mobility

yesterday allison took my down to the yard and i managed to potter out to molly, who duly walked back to the gate for some hugs. Happily she wasn't too far away across the field (unlike today - i seriously wasn't up for walking right across to the other side on uneven ground!) and i was pleased to get a chance to say hello and check her over. she's got one new cut that wasn't there before, same as previously a sideswipe from a hoof. she got lots of hugs from me whilst licking partner's neck, which was bizarre - might have been a good salt lick, that!

to swollen to think about getting on her - if i'm struggling to walk, then riding isn't a good plan, i don't think!

and i've just acquired a rocking chair - next door didn't want it any more and she was going to have to take it to the tip if we didn't, i've always wanted one so there you go! not sure which room it'll spend it's life in but at the moment i'm sitting in it typing this.


oh yes, and i tried driving today, to see if i could. i think i might be ok with that. the secret of it is to do everything slowly, good anticipation, and minimise the gear changing. so i guess i'll be going to work tomorrow under my own steam (I told them if i couldn't drive i wouldn't be in ...)

reading

about other people's horses in various blogs and websites, since i can't ride my own.

trying to persuade partner that the planned holiday is a waste of time as i can't do any of the things we'd planned .... partner thinks i might be able to.

if i can't drive by monday, i won't be going in to work....

stilll a pudding...

i did suggest to gaynor she take me down to the yard tonight, but it is still really swollen (the foot that is) that I cried off, on the basis that all i would be able to do would be sit and sunbathe. don't trust the foot to stand for long enough to be able to groom or antyhing, and certainly wouldn't want to take the risk of getting it stood on!!!!!

bare fields

well not quite. allison took me down to the yard tonight. I'd been thinking that with the lack of rain the fields would be looking somewhat brown, and they are.. But Molly was fat as butter, so it won't do her any harm for a while not to have as much grass...

the foot is all swollen, and i managed to knock the 'break' against a chair leg this morning, nearly screamed the place down...

ah well....

pot's off

hurrah! but it isn't mended yet. There was one bit when the consultant pushed I shrieked wiht pain, I knew that particular bit was still not right. But i can walk. I tried driving - i did it, but it was NOT a good idea and won't try again until the weekend. The foot is up like a pudding. and the psoriasis where the plaster had been ..... euch. I'm sure everyone must have thought I had a horrid lurgy. and of course as soon as the plaster came off and it hit the fresh air, it started itching. so the first order of business was a bath ......

I can't see me getting on the molly for a few days yet, it's not worth the risk (the consultant said it would still be another three weeks or so before it was really right) so that puts a kibosh on our planned week away. we can still go away, but no point taking molly really. and no point taking the bikes. and I don't suppose i'll be able to walk far. duh.

I think I might suggest postponing holiday - that will go down like a lead balloon, but not a lot of point if can't do what we'd planned!

wish me luck

tomorrow I go back to orthopaedics. I hope they will take the pot off my leg. It's weight bearing now, if still a bit twingy, but there's no real reason I need a full pot now. A support bandage, yes, but the pot, I don't think so.

anyway, the leg & foot didn't get washed, of course, before they put the pot on, so it'll be horrid (sweat pouring down inside of plaster cast, not a nice feeling!) and I really really want to get it cleaned and moisturised (ive got psoriasis both legs, so you can imagine.....but it hasn't been as itchy as I would have expected it to be in the heat!)

Even if I still can't ride for a bit, so long as I can drive and go see her, that'll be something!

hot molly

was taken down to see molly tonight; she just about remembered who i was! need a good grooming, but looking ok, and i was amazed not covred in fly bites!

heat ... plaster

i hate this with the pot on, sweat running down the inside of it.

on the other hand, i think it's probably too hot to ride anyway, we would both hate it. the only cool time will be first thing in the morning, and there would be no one there to help me get on!

i probably shouldn't be in the office - a sick note would have been better than going in, even if they are paying for a taxi. but no one else is going to do the work.... and since my brain is in once piece i would rather not put a sick note in.....

only fools on horses

has been really good.

but i really don' t understand why diarmuid gavin made it as far as tonight - has to be the luck of the irish, because, for all he's got a lot of charm, he rides, as someone else put it, like sack of tatties, and which loon thought he should wear spurs is beyond me and a lot of other people. his horse has had to put up with a lot!

edited to add - but at least he's gone out gracefully!

i was even motivated to vote tonight!

back to the office

the boss wanted me to try and get in before he goes on his holidays, so partner took me in this morning and someone else brought me home.

the office are going to pay for a taxi to get me to from work for the next two weeks; mad, but if that's what they want to do! a 50 mile round trip, so you can imagine that ain't going to be cheap. i can't see thepoint myself, it works quite well having work dropped off and picked up, it 's almost as if they think youcan't work unless you are inthe office. which of course i can. i shall see how it goes. there's too much pottering about to do, either that or forever interrupt people to get files out for me which is a pain, and i can't get my foot elevated properly. will take more cushions in and see if i can't make it work by putting the leg on top of the cpu (the tower, the pc itself). but i don't really think it's high enough.

and i am fed up with the heat - better than cold toes, i know, but the feeling of sweat running down the inside of the plaster is not pleasant!

and i was really pleased with myself. i got partner to take me to pc world and bought a router, and have managed to set up a local area network between my lap top downstairs and the pc upstairs. been meaning to look into doing that ever since i bought the laptop, and this has motivated me to do it. and i managed to get it all to work, i can even print from the laptop. the only thing i've got left to do is modify the firewall settings on both computers to ensure that they can talk to each other - the usual problem with a firewall, they stop all sorts of things including what you want to do!!!!

gaynor says molly is being bullied again, one wound gaynor had to get molly in and bathe it, so that's not good. but not a lot i can do about it, i'm struggling to stand for any length of time.

hope you have all been watching only fools on horses, it's rather good. those are proper high fences they are jumping chaps!

a day out!

Haven't had anything to write about due to sitting in the house with work infront of me and a pot on my foot.

But today had been booked off as holiday, as it's my birthday. The original plan had been Berwick, as we've never been, but that was no good as I can't walk.... so we went to Salts Mill, Saltaire (near Bradford).

It was a good day out. They lent us a wheelchair to wheel me about it (couldn't have managed otherwise); good grub; classy shopping; Hockney artwork; will go again.

It used to be a weaving etc. mill, built by titus salt who also built the village forhis workers (victorian philanthropy); it was then bought out by drummonds and then by Illingworth Morris who closed it in 1986. It was bought by a chap called Jonathan Silver in the late 80's or something (he sadly died in 1997 aged 47) and it has Hockneys as he knew Hockney in their respective youth in Bradford.

And we came back over the tops to pateley bridge and then down to ripon where we stopped for a drink.

a good day.

depressing

being unable to be independent, go ride, go do anything ....

4 weeks of this.

and a friend said today her brother did the same, and even when the pot came off he still coulnd't drive. i said, did I want to know that?!!

But I've got a quantity of work to do and the trainee has been given an empty box to bring some more in; the plan is i'll work here, and he'll pitch up every couple of days or so when he's up here to collect what i've done and fetch me some more ....

which means things will be vagules kept going and i won't have to go off sick (private practice is not the place to get sick pay ...... one doesnt').

hot

i spent nearly all the day until about 3 sitting in the sun in the garden in my swimming costume. course I'll end up with odd legs (one white under the pot, the other brownish) but i don't often sit about like that (too much to do)....

Partner took me down to the yard this afternoon to see Molly; she hadn't been washed off after riding Thursday , of course, and she had been a bit sweaty - i like to wash it off, but of course couldn't. She was fine, brushed her off and covered her in fly spray - partner did the catching and turning out of course!! People are keeping an eye on her, which I knew they would of course, but it's not quite the same! the car is still down there. i rang gaynor to see what time she was going down (the plan being she'd take both me & partner down and we'd come back in my car) but she'd been to a party last night and was not well......