I spent a fair bit of last week recuperating from the Shortest Night 2009 all-night shoot. I messed up my sleep pattern and seem to be stuck in an up-late, sleep-late pattern. So I started exercising late as well - 20-30 minutes on the Duppas fitness trail followed by a long wander around the park with Riz and finishing up with a of quiet contemplation in front a warm summer sunset.
Doing the fitness trail feels a bit like exercise without ever maxing my heart rate but also without the pain of pounding the pavement jogging gives me, so I’ve started to like it now. Going in the evening rather than the morning shocked me a bit. In the mornings a few housewives make the rounds of the simple equipment.
In the evening spillover from the busy adjacent playground takes over. Small children attempt exercising properly until boredom inspires them to climb up and all over the equipment while their parents smile and wave. It suggests we cease to become a wrapped-in-cotton-wool nanny state. I wait patiently for chipped teeth and free access while goofing with Riz.
Actually no one has gotten hurt and the wait is rarely very long.
After a workout and brisk wander with multiple games of fetch or football, Riz and stop for a bit on the top of the hill and take in the sunset and (hopefully) cool breeze, while I contemplate my navel.
Last week I moped around a bit but the exercise and summer breeze blow out the cobwebs. Lately I started thinking, with some sadness, about “the butterfly effect” and resenting how I ended up unemployed during the depths of a recession. But, looking over at Riz, I started to look at it another way.
I know Riz is still ill. I worry the latest course of meds are failing, given his incontinence and decreased appetite. And even if beats the e-coli infection he’s old. He’s (circa) 13 years old, give or take a year (Battersea Dogs’ Home could only guess at his age when I adopted him) — I have to start to accept the inevitable.
If it weren’t for my getting ill and losing my job I wouldn’t have this time to spend with him. And I’m very grateful for it.
