2323 - (Don't) run to the hills

Light snow last night though I saw no snow fall
In the hills there's more if you want, if not
Then maybe you should not live there at all
In rainy climes like ours, hill dwellers got
A rough climatic deal, but when it's hot
Maybe up there it's nice and cool, but how
Often's that the case? Just rain underfoot
On my way in to work. Bit earlier now -
My so-called reward for good behaviour
Doing my exercises each nightfall
Finding endless time to do things that would
Previously not get fitted in somehow
Like chores, like guitar, reading... what a ball
'Barchester Towers' rocks with clerical wit

2322 - The tobacco road not taken

After yesterday's marathon walking
In the name of family exploration
(Of Manchester's shops and galleries), drinking
To wind down when I got home, once the norm
I rejected as old habit, not done
If I wanted to conserve recent gains
In fitness - likewise smoking. I walked on
Home, buying nothing, unwanted poisons
Seen for what they were, struggling free of chains
Entirely mental, lonely time-wasting
I felt proud of my determination
No, it's not easy - the addict who wins
The battle with his demons keeps fighting
A lifelong war, fights again and again

2321 - Walk this way, and that way, and this way again

What a long day's walk, yet I felt so fit
Thanks to my recent exercise regime
Not just legs but upper body, a sprite
I was, collecting a parcel, full steam
Then to Piccadilly, got there on time
- Early, in fact - no need to be worried
About being late seeing Josephine
As usual, popped in first to All-U-Need
For snacks and drinks. Train to Manchester. Tried
Subway food, cheap but basic, the basket
Useful, I s'pose. To Chinatown, shopping
Then the Art Gallery, then a CD
And card for her mum's birthday, then trained it
Back to Wilmslow, then long walk home to mine

2320 - Life train

Caught up on sleep last night, slept til near nine
When I arrived at work they were talking
About me - 'Talk of the devil...' but I'm
Not sure what they were actually saying
I wasn't bothered, though, they were smiling
And nice to me all day! It's my birthday
Soon, so hopefully they were discussing
What presents to give to me next Friday
Just before we go out to drink, eat, play
Another few steps in that march of time
Closer to the end of the journeying
The destination's nowhere. Under grey
Skies, this train shuffles slowly on its line
Hills left behind, the landscape flatlining

2319 - An eye-popping night

Awake half the night with the radio on
I'd been out that night, drank pints of Guinness
No longer used to beer, a stimulant
Effect was produced by those pints, I guess
Though I went to bed by twelve, this unrest
Meant I ended up tired and late for work
I slept the first two and a half hours, passed
(As quite a few times before) in a walk
Or run through rural scenes, a dream that talked
Of suppressed impressions fourteen years on
From my days of fell running through forest
And hill. Suddenly from this I awoke
To hear the mad story of the woman
Whose boyfriend gouged both her eyes out, no less

2318 - Ain't it funny how beer slips away

No alcohol since December twenty
I'm proud of that, and though it seems stupid
Plans to drink tonight make me feel guilty
Although it's down the pub, not alone, hid
At home. Got cigs to go with beer - I should
Have resisted that habit, because twice
In December I drank in pubs and did
Not buy them then. It can be done, but he's
A smoker - the friend I'm meeting - not nice
To cadge cigs off him. People get frosty
When you do that. Buy your own coffin lid!
The next thing I'll do is some exercise
Then make something to eat. It's comedy
We're going to talk about. It will be weird.

2317 - Waterloo - then and now

Winding down after press-ups and guitar
TV prog on the Regency period
A time of interest to me, that's for sure
With fat Prince George, Beau Brummel, all the blood
Of Waterloo, and Boney's now captured
Paraded on a ship just off Devon
The art of Turner develops; abroad
Go the Brits on their tours, there's Lord Byron
Then I watched Max Keiser - China / Japan
Conflict looms, saith the prophet, yes, there's war
On the way, US troops to be stationed
In Africa to fight the Chinese Hun
Til then, currency wars pitch the dollar
Against the renminbi, two paper swords