A Monumental Turn Of Events…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We are still in Schoonhoven and have sampled the ice-cream and had a look around.

We take a look at the bricante second-hand bric-a-brac market that was advertised in the sign nearby.

We walk back to the car, well at least I’m walking, bringing up the rear as the kids run ahead and  Himself  jogs to keep up with them.

They disappear out of sight but after ten minutes or so Little Mr. runs puffing back and can barely speak he’s so excited.

By sheer co-incidence today when we were in Schoonhoven (the 8th September 2012) happens to be “National Open Monumentendag” in the Netherlands (Open Monuments Day) but it’s not just monuments that are open to the public but all sorts of local, national and international organisations as well.

By sheer chance the parking space that Himself secured earlier is right next to the local fire station and the Schoonhoven Fire Service is talking part in Open Monumentendag too, so there’s a whole display of vehicles and a heap of activities.

This certainly did not escape the attention of our seven year old Emergency Services fanatic who’s arrived back smothering me in hugs and  begging and pleading for me to let him detour there.

We have an appointment back in Den Haag (The Hague) at two, so need to leave at 1 o’clock at the very latest to get there on time, and with our spare hour had intended to stop somewhere for a quick toasted sandwich or pancake on the way back but decide that if we are really quick then we could see the events here and then just grab a sandwich to munch in the car on the way home instead.

Little Mr. almost bounces up the street with joy as he dashes back to tell Himself that Mama didn’t mind having her lunch plans shelved in favour of looking at fire engines. O.K.  what actually what really happened is that he ran back screaming  ”Ik mag! ”  (I may!) over and over on the top of his lungs and Himself worked out the rest without any difficulty.

I’ve a good mind to tell the Fire Service that they don’t actually need sirens on their engines and that the “greener” version would be the shrieking joy of seven year old boys who appears to easily outdo the siren in decibels. Behind the Fire Station are a grand assortment of vehicles, and actually it’s an education for me too as I see the huge variety of equipment on board.

I knew that axes and cutting equipment would be standard issue but was surprised to see rakes and brooms there too (for clean up after road accidents or something else?) So much to see … Let’s take a look around.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

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(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Sometimes You Just Have to Try a New Palette…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We have reached our destination for our day out and special treat in Schoonhoven.

The place we were looking for is called “Proef” (which translates into English as “test” or “try”).

“Proef” in this instance though is the name of an ice-cream parlour!   Here they make their own ice-cream and you can buy a special card that allows you to test different flavours of  the ice-cream menu. For us, my work gift card covers a five flavour tasting for each family member.

There were squeals of excitement when the kids realised what this treat involved, Little Mr. did a rather good Tigger impression bouncing around with joy and the grins were so big they almost split their faces in half. The Mama and Papa are given to understand that this outing is more than acceptable.

The kids spend an inordinate amount of time deliberating over which five flavours they should each choose between: Vanilla, Chocolate, Pistachio, Orange Mascarpone,  Schoonhoven’s Silver (a local speciality), Cherry, Smurfs (yes,  it was blue ice-cream). The range of flavours isn’t huge but the ice-cream is hand-made and I’ll take quality over quantity any day.

The day is almost the hottest of the summer almost 30 C and most welcome after many days of rain. It’s relaxing to be taking  seat in the cool of the ice-cream parlour and waiting for our orders to arrive.

The plates are crockery ones in the shape of artists palettes, there are  five “holes” (indented cups) for the different flavoured ice-cream but in practice they use two of these for the cream and topping that goes with the order and two scoops of ice-cream go into the centre of the palette board.

The place is understandably busy, as per my usual habit I try and take photos as people leave the tables or just before new people arrive. There’s a stream of people (especially families with kids) at the front of the shop getting ice-creams to take away.At the back of the shop is a gift area, these “dual purpose” shops have become quite popular recently I think.

There’s a cellar area under the main shop (very common in Europe) but in this case they have opted to keep the original entrance to the cellar in the middle of the shop , which would have been a rather dangerous idea had they not ingeniously covered it with a very thick plexiglass cover. This allows you to see the “history” of the worn brick steps below the floor whilst still giving the owner access to valuable storage space (Dutch buildings are generally very small, and land is expensive so every centimetre of space counts!)

Outside there is music, and people marching past on the street… there is more going on here today that just ice-cream! But in the meantime, we settle down to eat our artistically arranged and soon to be rapidly melting assortment of ice-cream, Little Mr. managing to seemingly smear more over his face than made it  into his stomach.

It may not look like a lot of ice-cream but three out of the four of us struggled… and then heaped excess ice-cream onto Himself’s plate in an attempt to make him struggle too. I think we almost  succeeded.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

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(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Wishing You a Smile, this Merry Christmas…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I’m going to be really honest and admit that I have no clue why many North American’s use the phrase “ Happy Holidays”.

I know that not everybody in the world celebrates Christmas, or indeed may even have faith in any particular religion. For me that matters less because I believe that each person has the right to their own view and as long as they respect the views of others.

At the moment I am unable to drive because of my foot injury and so work pays for a taxi to and from work, I have a regular driver, who just happens to be Muslim. He observes Ramadan and Eid and we use the opportunity to learn more about the customs we each hold dear.

I know he doesn’t celebrate Christmas but he has no problem to wish me a Merry Christmas just as I wished him a happy Eid celebration earlier in the year.

Neither of us observes the other’s celebration but we like to extend our support to the other knowing that it’s important to the other’s family and friends. Harmony is different notes arranged together not a collective of the same note played all at the same time.

So just as I would wish someone a Happy Hanukkah , Rosh Hashanah, Eid Al-Fitr, Easter, Diwali, or Ramadan celebration, I now extend very Happy Christmas Celebrations to all who observe it, in whatever capacity.

Recently, world events involving children have left us with tears and breaking hearts, but ultimately one child was born (symbolically) on this day to relieve the heartbroken and to dry the tears.

Therefore for this post I’d like to leave you with a smile as I present a compilation of some of the smiles my children have given me.

I always try to jot down the incident as soon as possible after they happen, but surprisingly it’s been so long since I posted some of these that some of them took place quite a while ago… never mind, the smile is still the same. Enjoy!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

***

Kiwi Daughter: I have an idea, when our little TV breaks down and you buy a new big one for the living room can I have the old one for my room?

(two second pause as she computes the logic of that, then giggles) “… err,  that isn’t right is it? ‘cos the old one would be broken!”

(Our answer is simple: Yes, you may have the little broken TV in your room (if that floats your boat LOL) but ” No working one , or  computers)

***

Himself went into the kids bedroom to wake them both up for school. Little Mr. usually chirpy first thing in the morning woke up on this day bleary eyed, sat up in his bed, looked around and asked “Papa, what did we do with the two people we saved?”

Clearly his fascination with anything ambulance, police  or fireman and had carried over to his dreams and he had been busy dreaming of rescue missions… Himself told him “I don’t know my boy but you are very brave to have been rescuing people”.

***

Little Mr aged 6 has come home with his first homework assignment: he has to write about his favourite fairy tale and then write one himself, with pictures.

I was busy helping Kiwi Daughter with a maths homework game she has to play, reading and a spelling test/revision so Himself took Little Mr to the heaving kid bookcase to look for a favourite out of the many many favourites.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Later Himself comes back to me laughing and tells me “Little Mr has chosen the book  ”Jack and the Beanstalk”, but  announced that he hasn’t gotten around to starting writing about it yet, because he still doesn’t know that the beans are talking about“

An unwittingly beautiful play on words Little Mr.,    Bravo…

***

Little Mr. wanted a toy plane in the shop but it cost Euro 20 and he only had Euro 3,– from his piggy bank to spend. I explained that he didn’t have nearly enough money and advised he to look at some of the small Lego figures instead.

The shop was quiet and one of the assistants (a very young woman) was pricing stock on an shelf a little further along.

Little Mr. was silent for a few minutes and then said “Mama, do you think I have enough money to just buy the wheels of the plane then?”  Trying had not to burst out laughing I explained that the shop doesn’t let children buy just  ”parts” of toys… because then some other child would not be very happy if they bought the plane later and discovered that it had no wheels.

Little Mr. “got” that, but meanwhile the young lady shop assistant was wiping away tears of laughter and was trying (and mostly failing) to keep control of her mirth, which made it really hard for me to keep a straight face too.

Suddenly I was forced to pretend I had a sniffle so that I could  blow my nose, wipe away tears and use the moment to compose myself.   Luckily Little Mr. was so seriously concentrated on his decision making process that he was oblivious to both of us,  but clearly this comment made this young shop assistant’s day.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

***

Little Mr. suddenly started a conversation asking me why in the last weeks everyone likes puppies so much.

I replied: “lots of people like puppies but sadly not everyone can have one“( thinking that this is leading to another plea for the pets that he knows we can’t have since Kiwi Daughter and I are both allergic to animal hair and I also to feathers).

Little Mr. gives me a quizzical look and says “No, no, everyone who wants one can have one I think… lots and lots of people on the TV have puppies, the people on the sports have puppies, the people on the News have a puppy, even the people on the Dancing all have a puppy (we have been watching Strictly Come Dancing on the BBC)  and lots of other people have a puppy too…  ”

Now I’m getting  rather confused, I certainly haven’t spotted any dog invasions on Strictly Come Dancing and nor have dogs been on the News much of late.  ”Do you mean that everyone has a dog, Little Mr.? I haven’t seen any dogs?!”

Little Mr. shoots me a funny look that shows that he finds my stupidity very frustrating and sighs… “Noooo,  Mama,  not ”dogs”.. I don’t know the real word, it’s a bit hard to say so I call them puppies, you know, puppies, puppies,  the red things we  wear when we have to be quiet when all the people died”  Ah Ha! the penny drops, he doesn’t mean puppies, he means  ”Poppies!”

Of course,  as a bilingual family we watch both Dutch TV and the BBC from the UK… and the UK celebrated  their Remembrance Day on 11th November and Little Mr. Knows poppies from the New Zealand and Australian commemoration of ANZAC Day.

***

Little Mr. at dinner table… “Papa, did you go to school?”

Himself looks rather surprised at the question, whilst Kiwi Daughter almost choked on her food laughing.

***

I hope that no matter where you are and what you do today, that your day is an especially Happy one. Merry Christmas!

I NEED a Giraffe …And You Have Less Than Five Minutes

“CC”  a fellow blogger from “Slightly out of sync…”  inspired this post by showing me this one:

http://slightlyout.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/that-creative-bug/

I mean how often can it be is that someone posts a giraffe drawing,  just short while after you’ve been asked for a drawing of a Giraffe ?

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Actually “ask” isn’t quite how it happened: it was more of a demand and Little Mr was in no mood to wait for patient studies and careful detail since for whatever reason, he “needed” his giraffe sketch quickly.

He hovered impatiently bouncing up and down from one foot to another whilst I used Google Images and typed in “giraffe” to remember what the spots looked like (and the face and the ears and the…)  and after a quick scan of the page a stubby finger went out with an order “That One!”.

I suggested  a different one (because it looked easier to draw since it was in profile)… Nope nothing doing,  here he was with  pen and paper and a totally expectant look on his face that his mother could surely deliver the goods. (sigh)

At least I know that Little Mr’s artistic standards are low enough that there will be no criticism. One good thing at least.

The rough sketch is barely taking shape when his small voice says “finish it quick because I need to colour it in”… and this is when the truth emerges that they are due to visit the zoo and he confesses that he’s supposed to have done a drawing in his book already himself.

He’s now annoyed that I did this on a piece of paper and not directly into the book. I tell him he may copy mine but that he needs to do is own homework. Himself appears and clarifies matters, it’s not homework apparently,  just extra decoration and the kids could have cut a picture out of a magazine if they had wanted to.

Strangely enough we do not happen to have magazines laying around containing images of giraffes. Ok, then no problem. I get arms flung around my neck in a spontaneous hug for my efforts with a muffled “Thanks Mama!” from the head buried in my shoulder.

He reluctantly lets me take a photo before he snatches it away and runs off to find a glue-stick.  I have a lot of admiration for CC’s artistic efforts: giraffe’s are  far harder to draw than they look.

Up, Up and Away!!!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We are spending a hot 2012 summer’s day at the Space Expo in Katwijk, The Netherlands. One of the very special things about this place is that you may choose to buy one ticket or two when you arrive.

The first ticket is admittance into the Space Exhibition building that’s I’ve just shown you parts of, and the second ticket is for a guided tour of the European Space agency in the massive complex behind us.

There are however a few rules to this tour: there’s a minimum age limit of 10 years of age and there’s a warning that much of the tour involves fairly fast paced walking and stairs.

The tour lasts for one and a half hours too so this is not physically possible for me to manage on crutches. Little Mr. doesn’t meet the age requirement and of course nor do the babies in our extended party. It ends up that the other two Mama’s stay here looking after their babies and as I put it to him: Little Mr. looks after me.

The Papa’s and older kids headed off to the Space Train parked out the front and were whisked away for the tour whilst we finished off looking around the exhibitions.

Little Mr. found something he coverted in the gift ship out the front and then we all headed out to the play area outside, and ordered lunch under the parasol shade at one of the tables.

Little Mr. was delighted to find that if he polished off his bread roll, that “helping Mama” also involved fetching ice-cream from the Café.

Whilst the playground was a hit, we chanced upon extra entertainment when one of the staff bought out some apparatus, and what appeared to be a birthday party group came out to make water rockets in the open area at the front of the building.

Making a water rocket involves attaching an empty 1.5 litre (2.63 pints) plastic bottle to a tripod that’s fitted with a hose and a hand pump. Pumping the handle fills the bottle with water until the pressure builds up so far that the bottle is launched into the air… the water exiting the bottle under pressure acting as the rocket “fuel”.

It’s fun to watch and it takes rather a lot of photo’s before I can get some that show the launch process and the bottles in the air. In one photograph I’ve circled the bottle because I thought it was harder to find.

I also laughed when I looked at another of the photos on the computer afterwards, everyone is staring skywards to the right, searching for the bottle, but it’s actually behind them on the left of the photo, just above the Dutch flag. I zoomed in on that photo and took a screen-shot of the zoomed area because it wasn’t easy to pick up on the full sized photo.

The others returned enthusiastic about their tour and after they had had a bite to eat we all headed back home… an excellent day out for families, even with that something extra in the form of the additional tour for the older kids. I’d have no trouble to recommend this place to families, we all loved it here!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

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(photograph © Kiwidutch)

…close-up of part of previous photo:

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

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…And then they look completely the wrong way!

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…It’s hiding over here!…

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I Spy as Our Kids Get Spaced Out…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

We are still looking around the Space Expo in Katwijk, which is also the visitor centre and informational arm of the European Space Agency complex situated next door.

The three families continue to discover all the exhibits and there is something for everyone to delight in.

One interesting feature is a set of three reclined seats set into pod-like modules with a large screen in the ceiling and lights and “controls” in front of them.

The kids can make themselves comfortable in one of the seats and as the film commences they get to “feel” and see the experience of what it would be like to take off and return on a Soyuz rocket and to add to the realism their seats vibrate, move and there are sound and lighting effects galore.

What the kids don’t  know is that a short distance away, the same film is played on a screen but  included above the film are real-time camera images of each of the face areas of the pods as they are spied on by three cameras. This means you can secretly watch your kids faces as they experience the surprise and amazement of various parts of the “journey”…  in fact there were also a few startled shrieks and “woooo’s !” at various points as well as some embarrassed giggles.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The children’s images are not recorded at all, that’s for the parent to do on their own camera,  the if there is no kid in a pod then the image area just shows the empty pod.

Because I didn’t want photos of my kids faces on this blog, I waited until they had left the pods and the movie sequence (on a loop) started again and just took some photos of the pods, this time sans kids.

There is a lot of detail in the Exhibition Centre, even the litter bins are shaped like rockets and in one area you can see a corner of a 1950′s room so that you can appreciate the technology of the time (or lack of it, to the astonishment of our kids).

We are lucky in the fact that we’ve come here on one of the hottest days of the year… the beach nearby has what looks horrifically like standing room only as we pass by and yet here we have the place pretty much to ourselves. I think that there may have been 50 visitors in the whole place whilst we were there, so there was never more then one  other kid in front our groups kids for any interactive activity and to be honest they had most of the activities to themselves.  I’d totally recommend this place in the height of summer: cool,  quiet, interesting, unhurried and bliss!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

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An Amazing Interactive Space…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The European Space Agency (ESA) was created in it’s current form in 1975 and was a merger of  ELDO (European Launch Development Organization)  and the European Space Research Organisation (ESRO).

The new ESA  was joined by various cooperating states, ie. Canada, and completed several joint projects with NASA, making and launching  the worlds first high-orbit telescope which operated successfully for 18 years.

Later would come the extensive Ariane programme, co-operation with the US Space Shuttle, Spacelab mission, The Hubble Space Telescope.

However the Mars Express orbiter in 2003 and it’s lander Beagle 2 was the first fully European mission to any planet and the ESA Huygen probe landed on the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon in 2005. The Columbus laboratory was launched in 2008 on the Space shuttle Atlantis for work on the International Space Station and the list goes on.

Today their activities include testing signals from the Third Galileo Satellite and monitoring the polar ice-caps from space and studying ice-loss and now even measuring and monitoring the depth of snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere (also decreasing).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The exhibit starts off with a dimly lit hallway filled with massive panels depicting stunning space photographs, and opens out into several halls where there are interactive activities galore.

One of the biggest is a mock-ups of an Ariane Rocket and uses skilful use of computers, lights and with dry ice to represent the smoke, to simulate a count-down and launch. During the process a film plays inside the rocket legs to give information on the unfolding drama.

I watched with Little Mr as the countdown reached 00:00 and both us startled a little as the coloured lights came on when “lift off” commences because it looked remarkably like fire at first.

A little gasp and a giggle later we settled down to watch the show.

There is also an amazing map floor area that’s both huge and interactive, similar to Google Earth you can zoom right down to where you live in the Netherlands if you wish.

All around us are displays …too many to document individually here… lots of them interactive to delight both young and old. The kids streak ahead from one exhibit to another whilst I bring up the rear, joining in and taking photos as I go.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

There’s also what looks like a piece of the Space station where astronaut living quarters are on display… it looks rather sparse inside, surely there most have also been tons of equipment stashed into these spaces? Also the model gent in the bed looks like his legs have been amputated at the knees, that cubicle doesn’t look nearly long enough to sleep in… mind you maybe that doesn’t matter if you can also catch a nap sleeping upright in another section in weightless space.

The other model gent looks decidedly uncomfortable as he “floats” horizontally through a hatch from another section… but gravitational issues on earth aside, the kids like this section a lot, not least because Dutch astronaut André Kuipers was actually in space at the time of our visit and his mission has been in the Dutch news quite a bit.

There’s even a life-sized cardboard figure of André Kuipers outside the module and both our kids stood as proudly with it as if it had been the real man himself. In fact they berated me for wanting to stop taking photographs of them with “him” even after I’d taken more than 30 of them!

Naturally knowing me and this blog there is one question raised that also promoted interest…
But  that  topic is for tomorrow… let’s check out a few of the things we’ve seen so far…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

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(photograph © Kiwidutch)

An Exhibition Take-Off….

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Our friends in the next street came to us with a “problem of sorts” early in the summer of 2012.

Extended family of theirs were visiting from Germany and two of this families three children would be coming too.

The middle child who didn’t travel with them is severely handicapped and needs specialist equipment and constant care, so the Father of the household gave his partner some respite time and stayed home to look after this child whilst  she bought her oldest son and baby daughter to The Netherlands for a visit.

The “problem” was that our friends also have a baby and with the visiting toddler and their schedule of naps etc.  this was going to get rather boring for the teenage older boy.

We were asked if our kids might be interested in doing some activities together with them and the visiting family and our kids jumped at the chance. The next mission was to find a suitable activity that would entertain (and admit entrance to) babies, toddlers, and the other kids ranging from seven years of age to fourteen.

Various options were bandied around but some had age restrictions and some local attractions were so well known to our kids that they preferred going somewhere where they hadn’t been before. This is how we ended up heading out to the small town of Katwijk just up the coast from The Hague. The place we were visiting was the Space Exhibition.

It’s Europe’s first permanent space exhibition and since it is situated in the expansive grounds of the European Space Agency’s largest technical facility in Europe it also acts as their visitor information centre. I took a photo of a display aerial photo of the place, the Space Exhibition is the little building in the centre at the very bottom and the European Space Agency is the massive white building in the centre with various associated buildings around it.

Even the outside drums up excitement with all the bigger kids, because there’s a Space Train (that runs like a bus but looks like a train) standing outside, plus rocket and satellite bits… looks like this is going to be a winner already!

Let’s take a look at the outside.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

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There’s also a Café…

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And a shop in front of the entrance to the Exhibition…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Just When You Think They Take Things For Granted…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Earlier this year Kiwi Daughter bought home a Calendar from a book fair that had a kind of mini white-board on the top and detachable calendar pages on the bottom.

It ended up being hung up on the back of the toilet door and after various decorations involving mostly hearts and flowers were scribbled on the top the novelty value apparently ran out and it was left mostly blank.

Our big home renovation project last year ended up making it possible for each kid to have their own room, and for her birthday Kiwi Daughter was desperate from some “grown up” furniture and a room makeover.

The bunk beds previously in the room went into Little Mr.’s  new room because it was a bigger and Kiwi Daughter expressed a wish for a raised bed that could accommodate a large desk underneath. We found plenty of “little kid” style beds, often with pink panels and childish accessories but the one she could both fall in love with and use for an extended period of time proved elusive.

Finally we found a Danish firm that made the style she wanted. It was double the price we had expected or wanted to pay but Kiwi Daughter was told that if she helped extra around the house and had a good attitude to homework then it could be arranged.We got the homework (more or less) and the helping around the house,  … well that started well but fizzled out quicker than a match dropped into water… she’s a kid, (what else did I expect? LOL).

We had to wait six weeks after seeing one in the showroom and ordering it…  when it arrived  Himself had a zillion bits to put together and the old bed (and old temporary one we’d been given) had been disposed of. Kiwi Daughter would have to camp on the mattress on the floor for a while until he assembled it all.  Kiwi Daughter  said “Thank You” but that was about it.. Then without warning this message appeared on the little white-board on the door in the loo…

Just when you think they take things for granted, … it’s wonderful to find that they prove you wrong.

The Little Steps of Progress…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

It’s time for a small update on the recovery process of my foot after my fall on stairs two years ago.

I now know that dystrophia is a long slow process, that pain is unfortunately one of the primary symptoms and that there is no fast-track to full recovery.

Whilst it may look like not much has been happening in the last year or so, in fact there has been very steady progress.

I started out with no movement at all from the top of my ankle downwards and not being allowed to stand on it at all, to being able to stand on the the heel and almost centre part of my foot, with only my toes and the area around the ball of my foot still  ”stuck”. (the circled area in the photo)

Of course this means that the final part of the natural walking “step” can  still not be made, but I’ve  progressed to walking with one crutch instead of two, at least on flat surfaces.

I’ve included an edited photo to show you how things look at present. The red lines indicate the curve that the inside of the foot should take, clearly bits still stick out a bit too much on the left foot. When the ball of the foot becomes functional again the section just below it will start to support the bones as they should and then the idea is that the protruding bits should start to move back into place.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The Specialist says that the bad news is that there is no fast route to this happening… and warned me it could take years.  Pain is one of the primary symptoms so physio is a very fine line between working though the pain but not ignoring the fact that pain is also a signal from the body that a limit has been reached and manipulation should stop.

I have a new respect for people with permanent disabilities, the hassle of constant niggling pain is more than annoying, sometimes it’s like a low level headache and sometimes it’s like sharp needles. Needless to say Physio is a tough workout and strong painkillers, rest (elevations) and ice packs are the order of the day afterwards.

A recent assessment puts things at 70% recovery and we are aiming for 90%. Once we reach this, then every percentage point after that will be a bonus. Predictions are also that I might be driving again around March some time, but in the meantime my company pays a taxi  to and from work and since a few weeks I’m also working part-time from home.

Life is literally about putting your best foot forward, it’s about counting our blessings too. One foot might present a lot of limitation at the moment, but there are some people who would give anything just to have legs.  I accept  the reality that I have good days and bad days, that if I push to physically do a lot on one day then I will have to suffer for it for up to three days afterwards: but is that an excuse to “not bother to do much”? No.

We each have an allotted “allocation” of days on this mortal coil, and no-one know how any days they will get. The wisest thing to do is to use these days as wisely as you can, making the best of the lumps and bumps that life gives you and appreciating and understanding that what might be one of life’s valley’s is at least…. not a crevasse.