But I have no intention of resting on my laurels (or should that be sofa) as I want to make the next blog year about fitness - both mental and physical. I believe the two come hand in hand. The fitter you are physically, the fitter you will be mentally.
When I started my walking regime five miles seemed an extraordinarily long way. Now five miles is just a stroll and I don't really start to feel things until after about eight miles. So the aim is to be able to walk 10 miles without getting joint pain.
As I've said that all helps with mental strength. And I also think that setting goals which are achievable and reasonable is also good for mental health. They have to be achievable otherwise they are counter productive. And everyone has to set themselves a personal goal which will differ from person to person. That's why they have to be challenging and outside of a comfort zone but not so difficult as to be unachievable.
So over the next 365 days my aims are:
To write 365 daily blogs, often with accompanying photographs
To walk over 1,000 miles and on a minimum of 300 days
To run on over 100 occasions
To visit the gym at least 100 times.
To play tennis for a minimum of 80 hours
What makes this challenge slightly easier is that some of the aims can be combined e.g a visit to the gym can also involve running and walking. What makes them difficult is the thought of another lockdown which would wipe out gym and tennis.
I have always wanted to walk the entire length of the Norfolk Coastal path. We have done bits of it but never the whole stretch which I understand is around 90 miles.
Even at 10 miles a day - that's nine days of very solid walking but it will be made much easier by those broad and wide Norfolk skies and the coastline that stretches out ahead of you - not to mention the balmy Norfolk breezes. The main problem is a logistical one. So planning will be needed.
Our starting point would be Hunstanton. Now I may not be very bright at times but even I know that if you leave the car at Hunstanton and walk 10 miles you will be 10 miles from the car. If you walk five miles and then turn round and walk back you will only have covered five miles of the path.
So I think the best way is to use the well known Norfolk Coasthopper public transport and make the best use of our free bus passes. That way we can walk 10 miles from Hunstanton, get to another village on the route and get back home via a bus network whist staying somewhere in North Norfolk such as Cromer or Sheringham.
The journey will make a nice blog diary to share with you.
It was interesting that I started making these plans on a day when I seemed to be suffering from lethargy. A lengthy lie-in and then a long soak in the bath which I found it difficult to get out of.
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I scarcely ever (if ever) listen to Desert Island Discs but yesterday morning in messing around on Facebook I found a message on one of the Norwich sites alerting people that actor Mark Strong would be on the show this week and would be mentioning a few things about his days in Norfolk.
The reference came about his time at Wymondham College when he was a member of two punk bands -delightfully known as The Electric Hoax and Private Party. He referred to a gig at Ashwellthorpe Village Hall when "there were more people on stage than in the audience."
He and his fellow band members took great delight in the fact that somebody complained to the local council about "the terrible filth happening in Ashwellthorpe Village Hall." They thought at that point that they had achieved what they set out to do - shock.
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Not sure whether I have mentioned in the past a website on which I'm putting as many of my photographs as I can find. If you have a few minutes do have a look at:
https://norfolkphotographs.weebly.com/norwich.html
I have just added a load to the Norwich section.