Day One

From Sofa to Marathon – Week 3

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Barbara

This post comes to you live from an aeroplane almost in Egypt

(actually, I scheduled it before I left…)

I spoke to my doctor last Wednesday about my plans to try and get fit by doing Marathon training, while also complaining to him how I have been coming down with one cold after another, how my neuralgia is not going, and how I’m still utterly exhausted all the time. I said I am too young to feel this old.

And he said you’re not feeling old, you’re feeling the illness that you are refusing to accept that you have.

I asked him to shoot me, but he said they don’t do that on the NHS 😦

I said I would try and do the training for someone planning to walk the marathon, and he said that that would be a good idea as long as I halved the weekly training and doubled the time allowed until I started to feel la lot better (Luckily I didn’t tell him I was secretly wondering if I should aim for sub 4 hours)

He said that the worst thing about chronic fatigue is getting the balance right… training enough to be of value, but not too much as to spend a week recovering… and then keeping it going week after week when progress seems so slow & even backwards. It’s certainly backwards at the moment, this new cold seems to be getting worse… sore throat, headaches, cough again….

Seriously, they shoot horses don’t they?

We are off on holiday tomorrow for 2 weeks, hoping to be lovely and warm on the Red Sea in Egypt! I expect to come back utterly rested and revived. I don’t think I’ll get to blog my progress as I doubt the WiFi is super, but there will be hundreds of photos on my return 🙂 back in 2/3 weeks!

So progress so far:

0 miles, 0 hours training, days of taking Wilson for dog walks 🙂 (Not very long or difficult, but at least outdoors!)

Food Diary progress.

Writing it down at least. My eating has been dreadful. Fuelled by feeling horrid due to illness & not wanting to eat as I feel sick, plus knowing that I am not getting any exercise, plus poor self esteem due to being ill for so long my food intake has been terrible. As I said, at least I have been writing it down. I hadn’t even been eating fruit this week. My appetite had completely gone but finally on Friday I started eating normally again, and managed to wolf down two full sized portions of Melanzane Parmigiana (baked aubergine) that I made from scratch! Very impressed! I can’t believe I never tried to make this before, although it is a bit messy as you have to fry lots of aubergine, it’s a simple recipe and tastes scrumptious! Followed massive dinner with sweets, chocolate, half a melon & then some Ben & Jerry’s Fish Food Ice cream!

I must be getting better 🙂

My target for next week:

Exercise daily on the sun lounger 🙂

Explore a little

Read a lot!

Continue to eat properly (we are getting half board, and not having to cook is half the battle)

See you in 2/3 weeks 🙂

Wilson on our sofa

PS Wilson is not coming….. he’s with his pet-minder. I’m not sure who is more upset, Wilson or Peter

Posted in 40, Athletics, Chronic Fatigue, Diet, Fibromyalgia, Getting old, Health, Janathon, Keeping Fit, Marathon, Neuralgia, Running, Wilson | Tagged 52-Week Project, Chronic Fatigue, Getting Fit, Janathon, Marathon, New Years Resolution, Postaweek, Sofa to Marathon, Training, Wilson | 8 Comments

Wilson’s Doggy Bag

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Barbara

When Wilson gets soggy in the river he doesn’t understand why we don’t want him to sit on us in the car on the way home so he can get dry! When he comes home he deposits muddy footprints all over the carpet, and then rubs himself on the walls, furniture and anything else he can find till he gets dry. He loves being wrapped in a towel, and snuggled and dried, preferably in front of a heater 🙂

Wilson gets a bit damp

Enhanced photo of Wilson. I think this one looks a bit like a painting

Peter found this great invention & Wilson loves it, but he looks very funny in it & he can’t walk in it! Its ideal when we have to put Wilson in the car after a muddy or wet walk, and the bag goes straight in the washing machine when Wilson has dried off a bit.

Lovely Photo of Wilson in his doggy bag taken by my daughter’s friend

Posted in Animals, Pets, Water, Wilson | Tagged Black Cocker Spaniel, Dog towel bag, Thames, Water, Weybridge, Wilson | 15 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge; Resolved

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Barbara

Why is it, that when I see the word resolve I think Vectors and Trigonometry

http://www.pilotsweb.com/principle/vectors.htm

Resolving vectors – The figure above illustrates vector resolution by components. In the first example, a boat crosses a river without compensating for the current. Vector (a) represents the actual distance (D) travelled. Vector (b) shows the distance traveled down stream while vector (c) represent the distance travelled across. The actual speed (V), the speed across (v1) and the speed down stream (v2) are proportional to the distances D, d1 and d2. It is stated that vector (b) and (c) are components of vector (a). Similarly, the second example illustrates two forces F1 and F2 exerted on a box. Vector (f} is a graphic representation of the resultant force F res.

I noticed this weeks challenge, and thought, how on earth are we going to find photographs illustrating the resolution of vectors! Luckily I clicked through to the page, and realised that there are other definitions to resolve other than in Maths and Physics!

In fact, I had a quick look at my dictionary & it came up with the following 14 definitions!

1. To make a firm decision about.

2. To cause (a person) to reach a decision.

3. To decide or express by formal vote.

4. To change or convert: My resentment resolved itself into resignation.

5. To find a solution to; solve.

6. To remove or dispel (doubts).

7. To bring to a usually successful conclusion: resolve a conflict.

8. Medicine To cause reduction of (an inflammation, for example).

9. Music To cause (a tone or chord) to progress from dissonance to consonance.

10. Chemistry To separate (an optically inactive compound or mixture) into its optically active constituents.

11. To render parts of (an image) visible and distinct.

12. Mathematics To separate (a vector, for example) into coordinate components. (see above)

13. To melt or dissolve (something).

14. Archaic To separate (something) into constituent parts.

So I’ve covered number 12 :), and it sort-of covers number 5 too as I would interpret that in a mathematical way too, while in fact most people would probably not! (I am so autistic!! 🙂 )

The next one that comes into my head, relates to photography…. to capture a photograph with a high resolution. So number 11 above. This one also ties in with one of my personal resolutions (not New Years ones!) to learn to use my camera better ,and specifically to learn how to take macro photos, or photographs with the foreground in focus (resolved) and the background fuzzy. I’ve had a go over the last few days and here are my first successful attempts 🙂

Berries

A close up photo of Ivy Berries

Ivy Berries

As for New Years resolutions (covered by number 1 I guess) , I don’t really make them, but I did make one on the 12th of December 2012; to start getting fit. I’ve been thwarted in my efforts so far as I’ve had a sinus infection, horrible neuralgia, and then a virus giving me a temperature, sore throat, cough, headaches and exhaustion since before Christmas, but I’ve started my planning and I am blogging an update every week. Part of my training involves bringing Wilson for walks, and so here are some pictures of our walks

Wilson gets a bit damp

My other resolution is to learn how my camera works & I’ve been playing with the settings & working out what I can do. Here’s an example of one of the many things I can do with images. I will post more of my experiments later 🙂

The ‘Before’ photo

Artistic Version

Finally I’ve joined Flickr, and joined a group where you are supposed to post one photo, your favourite one, of each week. I’ve found my favourite photo from last week & posted it & I think it shows up here too 🙂

For other interpretations of this week’s theme have a look at:

Weekly Photo Challenge: Resolved

Posted in Janathon, Keeping Fit, Maths, Neuralgia, Photography, Physics, Science, Sinus headache, Wilson | Tagged New Years Resolution, Panasonic DMC-FZ62, Photography, Postaday, Resolved, Trigonometry, Vector Resolution, Weekly Photo Challenge | 14 Comments

My Photostream from Flickr (codename curiousberyl :-) )

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Barbara

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Description of the Greater Spotted Woodpecker from the RSPB

curiousberyl’s photostream on Flickr.

One of my New Years Resolutions 🙂

To join Flickr and upload one photo a week, my favourite one taken each week. Week One’s contribution is my photo of the spotted woodpecker in our garden

Posted in Photography | 3 Comments

The River Thames in Flood, Weybridge, Walton & Port Hampton

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Barbara

Further to my recent posts about the river flooding in Weybridge and Walton, I have now found my photographs from the last big flood. In December 2002 and January 2003 the Thames began to flood near where we live.

I didn’t have a digital camera then, so my photos are from scans, but they give an idea of the hight of the river in places. The back road from Walton Bridge to Weybridge (Cowie Sale becoming Walton Lane) was completely flooded and closed by the police, although Peter managed to drive through in his van.

Houses near Walton Bridge. These are built on stilts, but they can’t get there except by boat when the water is this high

Houses near Walton Bridge, cut off by the flood waters

Houses at Walton Bridge

Sunset at Walton Bridge

The Road and footpath flooded at Walton, Cowie Sale

This is how high the water came in Weybridge. The river started to flood the road at the bend just past the Minnow Pub

At the Weir in Weybridge, the river is lapping the road

Peter had a boat at Port Hampton (opposite Molesey) The towpath was completely flooded and we had to visit every day to check that the boat was not going onto the path & getting damaged

The car park at Port Hampton is half its normal size

Where is the edge of the path?

Trying to keep the boat from floating up onto the bank, Port Hampton

Water flowing over the head of the Island, Port Hampton

The river Mole regularly overflows at Cobham. In 2003 it was very high

Swans on the flooded Mole at Cobham

Soon after the floods it started to snow, and the flood water froze causing havoc!

The River Mole at Cobham

I must take these photos with me, and then try and recreate the same images today so a true comparison can be made. Normally seats and bins are not placed underwater 🙂

Posted in Boats, Photography, Water | Tagged Cobham, Flood, Molesey, Port Hampton, River Mole, River Thames, Walton Bridge, Walton-On-Thames, Weybridge | 8 Comments

While Wilson’s away… Lilly-Plankton (the cat) will play!

Posted on January 4, 2013 by Barbara

It has been very difficult for me to photograph our cat Lilly-Plankton since we got Wilson. To be honest, it has always been difficult to photograph her always because she looks more like a Lilly-Plankton shaped hole in the universe rather than herself as she is so black.

Now that Wilson has arrived, she won’t stay in the same space as him, and he thinks that’s a great game so he chases her when she runs…. so we only see her when he goes to bed! This makes it even harder to capture her as she doesn’t look good in flash photographs, and animals don’t like flashes!

I brought my new camera to bed last night (as you do) and managed to get these photos, in very low light, so I am very impressed 🙂

Lilly Plankton

Lilly Plankton the Sphinx

Looking at the camera

Here are some older photos of Lilly since it’s her day to shine 🙂

Lilly watching cat television

When I was studying quantum mechanics, Lilly was helping me with Schroedingers ‘Cat in a Box’ theory

Our first cat Tiggles playing with Lilly Plankton when she was a kitten

Lilly deciding whether tortoises are edible

Posted in Lilly Plankton, Myrtle, Pets, Photography, Wilson | Tagged flash photographs, Indoor Photography, Lilly Plankton, Panasonic DMC-FZ62, Photographing Black animals, quantum mechanics, Sphinx, Wilson | 19 Comments

Posting letters home from India

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Barbara

Why on earth am I doing a post about Letter Boxes in India?

Well, when I look at my most searched item on my search terms, Indian post boxes comes up top!! I have a few more photos of post boxes in India, to I thought I may as well share them so people coming here for Indian Letter Boxes get a bit more value for their clicks! 🙂

Our first experience of Letter boxes in India was when we were in Colva, in Goa. We were looking for somewhere to buy stamps and post our handful of postcards, and we were directed to the main post office at the top of the town near the checkpoint.

It’s about a mile from the beach to the checkpoint, and we walked up and down looking for the main post office for ages, getting hotter and hotter in the afternoon sun. Having given up and asked for directions on numerous occasions, we finally found it;

Sub Post Office, Colva, Goa

We weren’t sure if it was open, but it was. Once we bought the stamps and had stuck them onto the postcards, we were advised to bring the postcards back into the post office to get them franked immediately before posting them, as apparently it is common for unfranked stamps to be removed from letters and ‘recycled’.

When we were staying in Kerala, there wasn’t any Post office anywhere near where we were staying in Vizhinjam, and the only letterbox was outside a souvenir shop on Lighthouse Beach. The shop owner said we could trust the letters posted there not to be tampered with, so we gave it a go

Letter box Lighthouse Beach Vizhinjam, Kerela

Posting postcards at Lighthouse beach, Kerala

They all arrived safely, and within a few days of posting. Much faster than letters posted home from Spain or Italy, and for about 15p a stamp!

When we visited the capital of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram we found a post office which was more in the style we were expecting for a main post office. It had these wonderful postboxes outside. We decided that ‘All Places’ meant the rest of India, as opposed to Kerala or Foreign.

Red Green and Blue Post Boxes in Thiruvananthapuram

Posted in India, Photography, Travel | Tagged Colva, Goa, India, Kerala, Letter Box, Lighthouse Beach, Post Box, Postaday, Thiruvananthapuram, Vizhinjam | 22 Comments

From Sofa to Marathon – Week 2

Posted on January 2, 2013 by Barbara

I’m definitely on the mend, my cough and snuffly nose are much better so now that my Achilles tendon is also mended I really need to start jogging again, even if its really slowly to start with. I’m back out & about walking Wilson, but my nerve in my cheek still hurts when my painkillers wear off, so I have to wear a cowl or hood or high scarf even when it’s not that cold out. Also this virus comes & goes. Sometimes I feel completely better, and then I get all cold and fluey again. Its a bit horrid 😦

So progress so far:

0 miles, 0 hours training, 6/7 days of taking Wilson for dog walks 🙂 (Not very long or difficult, but at least outdoors!)

I will be including walking Wilson in my training plans, as I do tend to walk fast when I am walking him, and throwing sticks & balls is light exercise too 🙂

Food Diary progress.

I wrote a scale on the front of the diary on which to measure my level of hunger before eating anything, and it’s strange, I think I still don’t know what hungry feels like! I have stomach pains, but I rarely associate them with hunger and am unsure whether they mean I have eaten too much or am hungry. The only way I can tell is by checking what I have eaten recently! This is why I forget top eat until afternoon. Firstly I’m rarely hungry in the morning, and secondly it’s only when I can associate stomach pain with hunger that I consider eating! People don’t get hunger pains first thing in the morning unless they haven’t eaten the night before!

Christmas day & Boxing day were full of evenings of me eating sweets & cakes when when my rating was 8 (full) or higher already. I guess it’s the same for most people!!

I’ve also noticed I crave fruit after eating, but I think you are supposed to eat fruit before other food. I must look that up!

Once I got ill I pretty much stopped eating, but that’s normal. Hoping to be back on track next week. Keeping up fluids 🙂

My target for next week:

Find out about when is best to eat fruit

Complete my food diary every day

Try and at least go for a jog or a brisk walk every day, minimum 1 mile or a cycle of 2 miles.

Blog my progress we very day with the tag Janathon

See you next Wednesday

Wilson on his sofa after a very hard day chasing sticks

Posted in 40, Athletics, Diet, Fibromyalgia, Getting old, Health, Janathon, Keeping Fit, Marathon, Neuralgia, Running, Wilson | Tagged 52-Week Project, Getting Fit, Janathon, Marathon, New Years Resolution, Postaweek, Sofa to Marathon, Training, Wilson | 9 Comments

All is sunny on New Years Day :-)

Posted on January 1, 2013 by Barbara

Thames at Weybridge

A beautiful sunny New Years Day in Weybridge, so Wilson got a great walk & I got to play with my camera. The river is still in flood, but the water has gone down a bit. No chance of getting a ferry just yet 🙂