Keep WALKING

Back in 2015 I started taking note of my step count.

On February 27^th that year I discovered the Health app on my new phone and it sprang into action.

That particular day I managed a mere 103 steps. Something tells me I was exploring the phone on the sofa in the evening.

Next day, thanks to a dog walk, I made it to 4,290. And by the end of 2015, my average was 5,226.

Not exactly the fabled 10,000 steps. I told myself it only counted when I went outside with my phone.

But hard to imagine I was doing an extra 4,774 steps a day around the house, although I do work on the top floor and Amazon do come a lot.

I don’t remember paying much attention to the app over the next few years. I just made sure I took my phone with me when I took Coco for a walk. The Coconut.

And it shows in the averages.

5,255 in 2016.

4,783 in 2017.

5,026 in 2018.

5,423 in 2019.

That’s what happens when you do the same walk with the same dog round the same London common.

Then a number of things happened.

Coco died. She made it to nearly 15 despite having Addison’s disease and arthritis. In the last month we took her for a walk in a beach trolley.

We lasted three months in a dog-less house before Beanie arrived, full of more Portuguese Water Dog madness.

And then it was COVID. Suddenly dog walks were the only time we were allowed out, so we made the most of them. Plus young dogs walk further than old dogs.

Anyway, it showed.

2020, my average went up to 6,138.

2021, 6,572.

2022, 7,016.

Adding an average of 500 daily steps each year did take some application. I mean, I really made sure I had my phone with me. More than once, when I left it behind, I went back for it.

The children got met at the train station after school whether they liked it or not. The Mean Streets of South-West London.

Until the story took its final twist. In August 2023 the ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone) was extended all the way past our door to the M25. £12.50 a day, cameras everywhere.

There I was with a 2012 diesel car right in Sadiq Khan’s sights.

Until I sensed an opportunity in the threat. I decided, I won’t drive to the shops or to friends or to school sport watching. I’ll get the train or tube or bus.

Which means more steps.

2023, 7,503.

2024, 8,558.

2025, 8,801. I was out with Beanie on New Year’s Eve afternoon getting the average over the line.

And like with Stranger Things, the real story is in the epilogue. (Was the Season 5 finale really an illusion that Vecna created?)

Because my favourite Christmas present this year was a mug, with a picture of a bounding pooch and the line ‘Happiness is walking the dog on Wandsworth Common’. I feel known.

Time for a walk.