Cheering things ...

Ah, the daffs. Like a burst of sunshine on the table, even though the sun didn't exactly stick around today. In fact, I couldn't believe how cold it was when I went out to Pilates, legs cringing inside the garish leggings - a wind  all the way from Edinburgh - or maybe further - in my face as I went down the path. The class was difficult today - I was being cautious after waking early with the sciatica playing tunes on the nerve, so spent some time just sitting on my mat watching people stretching impossibly. But at least I got some exercise in. 

Later, I had a long phone call to Di, who was suddenly stricken with back pain last night; it's amazing how cheering it is to find oneself laughing at the predicament instead of moaning (though I think the moaning was what made it funny...). Then we went out. Purposefully, not just for fresh air. Before we went to Madeira I had promised myself that when we got home we'd book another holiday, and this time one that didn't require me to double as a travel agent.

This in mind, we toddled down to our local branch of Hay's Travel, and emerged quite some time later having arranged an early May holiday in Italy. With any luck I'll get using some of this Italian I'm learning before I shuffle off this mortal coil, and in the meantime it makes me feel cheerful to look forward to it. It was great watching someone else do all the questions, dates, flights and so on - though the woman who was dealing with us, whom I remember booking through aeons ago on another similar trip the year before I retired, confessed that she'd be much more uptight doing it for herself! It's very different from previous holidays - all these walking holidays, the odd exotic destination - and from the epic travels of some fellow-blippers, but feels more like a holiday in the full meaning of the word, and not so long that we'll get fed up with it.

I spent most of this evening comatose/barely conscious in front of the telly, so I hope I'm going to sleep now. I've just noticed that according to my watch the temperature outside has dropped to 3ºC - a big change. 

In other and totally unrelated news, I finished off a poem today and have had a rather unexpected quantity of positive feedback - I may have to think about publishing another collection...