As said, I’m back on my feet and walking again. Tomorrow I intend to go back to the gym and stretch the tired old muscles once again, but obviously I really needed to do something before that to avoid over reaching myself and causing more damage than I ‘cure’. I mentioned I took the dogs walking… and did too much really (so much for not ‘over reaching’) but it *did* loosened me up a lot and gave me a clearer idea of how much medication I need before the treadmill torture begins.
To try out the theory, I nagged wife and kids into walking to the new shopping centre which is almost complete and which opened it’s doors (streets more accurately) on Thurs last. It’s a 30 – 40 minute walk each way at a reasonable pace so wasn’t too excessive – I thought. We’d not gone 500 metres before I began thinking I might have been a bit ambitious after Fridays walk, and wondered if we ought to walk back for the car!! The pains emanating from my back, hip and broken toe suggested a more sedentary afternoon might be more appropriate, but nevertheless we just kept plodding along with the kids chattering away as they do about anything and everything. I decided the additional exercise and potential weight loss was more than compensation for the discomfort. Besides, I might well not have been less had I stayed home and pottered around the house instead!
Obviously we got to the new shops etc and wandered about looking at what had been built. One important find was the the new library. It’s quite small, as you’d expect, but it will give me an excuse to walk over any time… I like reading ‘real’ books. Luckily there were comfortable chairs on hand, and the wife and I collapsed into them for a while as the kids searched for a book each to borrow. For my part, I picked up a small square book on dog training. It seemed to be exactly what I needed to help train our idiot dog Stupid, the Labrador. Not so much for me to pick up tips from… more to throw at him when he starts ‘performing’. 🙂
Anyway, even though this post isn’t about new town centre about which I might talk later on, I’d say in general it’s not too bad a place to visit now. In fact, there are houses being built around the perimeter and I think I could even live there! I just wish they’d taken the opportunity to ban smoking through the entire development!! It’s quite disgusting.
Anyway, while in the library I took a couple more painkillers because the first were wearing off and before we set off home we needed to visit Woolworth’s to do some shopping. Even so we wandered around a little more and stopped again to rest at a cafe where we drank milkshakes and iced coffee’s to boost our flagging physical resources! From there… on to the supermarket!! The youngest daughter had brought the shopping trolley which, despite her age, she’d dragged along behind her with hardly a murmur all afternoon. In fact the kids were arguing with each other which of them was to pull it! Even so, of course it isn’t that big and so we couldn’t buy much really.
Having said that, we *did* buy sufficient for a couple of meals, and filled the trolley. One bag remaining and that fitted in my backpack. By now it was 6:40 p.m. and time to make out way home. For a few minutes we considered staying to watch the film that was being shown ‘free on the green’ but with things being as they are. we decided to continue home.
The walk back was quite pleasant despite the growing aches I was experiencing. The kids spotted a family of ducks and ducklings in one of the ponds, then a pair of grass parrots. Cows were in the field of what looks to be the last of the small farms that used to be dotted around the area and there were more ducks, and even a rabbit hopping away as we approached. There were even crows shouting out what seemed *very much* to be something sounding like ‘daft b*****d’ – though it was a bit indistinct so we might have been mistaken on that part! 🙂 Either way, considering we live in what is now a developing suburb, it still looked quite rural and highlighted (to me at least) the problems with urban sprawl and what we were losing. I wouldn’t say I wanted to keep cows… but I *would* prefer a larger piece of ground around me. Ah well.
We stopped again for a few minutes while the kids played in a small park, but as the mosquitoes were stretching their wings ready to look for their evening meal, and darkness was creeping in, we carried on home and collapsed… yet again.
By now we were clearly all very tired so just had a pot of yoghurt each and staggered off to bed.
And so back to the aches and pains. Despite the effect of the painkillers etc I did seem to be limping badly for a large part of the afternoon and for a few wild moments even considered nipping into Target to buy a walking stick! Oddly enough however, the extra weight of the shopping bag in the backpack again seemed to reduce the pains and I was able to walk home without too much whingeing. I really ought to try that *without* the painkillers to see if it’s a real effect of carrying additional weight, or an artifact resulting from the the effects of the painkillers. It’d be interesting to find out!
We relaxed for 30 mins or so watching an old episode of ‘Blackadder 3’ and then drifted off. This morning the pain isn’t excessive even allowing for the walking yesterday *and* not having had any painkillers yet… so… it seems to me I *am* ready to get back to the gym. I’ll walk the dogs up to the local shops again later on to buy a Sunday paper and see how it goes…. but it’s looking good so far!
The Eclectic Interweb 