Happy New Year to all my enthusiastic readers and the not so enthusiastic ones as well.
This first blog comes to you somewhat later than planned. Instead of boarding a flight to New Zealand via LA on 5th January for a 4-week adventure we now find ourselves 12 days later onboard a flight to Miami to join a relaxing cruise Caribbean cruise.
The problem was and is plantar fasciitis in my right foot. I first felt it when I returned from Florida in November. Stupidly I thought it would get better on its own and tried to stubbornly carry on. It did not and in fact it gradually got worse.
I have suffered with this previously in my left foot in 2020. It was diagnosed at the start of Covid which forced rest upon us all. It used to hurt on our daily permitted walk but then I was able to rest it for the rest of the day. It was almost a year before I was able to walk on it pain free.
Now I have it in my right foot and has been far worse than before. To say it has been painful is an understatement. Trying to bear any wight on it has been excruciating.
During December I had a couple of online Physiotherapy sessions and was following the guidance of rest, stretching exercises, and ice packs. The one piece of advice I wasn’t following was taking copious amounts of painkillers as I still have an aversion to them unless it is absolutely necessary.
What absolutely finished my foot off was the Boxing Day match at Carrow Road. I wish it was because my dream was fulfilled and I was picked out of the crowd as a second half substitute and won the game with a perfect hat trick. Sadly, it much more mundane than that. Because of my foot I had pre booked a car park spot in someone’s drive near the ground to minimise the walking.
We turned up at 2.25pm to find the driveway full. Neil thought I had the wrong driveway but when I checked the booking on my phone, I saw the owner had cancelled it just one hour before. I was fuming but there was nothing I could do. I made Neil and Kevin get out of the car so they could walk to ground to be there in good time.
I then searched in vain for a somewhere to park. All the slots on the side of the road along Harvey Lane were taken all the way to the Heartsease roundabout. I knew the car parks would be full by now and that couldn’t get round to either Scales Yard or County Hall as the through routes would be now closed for the match.
I phoned Karen in a panic. Calmly she suggested I try the cathedral as there hopefully would not be an attendant on duty on Boxing Day. It took a while to drive around there but her presumption was correct. The only trouble was that it was then a decent walk to the ground and I only had 12 minutes to make kick off.
Stupidly despite the pain I tried to rush. The closer I got, the more I could hear the crowd the quicker I hurried. I could hear then match starting. As I got to the turnstile, I heard the roar as Norwich scored. By the time I got to my seat I was breathless but knew I was in real trouble with foot. It had been pushed and worked too hard. A suspected I had inflicted some real damage.
After that I had trouble putting any weight at all on my foot. I realised that our New Zealand may be in jeopardy if it didn’t quickly improve. A 22-hour flight followed by an intensive walking holiday would hardly be inducive to a foot problem.
My foot did not improve over the next few days and both Karen & I soon came to the conclusion that a big New Zealand trip was not the most sensible thing to be undertaking.
I consulted a GP through the online service provided by our Health Insurance. Her recommendation was that I should not even be considering such a trip. She said I should see my GP urgently to get a signed medical certificate to claim back the costs of the trip. I felt guilty in taking up a NHS appointment but had no choice. She also concurred that I should not be travelling and signed the certificate.
So, then I spent the next few days with my leg up cancelling our planned trip. We had 16 motels booked and only one of them didn’t till had free cancellation. A sob story also enabled me to cancel the car hire and ferry for free along with our admission tickets to Hobbiton.
The Air New Zealand flights were non-refundable though but the BA flights had been booked with Avios so we knew we could just rebook them for other flights
We came up with a plan for me to totally rest up for a couple of week and then fly to Miami which was only a 9-hour flight (which with more Avios we would upgrade to Business Class so I could put my leg up) and then ‘do’ a Caribbean Cruise which would hopefully be very relaxing.
And that is why I am writing this having had far too many glasses of bubbles with my leg up flying over the Atlantic at 38000ft on our way to Miami.
Anyhow Christmas and New Year happened. I bloody loved it as usual. Despite the pain I was in I wished it would never end. I love the run up and afterwards almost as much as the day itself.
I would have a houseful all the time. My choice would be to have an open house during that period which I know is totally impractical. We missed having Barry & Ellie with us for Christmas Dinner but made the best of it especially as Barry was feeling poorly with flu anyhow at the time. I’ve said this before but for me Christmas is all about family and friends. I was given some lovely thoughtful presents again.
We have the usual myriad of events leading up to Christmas all of which were very good. I attended four Christmas different church-based services all of which I enjoyed. There were a couple of trips to Cromer to firstly see the Christmas show and then the fireworks. We went to the see the Blickling Lights and held the traditional ‘Secret Sandra’ evening at Salhouse Lodge.
So now onto this new trip. For which Karen was uber stressed beforehand. Partly because she accepted five days’ work in the days running up to it, partly because she was also in much self-inflicted pain by ignoring instructions by wearing her new NHS bespoke orthotics too much without a break but mainly by the pressure she puts upon herself packing.
Until we leave, she almost becomes so tense that it almost starts to feel as the payback from the trip may not worth the stress beforehand. This is not a new phenonium but this time was worse. She knows it but cannot control it.
I can be in the wrong for being in the same room as her, and also wrong for not being in the same room. I can be wrong for asking how her packing is going but then wrong again for not asking how it is going. In short, I am mainly wrong for just being me.
My own packing consists of opening each drawer and counting out how many pairs of socks and T shirts etc that I need. Whichever are laying on top will normally suffice as I will make do. Karen’s packing is a complex matrix of what goes with what for when. She needs short shorts, long shorts, thick shorts, thin shorts for any and every eventuality. Don’t even think about how the tops are worked out. Then they must be separated into checked in luggage and cabin bags just in case something gets lost.
It does my head in but I try not to interfere. My clothes packing can take up to 20 minutes if I include sorting all my medication. All the paperwork, tickets and charging wires can admittedly add to that. Karen needs a minimum of two full days minimum for just her clothes.
So, the days leading up to a trip can be fraught.
We both so need this trip to start.
