Popped to the gym for a quick relaxation session, however it was all happedning there - there were 2 men in the steam room, one small wiry one giving an enormous man a massage. Felt that 3 was a crowd so went to the sauna instead. Now watching my favourite programme, the Secret Millionaire. it might have been on for weeks, as I haven't been watching tv since beginning of Feb, however, the draw of my top watch is too much to resist. Also notice that the apprentice has restarted, so might have to make an exception for that in the name of studies of psychology of the ignorant.

Today I helped rob with shifting the pebbles from the front drive to the back garden, he has done so well as yesterday he got the concrete base down for the new shed. I have not been much use, apart from taking the girls out to give him space. Last night I went to Winchester to listen to Father Lawrence Freeman, who is a monk who is in charge of the worldwide community for christian meditation. He was great, very calm and slow and we did a 20 min meditation as part of the evening. It was not a new concept, as we started meditating after the visit to Washington DC in 2003, as a leadership team but you do get a bit lazy and forgetful without a group of like minded people to spur you on, don't you? I bought a book about meditating with children, and did 5 mins with H and 3 mins with A tonight before bed time. I read in the book that statistical, scientific studies show that regular meditation has physiological effects in terms of lowering blood pressure, breathing rate and heart beat, and many pychological benefits including less depression, more ability to cope, better sleep, feeling of better well being etc etc. I then did 15 mins on my own, in my new Godly play room - the spare room, which I have tidied up a bit and made some space so I can fit a sprinkling of children in for godly play, and as a quiet room for me and the rest of my family. I was really pleased how quickly the time went, and I could have kept going but H called out as she was scared. Looking forward to tomorrow! Father L suggests 20 mins twice a day, and all you do is sit up straight, close your eyes, and say a word inside over and over again, like Jesus (assuming you are a Christian). However, a while ago at housegroup I did a talk and meditation, and suggested that any word would do - for example, tomato. More recently, one of our number announced that he had been doing it, and using the word tomato as his mantra ever since.

I bought a newspaper yesterday, and read that girls with absent fathers (ie split up families, not thoes working away) start their periods way earlier than intact families, and the more involved the father in the girl's upbringing, the later she starts puberty. HOW AMAZING IS THAT??? How mysterious and interwoven are our physical and emotional and spiritual health.

OK Get this. I have been out 3 times now for a run with Sarah G, who is a very good and keen runner. Yesterday I could have sworn we were going way over 5k, and last week I thought the same. I kept asking, and she, with the pedometer, would tell me - we'e done 3.5 when I am thinking we might have done it. It was windy yesterday, but flat, so when we got back and had been out for nearly an hour I was a bit suspicious and so mapped the route on gmap. The LIAR had been making it up, and I had actually done 7.5k!!! Still, I feel good about doing 5k next Saturday, and have got Sarah signing up to do my second tri with me as penance. She says she was trying to talk me into doing the 10k this Saturday ie she was going to tell me when we got there, and convince me I could do it.

So I have been online looking for a suitable tri for us to do. Here's my option: 4k swim in a lake, 180k cycle, and a marathon run. You get 9.5 hours, and if you haven't finished they pick you up and take you to the finish line - personally I would have thought the local cardiac unit a better option. I would need a week to do that. And I don't want to do a swim in a lake or sea one - there is a suitable one but it involves swimming in the Beaulieu river, which I just don't fancy.