na' then....

 I did, once upon a time, suggest i might be back sporadically..... and i will try to stay true to my word.

Problem with trying to keep up a blog is just time.....

The part-time, temporary job i've taken is quite.... demanding.  Basically stand at a desk all day...... put something from one bag into another bag..... and don't you dare even look at your mobile phones!  It feels a bit Dickensian in fairness..... right down to the fact that the longer serving employees have been barracked for suggesting a heater on the desk might make their day slightly more palatable.

But, for me, it's an opportunity to do many things that needed doing....

Get out of the house, tick!

Drive the popemobile, tick!

Talk to someone who isn't a medical professional or doesn't work for the department of work and pensions, check!

Push the leg to the limits a little and see if it makes or breaks it, tick!

So, all in all, it's a useful experience..... my leg is slowly, very slowly beginning to feel more "normal" (it's a low bar), and i guess there's a silver lining in that, given the minimum wage, i'm even getting paid to do those tasks......  I've even bought a few dog treats with my staff discount.

I'm still alive..... quite busy...... neglectful of blogging, but always here in spirit if not physically pushing buttons.

Onwards and ...... onwards!

Here's a little photo from a bonfire that Dawn made for the kids, at the start of the month.....

still

 It's definitely autumn, innit?  (in Yorkshire, anyways)

We've obviously "fallen back" in chronological terms, as dictated by the anecdotal farmers of yore.

Thus, it's bloody dark all day now.

Well.... i've landed a little part time job that runs up until Christmas... so i'll be out of the house and packing stinky dog treats for a few days a week.

Am currently "on hold" with the department of work and pensions to tell them to cancel the small benefit i receive for being unfit to work..... i've been listening to the same piano riff for twenty one minutes and fifty-seven seconds until now..... this could go on for some time.....

I mean, it doesn't exactly inhibit the process of benefit fraud when i can't get through to cancel a benefit.....  just saying!

Four days a week right up until Christmas eve..... 

Now, when i add it all up, and consider the very meagre benefit i am claiming, you probably work out that i'm working for about a fiver a day but it's a step and a process i need to go through if i am ever to halt the downward spiral into full hermitship!

Thank you for waiting.... we know that you are waiting to speak to an agent and will put you through as soon as we can......

i once had delusions of writing a book about these old railway carriages that you find dotted across the countryside.... are they railway carriages?  How come there are so many of them?  Why do they all seem to be roughly the same age?  Did we hive off a load of rolling stock at some point?  I dunno..... the book would largely be a photographic thing just showing them and where they are now....

Thirty minutes and forty second.....

on

 and on... and on a bit more.

So today was a first.... I unlocked the popemobile and climbed into the driver's seat..... turned the key.... and predictably..... nothing!

One short phone call later and i've a new battery delivered and installed.

Now.... this may seem rather unremarkable.....

Given that the vehicle hasn't been driven for five months and it's simply sat there, unloved and unoccupied..... the battery being dead, is a given!

The thought of getting into a car isn't a new phenomena for me.... i've struggled to get in and out of vehicles for the entirety of my condition.... the first few times was a case of shuffling backwards, into the back seat, and sitting side-saddle with my leg stretched across the width of the car.  More recently i've been able crunch my leg up and make it into the front passenger seat.  What was strange today was that this was the first time i've entered the vehicle on the driver's side..... busted leg first, as it were......  it wasn't particularly comfortable as experiences go, but it happened, and i reckon i could drive the vehicle at least.

To celebrate the fact that i could go for a drive if i so wished, i went for a walk.  I've walked as far as the post box lately.... up the village, and back down.... today i decided to push on.... up New Hey Road, past the chapel and the post box..... turned right along Gosport Lane.... struggled  on the slightly downward sloping path to Forest Hill Road.... turned right and walked down to the bowling club where i cut back through the houses and home again.....  mebbe twenty five minutes but it was far enough for today.

Here's a photo i took to illustrate how hard i have to focus on where i am putting my feet so i don't inadvertently trip, slip, keel over...... i mean, look at me with two feet on the floor and that.....

bend

 I always consider my own, personal, best piece of advice to be.....

Bend in the breeze!

Like a piece of grass, gently bowing in the wind, we have to occasionally get blown by the tumultuous gales of life.... but not be broken by them. 

Bend in the breeze.....

Personally, i'd settle for being able to bend in the knees, never mind the breeze.

It's been almost twenty weeks since the dog did done bust my leg.

Physio is ongoing, but i am now discharged from orthopaedics....  I have various bending and stretching exercises to do, but we're still only at a mere ninety-six degree bend on the bad knee..... which is still prohibitive when descending stairs or getting in and out of a vehicle, and in some cases, even just sitting down.

Of course, as mobility increases, given that i've been largely, sat on my arse for .... sixteen(?) of the twenty weeks, then so does the scope for medium jinx.  

Hence my blogging absence.

I'll try and do some updates and i'll try and continue reading blogs..... but it's amazing how quickly your attention can be attracted so many two-legged diversions when you've been starved of them for so long.

Well, i'll leave you with a picture i took this morning while i was out fixing the chicken coop..... we have a birdbath (i'm not particularly fond of it) but it has a little bird feature, that has become moss-shrouded.... the water, fallen leaves, and mossy bird looked quite nice and seasonal.....

pole

 I come from 'Uddersfield, me, pal!

From T' Yorkshire!

England, United Kingdom, Europe, Earth, Milky Way, the Universe.

And so it was.... at stupid o clock this morning, when i inadvertently tried to bend me knee far too far, and it woke me up with searing pain.... that i started to think about flag shagging.

I was born in Huddersfield.... not by choice, not by historical importance, just by sheer luck.

I could have been born anywhere.

My parents were white, British folks, and that's something that wasn't chance.  It was determined and they pretty much organised that much.

What i am getting at.....

Pride in your nation is a weird thing to me.....  

Imagine i was out there waving a flag to celebrate the computers i'd fixed, the mortgage i've nearly paid off, or the flower i'd just grown.... you'd probably think i was a bit mad...... but them things there, they're ACHIEVEMENTS.... things to be proud of.  Pride.

Now imagine i started waving a flag to celebrate which side up my toast landed when i dropped it, or whether i got heads or tails twice in a row, or that i said "now" just as the kettle boiled and switched itself off?  Them things there are chance, pal.... pure speculation.  What do you wanna go and wave flags that celebrate chance for?

I think it's ok to be proud of things you did do, but i don't think pride is the right term for what i feel about things that happen by chance?

So it seems weird that i'd be beating my chest and waving an onion jack to celebrate the chance that i was born over here and not over there.

Anyways.... i am not gonna get in no arguments about that.... what did keep me awake after bloody bending my knee and almost squealing out loud.....

What flag should I be waving then.... is there one that i could wave that would be more appropriate?

I thought about an animated gif of all the flags, cycling through like a different flag every second.... but them's just the same and i've no affiliation with a flag of Myanmar or Peru, so that makes little sense.

The world, or Earth?  Offensive to life forms from other planets.... and still celebrating the chance event that life on earth happened and i happened to be part of that happening.

A clock?  how about a flag of a clock to celebrate that in this moment, in this blink of an eye in the grand scheme of the cosmos, life and everything, we exist(ed)..... but time, as we all know (yawns) is an abstract concept, and that, surely, is not celebration-worthy?

The galaxy.... still too offensive.... what about all the billions of other galaxies?

The universe..... yes.... all i need to do is trademark a flag of the universe, and market it.... wait.... what's the universe look like and how the feck do i get it onto a flag?

It keeps me awake a while......

I get up... start typing, and..... 

I give to you, my flag.....  the one i'll proudly be flying (but not shagging)..... feel free to fly your own....

Metatron's Cube:

bart

 Having talked recently about the word jokes.... or puns, as we often call them, not that i like the word "pun".... it feels a bit, i don't know..... sarcastic, somehow?

Anyways..

I had reason to laugh out loud when i remembered a series of prank phone calls.

The first prank phone call was one we regularly used to make as kids......  dial a random number.....

ring ring... ring ring.... ring ring....

"Hello"

"Oh, hello there.... is Mrs Wall there please?"

"Sorry there's nobody here of that name"

"Oh, is Mr Wall there?"

"No i think you have the wrong number"

"Are there any walls there?"

"No, you must have the wrong number"

"Well how does your roof stay up?"

* click *

Sorry to anyone who took that phone call from me..... i thought it was funny.

And Bart Simpson made some amazing prank phone calls to Moe's Tavern...... Bart would ask the bartender to locate someone in the tavern, so Moe would always shout the name of the person that Bart was looking for.... here's a selection of who the impish yellow haired kid asked for:

Seymour Butz

Hugh Jass

Ivana Tinkle

Here's a little video of some of the best ones:

You get the idea, right?

Well here's a photo of a fly agaric that we spotted in the woodland walk near Threave Castle.  There's loads of them about just now.... fungi, not castles!  Isn't nature wonderful....

cronch

 Went for a couple hours fishing today.....

Started off ok.... got there, got set up, new rod, everything good.

Fished a bit, and fished a bit more....

Bits of bread punch on the hook.... loose feeding a blend of sinking pellets over the top.....

My swim was fizzing as residents enjoyed the smorgasbord in front of them.

Bites were few and far between.....

The float sank, i struck, hit the fish and for a brief few moments it was on and the yellow elastic in the pole was starting to stretch.... only to be followed by the sinking feeling of disappointment as the fish shook the hook and i retrieved to rebait and try again.

This is "fishing" not "catching" - a truer word was rarely uttered.

Again, the orange tip of my bite indicator is pulled beneath the gently rippled surface and the fish is hooked.

A five or six minute battle ensues, and for the most part, i feel like i am winning.

Eventually, the fish is tired enough that i can slip my net beneath it and lift it from the water.

Snap.

My landing net handle snaps in half.....

I regain my composure, manage to get the fish and the broken net onto the grass, in order that i can unhook and return it to the depths from which i enticed it.

A linear mirror carp of about eight pounds, a significant fish.

I bend down to unhook the fish, and fuelled by the adrenalin from the battle, and the drama of the shattered net handle..... crunch, pop, grind, as i absent-mindedly kneel on the grass......

A sickening feeling in my left knee......  bent to the full extent to which it could manage and crunched three clicks further.....   i have no idea what made the sound. 

I manage to get the fish back in the water, and i feel "ok".....

Later, at home, in an epsom salt loaded bath, the swelling knee and thigh pains suggest it's all muscular or tendular (what do you call something relating to tendons?)...

A bit of a reminder that even when you think it's going well..... vigilance is still required.

I am not yet recovered!!

Here's a photo of a lightbulb in my kitchen..... it had gone a bit dusty and grimy, so i cleaned it.... it's quite big and i really wish i had a banana for scale, but alas there were only pears in the rotting fruit bowl.....  i really loved the reflections of the windows and garden, beyond.

cat

 Nar then veterinary.... could ya 'ave a look at mi cat?

Is it a tom?

Nay lad i've browt it wi' mi!

(if you have a go at saying the above in as Yorkshire an accent as you can muster, then it probably works better)

I think i've always liked word and pronunciation jokes..... or puns, if you prefer.....

Take for example. i guess in a Somerset kind of accent..... whale, oil beef hooked!

Iced ink!

Hoof hearted?

oh wah tar nar Siam!

childish but simple word jokes that i've lived and loved for many years......

Anyways....

Yesterday i was at the horse-piddle for another check up on my leg..... 

Half ten appointment..... and i'm still waiting to see the doctor at half eleven......

Get called in, sit down, hello, hello, yes, everything looks fine.... i think we can sign you off now.....  

"Wait... that x-ray you are showing me of my own leg is over a month old and was taken before i started walking on my leg"

"Are you worried about it?"

"no i'm not worried but perhaps we ought to have an up to date x-ray to see if putting any weight on the thing has caused anything to change?"

"ok, go get an x-ray and come back"

I could have done this while i was sat waiting for the last hour couldn't i?

Suffice to say.... none of it took too long and the x-ray looked ok from where i was sitting..... not that i am a trained medical professional or anything.....

They signed me off from orthopaedics and now i am solely in the hands of the physio department.....

One small step for a man, a giant leap for an arctic fox?

Bang!

where's tha' bin?

 Where's tha bin?

Scotland, mate!

No, where's tha wheelie bin?

I wheelie bin to Scotland, mate!

We had a pretty good week last week......

Went to a village called Crossmichael on the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond Ken.

Lock Ken does not have such a romantic sounding name as the other lochs, like Ness, Lomond, Fyne.....  Nope, Ken is kinda like the third member of that popular pop music combo Bros.

Anyway.....

We stayed in a lovely house called Waterfall, which you can view/book here, and i'd highly recommend it..... it was vastly under-priced in my opinion, and the luxurious welcome hamper was gratefully received, and promptly scoffed.  The delightful owners, Anna and Eric, live just across the lane and were a pleasure to deal with.

Walking is still quite difficult and challenging..... i mean i can walk, but it's the distances and the uneven terrain, hell, even a dropped kerb on a pavement is quite tricky for my weak foot and ankle.  We did, however, manage to get into a couple of lochs for a swim.... in fact we swam four days out of the seven.  Swimming was good, the water was cool, the sky was blue..... and dragging a weak leg around would be akin to trying to carry a dead body out into the middle of the ocean for disposal..... speaking entirely not from experience of course!

Anyway....

Here's a photo of a loch.... Ken, in this instance..... pissing about with the dog (or "dug" if you come fae Scotland, pal) after we'd just swum here.

it could be so fine

 So here we are on day one of our vacances....

No clues yet as to where we are or for he burglars reading this, how long we're away for..... let's work with the premise that i'll be home within the hour?

We arrived through torrential rain on the motorway..... 

Lovely place, out in the sticks, where you can get one bar of mobile reception if you stand on your head in the bath and wrap tin foil round your toes.

Not much to report, other than we fricking love this place!!  The house we've rented is a converted watermill and it's bloody lovely.... the owners are lovely.... the welcome basket is lovely..... the whisky with tasting notes, the glass decanter with hallmarked silver fittings is lovely......

We're staying.... possession is nine tenths of the law.... they'll have to prize me out of here!!

The dog likes it too:

paws

 They say it never rains, but it pours.

I guess this is synonymous with the concept of waiting for a bus and two arriving at the same time.

We can't just have, i don't know, a bit of rain here and there.... we have to have the whole year's rain chucked on top of us in the space of two days?

It is, as i write this, undeniably raining.  While i can't physically see the rain falling from the sky from my platform here at base camp (the sofa) from whence i've launched multiple sorties to the kitchen and beyond over the last three-and-a-half-months.  There is water everywhere......

I can see the window panes festooned with aqueous globules that conglomerate and streak, in their headlong race to meet the sill.

I can hear the road outside.... it makes a different noise when wet, as the traffic hisses along, slushy white noise, rising and falling with each passing tyre.

I can hear the odd tippy-tappy of rain drops dripping from bushes, gutters, shed rooves.

In the distance i can hear the metallic ringing of rain drops falling on the cowl atop the extractor fan vent in the bathroom.

To say it's wet, is a mild understatement.

To say this is the first time that local reservoir levels have risen since January, is a fact!

I guess there is a god, and i guess my prayer was answered..... Dear god, please let it rain on Donald Trump's parade!

Well, here's a photo of a sodden looking view from the crow's nest here at base camp.

fug it!

 My bad.....

Attention span.... wait, a shiny penny...... raining again...... wonder if the chickens are in or out...... ooh, Pikachu...... 

The random thoughts that pass through my head as i type the first line of a new blog entry..... mostly about my wandering mind.

To couple with my wandering mind, i seem to have, for the moment at least, one and a half wandering legs, too!

I'm sort of mobile.... i've managed to walk around the "block" without the aid of crutches, and i spend a good portion of the day (against doctor's orders) without the knee brace clamped around my withering leg.

Surprisingly, the majority of pain and restriction i feel when trying to be ambulant, comes from the foot and ankle of the damaged leg.  I imagine this is purely from the lack of exercise those muscles, bones, joints have experienced over the last..... yes, fourteen weeks!!

I have three physio exercises to undertake, every other day..... and although they might seem gentle, like standing on tippy-toes.... i can assure you that they are indeed challenging.... and accompanied with much crunching and grinding in my now arthritic knee joint, make for a decent mountain to summit.

Apart from that....

I've been fishing for a couple of days..... which was great.... to be outdoors...... relaxing.....  meditation.

My birthday week next week, and we've a trip organised to Loch Ken, where i will, hopefully, spend some time in water.... either a loch or the sea, i care not which..... but it will be a test of my boundaries.  Swimming is good for the leg i presume?

In other news.... when someone knocks at the front door, i can now get there before they are a hundred yards down the road, thinking there's nobody home!

This morning i found a mushroom/fungus on the lawn that i will endeavour to identify..... i suspect the membrane on top has disappeared, hence the strange appearance (looks upside down with gills on top), but let's see..... anyways, here it is:

Possibly a Pleated Inkcap and quite a rarity..... how lovely!!

full time job

 I always tell people, it's a full time job being me, and lately it very much feels like it.....  i don't know how i ever fit(ted) work into my days.....

I've lost count of the number of television-free days that i have clocked up, through no particular effort on my part, other than the fact that i seem to be busy.... which of course means, i am the master of procrastination.

I can make minutes become hours, days, months......  and of course my propensity for occupying myself with a raft of mundane mind gymnastics, is probably how i've kept myself sane for the last.... oh, what is it now?  Yes, thirteen weeks..... just two days short of, but i've been nursing my leg/knee for almost an unlucky number of weeks.

Yesterday, a milestone, of sorts.... physio at the hospital......  i decided to brave it with the use of only one crutch to help me limp along the maze of corridors at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, or HRI to give it the colloquial nomenclature.

It's served us well over the years, and i've been there for births, deaths, and everything inbetween......  There are new bits of it, old, tired bits, a bustling cafe area, a pharmacy, and the always-busy accident and emergency.....

So, i met Richard, in room three..... we talked a bit..... he looked at my leg..... noted how far it bends..... what i can and can't do.... made some notes..... showed me a few exercises.... printed me a sheet out..... and before you know it, i was back home.....

My leg was a bit tired yesterday 'cos presumably we'd hit the limits of what i'd dare do to it without supervision.....  it strikes me the physio is as much about giving you the confidence to bend, stretch, push, pull, as much as you need to in order to reach the next phase, stage, level.

I've done the exercises today, and the legs does actually feel better for it.  I'm not saying it bends more today than it did yesterday, or more importantly hyperextends more than the day before, but it feels more.... no it feels "less" fragile and immobile....

That's a fair summary.

Big step for a bloke, baby step for a fox.

This is my dog relaxing on the sofa, knowing that i only stood up five seconds ago, and her response is "well, you weren't using it so....."

snoozin'

 I'm still here.... hobbling round.... sometimes with sticks, sometimes without.....

Often up, occasionally down.... but always, around!

Just busy with a myriad of games that i am playing and they are really helping to pass the time..... i am managing to go..... days.... and days.... without even turning the telly on.

First session of physio at the hospital tomorrow... let's see what happens....

Here's a video of my dog, dreaming.....she even does one of them things where you fall down a step or off a kerb in your dream....

'appen!

 So, yesterday was my four week hospital visit....

Four weeks ago, i had a maximum of thirty degrees to bend my knee.... fixed by the settings on the knee brace.  I could not put any weight on the leg and i couldn't even bend the leg enough to be able to put my own socks on.

Yesterday, on visiting the hospital, i arrived (and left) with ninety degrees bend in the knee.....  i managed to put my own socks on, and i even managed to get some shoes on.....  i walked into hospital with my foot barely touching the ground.  Supported by a pair of crutches whose rubber feet, having pounded the floors for eleven weeks, looking as ropey and tired as you'd expect.

quick Xray.. long wait to see the doc..... what a lovely doctor she was.... calm, informative, knowledgeable, gentle, humorous, professional, empathic, all the things you'd want.... but sadly aren't always given!  She advised me i can now transfer full weight onto the leg..... i can keep the knee brace on but turn off the restrictions (maybe turn the ninety degrees back on when i leave the house for safety reasons).... explained my x-rays..  pushed and pulled my leg about a bit.... gave me a fit note (to give it the modern parlance.... we used to call them sick notes)..... tells me physio will be in touch, and come back in four weeks.

I walk out of there in the same way i walked in, foot skimming the floor, supported by crutches.

Once i get home i turn up the brace to the maximum one-hundred-twenty degrees of bend, knowing that i'll not reach that level of extension for over a week.

I practice walking about, balancing the weight onto the foot and the weight going through the crutches.... easing myself into it.....

I can go up and down stairs almost normally now..... i can walk about with one crutch if i have to...... i can carry a cup of coffee, although the stairs and carrying things are still tricky.

For supper, last evening, i managed a walk up the road a hundred yards or so, mostly on two feet, though still using crutches for stability and moral support.

Today, just as i was typing this, one of the grapes i was holding in my hand, fell to the floor and rolled across the carpet, onto the laminate flooring and came to rest a full three metres away..... i looked at the crutches, and back at the grape..... we all know grapes are poison to dogs so i'm not going to leave it there.....  i look at the crutches again and ignore them....

I stand up, stumble the three steps, pick up the grape, stumble back to the sofa..... eat the grape, stick two fingers up at the crutches, and slump back down to write a blog.....

it's a small step for man.... a giant stumble for a fox.

Here's a little picture that sums up the last three months of my life...... knee (now at one-twenty), dog, crutches, and sofa!  Note... the two "dots" on my knee were where they put the camera in to see the other side where they were putting the screws and plate.....

fonda

 Absence makes me Henry Fonda!

Or so the saying goes......

Been away in Lincolnshire for a couple of days.  I don't like to advertise holidays too much for fear of being "turned over", to give it its vernacular!

Went to see my Aunty and Uncle, and their cat Purdy.... Purdy had a hard upbringing and came to my folks following a load of surgery and whatnot.....  he has definitely fallen on his paws with the life he has now though.... A cat would struggle to find more caring and compassionate adopters than Purdy has.  Despite losing one of his nine lives previously, i am sure he is now living his best eight.

My cousin and her husband visited us while we were there, and i always love catching up with Jo.  She's a bundle of energy and madcap antics, and her contact during my illness and the care packages i've received from her, have definitely made this last three months all the more bearable.

Coupled with the fact that i am now trying to run four distinct, consecutive iterations of Forge Of Empires, and three separate Pokémon Go accounts across three different mobile phones.....  i am pretty much tied up.

I'll tell the tale of my hospital visit in a subsequent post... mebbe tomorrow.....

rang

 Nobody said it and nobody uttered

but Meta says "national poetry day", i feel gutted.

If i knew it was coming or that it was near

i'd have thought this thing through, capital of Zaire!

I head off and google it, get all the "gen",

the search results stop me with what, why and when,

Facebook's fake news made me look like a jackass

Poetry day's in October, for bleep's sake, Kinshas-a.

hop

 One small step for man.... one giant hop for a fox!

I ventured into the kitchen last evening for the purpose of seeking nutrition.

Another milestone was reached.

With the aid of a zimmer frame, two crutches, and a very supportive partner, i mostly managed to cook our evening meal.

It was one of my signature dishes, which mostly has me stood at a countertop chopping and prepping a few things before, at regular intervals, chucking them all in the same pan.....

To give it its full and proper name.... Bibimbap!

To you and me, that's a Korean dish of fried rice with kimchi.

A nice piece of fresh ginger, a little garlic, and spring onions (we were lucky enough to receive some homegrown leeks which are small enough to use instead), some purple sprouting broccoli...... fried up for a few minutes until i've had enough.....

Then i chuck on a good spoonful of my (homemade, i hasten to add) kimchi and fry until until my attention span wanes.

Throw some carrots at it..... and some rice (for this recipe it's fine to just chuck a bag of microwave rice in - do not microwave beforehand though)....  break the rice up cos it's always in a solid lump and tends to congeal into one big lump if you add microwaves to it!

When everything seems like it's probably cooked.... move the whole lot over to one side of the pan and in the space you create, fry a couple of eggs......  while the eggs cook, (we had to get eggs from my mum's chickens as our two chickens have decided they're on strike)  squeeze a lime over the top of everything...... By which, i realise the pedants amongst you may take exception to my use of the term "everything".... try to keep the squeezed lime juice within the confines of whatever is in the pan.

Once the eggs are to yours or my liking or burned, then spoon the rice into two bowls..... chuck the fried egg on top of each one..... wang a bit of chopped coriander on top like a chef would,,,,,, a few more chopped spring onions (in this case baby leeks), add a little hot sauce if required...... i like to use a really spicy sort of ketchup.....

And voila.....

Your foot feels like it's going to drop off.... the kitchen looks like a bomb landed in it..... and you can't even carry your plate of food from one room to another.....

And that's progress!

power

 With great power comes great responsibility.... i think someone once said that?  Mebbe it was Spiderman?

Well, so it is that with mobility comes opportunity......

We ventured out to Brighouse... it's a short walk (thankfully) from the carpark to the Wetherspoons (for them that don't know, the Wetherspoons is a pub chain, and the one in Brighouse is a fine example in a preserved Methodist chapel building).

We managed some lunch and i even drank a couple of pints of ale.

Had a walk around a charity shop and a supermarket.

Returned home, pretty tired and with a swollen foot......

But to sit in the passenger seat of a normal car instead of lying, helplessly, across the length of the back seat with my leg elevated, was a revelation and a step towards....

Feeling almost human again!

Walking upright with two feet on the floor, albeit with two crutches so i don't transfer full weight through my knee, yet.

Sitting in the front seat of a car.

Going to a pub.

Visiting a shop.

Calling round at my mum's house.

They may all seem like very small things and pretty mundane...... but in the world of mobility, these things are pretty eye opening.

I particularly enjoyed the chap leaving the pub who told Dawn to take me round to the ramp to reach the front door, instead of me making my way up the six steps......  almost like i didn't exist.....

Makes you think..... dunnit?

Well, here's a video of my dog with her nose buried in a blanket, snoring......  watch her cheeks going in and out, it's quite mesmerising!

snap

 There's nothing quite like failure to snap me out of my trance.

Usual sketch.... had a long lie in today..... didn't get up till half nine.

Hobble downstairs with my semi-human gait.... augmented by crutches and knee brace, but trying to plant my foot on the floor even though i'm not putting much weight through the leg/knee.....

Sit down on the sofa.

Open my idoku and make a start.... one small error that i trapped as i went along..... think i ended up with two sixes in a column at one point but i soon rectified it.....  difficulty was moderate today as there was a real deficit of ones, sixes, and sevens..... but once the pieces started fitting, it all came together for a quick finish.... circa twenty two minutes?  I lie, it was thirty three.... but, given that i used to take "days" to complete it, it's a demonstration of brain training.

Onto Wordle.....  Less said about that, the better..... once i had the first 4 letters, i had three guesses at the final letter, and of course it could have been any number of them nd i just ran out of guesses - most annoying, and a drop back down to ninety-five percent and a zero win streak.... groans.

Second cup of coffee kicks in and i am enraged at the builders across the road.... there's a little beeping noise, like when the washing machine insists that it's finished washing your clothes and keeps reminding you......  they've also got a fire going.... like it's not hot enough already, and they're burning broken pallets.... which is not a wise thing to do as most pallets are treated to phytosanitary levels, sometimes with nasty chemicals.  I close the windows and curse them on the hottest day of the week.

Even Radio 3 Unwind isn't cooling my biryani today!

I'm going to try and go out for some lunch if the leg holds up.....

Watch this space....

I'm off to get some proper "outside" clothes on.....