This week we’ve been to Tesco, plus home deliveries from Morrison’s and Asda, tell you why in a minute. Visited a friend and things took an unexpected and I might be turning into a radical youth group leader.
It was when I visited a very long standing friend of mine, first time since the pandemic, the conversation took an unexpected turn. He took me by surprise when he told me there was no point in living. He said his life was pointless, going nowhere and wouldn’t mind if he didn’t wake up one morning.
This led to quite a long conversation. I needed to curtail my usual sunny, optimistic outlook. After all, what could be more annoying than be so down in the dumps and some cheery do-gooder sits there saying everything wrong and making things worse.
By the time I left, I was peaceful about the situation. I ought to go back before too long. Friends are important.
Stocking up
Knowing that everything is becoming more expensive, we have been stocking up. Our stock cupboard is a little room with a very tiny window. You get to the room by going up the steep stairs from the laundry and when you’re in there it is just like a hidden, secret room – absolutely ideal for stashing away some rainy day food.
To be honest, there’s a limit to the range of things we can store and we are concentrating on tinned food, cartons, long life food etc. We had had home deliveries from Asda and Morrison’s, plus we have driven to Tesco and Aldi, also our local frozen food place.
So while we may have blown our carefully crafted budget apart, we have bagged a few bargains which should soften us against some of the looming price rises. I wonder if this is some kind of ancient cave man mentality creeping into our outlook? Whatever, it is a nice feeling to know we are well-stocked.
Also with the Ukraine war becoming increasingly serious, we could be facing some serious food shortages. I remember commenting a few years ago that Brexit may destabilise the EU, not that the pro-Brexit people cared. Perhaps this is happening with Russia seeing an increasingly fragmented EU and taking its chances with the Ukraine. If that wasn’t bad enough, the worse nightmare will be for Russia to make moves on those other states which used to be part of the USSR. Sorry to be the merchant of doom, but it is just one of those unintended consequences of a selfishly motivated Brexit.
Being radical
I have found myself becoming one of the leaders in the local youth group, in the village Anglican Church. Actually we have two groups, according to the age of the highly energetic wriggly little kids.
A few times I have been asked to lead the talkie bit, where we pull the chairs into a circle and we bring an element of Christianity in. There’s nothing too heavy going, or too long winded, just about 10 to 20 minutes of easy going chit chat, with “who can tell me….?” questions which sends lots of little hands shooting up into the air.
So last time I decided to read a few verses from the Bible, just four verses, and it was enough for me to feel being radical with those kids! I don’t think they were exactly used to hearing the Bible read to them, even in the church youth group.
I also shared the little fun acronym of BIBLE = Best Instruction Before Leaving Earth. I also said the Vicar would give anyone a special prize for remembering that in a month’s time. That was news to the Vicar!
Meeting the physiotherapist
The long running saga of my injured foot continues. A few weeks ago I had a nice cardio sesh in the gym and, spontaneously I had a 20 minute run on the tread mill. That went okay with no awful after effects, beyond the usual pain in my foot. So last week I repeated the workout but ran a little faster but since then my foot has been extremely painful.
And so yesterday I met the physiotherapist at our medical centre. Lots of questions about how it feels and about my medical history. Then he had me walking up and down a corridor, in bare feet, to see how my feet looked. Next I was asked to do various stretches, to see what hurt and what didn’t. Then the latex gloves went on and he pulled, pushed, yanked and twisted my foot in every direction.
He has concluded I have a damaged tendon. The damage is not where I can feel the pain most of all. I asked what the solution was and I now have some exercises to do 3 times a day, followed by icing my foot with the usual bag of frozen peas. If this doesn’t work, I’m looking at steroid injections. Gulp.