A delightful and restful week

After my last post I was hoping that I might get a call from either or both grandsons, but I didn't. However, during the week, to be precise on 2nd April Stephen posted the scan of my third grandchild, thus making public that Lucy is expecting again. Scans are usually not very good pictures, but this one gave the little one such a cute ski chute looking turned up nose that I was delighted. Well, we would be delighted whatever and now the guessing game is on whether it is a girl or a boy. I suppose we will know in about a month, as it is invariably visible on the 16 week scan. Finally on Tuesday I managed to get an appointment with my rheumatologist to see if she can refer me to the group remedial exercise class on the NHS, so I can save the exhorbitant fees private ones charge. Having said that, I haven't been to the private one yet as she would only give me an appointment in early May, due to a full schedule and 10 days of holiday. I know I should be doing exercises on my own, but I am so lazy that in spite of serious resolutions to do so, I haven't yet. My days go past in delightful inactivity (to rest my leg, of course!) around my computer and my television set. With the exception, of course, of yesterday when Roy and I managed to plant the 9 roses that have been soaking in a bucket for too long. This week is still pretty cold and occasionally raining, but at least the snows and well below zero temperatures have abated. On the other hand, the birdies have disappeard, just as we managed to buy another 30kg bag of seed for them, but that'll keep until next winter. According to my sister, their disappearance means that they start to court and build nests. I hope they'll survive without the seed, as it is still nothing like spring temperaturewise. On Wednesday we managed to get into the nearby little town to go to market, do some supermarket shopping and get the birdseed. The market was pretty poor on account of the weather, but we found a bloke who was selling wild garlic and blueberry bushes. Bought both, hoping that this time they will take. I have tried wild garlic before without success. It probably didn't like the acidity of our soil. The blueberries, aka Callumberries (see photo!), are a new experiment. They do like acidic soil, so they may take, but we will not know until next year. Currently everything is full of buds but few of them got further than that. The rhubarb is thriving, which is normal, but always delights me when I spot the new growth every spring. The old herb patch is showing some activity, with the chives being the furthest ahead and the mint and lemon balm not too far behind. It haven't got anything in the new herb patch yet, but that should wait a bit until we are absolutely sure about no frost at night. As part of my taking it easy, yesterday I sat and watched the entire series of the adaptation (7 episodes) of George Eliot's Middlemarch, made by the BBC in 1994 and put on a DVD in 2001. I'm fairly sure I bought it for very little in an Amazon sale, but only just realised that I have never watched it. IT WAS SUPERB! (see Rufus Sewell, Juliet Aubrey and Robert Hardy in photo!) The cast was amazing, full of big names and even the not so big names were fantastic. The music, the settings, the costumes, the photography and of course Andrew Davies's screenplay. I should do this more often. Actually, I am doing it bit by bit, having started a few days ago with Sense and Sensibility, then Pride and Prejudice, then Persuasion and now Middlemarch. I have still got Emma, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park, an earlier version of Pride and Prejudice, the last disc of the first series and series 2 and 3 of the Tudors and the whole of Hornblower to go. You see, one must turn all misfortunes to good use. Injured leg = lots of lovely DVD watching!! Once I have finished all the outstanding DVD's, I'll get the books and read all those above again. I should be well occupied until 2014, by which time I hope my leg would have got better. Amen! As last weekend I had no calls from either of my little monsters, this week cheered me up no end with a call from each. Unfortunately, Elian's call was only fleeting, so by the time I realised that I should have taken some snapshots he was gone. However, with Callum I was on Skype for an hour yesterday, so there were plenty of pictures to choose from. He wasn't actually chatting to me, but was full of activity with watching TV, playing with his snowspeeder, telling his father to be quiet, just to quote a few. And finally next week's plans: tomorrow we are off to visit a friend who offered to massage my leg and then we carry on to the nearest big town beyond her village to look at a second hand tractor mower for sale. Roy has been talking about having one of these forever, but as soon as one comes up somehow there is always some objection. This time I didn't let him wriggle out of it, although if it is too much or he doesn't like it then the purchase will be off. We are due to go to town on Wednesday, as I have a piano concert to attend that evening, then on Thursday I have that appointment with the rheumatologist and an opera performance in the evening. Finally on Friday we are going out to dinner and to the theatre with a couple of friends, one of which is on the last photo above. Keep your fingers crossed that my leg is up to it. I have been a good girl. I have just recently cancelled the entry to one of my absolute favourite events at the end of this month, just to be careful with restarting O. Perhaps a small amount of hiking/geocaching would be better to let me back into it gradually and gently. And even that is only in a good few weeks' time.

Getting better, but winter's back

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!

Lame but happy week

On Monday Nelly and I went to the baths. Understandably she was anxious about it all as she hadn't been for decades, but I am positive that she really enjoyed herself, both outside with the power jets and inside in the lovely hot thermal basin. We chatted to a variety of people, some strangers, some known to me and altogether it was a really lovely morning. We also managed to post some important letters (including the tax returns) and pick up my concert ticket for tonight. The weather was reasonable at the beginning of the week, but the forecast was for more cold and snow. My leg was still hurting, but a very small, but noticeable improvement cheered me up and helped to be positive towards running on Saturday. Andor arrived by bus on Friday night and we bravely departed for the Long Distance Championship on Saturday morning. The temperatures were perishing, but at least the stormy winds have abated somewhat and there was no new snow. Unfortunately I was very slow. I could run up to a slow jog, but the low temperatures and generally the weekness and stiffness of my leg put me completely out of contention. I persevered and finished but I was way down in the results. Well, such is life. Fortunately I managed to get an O friend, who has managed the national team for years to suggest a specialist, so I have an appointment with him on Tuesday. Let us hope he has some good news for me, otherwise orienteering is out this year, which being my first year in W65 should have been a good one. Drat! Boo! Hiss!!! En route home we stopped at a nice country inn, had a lovely lunch and got home without any hitch. This morning we were up early watching the Malaysian Grand Prix. As you well know, as long as Alonso doesn't win I'm happy. Well, the little German wizard shoved his team mate out of the way and was back on the top of the podium. The hand to hand combat of Vettel and Webber was classic. You don't see that too often and I could see that if Webber's eyes could kill Vettel would have dropped dead on the spot, but I still enjoyed the tussle and so did the rest of the audience I'm sure. The other funny story involved Hamilton who pulled into the McLaren garage for new tyres before realised that he should have gone to the Mercedes one. Well, I suppose it is forgivable, considering that he had been associated with Mclaren since he was 10 years old and raced for them for 5 years before switching to Mercedes this year. And then this afternoon Callum called and we had a lovely chat about Transformers and many other matters. He showed me his new shoes, he raced his Dad round the living room and had a book read to him by his Mum. He is so utterly charming and now is beginning to engage in conversation with us, which is lovely. Now I have to go and have a bite to eat and get ready for my concert.

An injured week :-(

I have just looked up my last post and it is amazing that it has only been a week ago. First of all the winter has returned, plus this weekend there were no grandsons in evidence, but thankfully little Elian had been to the soft gym during the week, so I can provide you with a cute picture or two. After the beautiful spring weather last week and we have to admit, after copious warnings by the authorities the winter had returned with serious vengance. Mind you, it had to be the total ineptitude of the "Catastrophy Centre" that left thousands of people spending TWO nights in their cars, surrounded by jacknifed lorries and 3m high snowdrifts. Dreadful and shameful. Our garden and wild birds, however, kept us endlessly amused as you can see in the pictures. And now for the main topic of this post, as suggested in its title: MY LEG!! Well, it has got worse and worse as the week went on. I got really worried, then depressed, then just totally stressed. Until last night I have only slept a couple of hours in front of the TV on the settee and then not a wink in my bed. So, this morning I gave myself a good talking to and suddenly discovered that I know what's going on. My muscles had started healing, but as I have been pretty inactive they started mending "short". This is a physiotherapist expression for mending muscles which grow together thick and rigid (therefore painful) unless they are gently stretched occasionally. I started this morning and it is already a lot better. Why didn't I think of this? I am going totally doolally in my dotage!! The only good thing coming out of my recent insomnia is that I got up and watched the Australian GP live. I think it was a bit of a procession, but at least Alonso didn't win. Hurraahhhh Kimi! The Iceman cometh! It was nice to see him win. I hope the Lotus is good this year and gives the other teams a run for their money. And then I got busy after breakfast and filled out 6 years of tax returns, which have been sitting on my conscience a bit and might have also had something to do with the insomnia. They are getting posted tomorrow and then it is out of my hands. Nelly and I are catching the 6.15pm bus into town as we are both going to the baths tomorrow, plus going shopping, to the Post Office etc. I have to be a good girl and do my stretching several times a day and then I might even be able to run at the weekend. If not, I'll just watch the rest of them running about while I walk round.

Grandson(s) day

Today both my little monsters rang (well, their fathers did) and I saw them. Unfortunately no picture about Elian, as I was enjoying him so much I forgot to take a snapshot. He was in his little circular walker all over the kitchen, giggling and stuffing his face with rice pudding later. On the other hand, the Callum monster was very photogenic today. He showed me his light sabre and told me that Darth Vader is a very bad man. We chatted to both of us and was generally very communicative this Sunday morning. I managed to forget about my aching leg for a short while, so that was good. I am getting a bit concerned about this set of pulled and/or torn muscles. It is not getting any better, which is worrying. Admittedly, going orienteering on Wednesday and then hiking yesterday put a bit of pressure on it, but at the time it didn't hurt, so I thought it would be OK. There were only 5 of us this time, but it was a nice bunch. Lehel and Nata kept stopping to pick rosehips, but otherwise we managed a good few kilometres. I even spotted a lovely old Landrover, which I am sure would have made Roy jealous had he been there. The spring was definitely in evidence with snowdrops and generally with good weather. Tonight I am off to a concert and then we are off to the village tomorrow morning.

Someone worked out where the babyfood's kept

Stephen entitled this photo: Someone worked out where the babyfood's kept! Ahhh, who's a clever little boy then? This week has been mostly filled with visiting the baths, so my injured left leg gets a chance to heal. Unfortunately I couldn't resist a smallish run on Wednesday, which definitely didn't improve my poor leg. Well, such is life! I'm going to the baths again tomorrow, hopefully the sun will shine. Tonight I have been to the ballet, which was quite interesting. The music was mostly Dvorzak and the story was Gone with the Wind. I liked it more than I thought I would, but overall I was not particularly impressed with the whole concept. The Russian ballerina dancing Scarlett was very good, so that was something positive. After the baths tomorrow, on Saturday I am going on a hike and on Sunday I have a concert, after which we are off to the village on Monday.

Carrots, aeroplane tickets and the Wedding Anniversary

As an addendum to the last post I must show you a place where it was raining carrots. On our way back from the Juniper Cup, in a remote part of the flatlands we suddenly spotted a hundredweight bag of carrots in the middle of the road. We thought it must have literally fell off the back of a lorry, so we left it. Few hundred yards later there was another one, but this one had a pickup parked next to it, so we thought: Ahhh, new home it's going to! Few more yards, and this time no bag, just a scattering of carrots, remnants of an earlier rescue. Finally, in a mile or two there was a desperate looking couple of fellows in another pickup, who were assisting me taking a photograph, on a mission of recovery. I told them to hurry up before all of them find a new home before they get there. At least this Sunday it was not the usual boring old trip on this bit, one could take guesses how many more bags of carrots will litter the roadside. And now for the exciting events of yesterday. As it was our 43rd wedding anniversary we went to a really fancy (and expensive) restaurant where Roy had a piece of steak roughly about 3 inches thick and I had a red tuna salad. It was great, I could hardly finish mine and he had a small struggle at the end as well. I had a nice glass of Irsai Oliver, while he had beer. This was definitely the highlight of the day (see photos!) Once at home, the day, unfortunately, took a dive. We were attempting to buy some of the tickets for the family's trip over to us in the summer, but the agency (eDreams) we were using seemed to have some weird practices. They managed to accept and confirm our booking, only to cancel it later due to the credit card company declining the purchase. It transpired that the payment to eDreams for their services had gone through (about 130 Euros) before the transaction was stopped. Now that's really wicked. Having paid handsomely for some tickets now we didn't have we had to ring both the credit card company AND eDreams before they sorted it and not before we both had quite a lot of stress and hassle!! :-( Boo!! Lesson: I should have listened to Alex suggesting I deal with the airline direct. Now I've learnt that that is what I will do in future, whatever the cost. AND only after ringing the card company warning them of an unusually large purchase so they don't stop the transaction.