.jpg)
I've heard these stories about old people getting injuries tripping over pebbles, opening a can of baked beans or even bending down to tie their shoelaces. My young then middle aged body has been just fine, thanks very much, managing to navigate its way through all sorts of mild physical challenges and others of some particular rigour. In fact, I've had quite a superior air when hearing about these relatively young folk (younger than me!), succumbing to all sorts of strange injuries. Well, I'm very sad to report that March, 2014 will go down in history as the month my erstwhile trustworthy physical embodiment showed some scary signs of aging and refusal to bounce back immediately from a setback.
I severely tore my calf muscle a couple of weeks ago, so decided, with due consideration to my age and stage that I would do all the right things to rehabilitate it. I was launching off my back leg a flurry of punches onto the heavy bag in the gym, a new initiative Wal and I were trying, where we were doing very high intensity, short rounds. After days of RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation), I gingerly took some steps and after a couple of weeks of careful graduations, was able to step out fairly normally. Along the way of course, I'd steadily been increasing my rehabilitation stretches etc.
Suffice to say, the leg was feeling so good that I didn't treat it with cotton wool care when descending a small set of steps on Friday and I felt a tear and searing pain flare through my right calf again in the exact same place! Oh, the frustration!I'll now have to map out and implement the exact same course of action for another month or so, this time remembering that just because it feels OK, doesn't mean it is cured.
A return to cold rainy weather and my total lack of mobility meant our weekend was as quiet as a mouse's footsteps. My darling was dutiful in her replacement of ice packs and running errands and I suspect her trips out to buy pizza, do the shopping and have a stroll on the river path were as much about alleviating the boredom as stretching her legs. The first round of the NRL couldn't have arrived at a better time, and I managed to watch part, if not all, of every single game! The new rules, while not overtly ground-breaking or shocking have meant yet another increase in the speed of the game, and the gladiators definitely tired later in all the games I watched. I suppose they'll just become even fitter and stronger to compensate....
Cass accepted an invitation to go to the cinema with her friends Kristin and Darby on Sunday night and again it was quite fortuitous, as it was a movie I wouldn't be particularly enamoured of attending. They went to see the Oscar nominated, "August: Osage County" and reported it to be excellent as well as star studded. Benedict Cumberbatch (who we've seen recently as a very British Sherlock Holmes) was almost unrecognizable and Meryl Streep played her usual triumphal role.
I've downloaded "The Burgess Boys" for Cassy's Kindle, and I'm still savouring the plentiful delights of "W is for Wasted". A dearth of photographs is a graphic representation of my exciting weekend! (I have included a photo from Cassy's book club from last week. I also added a shot of a photo I had framed to give Dan for his 40th birthday: a big day at Nan Ao when I snapped two legropes!)
BTW, I neither have a kangaroo growing from my head nor Cassy a skier exiting from her mouth - it's the vagaries of poorly framed selfies!