” in a month if I ran for half an hour three times a week. I will try it, but my record with commitment is not good, which I guess is damning it prematurely. If I can do it once every three or four days, that would be cool.

I must make sure I warm up before exercise in future. My muscles are reminding me of this as I type.