Am I really that mad, enjoying a good long walk? I ask because people have taken to looking askance at me recently, when they ask how I'm "coping with the commute" to my job in Marble Arch, which involves an hour on the train and a walk to my office. "How long's the walk?" people ask, and when I say it's just over an hour they tend to look shocked. General reactions have ranged from a) "you must be MAD", b) "but what if it rains?" and c) "I don't know where you get the energy to do that". Sometimes it's all three. To which I give relatively simple responses; a) no, b) then I take an umbrella, and c) when you bother actually using energy, generally you end up with more.
But it's more than that. One of the things I am the most grateful for in my life is the ability to move; to be able to get myself to places I need to go without having to use machines. I think I've said before that I'm happy I never managed to pass my driving test, or I might have become one of those people who won't walk to the corner shop because it's raining. Energy is a gift you give to yourself; besides which being able to move and keeping myself generally active is important to me in the fight against that perennial background fear of ageing. Fear of ageing for me is really fear of restriction; I tend to think that aside from all those fluffy considerations about vanity nobody would worry about being a hundred years old if they could still move and think like they could when they were twenty. Sod pension plans; the best insurance policies you can give yourself as you get older is to walk everywhere and read everything. That's it.
When I walk I always feel a wonderful sense of my mind being free to wander wherever it likes; a sensation that just isn't the same when I'm sat at home, or at a desk. Problems balance themselves out as if by magic and I can plan and write novels in my head. Plus I can play stupid games with myself, like my current favourite - 'One Second Celebrity', whereby I take a quick glance at the person walking towards me and I have, in that split-second, to come up with a celebrity they resemble (or would resemble if they lost/gained weight, or grew some facial hair, or were wearing a sequinned shrug). Part of my 'walking commute' takes me along Oxford Circus, which can be frustrating when it's crowded but on the other hand it's a real treasure-trove for a game of that kind. It's all swings and roundabouts, just like everything else in life.
Of course, I don't actually say any of this to people. I suspect that if I did they'd get that glazed look I'm used to seeing on people's faces when I'm at work and I'm talking about regulations nobody's interested in, including myself. I just think it all, and then I carry on walking.
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