Unfit

Being away did remind me quite how unfit I am. My normal exercise regime (believe me that word seriously overstates it) is walking up the escalators at the tube station and a twenty minute walk home from the station.

Had I walked a bit more during the week, I would have got rather fitter, but I was often a bit off the pace and would trudge in a couple of minutes after most of the rest of the group. My addiction to penguins did not necessarily help my cause those, all that chocolate, I’d forgotten how nice they were – and you get a joke on the wrapper as well. How can you resist such classics as:

What did the grape do when it got stepped on?

It gave out a little wine.

Why did the elephant take toilet paper to the party?

Because it was a party pooper.

They don’t actually get any better than that.

But sometimes I wonder if there are parallels between my walking ‘technique’ and my life more generally. Many years ago a friend said to me that I am one of life’s plodders (she meant this in a nice way!). Basically I keep plodding on even in adverse conditions. I grit my teeth and keep going, maybe occasionally losing my way or slowing my pace a bit but in the end I get there, regardless of all the trials or circumstances that may put me off my goal.

I do actually like knowing others have trodden a path before me, that I can say to someone “what do you think?” or “what did you do?” and from their experience they can tell me what path they took and why. Somehow it makes things less scary, more manageable.

So perhaps I am not unfit, but instead need to build up stamina, to work out where I need some strength and insight and then set my sights on the goal and see it through.

And one final joke...

Why did the lobster blush?

Because the sea weed.