neurorehabilitationFromTheTrenches

 On-tour: Valencia We had our first post-covid, determental-for-the-environment, flight-getaway last month, and it included much training, and lots of good times. We went to Valencia, Spain. First-off, Valencia is a great City. There was no shortage of vegan eateries. Especially in our locale-while-there.  Valencia's main focal point -- but, by no means their only one -- is the Turia river, which is gone. You can read about that here . What's left in its stead is 9k of parkland as wide as the Turia river once was. You have to hand it to the Valencians, they make great use of this space. I remarked to Claire that it was a triathlete's paradise; with intermittent exercise zones, not to mention the beach which is just beyond the City. I brought my Liegerad with me for getting around and I'm glad I did because there's plenty to see and do. Like, for example, this , which saw me soften my stance on zoos.  It is as cruel as the treatment of humans in [**SPOILER ALERT!!M. ...

It' s not August, but I would like to maintain the illusion of regularity. Further to this aim, I would like to relegate my bi-monthly book review post, to a section in my monthly status update.  So every month, starting this month, I will provide a book recommendation. I won't know myself with all this time; putting out fires all over the place. Onto August's belated update. Walking As you will see in the later pic., I have reached the holy grail of 1 KM, I have also been quietly ramping up the pace. My ultimate mid-term goal, if you'll pardon the contradiction-in-terms, is to get to 2 KMPH, and thus a 30 minute workout.  I have also reconfigured my training schedule as follows; I take to the treadmill every morning before breakfast, then, after work, I sweat it out on the Peloton, if we have not planned to go for a real cycle with the Liegerad. I have also re-started a stretching routine in the bed before I get up. I also mean to take a half hour in the evenings for s...

Tomorrow, Monday, will see the start of 2-weeks' holiday. I am spending most of that first week in Bavaria, having traveled here on Saturday by train, for the first time without the wheelchair. It wasn't that different from the last time, when I left the wheelchair in the car boot for the duration of my stay, but it does represent change; onward and upward. Walking The treadmill has made it into my rehab rotation. I now alternate between the Peloton and treadmill each morning. On treadmill day, I simply walk while holding on, for dear life, to the convenient handles, which double as a pulse reader. Early on, I learned that I needed to wear some kind of covering, to protect the inside of my left thumb, which became the source of a bloodbath on my maiden attempt, by becoming frayed by an inoffensive, easily-avoidable plastic joint. Now, as I march with my blue marigold on one hand -- and my safety clip -- I reach the blistering pace of 1.2KMPH, which has been gradually increased ...

  Very Good, Jeeves! :  That is not a typo, The book is entitled 'Very Good, Jeeves!'. Everyman is the publisher*. They have produced, among other things, the entire Wodehouse back catalog in sleeved hardback, complete with consistent artwork. I jumped ahead, and bought ' Something Fresh ', produced by a different company, and I'll have to purchase it again as an Everyman;  otherwise my Wodehouse collection will be lacking, when I finally complete it. * not true, the publisher is Outlook; Everyman is the name of the series of reprints. Wodehouse was a master of writing witty prose. He has two recurring sagas, This is part of the "Jeeves & Wooster" saga, and it is a suitable entry point to this saga, as it contains marvelously constructed, funny short-stories: a new tale per chapter, which is not that dissimilar to what I've seen of Jeeves so far, where each new chapter deals with a problem requiring Jeeves's intervention. Thank you, Jeeves Wod...

 A lot has happened since my last update; so here's a summary: We went on our first post-covid holiday, since we are fully vaccinated. We left for Aarhus, Denmark in a rental car. It was a hassle-free drive of circa. 3.5 hours. There was an expected checking of our papers at the border; this was a Friday before we would get the all-clear on Sunday, following the mandatory 2-weeks post-2nd-vaccination-shot, so we had to get tests and show proof of same. No sweat. I had reserved a cargo bike (trike) for getting around while there. Cargo bikes are all the rage in Denmark, so I wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb. Our hotel was fairly central so when we had freedom to roam from Sunday, roam we did. Aarhus is a great City, that I fully recommend. There was a street-food area, conveniently near our hotel, which we made great use of, and the beaches near the City were wonderfully empty. The weather, aside from a little rain one of the days, was perfect. Then we returned to Hamburg on...

At least it was May when I started this. Walking  This has been a busy month. Firstly I have made the following changes to my hourly exercises: Every hour, on the hour, I get to my feet without using any objects as leverage; once up, I maintain my hands-off approach by completing some* mini-squats -- I can't stress enough how pathetic these are, I don't manage the full 90 degree, knee-bend -- then I continue my standing balance training, with my feet shoulder width apart to run out the ten-minute countdown timer. This is during working hours, Monday-Friday. At the weekend, I follow this up with a plank or press-ups (again, pathetic), and I finish with 100 crunches.  *It started out as 50 but I've been adding 10 each week that I remember to do so. It's 90 now. I also do a weekly hour of free-standing. My Vision  We went to an eye doctor, who specialises in neurology. He didn't recommend that I go for an operation to attempt a correction of the double vision, as ther...

 Here follows an ordered list, in order of preference, of three books by coincidentally deceased authors. The Missionary Position This was my second reading thereof, having received it as an Xmas present. I’m delighted to report that a fuzzy memory may well mean, I can enjoy many other old favorites. It’s very brief, and like all Hitchens’s work, it makes one think. I remember reading about Mother Teresa in a primary-school, religion book, in a chapter dedicated to her. This book takes a different angle on the now-saint --despite Christopher Hitchens’s best efforts-- I won’t ruin it; get yourself a copy, but two quotes kept coming to me as I read. Both I learned about through Christopher Hitchens, in happier times. “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.” ― Steven Weinberg "Give a man a reputation as an early riser, and he can sleep 'til noon." — Mark Twain The thing about Mot...