Thursday 30 April 2026 in 2026

Dear A,
I woke at seven this morning from a very deep sleep. I was glad that I got up straight away and got on with the day. I felt a little better than I did yesterday. Yesterday carried a sense of defeat to it that seemed to settle over everything.
I was late enough getting to the gym that the usual morning crowd had mostly gone, but it was nice seeing different faces for a change. I managed my two kilometres. There is something about being in the pool for a long time that can put me into a slightly strange frame of mind — I can’t fully explain why or what it is.
After the pool, I popped into Tesco and picked up a few groceries. I knew it was going to stay warm into the evening, so I bought a blood orange Thatcher’s cider, which I had after dinner. It reminded me of an Aperol spritz. The afternoon was fairly quiet. I checked emails and did a little work, though not as much as I had intended. I also agreed to help out with a group I work with. They are between people at the moment, and because I have some experience in that area, I volunteered to take on one of the tasks. It is unpaid, of course.
Pasta for dinner and then I joined a ninety-minute online workshop, which I realise probably sounds unbearably dull to most people, but I genuinely find it fascinating. It is the second workshop I have done with this group, and I am one of the youngest there by far. Most of the women are in their sixties, seventies and eighties, adjusting hearing aids, wiping their weepy eyes, and shifting carefully in their chairs. Nevertheless, their minds are extraordinary. They speak about places they have travelled, events they attended and people they met, decades of experience and observation carried so lightly. Their intelligence honestly dazzles me, occasionally throwing difficult questions into the workshop. But they are also funny and warm and deeply engaged with the world. How strange and remarkable it is that the mind can remain so agile and alive while the body changes dramatically. I left the session feeling genuinely inspired by them. I hope I reach that age with the same curiosity and vitality intact. A, how are you?