Welcome

Iused to wonder what would have to happen to me to become the embarrassment to my children I was destined to be. Would I overnight become a noisy sender-back of food in restaurants? Develop a consuming interest in naturism? Now I know. I’ve become overfriendly. I say hello to people who’d probably rather notot have had to take their earphones out. And I’m super delighted to help people who seem to be looking at their map too long. It started to become a problem when we began #walk1000miles, our campaign to encourage people to walk an average of 2.74 miles a day. I just don’t think it’s possible to be part of this gang of now 27,000 walkers, and not become terribly fond of the human animal – its capacity for caring, its delight in others’ successes and empathy for others’ trials; its common bond of frailty and friendliness. Take Dianne from Scotland and Susan from Canada, pictured above while Dianne was on holiday. “The coincidence is incredible” she says. “Susan is 60, I’m 61; her walking buddy is called Diane, mine is called Sue; we both took up walking to help with our weight loss, are both retired, met through the challenge and are now obsessed with walking. Yesterday we walked through Nose Hill Park in Calgary, and were astonished we’d done nine miles when we got back as we’d blethered so much we never noticed the time go by. Such an exciting day.” Don’t you just love that? And I know that makes me embarrassing. But given the choice between this and naturism? You don’t have to answer right away, kids.