An apple a day. . .

I start every day with an apple, and this morning loved the way the apple was so bursting with juice, that by the last segment it just wouldn't be contained and was oozing out and catching the morning light.

By midmorning I was at the funeral of one of Blackheath's most recognised citizens. A woman who was born and grew up above the chemist shop in town and didn't need to make it her own, because it just was.

She would have been 80 this year, but had advanced emphysema. Standing in a guard of honour, waiting for her to go past in the hearse, my elderly neighbour said - and that's why you shouldn't smoke. "I had no idea that she was a smoker", I replied. "Yes, 60 a day for most of her life. In fact, she would start the morning with three cigarettes while she was still in the shower." Get out.

I'm feeling a little smug about my morning concession to health.

Sadly that's where it peaks and it's downhill from there!