Crazy Cat Lady Chapter 4 - The Aftermath

foxgloves

You are walking amazing distances, CCL. I've never walked 7.5 miles in my life!
F x

Toni'sfriend

Well done on the walking. I really want to get in to going that far again.

You could always blanche the brussels spouts and freeze them till the next time you have roast beef or something. They freeze really well.

Honeysucklelou2

Well done on the 24.5 miles this week.

crazy_cat_lady

Morning
Thanks all for the ideas for the cabbages - I just wish I enjoyed cabbage a little more than I actually do. But I love pork, and mash, and sausages for that matter - so looks like I'll have an afternoon in the kitchen today prepping some of that.
Thanks also for the kind words about my walking. The 7.5 miles wasn't my idea - that was my friend. She wanted to walk along the river and see how far we could get. I was quite pleased at how far I got but I also know that she regularly walks 10+ miles just for the fun of it so it was more like a little stroll for her. I was shocked at how many beautiful and quiet places that we have so close to home that I just had no idea even existed. It was a nice afternoon and with the stretches I wasn't feeling too bad afterwards.
I had my phone appointment with the physio yesterday and he was absolutely lovely. He told me that what I was describing is a very common problem after a sprained ankle. Apparently the impulses from the damaged ligaments get slower after they have repaired and it just takes a fraction of a second longer to respond to movement in the ankle. Then as time goes on, we compensate for that by walking 'differently' and aggravating something else - in my case my achilles tendon, which is then causing the heel pain. His precise words were 'it's not that your ankle isn't hurting, it's that you aren't noticing that pain because of your achilles'. He's totally right - get rid of the achilles pain and the ankle is stiff and sore. Top and bottom of it is that he thinks it's completely fixable with stretches and strengthening exercises, but wants to see me face to face to see exactly how unstable my ankle is so that he can tailor treatment for me. So that's good. And I can still walk but I have to promise to stop once I can feel my foot starting to aggravate. So 3 miles yesterday morning with bestie.
Then an afternoon of slobbing about and watching Line of Duty. I've decided I need to rewatch all of it before I properly tackle series 6 - there's too much I can't remember from the earlier series. 
And whilst I am sad about Prince Philip - I really didn't see the need for it to be 24/7 news coverage on every channel. He was 99 for goodness sakes, and people that old definitely die quite regularly. I suppose that's just a bit disrespectful of me, but I'm a bit annoyed that the news of all the stuff going in in northern Ireland got completely pushed out of the news again. See I'm not the only one that thought it though as the BBC ended up putting a template up on their website for it.

apple_muncher

Great news on getting a physio who understands your ankle.

And thank you for explaining it, cos that helps me understand what my own ankles are playing at 😀. I tried to do standing heel raises yesterday. No prob. Then I tried  them one-legged and had no power in my right foot/ankle to lift up more than an inch. Yikes!

beanielou

A good physio is worth their weight in gold.

apple_muncher

Hope you have been able to rest and recharge your batteries over the last couple of weeks.

crazy_cat_lady

Eeeps! I can't believe it's been a week since I checked in. Must try harder.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my week off work with absolutely zero work to think about though - I feel more rested and relaxed than I have done in years... and definitely for the first time during the pandemic because I haven't been rushing around with either work or sorting the house out.
So a brief summary of the week. Ups and downs but definitely more ups than downs. Lots of walking, including 6.5 miles Thursday, 3 Friday and 3.5 yesterday. Today is definitely a rest day though because my feet are covered in blisters, my ankle is in agony and a couple of my muscles have tightened up so much that I hobble rather than walk at the minute. I am pleased that I can walk as far as I can now, but I've become reliant on it to ensure that I get a good night of sleep - so I'm concerned that I won't sleep tonight (on top of the going back to work stress that will inevitably stop me from sleeping well). But I really need a rest - I'm going to be on my feet all day at work tomorrow and that will be a challenge on its own.
Knitting of my mam's jumper is almost complete. Did it in the background while binge watching Line of Duty (I've caught up so a good effort there). I have a few crochet projects on the go that I'm looking forward to getting back to, although I have a busy couple of weeks coming up as well as there is some exam work looming which I really need to do bearing in mind that I will have lost a whole summer of earnings there this year. So it will be head down, working evenings and weekends for a few weeks. Particularly as it coincides with my having to teacher assess the GCSE grades at school, i.e. doing a job for free that I would normally be paid a couple of thousand pounds to do in the summer So it's a good job I'm rested and relaxed as things are about to get busy. And I need every penny I can get because my debt is not going down as quickly as I would like it to be. I am still chipping away but it feels like a long time and a big stress factor.
Spent a morning with my dad during the week, saving him some money. Managed to save him over £300 on his house insurance and £40 per month on his mobile phone bill. I hope that my kids will do the same for me when I'm much older and quite clueless about life in the modern world. 
Spent a whole afternoon and evening wrapped in blankets in the garden with a friend drinking way too much gin and putting the world to rights. I decided to do this because I wasn't back at work but my kids were back at school. Unfortunately the next day during my well deserved hangover, ds had awful diarrhoea and had to have the day off school. Thank goodness he's 12 so my role was limited only to cuddles and giving out paracetamol and lunch rather than cleaning up after him.  
This week's use-up-food is the most enormous turnip that I have ever seen in my life. When I was a kid I had a book called The Enormous Turnip and it made me think of that. Except I don't think anyone outside of the North East of England calls them turnips. I think that you call them swedes (but they will always be turnips to me). I remember when I lived in Surrey and saw 'real turnips' and they were the size of tomatoes I'm not that fond of turnip to be fair but I will use it up. I've eaten a lot of coleslaw, braised cabbage and bacon and mash with cabbage during the week. Now it's time for operation Enormous Turnip (although I still have a batch of coleslaw to make and use) Thought my dieting was going well but I appear to have stayed the same weight this week. Suppose it's better than a gain but I thought that I was eating well and doing enough exercise that I could expect a loss. 
Today's plans, rest and relax, have dinner with my mam and try not to stress too much about going back to work. Busy term coming up but not too long until the next half term holiday.

Honeysucklelou2

Hope the summer term goes well...do you still have to wear masks during lessons this term?

Well done on the walking...impressive mileage totals🙂.

crazy_cat_lady

Yes, the masks are staying. Much to my utter frustration. I didn't realise how bad my hearing must be until I couldn't lip read any more. I HATE IT. 
In fact I hate many aspects of pandemic life. I am no royalist but was heartbroken to see a 95 year old woman completely on her own at the funeral of her husband of 73 years.