Kitty and I are at Emily's tonight (and maybe until further notice) after the hot water heater in my unit decided to leak water through half the unit.

Thankfully none of my stuff got wet, but I'd reckon the carpets are ruined - basically the water got under the carpet and as we walked on it the water was drawn to the surface. There was actually a funny few minutes while I stood there looking at it going "wtf?" cos I couldn't work out what was going on. The kitchen floor was too dry for so much water to have come from that direction, so I couldn't think of any way it could have got wet... then it dawned on me what was on the other side of that wall. (I only really thought of it because I remembered the episode of the Sopranos where Tony's basement floods after the water heater dies)

Good thing a safety switch was installed only a few weeks ago, otherwise all that water might have been live - the switch had tripped and refused to be switched back on so something was definitely waterlogged.

I'm not sure how long it will take them to repair the damage, so we might be here for a few days yet.

:(

Today marks the six month anniversary of my initial injury. It seems to have gone by so fast, yet so slow. 

Labels: achilles

I bought a jar of Patak's vindaloo paste (hot) a few months back that I've put off cooking while Em was here because she's not trained up on hot foods (yet!)

Tonight I was struggling a little finding something to cook that appealed to me. My eyes settled on the jar and I figured tonight was the night. :)

I had a brief moment of wondering what I was getting myself into when I opened the jar and almost couldn't breathe. I figured it's concentrated stuff, so that's probably to be expected.

After simmering for 45 mins or so the rice was done so I served it out and had the first mouthful...

ZOMG HOT!!!

I think my nose started running that second. I realised right then and there that my curry skills were about to be put to the ultimate test. Not only was I faced with the bowl full in front of me, but a quarter of a jar serves 2 people, and I'd cooked up half a jar's worth! So I have at least 3 more generous servings ahead of me, not including tonight's.

Normally when I cook for myself, I put the leftovers in a couple of containers, and finish it off in the next few days. For instance, last week I cooked a green curry chicken (another of my hot favourites!) and had it for dinner and lunch for the next 2 days straight. Yes, I like green curry chicken that much :D

This, however....

I'm a little scared to have too much of this in too short a time span for fear of what it might do to my digestive system. :/

I guess the good part of this is that the leftovers should last for a while - I can't see anything surviving in that! :)

Labels: cooking

I'm a huge fan of icanhascheezburger.com and have always been tempted to share some of my favourites here, but sadly I enjoy too many of them for that to be possible.

I'm making an exception for this one, though, because I still get such a good laugh out of it! :D

Could I really be free of the boot? Finally? For reals?!

I did a lot of walking without the boot around the house and at work last week, but still wore the boot at all other times. Saturday I ventured out boot-free, though I took it with me in case the leg got tired, or the worst happened. I even had a short drive of my car! 20 weeks to the day since I last drove it. So good to get behind the wheel again :D

The leg went well on the weekend, so I made the decision on Monday to not only go to work without the boot, but to catch public transport. That went as well as I could hope, so I've been completely boot-free since then.

The calf definitely seems bigger. I've been getting Em to take photos every few days, but the photos don't really seem to show the difference that well. The tendon feels really good. The location of the second tear feels good. It's even hard to feel where that tear happened - it was a noticeable lump before, but now it doesn't feel much different to the other leg.

The biggest concern I had initially was actually with my knee, which took a little bit of coaxing before it was happy doing all this work. It's since improved and is bothering me less and less. I just need to get out of the habit of sitting on my foot while at the computer. Since coming out of the boot the old habit has kicked back in and I'm sitting on my foot. Yes, the bad foot. The foot doesn't mind, but the knee has a fair bit to say about it when I stand up. Thankfully I don't seem to do it at work, so I only have to watch myself at home.

I still have over a month left before the 6 months is up since the first injury, so the tendon still has a little bit of healing left. Then it will be another 3 months from that date until the muscle tear is fully healed. So I still can't do anything too active just yet, which sucks because I weighed myself recently and I'm heavier now than I've ever been. :(

I am getting on the exercise bike now and then for some low-impact exercise on the leg, but it's also for the rest of me. I'm hoping in maybe a month I can get back on the treadmill and do some walking, maybe getting on my real bike around then too. Another month after that I might hopefully be able to get back to running again and start over again on trying to get fit.

But no more netball!

Labels: achilles

My time in the boot looks like it's almost up. The leg is feeling really good. I'm getting around in the boot really well. I'm even going without the boot around the unit a bit (and making sure the cat is nowhere near me!)

But I have one final hurdle to overcome before I really come out of the boot for good. That's this:


The right leg is about half the size of the left. Granted the left is larger than normal at the moment from having such a workout the last 4 months, but the right is still not strong enough to really support my weight.

Flexibility-wise it's better than it's been since the start of all this. But strength-wise it's not as strong as it was last time I was out of the boot. Part of me feels that's what caused the second injury - the calf had to suddenly do a LOT of work and it just wasn't up to it. So my goal in the last week or so left in the boot is to build more strength in the calf. I think in the last 2-3 days of going just a little bit of time out of the boot it's already bigger and stronger than it was. Hopefully another 5 or 6 days makes a difference.

Labels: achilles

To keep me inspired to continue blogging once the foot ceases to give me something to talk about I'm going to start posting stuff I find on the net I feel needs to be seen. This will likely be predominantly youtube videos. :)

Here's a few to start off with.

Hawaii Chair Infomercial:

I have NO idea how that would help you lose weight, nor any idea how you could work at a desk with that thing jiggling you every direction!

Take On Me... with a twist:

This guy plays A-HA's Take On Me with hand-created flatulence. Pure gold!

THX Dramatic Look

This is like that prairie dog dramatic look thing, but completely different. O.O

Powerthirst

This is good for hours and hours of enjoyment. FOUR HUNDRED BABIES!

and of course...
Powerthirst 2: Re-Domination

What if everything you ever wanted.... came... in .... a... ROCKET CAN!

Labels: funny, videos