Bring me cookies

I'm off work for a week !

Hurrah !

Yeah. Having a break for a bit. It does help that I can have a week's worth of leave for the cost of only 4 days of annual leave, courtesy of us having Monday off anyway. I'm not quite sure how I'm doing actually. Some times, I feel absolutely mentally and physically shot. I definitely need the break but I'm not in quite the same bad way as I have been on some of these.

A quick summary :

My ankles hate me. A lot of me is still shredded but my ankles are the most painful. Most of the shreddies aren't actually painful, just messy. But the ankles have been badly swollen and I'd actually admit to pain from them that's been extremely distracting. However ... if I'm moving around, they're ok. I have full stompiness available, except for the first few steps.

My hips hate me too, I'm not quite sure what's happening there but sometimes they hurt so bad I'll get close to letting a howl of pain out. My neck too, that's been feeling like grinding glass in there when I move it but it doesn't make me quite as uncomfortable as the hips and ankles.

But - I'm not actually that bad. I'm counting on the aches and pains subsiding as my body decides to return to normal. The aches are there due to swelling from the damage so as the damage repairs, I should normalise. My ankles and knees are already normalising.

Yey me.

I suspect switching some of my diet over to the pasta bakes is really helping there. The extra carbs are giving my body the energy it needs to keep on fighting. Plenty more of those to come tomorrow as well, it'll be Twenty20 Blast finals day and I fully intend to grab a pizza at half time. Timings are awkward actually, Doctor Who starts up again too and I NEED to watch that. (It'll keep on the recorder until Sunday)

Intentions for next week ?

Tomorrow's the county cricket final. Monday will be the first one day international. It's in Bristol, so I suspect rain ;-). I intend to have a very light week, trying to leave my shredded body alone enough for it to get some healing in. I think if I can give it 3 clear days, it'll make a massive improvement. But things like the ankles don't get that chance when they're under socks and in shoes.

We shall see. It's that mental battle again.

Sunday will also see the Belgian Grand Prix. It's known as the fans' GP. I'd love to go, was considering it this year but alas, haven't healed enough to consider putting any plans together. Perhaps next year. Things like motorsport tend to be better on telly because they have cameras all over the racetrack but I'd like to go for the experience of it. The smells, the sounds. All that good stuff.

I'll be listening to a massive amount of music. iTunes tells me there's 6 days to listen to still, that grew with :
Foxes - Glorious - it was going for £3 (dirt cheap) so I thought what the hell, I'll try that. I'm listening to the first track right now and ... very mainstream but promising. There's a good voice there.
Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack - awesome movie, excellent soundtrack. It's the "Awesome Mix Number 1" album.
Bobby Vinton greatest hits - this was playing in Frankie and Bennys the other day and I went "how come I don't have any of this ?"

I have a new quest that'll be indulged at some point when the food runs out. There's a Harvester restuarant next door to the local Tescos. The quest is to eat my way through the menu. It'll take a while because I'll only go in there when doing shopping but ... it is sooooo good. As a suggestion of how good, there's a good Dominos pizza shop there too. I'm a pizza fiend, yet the Dominos will have NO CHANCE next to that Harvester.

They're that good. Hopefully they'll stay that way. There is a downside though, their vegetarian selection is derisory.

I'll go see Lucy at some point too. It'll either be with Cyberkitten and BionicDwarf or ... someone from Okcupid ;-). Yep. Been having a very pleasant natter with a lady on there today and she'd like to see Lucy. Maybe ? That would be particularly awesome. (And I owe her a post about why I find cricket so special)

But it started today actually with a wander around the centre of Bristol. I find doing the shopping wander therapeutic. I don't usually buy much but it gets me out walking around in relatively fresh (as city air gets) air and around people. That's another of my contrasts. I can get really uncomfortable in a crowd but I also have to be around people.

Perhaps the Big Grin needs to be fed some answering smiles occasionally ? It definitely got those today. My ankles called an early close on the town run and sent me home via the cookie shop. And the girl on the cookie shop stand definitely caught that grin.

It was amazing - and so was the triple chocolate muffin.

That might end up being my epitaph (hopefully in a few decades) - Here lies Dwagonman, powered by smiles in life.