I WAS out walking on Sunday afternoon and bumped into a friend. I approached her a bit sheepishly as I hadn t replied to her last two emails. After our greetings exchange I launched headlong into a full apology about how busy I had been and although she w

I WAS out walking on Sunday afternoon and bumped into a friend. I approached her a bit sheepishly as I hadn't replied to her last two emails. After our greetings exchange I launched headlong into a full apology about how busy I had been and although she was very understanding it didn't make me feel any better. As I continued walking I thought about how much time I seem to spend apologising to people these days for not returning messages. Surely I can't be the only one who struggles to keep up with the hundreds of emails, text messages and facebook messages that are sometimes, however useful, the plague of modern life. I have a decent spam filter on my computer so I no longer get the Viagra alerts, the African businessmen who have 'opportunities' for me to make money and the 'bored girl' in Eastern Europe who also has some opportunities for me, or some other male person that she thinks she is emailing, but I am still feeling message pressure. Every so often I resolve to keep on top of things and not let the inbox run away with itself, but if you are reading this and starting to huff and puff because you are on my 'waiting for reply' list, I apologise, but I have been extremely busy you know...

I started my running training last week and I can't decide whether my pride hurts more than my legs as I am struggling to run for 15 minutes at the moment. Having said that there is a feeling of exhilaration that comes when you push yourself physically that is hard to beat and however much it hurts the following day I do feel good afterwards. I only have to run five miles for my Race For Life in June, but believe me, that seems heck of a long way at this moment in time. I also did the thing everyone does when they take up a new sport and I went out a bought new trainers, new tracksuit bottoms (well, I could hardly wear my bell-bottomed yoga pants) and a plastic water bottle and all that newness does make me feel a bit conspicuous. I need a bit of dirt and sweat on the trainers and to lose a bit of the shine off my tracksuit bottoms before I can ever be considered a serious runner. Oh and I also need to be able to run a bit further!

I went over to the pet service at the cathedral on Sunday and watched all the animals trooping into the great building with their owners. There were quite a few tourists outside and one American lady who tapped me on the shoulder and asked what was going on as I seemed to be the only person in the vicinity who didn't have an alpaca or a huge dog straining on a leash. She was genuinely delighted to have come across such a strange and wonderful spectacle during her visit to Ely and will no doubt go back to America full of tales about how quaint the folk of Ely are and I don't think any of us would argue with that.