Well, last week slowly went past with tiny bits of feeling better every day. On Tuesday I had my appointment with the traumatologist who turned out to be a soft spoken, very good looking 30-something and he reassured me that we should be able to fix my problem. He confirmed previous suspicions of the pain coming from nerve damage in my left leg. I showed him my 18 month old MRI that was taken of my lower back, plus he sent me off for a quick X-ray of the same region and after some perusal of both CD's concluded that the irregularities in my lower back are the source of the trouble. Obviously, the actual falling over didn't help, but perhaps with a more robust lower back I might not have damaged myself. Anyway, the solution is in remedial exercises, which I know all about, except this time (unlike two years ago) I was sent to a private physio who on the one hand will give me a full hour's private session, but on the other hand will cost money. My secret plan is that I will only go to her 2 or 3 times max, while in the meantime go and see my NHS rheumatologist who can refer me to 15 completely free group remedial exercise sessions at the local hospital like she did two years ago. Hopefully, the two together should do the trick.
On Wednesday I went with my friend Klari to see a performance of
Un ballo in maschera by the Kolozsvar Hungarian Opera Company, which was brilliant. I actually realised that either I have never seen this opera or if I ever did that must have been about 40-50 years ago. I actually managed to walk the kilometre to the theatre and then back without too much hobbling. The leg is definitely getting better, but extremely slowly, so even including the exercises which should help (as they did 2 years ago), this injury will take at least 4-5 months to get back anywhere near normal. Admittedly, my normal includes orienteering, so it may even be longer. The target to get really better for is the OOCup in Slovenia in late July - let us hope I'll manage it.
On Thursday we came down to the village doing a big food shop en route. And were we happy that we did so? Overnight winter returned yet again with inches of snow and big drops in temperatures. I am not sure if the children looking for eggs in the garden will adjust to the snow, but we can always tell them that the snowbunny brought them. Foolishly - and in spite of Roy reminding me - we didn't buy any more birdseed while shopping, so now I will have to get back to old walnut cracking once the seeds run out. I was also lucky that the organisers of this weekend's orienteering event accepted my late cancellation, so I will not have to pay my entry fees which are normally payable if you cancel this close to the event. I reckon they are all running around ankle deep in snow, but at least it is in the lowlands, so no mountain climbing with avalanche danger.
And finally one interesting development. As you all know I'm a vegetarian, but I have never given up eating fish and occasionally (very occasionally) I also fall off the wagon and eat meat. This week my sister managed to get some beautiful calf liver from a nearby organic farm which I couldn't resist. So I had some braised liver in paprika last night as you can see. The plate on the right is mine, the one on the left is Roy's. He didn't have paprika, but had bacon instead. Both were great.
The birdies have definitely mobbed the newly filled up feeders. I hope they will not waste any of it as this is the last knockings now. Still, I am sure they will love the walnuts too, except that will be a lot of work for me to crack. I was watching them this morning for about half an hour and discovered that the tits are the little gentlemen of the feeder, while the finches are really uncouth, common as muck, loud, aggressive and are altogether not nice. I never thought there could be that much difference in behaviour between similar little birdies, but there you are!
On Wednesday I went with my friend Klari to see a performance of Un ballo in maschera by the Kolozsvar Hungarian Opera Company, which was brilliant. I actually realised that either I have never seen this opera or if I ever did that must have been about 40-50 years ago. I actually managed to walk the kilometre to the theatre and then back without too much hobbling. The leg is definitely getting better, but extremely slowly, so even including the exercises which should help (as they did 2 years ago), this injury will take at least 4-5 months to get back anywhere near normal. Admittedly, my normal includes orienteering, so it may even be longer. The target to get really better for is the OOCup in Slovenia in late July - let us hope I'll manage it.
On Thursday we came down to the village doing a big food shop en route. And were we happy that we did so? Overnight winter returned yet again with inches of snow and big drops in temperatures. I am not sure if the children looking for eggs in the garden will adjust to the snow, but we can always tell them that the snowbunny brought them. Foolishly - and in spite of Roy reminding me - we didn't buy any more birdseed while shopping, so now I will have to get back to old walnut cracking once the seeds run out. I was also lucky that the organisers of this weekend's orienteering event accepted my late cancellation, so I will not have to pay my entry fees which are normally payable if you cancel this close to the event. I reckon they are all running around ankle deep in snow, but at least it is in the lowlands, so no mountain climbing with avalanche danger.
And finally one interesting development. As you all know I'm a vegetarian, but I have never given up eating fish and occasionally (very occasionally) I also fall off the wagon and eat meat. This week my sister managed to get some beautiful calf liver from a nearby organic farm which I couldn't resist. So I had some braised liver in paprika last night as you can see. The plate on the right is mine, the one on the left is Roy's. He didn't have paprika, but had bacon instead. Both were great.
The birdies have definitely mobbed the newly filled up feeders. I hope they will not waste any of it as this is the last knockings now. Still, I am sure they will love the walnuts too, except that will be a lot of work for me to crack. I was watching them this morning for about half an hour and discovered that the tits are the little gentlemen of the feeder, while the finches are really uncouth, common as muck, loud, aggressive and are altogether not nice. I never thought there could be that much difference in behaviour between similar little birdies, but there you are!
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