Friday

Pain

I woke up feeling sore, the pain in my back had got worse. I was alright as long as I didn’t move. Moving was the problem. The muscles in my back would go into a painful spasm. Sometimes, it was a little twinge and that wasn’t too bad. Other times it was strong enough to make me gasp with pain. That was bad. I felt that staying in bed was a valid recovery option.

Departure

Loved One left for work telling me that if the pain got worse, I should go to the hospital. What she actually said was that I should ring her and she would take me to the hospital but the key part of the message was hospital.

Bus

The pain got worse so I felt that visiting the hospital was a good idea. I was hoping that a doctor would give me a quick look up and down, tell me to “man up” and send me home with a couple of aspirins. The walk to the bus stop was slow and full of winces. This was not a good sign. I don’t think the bus driver intended to hit every bump in the road but I felt he did.

Waiting

The first hurdle was the triage. The queue was five people deep but some of them didn’t look that bad. I was particularly unimpressed with the man with a cut who had come here to have it cleaned. That could have been done at his local GP. His excuse was that the queue was longer there. Eventually, I got to the desk and told my story whilst the triage nurse took notes. Then the waiting started

Room

I was called from the waiting room and placed in a little room. The nurse asked for my story again whilst taking my blood pressure and blood saturation. He then said that someone would be in to see me in a while. I plugged myself into a podcast as I felt this could be a long wait.

Nurse

An hour later a nurse came into the room and went through the same procedure. Nothing much had changed. She said that the doctor would be along soon.

Scans

An orderly came in and wheeled me down to the medical imaging department. I was taken straight into a room for a chest X-ray. This involved standing, lifting my arms and feeling a lot of pain. Next, we went to the CAT scan machine. I laid down on the bench and waited. The procedure involved putting something in my veins to add contrast. The side effect was to make me feel warm, get a bad taste in my mouth and then feel sick. It was at that point they turned the machine on.

Doctor

I was wheeled back to another room and told that the pictures would take a while to appear on the system. I did my best to fall asleep but failed. The doctor and Loved One arrived at the same time. The doctor delivered the news. On the plus side my liver and spleen were intact, the bad news was that I had a fractured rib and a slightly deflated lung. I was given a script for some strong painkillers and instructions to take deep breaths every hour or so.

Home

Loved One and I went home via the Chemists. I was feeling very pissed off as this whole episode had effectively wiped out a whole bunch of my plans over the next few months.

Helpless

What really frustrated me was that I felt helpless. Loved One wanted to help and that just made the feeling worse. I sat in front of the television whilst she did all the things that needed doing. I didn’t like not participating.

Bed

Getting into bed was tricky. I couldn’t find a way to get into bed without pain.

Thursday

Swim

I needed to be out of the house this morning whilst some work was being done, so I peddled my fixie to the pool for an easy swim. I did sets of 8 lengths at an easy pace until I started to feel tired. I really enjoyed being in the water and just watching the world go by alone with my thoughts. The peace and serenity was slightly marred by the hordes of school children but no enough to stop me going again.

Unbalanced

I came home the back way, I prefer doing that as it means I don’t have to cross the main road and I get to cycle along the side of the river. I turned off the cycle path and sped up the ramp to get on to the road where I live. I was going along thinking happy thoughts when suddenly it all went wrong. I’m not sure what happened to cause it, I think that the large bag over my shoulder moved. I completely lost it and as a fixie shows no quarter it threw me over the handle bar. I landed on my left-hand side with a thump. I felt helmet hit the ground, I knew I was grazed, I felt winded. I laid on the road doing an inventory to make sure all the bits where still there. My back was sore and I felt winded.

Help

I heard a car pull up behind me. A woman’s voice said that the guy laying on the floor needed help before speeding off. A large and jolly workman helped me up and tidied up Another man came out his house and offered me water. The workman offered me a lift home but as I only lived a little way down the road, I said I’d walk. I still felt winded.

Shower

I got home and started to play the game of “it’s not really that bad”. I wasn’t doing a convincing job. I laid on the bed for a while hoping that I’d get over the winding. Even though the grazes down my arm and leg were sore I was more concerned about the pain in the middle of my back. I was hoping that it was just badly bruised but the option of a broken rib was coming into the equation. After many hours of laying on the bed I attempted a shower to get the road dirt off. It was a dismal and painful experience.

Dinner

We had been invited out for dinner with a friend of Loved One this evening. I didn’t really feel like leaving the house but it was to celebrate her birthday and Loved One had been looking forward to it for a while. We had a lovely evening of chatting, eating and drinking. I was alright as long as I didn’t move too quickly.

Whisky

I was in pain when we got home so Loved One suggested that I take some of the painkillers I used when I broke my hand a few months ago. They were rather strong and prone to give me constipation and erotic dreams. I washed them down with a glass of whisky. That almost guaranteed a reasonable night’s sleep.

Wednesday

Early

The alarm woke me but I felt surprisingly good for someone who went swimming yesterday. There was no more general lethargy than normal and there were no aches. I felt that I should capitalise on this feeling by getting out of bed and heading for the club ride, Loved One helped by pushing me out of bed.

Weight

I stood on the scales and noted that I’d actually lost a little bit of weight since the last time I was weighed myself. It was only a small loss but it put me on the cusp of a significant number. That felt good.

Ride

There were a lot of people at the meeting point and a lot of them were a lot faster than me. This was going to be a fast ride. We set off and I found myself three down form the head of the peloton. There was no way that I could get out of being on the front. Whilst I was contemplating strategies to get out of taking my turn the people in front slowed for lights and I nearly touched wheels. I decided that it would be better to concentrate on what I was doing rather than trying to miss a turn. The tempo picked up by the sailing club and I held on as best as I could. I started to lose contact near the turn round point so I felt it was best to make a dignified exit rather than try and hold on. I cycled back alone and took the long way home.

Nap

After filling myself up with breakfast and tea I laid on the bed, kidding myself that this was the best way to take my cycling kit off. It wasn’t. I woke about three quarters of an hour later still in my cycling kit.

Letters

This afternoon was all about drafting a set of templates covering letters ready for job applications. It is the sort of task that I do not enjoy doing and as a consequence of this it takes a lot longer than it should.

Swim

Loved One and I had talked about going swimming this evening but after an afternoon on drafting I wasn’t in the mood. Loved One rang me and it turned out that she wasn’t that keen either. We opted for a night in instead.

Dinner

We had the second meal from our box today. This one was pork on a bed of spinach and roasted vegetables. It was easy to do and nice to eat. It wasn’t as good as yesterdays but better than most things that I could produce off the cuff.

Tuesday

Alarm

I wasn’t ready to enter the waking world when the alarm went off this morning. Loved One put the kettle on and I finished the job of making the tea. I know that I should have stayed up and done something but I went back under the covers and worked on my social media presence.

Spin

At the moment my Tuesdays always starts with a spin on the bike trainer whilst watching my favourite Sci-Fi series. Today the spin was very sweaty as the weather is warming up. I got off the trainer drenched in sweat. It wasn’t pleasant.

Fob

I spent a fair proportion of the day avoiding doing things that I should by doing things that were much more enjoyable. This is why I decided to split my swim kit up into two bags, one for the pool kit and one for the sea swimming kit. The plan is to make it easier for me to go swimming by preparing the kit in advance. I have a key fob that opens the changing room door and this needs to be tied to the sea swimming bag. I picked it off the bed side table took a few steps into the other room and then couldn’t find it. I’m sure that it has fallen through a worm hole in space as I couldn’t find it anywhere.

Swim

I’d planned to meet Loved One at the pool around the corner. I timed my departure from the house to allow me to do a little bit before she arrived. I wanted to do a critical swim speed test and this requires being a little anti social. I was happy that I’d timed it so that I’d finished the test by the time Loved One arrived. We swam together for a while and then I needed to get out before my arms fell off. Loved One carried on whilst I headed for home to prepare dinner.

Chicken

We’d had a meal kit delivered yesterday and todays meal was created out of the meal kit. Today’s meal was Thai style chicken on a bed of coconut rice. It was all very easy to do and produced a tasty after swimming meal. Neither of us would have produced a meal like this without the prompt of the meal kit.

Tired

After clearing up the devastation of meal preparation and consumption I sat down on the sofa and stared blankly at the television. This was a mistake as my brain took this as the cue to shut down and go to sleep. I fought sleep for a while but it was a fruitless battle. I ran the gauntlet of the light-hearted mock from Loved One for going to bed before ten o’clock and went to bed. I have no recollection of Loved One joining me

Monday

Blind

The guest room was very dark because of the shutters outside. It made waking up very difficult. My bladder said it was getting up time but the rest of my body wasn’t sure about that.

Breakfast

Our host prepared an omelette and bacon breakfast that we ate on the terrace whilst drinking tea and putting the garden to rights. It was almost a shame to leave but we had things to do.

Bank

We had to drop into the bank to sign a form that they had sent to us and we hadn’t received.

Shopping

Once we’d got ourselves sorted, we had to address the lack of food in the house issue. On one hand this was a good thing as there was nothing to pick at but on the other hand it was bad as we had nothing to eat. We headed off to the shopping centre, Loved One went for a massage whilst I worked my way down the shopping list.

Nap

Loved One needed a little bit of quiet time after the massage, so I joined her laying on the bed. It didn’t take long for an hour or so to rattle by in an instant.

German

All the regulars were at my German lesson this evening and as usual the annoying people at the front hadn’t done their homework. They tried to do it on the fly but convinced no one that they knew the answers. The lesson then followed on with a whole load of grammar. I finished the lesson with the sort of headache that is only brought on by trying to understand German grammar.

Soup

Loved One had heated up some soup for this evening’s meal. We ate it with cheese on toast whilst watching the television.

Holiday

Loved One had a bee in her bonnet about booking a holiday for next year. For reasons I tried not to understand it had to be decided on and booked tonight. It was all sorted with a couple of key strokes and a text from the anti-fraud section of the bank.

Sleep

We went to be reasonably early this evening as Loved One had to go to work in the morning. I didn’t think that I was that tired by I found out very quickly that I was.

Sunday

Swim

The long-distance swimmers were starting early this morning to avoid being burnt by the sun and we had stupidly agreed to start with them. I’m nowhere near my best early in the morning so being sociable wasn’t an option. I got into the water and just started swimming. The others were going to do the jetty and back and then half way and back but I didn’t feel up to that. I started out intending to do the jetty and back. The water was still dirty, I miss the crystal-clear waters of a few years ago where you can see all manner of life on the bottom. I felt that I was locked in a very small world. I got back to the jetty and felt good. The others had set off again so I was left to my own devices. I felt that going back up again would be a little dull so I swam round the jetty instead. That was fun.

Garden

We came home via the garden centre so that we could buy a few courgette seedlings to add to our pumpkin patch out the front. From there we headed home and promptly slipped into the bedroom for a small nap. Swimming a long way is quite tiring.

Table

We headed back to the club this afternoon to join some friends for drinks on the terrace. The table had been booked for three o’clock but an administrative mistake meant the board on the table said two o’clock. The bar manager had spent the last hour defending the table from all comers.

Drinks

We sat on the balcony sipping a few beers and chatting as the world went by. It was all very pleasant and just a bit warm.

Pub

We adjourned to the pub across the road where a duo where playing. The singer/guitarist/drummer was the nephew of a friend of our friends. I was entranced by the foot operated drum kit that he was using. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

Food

We needed food. An afternoon of drinking does that to a body. A massive grazing platter appeared and we devoured every last scrap. Soon after we headed back to our friend’s house for more food, a plate of cheese, pate, biscuits and other nibbles.

Sleep

The eating and drinking brought on a special sort of drowsiness that drove us to bed a lot earlier than normal. Sleep was instantaneous.

Saturday

Presents

It is Loved One’s birthday today so I showered her with presents before we set about our normal Saturday activities.

Ride

We gathered at the meeting point and complained about the increased in traffic due to the pageant. It seemed like it was closing time for every school and kindergarten in the area. We gingerly made our way to the highway dodging through the traffic and children. It was a relief to get on the road out of town. Today’s ride took us to outer harbour mainly because I wanted to be at the surf club at a particular time and all of our other routes would have left me with a herculean task of cycling quickly to the coast.

Breakfast

I’d arranged for Loved One’s children and a few of the swimmers to have a birthday late breakfast or early breakfast lunch (but definitely not brunch as that is a meal that shouldn’t exist). It all went very well. Some of the children even arrived on time.

Lazy

We spent the afternoon being very lazy. It was far too hot outside to do anything serious and neither of us had the inclination to do much more that try and prevent ginger cat from jumping over the fence. Loved One’s sister paid a visit and this gave us an excuse to stop the little we were actually doing.

Meal

I took Loved One out for a meal tonight in a very up market Italian restaurant in town. We had walked past it a few times in the last month or so and each time Loved One had mentioned that she would like to go there. We sat on a table for two overlooking the street so that we could indulge in a sport of people watching. There were a lot of people to watch as there was a street parade going on nearby. It was fun watching the weird and wonderful passing by. The meal was lovely but the service didn’t come up to the quality of the food.

Home

We could have gone to a bar after the meal and drank into the night but we had to get up early in the morning. We went home instead. I think it’s related to something to do with getting older.

Friday

Early

The alarm roused me from a deep sleep and told me that it was time to get out of bed if I wanted to go for a ride. My inner monologue wasn’t keen but eventually conceded that it was close enough to dawn to get up.

Meeting

I met Trevor at the usual spot and we started chatting, he had also given up due to rain on Wednesday. He’d heard through the grapevine that only three had turned out of the ride. Some people like getting wet I suppose.

Ride

We chatted our way around the usual Friday ride. The sea was like glass and the conversation was varied covering everything from cockney plumbed to mangos. I even stopped for a hot chocolate at the café to be regaled with tales of new bikes and other nonsense. I returned home via the river as I’d not been that way for a while.

Nap

After a breakfast of fruit and yoghurt I headed for the shower but was kidnapped by the bed. I woke an hour or so later feeling a little disoriented. Somehow, I’d dispensed with most of the morning.

Admin

I had an afternoon of looking at various job sites in an effort to get a new job. I’m under no illusions that it’s going to take a while but I feel that the sooner I start the sooner I can start at it again.

Band

Loved one and I went out tonight to see a live band. We don’t go out often on a Friday night so this was a nice thing to do. The gig was in support of a cancer charity and promoted by a friend of a friend of Loved One. Unsurprisingly, loved one knew a lot of people there. I knew no one. The band were good but I didn’t recognise many of the songs.

Thursday

Weight

After a week of trying to eat less and do more I’m now exactly the same weight as I was last Thursday. I find this a little disappointing as this means that I’m obviously not eating less or doing more even though it feels like I am.

Spin

I was feeling a little out of sorts this morning but felt that I should get on the trainer due to yesterdays inactivity and the complete lack of weight loss during the last week. I started with the intention of doing the usual session but my motivation died half way through as the energy drained from my legs. I cut the session short rather than work my way through it.

Sick

I started to feel a bit ill after breakfast. It was nothing too serious, just a general feeling of ill and lethargy. It slowly got worse so I tried laying down. That gave a little bit of relief, right up to the point of having the feeling of sick running up from my stomach. I made a dash for the loo as I had no intention of cleaning up that sort of mess. After leaving the contents of my stomach in the loo I laid down for a while to recover. It wasn’t a pleasant way to spend the morning

Chat

I had an agency interview this afternoon. This involved putting on some work clothes and heading into town for a nice chat about rugby over a cup of tea. Hopefully it’ll result in a few vacancies coming my way.

Letterbox

As I approached the house, I saw a youth behaving suspiciously around the letterboxes. It’s amazing how guilty someone can look when they are being watched by a man in a suit and tie.

Nap

I got home and needed a nap. Meeting people always has this effect on me.

Quiet

Loved One had been feeling a bit gloomy today as well, we worked out that it must have been the cream on last nights fruit salad as we sat in the garden waiting for Ginger Cat to return from his foraging over the fence.

Dinner

I made yet another salad for dinner tonight and we had it with the left-over chicken from a few nights ago. We ate inside as the biting insects were looking for victims outside.

Wednesday

Rain

I woke just before my early alarm and listened to the rain hammering down outside. I have an aversion to starting off a cycle ride in the rain. I waited for the alarm, quickly turned it off and went back to sleep.

Alarm

Loved One’s alarm went off at the usual time and I felt that she was a little surprised that I was still in bed. I muttered a single word: rain. I think she understood. I rolled over and attempted to go back to sleep.

Door

I don’t know how Loved One broke the bathroom door last night but it took a long time to get it back on its tracks. Once it was rehung, I noticed that it wasn’t quite square. I took it off the hangers and tried to straighten it. This led to a lot of cursing and swearing as I tried to rehang the door again. It still wasn’t square but I’d spend long enough on it. It became a job for another day.

Ride

As I’d not got out for a ride this morning and not got on the trainer, I felt I really should get out on the bike for a little ride. The weather wasn’t particularly pleasant and every time I got to a natural break in my daily pottering it got particularly nasty. Eventually, a natural break and a break in the weather coincided. It was then that I found the tyres on the bike I intended use needed pumping up. Whilst I rectified this the weather conspired against me. I gave up and went back to fiddling around.

Lens

One of my lens’ broke a while ago. It wasn’t a major breakage, just a ring had come off. I felt it could be fixed with a dab or two of glue but I’ve been a bit reticent as it had the potential to ruin the whole mechanism. I took the bit between the teeth and had a go. I applied the principle that less is more and was very careful with the glue. Hopefully, I’ve not glued the lens solid.

Swim

Loved One and I had intended to go to the open-air swimming pool for a training session tonight but at the exact moment we had to make the decision to go it started raining. I wasn’t about to cycle there in the rain and I didn’t feel that enthusiastic about it either.

Dinner

We had the remains of the spinach pie with salad for dinner tonight. We followed that with a fruit salad because we some fruit that needed eating.