A busy day

My mildly arthritic hips have been playing me up recently, so after waiting for several months I finally got an appointment for physiotherapy at the local health centre one day last week.  Kim poked and prodded, tested and inspected, before making a decision on what exercises she’d get me to do to strengthen muscles round my left hip and knee in particular.  I’m not a person who enjoys doing exercises, as they take up valuable time when I could be doing something else, like playing on the computer!  However during the week I did them when I remembered, though not nearly as often as I should have done, and today I went back for Round 2!  This time I walked up and down so Kim could see if there was any improvement in the lolloping gait I have developed over the years – the hip has always been a problem to me though the doc of my childhood just reckoned I was suffering from growing pains - and decided that using a walking stick would help!  Not to lean on, you understand, but just to give the weak side a bit of support.  It’s actually quite hard to co-ordinate using a stick, but I could understand where she was coming from as she got me to walk over to the window and back with the stick for about the fourth time.  Finally she was happy I had got the idea, and off I went with a specially measured stick for my very own!!!!!  I think I’ll use a walking pole instead actually.  So Round 3 is next Tuesday, so I’ll have to keep up the exercises and do some walking with the stick!  Not that I’ll be walking far!  Just along the street and back is more than enough at the moment! 

Morag came round at lunchtime and we sat out on the balcony in the warm sunshine, to eat baguettes and drink tea, waving to people we knew who were out walking along the Green. 

I have put a few plants out there now and I think it looks pretty good!  From the Green you’d never know the plants were all artificial, and even from close up it’s not immediately noticeable either!  I took some pics today, so here we are…  looking one way,

 

 

and the other,

 

 

 

 

the view, one way – I forgot to take the other – but you’d see the bridge.

 

Looking from the inside………..

 

 

 

 

……..and from the outside!

 

I think you can tell I’m quite delighted with it!

After lunch I don’t think I would have done very much, but Morag cracks eggs with sticks and jobs that I expect to take ages, are done in no time!  So in readiness for the next step of the refurbishment, we got going to remove stuff out of the “balcony room”, into rubbish bags to go in the bin, carrier bags for the charity shop, or just into the spare bedroom for now!  The guy who will  be moving the stove wants the room cleared, but there’s nowhere else for the furniture to go now!  It’s as clear as it’s ever going to be!!!  So, thanks to Morag for pushing me into doing something today!  I’ll have to get her over here for lunch again so she can push me into getting the rest of the place cleared!

Talk again soon!