Now, exercise is another of those things that I sometimes avoid by doing writing. I recently joined a Bikram yoga studio though. It’s a series of 26 yoga postures that aren’t particularly difficult but the studio is heated to around 40 degrees, turning it into 90 minutes of exceptionally sweaty self-torture.

I did this when I was supposed to be creating the Urban Writers Retreat website, and between the class and the almost 3 hour round trip to the studio (It looked like it was on the way home but wasn’t at all thanks to the District line, source of all transport evil) I had no time to write or work and the project almost never happened. This is because it’s totally addictive. I often came out of class feeling euphoric, but the problem is I’m always a bit spaced out afterwards and was therefore in no fit state to work. I am hoping to harness the effect it has on the mind for creative purposes (a little like trying to use meditation or that state between sleeping and waking) and learn to write afterwards because, you see, I’ve just taken it up again. Will I never learn?

On the plus side, I can balance on one leg and pull the other backwards over my head. Now there’s a party trick.