Severe Gales.

Strong winds all day. The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for 'severe coastal gales'. At least all our ridge tiles were checked and replaced where necessary after last year's gales. So far there has been very little rain and I hope it stays that way when I walk down to the hall tonight for disco aerobics.

It was lovely to be singing with the choir again last night. One of the new songs we learnt was Under the full moonlight. a round which can be sung in five parts. This song came from the Greenham Common women's protest, where women lived in peace camps to protest against the American nuclear missiles being kept in readiness on Greenham Common. It took 10 years before the missiles were removed and the peace camps remained for another 9 years to protest against nuclear weapons. One of our choir members last night had been amongst those protestors. This was then followed by Shona Malanga which I had learnt in Devon with the old choir. It's a Zulu apartheid protest song arranged by Una May and she is coming to run a singing workshop next month. Must book myself on to that. We chose to end our session by singing 'My Heart be Rain' and sure enough when we opened the doors there was rain in plenty. Perhaps we should have chosen differently but My Heart be Rain is very satisfying to sing. 

One more kitchen cupboard has been emptied, cleaned and re-filled. It is the one where the plastic boxes have spent the last year mutiplying. They have so many uses especially now that batch cooking is proving so economical of both time and money but eventually some have to be culled.

And then it was time for our Welsh class. Our tutor was kind and kept to revision of the work we've already done. In the breakout rooms unsurprisingly we had to chat using the past tense to say what we did/where we went and what gifts we had over the Christmas holiday. Keeping up with the daily Duo Lingo though a bit of a chore has stopped me from forgetting everything.

Later ...... had an excellent work-out in disco aerobics tonight. The wind pushed me down the hill on my way there but made it harder to get home. It was exhilarating battling against the gusts of wind while nice and warm in a winter jacket with my eyes protected by wrap-around glasses, the lightly silvered ones I have to keep the wind out of my eyes when I walk on the beach. Now that my arms and legs are more co-ordinated I was able to put more energy into the dance aspect of the class and for the first time I worked up a real sweat. That's good as it means I'm finally getting some cardio benefit. Not sure how my knees will be tomorrow but I've given them an extra dollop of Voltarol tonight.