Murderous thoughts

Sunny, not and humid, temps 31

Anotehr amazing day. We don't use air conditioning but Gary put a ceiling fan in our bedroom last fall and it's on all night. What a difference it makes. And it's silent. Amazing. Hot and sticky day...classic Quebec summer day.

Went exercising this morning - which is far from 'classic' for us. Pina Maku's class. she's a friend, neighbor and ruthless exercise class leader. I thought it might be a good chance to tone up but also have an hour to let my mind work on a couple of editing issues that have come up. By cutting out a character I've created a few structural 'weaknesses'. Holes really. Great, gaping gaps in the logic of the story. So I thought doing an hour of Stretch and Strength would give me 'time off' - or at least my brain.

We'd done exercise with Pina a few years ago, so really there was no excuse for idiocy like that. Of course I wouldn't have time to think of anything except why this seemed a good idea, and how to kill Pina. And how long, Dear Lord, how long? Looked at my watch every 30 second and time at first stood still then seemed to go backward. We'd created a black hole.

Eventually, after a century and a few lifetimes had passed, the class was over.

On this side of it, it feels great. My goal (modest as always) is to be like the ancient Greeks and have a balance of mind, body and spirit. I believe the mind and the spirit get regular workouts, but the body is lagging behind. On the sofa. With a pastry.

I'm never going to be slim, certainly not skinny. Have no desire to be. I love food too much. But I know I feel better when I exercise. And can touch my toes.

Had another wonderful email from Dolores Gordon-Smith, a wonderful writer from the UK we met at Crimefest in Bristol. We'd been corresponding about children and she said she quite liked them. I thought she had 2 daughters, so I agreed if you actually have some it's probably best to like them. here's her response...

As a a matter of fact, old thing, I've got five daughters. There's about 18 months to two years between them all, so it was a busy time, but good grouping, wouldn't you say? Eventually we found out what was causing it, so that was that.

I've just had an email (thank goodness for emails!) from Helen in Cambodia. There was one bit that was so nice, I'm going to paste it in. She went round the huge Angor Wat Indiana Jones-y ancient temple and, while she was feeling temple fatigue, met some children.

"They came up to me whilst I was sat on a bit of temple reading a book about Angor, so I was showing them the photos and the 13 yr old saw a coloured one of Cambodian dancers which she kept wanting to turn back to because she was learning how to dance like that. She was so taken with it I couldn't say no when she asked me to rip it out for her! Nice to give someone here something other than money."

Isn't that lovely? It's those moments which I treasure, where you stop being a tourist and become more of a traveller.

Now, if I could give birth to an adult Helen I'd do it. She sounds wonderful. But then her mother is too.

Must be off. We have a few things to prepare for tomorrow including a funeral. Our friend Dave Crandall died in the winter and like so many Quebec funerals, his had to wait until they could dig in the ground. I believe he was cremated and this is the service for his friends, and to bury the ashes.

A reminder, as always, to cherish each moment.