Bank of England - AXA IM HQ - Houses of Parliament - St James Park - Buckingham Palace - Green Park - Hyde Park - Oxford Street - Regents Park - Hampstead Heath - Alexandra Palace -Winchmore Hill.
Up early, cup of tea, look outside at deep frost and get ready for action. First walk of the 1000Miles4Hope and remind ourselves we are doing this to raise hope for those who currently have none. The motivation is strong as we don our branded t- shirts and consider all the work put in by Tracy and Charlotte to get us kitted up (in addition to all the work on websites, blogs and twitter). Piccadilly Line and Northern Line and thousands of commuters returning to work after the xmas break. Rob and I now reflect how shy we are as we do not know how to engage this audience in what we are doing. We clearly stick out as different with our bright red t- shirts and 1000Miles4Hope logo and people are trying to read what we are about. Something to work on for tomorrow is to enter in to conversation with strangers and engage them in what we are doing.
We meet Richard Harris at the Bank of England who is ready to film us between here and the Houses of Parliament for a news clip on CityWire tomorrow. Feels good starting out. We first talked about preparing Rob for Kilimanjaro about a year ago and came up with the idea of a 1000 mile walk for charity. Now we can take our first steps and what a great place to go. The interviews go well and we are on our way. First stop AXA IM HQ. More evidence we look suspicious as two burly security guards come hurtling out of the building to ask if they can help us. Looks like we were identified as a threat and would have been straight to the ground arms in cuffs if we did anything suspicious. Somehow we got through the threat level and were allowed in. It was great to meet with and thank Martin Hall for AXA IM's sponsoship of the effort, our first corporate sponsors. Our message to the City is to give us any contributions they can to help us speed up the research in to cures and treatments for this horrible disease. 
Outside the Houses of Parliament we make the case to raise the political profile of Multiple Sclerosis and attract more interest to do something about it. With Rodin's statue of the Burghers and Parliament in the background we make our plea for people to help people around them with MS, support us in what we are doing and encourage them to make efforts themselves to help the cause.
The parks are wonderful and remind us what a wonderful place London is and how many tranquil places there are. We stop in Regents Park while Rob tries to capture some creative perspectives on a Henry Moore statue. There is a challenging hill up Highgate Hill West that tested our preparation and we came through with flying colours and with 10 miles behind us it is time for lunch in The Flask. I said to Rob that the distance just covered was what we needed to do 100 more times this year. He said 'you exaggerate.....it is only 99 more!. On reflection once again we are too shy to enter in to conversation with others in the pub and too focussed on how we were coping with our first steps. Must do better tomorrow. 
After lunch of fish pie and sparkling water we admired some wonderful views across London from the top of Highgate and then work our way across to some more stunning views across a hazy and smoggy London from the top of Alexandra Palace. 
It was cold but a beautiful clear blue sky. The last four miles were really tough and we think it is the amount of walking on roads and paths. The last mile was even tougher and in the dark and it was great to get back home. Some Yoga stretches, a hot bath and a refreshing and tasty soup made by Sou left us refreshed, re-energised and ready for tomorrow.I miss Karen as I am staying at Robs and am going to have to find ways of her coming along or being with us on more of these trips. I hope we can make a difference and bring some real hope. If you know anyone with MS think about what help and support you can give them. Also please please tell everyone you know what we are up to, make a donation and sign our guestbook to give us support.
Day 2 tomorrow and another 13 miles for hope.
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