Creeting St Peter - the Chair goes forth into the snowy landscape...

Due to a slight mix-up between myself and our Clerk, I found myself with all of the Parish Newsletters, rather than just those for the core village - the Church Warden, Alice, usually delivers the outliers, which is very generous of her.

That meant that I rather felt that I ought to deliver themselves myself, but the distances involved required me to do so in two tranches - Clamp Farm and Creeting Hall in one walk, and the southern end in another.

And so, yesterday I trudged through the rain and murk, for neither rain nor snow, nor gloom of night shall stay the deliverer from his duty. Today offered more of a challenge though, what with the snow being swept in from Ukraine on a stiff easterly wind. But I’m a dogged soul, and besides, it gave me a chance to see how things were at that end of the Parish.

There will doubtless be those who, being less than usually generous, will assume that, as a card-carrying Liberal Democrat, I might have a motive to go out in such conditions. There are, after all, elections due in May, and my view as to the quality of service we get from our Conservative county councillor is not a tremendously high one. However, not only do I have no intention of running this year, but the Parish newsletter is decidedly non-political.

And besides, it provided a more than respectable reason for my 10,000 steps - I might as well do something both useful and healthy.

Properly wrapped up for the conditions, with waterproof trousers and the parka jacket I brought back from our Alaska cruise in 2019, it wasn’t too bad out, and with the roads as quiet as you might expect, the walking was pretty easy. A bit of early-seventeenth century music for voice and lute kept the spirits up too.

I did run into one of our residents, whom I had never actually met before, and we had an interesting (and socially distanced) chat on her doorstep. Reassuringly, given her isolated location, it turned out that one of my near neighbours is watching out for her, a reminder that, in our small village, the informal support network remains efficient.

So, another day in the life of a Parish councillor is completed. It isn’t all about shouting at each other over Zoom, you know...

Lockdown starts gloomy... outside at least

I noted, a few days ago, that the inclement weather and the generally sodden nature of the countryside offered a challenge in the then circumstances of Tier 4 restrictions. Well, the national lockdown makes things a bit more trying, especially when you're restricted to a limited number of grounds for going outside.

It therefore shouldn't have come as a huge surprise that day one of the new lockdown dawned cold, grey, wet and windy. Luckily, we needed bread and milk, which at least gave me an excuse to walk the more than four miles to and from the Co-op at Stowupland. It isn't as close as Tesco cross country, but given that the footpaths, especially across fields, are a morass, it's a less perilous walk, especially given that it consists of a little used single track road with relatively good sight lines and then pavement along the A1120 (which, frankly, isn't that busy either). The alternative means dicing with the HGV's that journey to and from the concrete products factory to the A14 - I think not.

And the exercise is not only good for me, but the journey requires almost exactly 10,000 steps (and yes, I'm still doing them every day) and, whilst the cold and wet is a bit grim, I can listen to music and think about whatever needs thinking about as I meander across the gently rolling landscape.

I got back to find that Ros's bread baking effort had been rather more successful than she had originally feared, but on days like this, a nice piece of toast never goes amiss...

1,691 days... and counting...

It’s coming on for five years now since I started what seemed like a vaguely heroic quest - for me at least - of trying to walk 10,000 steps every day. I started in midwinter, on the basis that, if I could do it then, I could probably keep it up. And, for seven weeks, I did just fine. On day 50, I contracted food poisoning in an all-inclusive resort in Cuba. I may be one of the very few people to have left an all-inclusive resort weighing rather less than I did when I went in...

I lost three days but, by day 4, I was able to get back on track. That was 18 February 2016, and I haven’t missed a day since.

That sounds rather impressive as I think about it. Despite rain, snow, hurricane force winds, I’ve doggedly got my 10,000 steps, walking around airport terminals, making deck circuits with a view of the polar pack ice, trudging through a blizzard across the New Hampshire/Maine border. But mostly, those steps have been done within a short distance of home.

I’m lucky in that regard. Ros is very encouraging, sometimes arranging things (and me) to make getting those steps easier, but generally allowing me to disappear for half an hour here, or an hour there to get them done - it takes about an hour and forty minutes of continuous walking to get to 10,000 steps, especially as I tend to the view that running is for people being chased by tigers (there are very few tigers in mid-Suffolk).

And, as you might expect, there are benefits too. I’m nearly twenty kilos (forty-two pounds or three stones) lighter than I was then, slightly more limber than before, and rather less vulnerable to the Valladares curse - type 2 diabetes. I’ve also expanded my wardrobe towards something more dapper, which is nice. And, and this is quite important given one of my great loves, fitting into aircraft seats is a less traumatic experience.

One unexpected plus is my increased exposure to village life. People have a habit of stopping for conversation, which gives me fresh insight into how my village works, and what troubles it. As Chair of the Parish Council, that can be incredibly useful, as it gives me ideas for things that we might do to help, or to improve the village. They may be small things, but they matter, and that should be what community activism is about.

So, onwards into my sixth winter. I’m better equipped, with the rain gear I picked up in Chile, sensible walking shoes from Clarks, with the back-up of proper hiking boots from Timberland, and a flat cap made of Harris Tweed to keep the rain off my eyebrows. I’m also in a groove - a day feels incomplete until my FitBit wristband buzzes to let me know that I’ve completed another 10,000 steps.

Wish me luck...

Day 1055 - the trek continues...

Yes, I’m still walking 10,000 steps each day, and haven’t missed a day for nearly three years now. That is, I guess, an awful lot of steps, but it is now a thoroughly engrained habit, despite the hurdles in the way - blizzards, being (small) shipbound, long-haul flights, for example.

It has occasionally required some rather cute scheduling, and imaginative solutions - the multiple laps of a rather small, overcrowded corporate jet lounge at Stansted required persistence and an acute resistance to boredom - plus some luck - if the sea had been rough the day we sailed to the edge of the polar pack ice, I probably wouldn’t have been allowed on deck to walk the many laps of the ship that I did.

But small changes of habit have made it easier. Walking up and down railway platforms when arriving early for my train, getting out to walk around Ipswich during my lunch break, these make the task that bit less daunting.

In turn, as I walk more, walking becomes easier, and journeys I might otherwise have made by public transport are now done on foot. It often surprises me how close together places are when you walk between them.

I accept that it isn’t for everyone. You do need to set aside time, and not everybody can do that. For others, health and physical wellbeing are serious hurdles to getting out and about. But for me, walking allows me to listen to some music, allow my mind to wander a bit, and just relax. Sometimes, something that has been rattling around in the back of my head emerges blinking into the light, and I come up with a solution.

But, most of all, it has enabled me to shed some of the excess weight I’d put on, and make clothes buying something less of a hassle as I return to a more well provided for size. I feel a bit better for it in health terms, although I’d probably feel even better if I lost another forty-five pounds. But let’s not get carried away here...

And so, I carry on, getting the steps done each day, feeling good for having maintained some discipline and persistence. It does feel pretty good...

Eight hundred and forty-six days, and still counting...

When I started my original “Building a Better Walrus” programme at the beginning of 2016, the intention was to walk 10,000 steps each day. It was, if you like, an aspiration which soon turned into something rather more serious. And, as the days went by, the idea of not reaching my target became rather like an obsession. That was, until I contracted food poisoning in Cuba and was confined to a sofa for three days.

I’d managed forty-five straight days of 10,000 steps and was feeling quite proud of myself, and was determined to get back into my stride, so to speak. My first day back wasn’t pretty as a rather pale and shaky bureaucrat ambled slowly around our beach resort. That was February 18, 2016.

I haven’t missed a day since.

Admittedly, I’ve had to be pretty creative at times. Walking around the promenade deck of a small cruise ship forty-eight times was one solution on the day we didn’t go ashore due to the lack of shore. Airports have become a means to cover distances rather than buy duty-free. And I am often seen walking up and down station platforms if I get to the station early enough. You never know, after all, what might stand in your way later in the day, so better to get those steps in early.

And one interesting side effect is that, as I am able to walk further, I become more likely to do so, and have taken to walking journeys that would have seemed onerous before. For example, when I come to London for FIRC meetings, I walk from Liverpool Street to Westminster, varying my route according to the time available. Last time, I crossed the Millenium Bridge for the first time and followed the South Bank from there to Westminster - it’s a rather pleasant stroll.

Best of all, everywhere feels so much closer, something which became obvious after two Spring Conferences in York. The first time, one tended not to walk as much whilst, a year later and somewhat lighter, on the second trip, we tended to arrive at places rather earlier than expected.

Now I acknowledge that walking isn’t for everyone - friends of mine have a variety of methods for keeping, or getting, active - but if, like me, you’re not keen on rushing about, a gentle stroll is quite a nice way of stirring the blood. And if you happen to have some leaflets, all the better...

I have walked ten thousand steps, and I have walked ten thousand more...

Just before the New Year before last, I set myself the goal of walking ten thousand steps each day. I had managed forty-nine consecutive days when I was struck down with food poisoning and wasn't really capable of walking anywhere for three days.

However, on 18 February last year, I started again. And, according to my Fitbit app on my iPhone, I haven't missed a day since. I am, I admit, quite pleased with myself, as I did doubt whether I would have sufficient willpower to keep up with the walking.

It has, occasionally, involved some planning. Dealing with days when you spend twelve hours flying, time zone changes, meetings that involve sitting in a chair when you really should be walking, all of these and more have been handled somehow.

There are rewards. I'm about forty pounds lighter, four inches narrower at the waist and an inch at the collar, able to hike a bit, have more energy generally and have regained a wardrobe full of loud shirts that perhaps ought to have been forgotten. So it has been worth it.

However, one shouldn't just reach a milestone and stop. Which reminds me, I've got another loop of the village to do... 

So, a better walrus having been built, how am I getting on?

Readers will recall that I had declared my battle to shed two stone (28 pounds or, for those of you of a metric bent, 12.8 kilos) in weight won. Of course, the challenge is to keep it off...

Or, alternatively, you can attempt to do more.

And, so, I've kept up my 10,000 steps a day regime, generally watched my calorie intake, made a few changes to my habitual diet. Nothing dramatic, all seemingly sustainable. It seems to work and I've now lost 16.2 kilos, or 35 pounds.

I'm still more walrus than gazelle, although frankly, I'm never going to be a gazelle. I have, though, lost four inches around the waist, regained virtually all of my collection of shirts that I've purchased in moments when my taste has deserted me, and exposed a slightly more confident persona. It's all good, as they say.

And, of course, because the changes are sustainable, there's still potential for more weight loss. I am still carrying poundage that really isn't doing me any good, in the key places that men shouldn't, i.e. around the major organs. But the walking has become a habit, the calorie counting an intellectual exercise, and the prospect of some serious clothes shopping has been an incentive.

So, the work to build a better bureaucrat continues. Wish me luck!

A question to which the answer is forty-two...

Yes, it's been six weeks since I started my (kind of) health regime of ten thousand steps and 1.9 litres of water a day, and I've managed both every day thus far.

It feels, I must say, pretty good.

Today, by way of a change, Ros and I took our morning constitutional on the seafront at Felixstowe, which isn't so far from the Creetings, but is somewhat different, especially on a sunny, but windy day. Put it this way, walking northwards was wind-assisted, and the return journey somewhat tougher.

Felixstowe is, unlike some seaside resorts locally, in relatively good shape, in part due to the presence of one of Europe's biggest container ports on its doorstep. And even now, despite the pressure of local government finances, the gardens and landscaping have been maintained, the promenade is in good condition, and there are places to stop for a cappuccino, should one be so inclined.

There is even sand, which sounds unremarkable until you discover that, until recently, the beach was a pebble one.

After our walk, we made our way into town for a light lunch, and remarked on the fact that the range of shops was pretty broad, with a mixture of chains and more local outlets. The bank that Ros worked in when she left school is still there (and still a bank), and there isn't that sense of decline that towns such as Walton on the Naze have experienced.

All in all, it was nice to get out, and we may well take the opportunity to stroll around other places over the coming weeks. At least, we will when we next have a free weekend at home...

"Building a Better Walrus" - a progress report

So, I've been walking around a bit, and making sure that I'm properly hydrated (who knew that I was supposed to drink nearly two litres of water a day?). A month has gone by, well, a month and four days, to be strictly accurate, but has it made a difference?

The answer is, slightly surprisingly, yes. Including the four days in December, which I tend to see as a warm-up, I've made my ten thousand steps and 1.9 litres of water every day, managing more than three hundred and seventy thousand steps (just over 12,000 a day!) in January alone, and have lost nearly seven pounds (three kilos for those of you operating in metric).

This is rather satisfying, I have to admit. And yes, it probably isn't repeatable - it is likely to get harder as I lose weight to achieve the same results - but it might be sustainable, which is rather more important.

Of course, none of this would be possibly without Ros's support, or the probably unintended inspiration that came from Alistair Carmichael, and I am keen to keep going with this as long as my willpower lasts. But the Fitbit app on my iPhone is acting as a bit of a nag/motivator (delete as appropriate), so we'll see how it goes...

All quiet on Creeting St Peter Footpath No. 1...

It's been a mostly dank, drizzly sort of day in Mid Suffolk but, as the saying goes, not rain, nor snow, nor gloom of night shall deter the bureaucrat from his ten thousand steps, and so I set off into the irritatingly persistent drizzle to buy a loaf of bread and the Sunday paper. The advantage is that I can cut across country using one of the parish's many footpaths.

There is, however, a slight glitch, in that the routes of a number of those paths were disrupted by the small matter of a four lane trunk road that was carved through the middle of the parish in the 1970s, by-passing Needham Market and Stowmarket. The A45, now the A14, divided the village from its church, and obliged the County Council to create diversionary routes to allow villagers to get both to church and into Stowmarket. There weren't many people here anyway, and they could fairly safely be ignored.

Admittedly, given that virtually everyone around here drives these days, it matters little now and the footpaths are generally quiet. Thanks to our conscientious local farmers though, most of them are pretty well maintained.

Originally, footpath 1 ran from the centre of the village, near the Parish noticeboard, in a westerly direction, and it still does, but as it expires on the wrong side of the A14, those heading for Stowmarket are diverted south across the road bridge and then parallel to the A14 before rejoining the original route.

Once you've put the traffic noise into the back of your mind, it's a pleasant enough walk, slightly downhill at first before crossing a minor stream and rising back up to the access road for Brazier's Hall and the Creeting Lakes sports fishery. From there, you follow Mill Lane into Cedars Park, cut through using one of that estate's many footpaths/cycle lanes, and there's Tesco, with all of life's modern conveniences.

And, once you've got your head around the concept that it's nowhere near as far as you had thought, you can focus on the scenery...

Another sunny day in East Cambridgeshire...

Three weeks ago, Ros and I were in Bottisham, where a by-election caused by the resignation of the recently elected Tory councillor was the impetus behind a well-organised campaign to win back a seat we had lost last year.

At the other end of East Cambridgeshire though, a County by-election had been called due to the unexpected death of the Tory councillor, coincidentally in a division part-held at District level by Lorna Dupré, the Regional Party's administrator and now leader of the Opposition on East Cambridgeshire District Council. Naturally, having been invited to come and help, it would have been wrong not to turn out on what looked like being a rather grey, wet day.

Fortunately, the sun broke through, and it had become a much nicer day by the time we reached our meeting point, in the village of Sutton, where Lorna lives. The task for the day was to do some canvassing in Little Downham, which makes up about a quarter of the County Division. Me, I had some walking to do, occasionally interrupted by other tasks, which seemed sensible, given my ongoing steps target.

There is nothing finer than walking around villages on a sunny day, and I was getting quite into things, discovering the local bus route - three times a day, Monday to Saturday, connecting Little Downham with Ely - and spotting the railway line between Ely and Peterborough at the eastern end of the village.

However, such fun can't go on forever and, mid-reverie, my phone rang, with instructions to return to the car. Gathering with the team, a photograph was taken, envelopes returned, and we headed back to Suffolk.

Lorna has a genuine chance to win on 18 February. We lost by about 250 in 2013, and with Lorna's strong support in half the ward, and no Labour or Green contender, it may not need much of a swing for her to overtake her Conservative rival. It would be nice to think that, should she do so, we will have made another small contribution to the Liberal Democrat recovery in a county where we have done well in the recent past.

And the fourteen thousand steps I managed today won't have done the 'Building a Better Walrus' project any harm either...

A bureaucrat wanders on...

So, we're now twenty-one days in to this walking thing and, so far, so good. I've managed my 10,000 steps every day, and am averaging over 11,000 (just in case, you understand).

Today, I walked to our nearest supermarket which, given that we are in the countryside, is a gentle half-hour stroll across the fields, along Mill Lane, over the A1120 into Creeting Road East, before cutting through part of the Cedars Park estate to arrive at our local branch of Tesco. In the sunshine, and with some villanelle to listen to on the headphones, it was reassuringly pleasant.

I didn't need much, the Sunday newspaper, a loaf of bread, some ham and some cheese for the week, and it wasn't long before I was heading back.

The funny thing is, this is becoming vaguely habit-forming. I've taken to arriving a little earlier for my train in the morning and using the time to walk up and down the platform. I perambulate around my village in the evening after work if I'm a little short on my steps (it's about 2,000 steps if you walk in a T-shape to each of the three edges of the village). And, of course, Ros is being very supportive.

So, the bureaucrat wanders on. I'll be tidying my wardrobes next...