Can you believe it! The first quarter of 2024 is over. As you know, I’m not a big fan of the winter months and always look forward to the spring equinox. Well, we’ve done it; hibernation is over! Today is Easter Day and the start of the European daylight saving time.
My day started with a slight hangover and a later-than-usual walk with the dog ( I blame the clocks changing). Nevertheless, Atlas and I had some “Quality time” together, enjoying the mild temperatures and budding trees.
Before brunch, I ventured out again for a 5K run. It was warm enough for shorts and a T-shirt, and I managed to keep in heart rate zone 2 for most of the run.
The treadmill hours in the gym are paying off: on March 20th, I managed my first 10-kilometer run outdoors.
It’s such a nice feeling to start the season in good shape rather than losing it over winter and building it from scratch each year.
At home, Gogi prepared a tasty brunch: eggs, bacon and asparagus with hollandaise sauce. Low carb, high protein.
Well, here’s to a Happy Easter. Even without chocolate bunnies.
It’s Saturday evening, I am sitting in the pub “Living Room”, in the back room, in a corner. Atlas under the chair, laptop on the table, and beer within reach.
This sounds like a very ordinary evening: In the pub with dog & beer. But beware! This is no longer the ordinary but the extraordinary! Yes, you read that right.
I decided to do DRY JANUARY. To go through the first month of the year without beer? Well, alcohol-free beer is allowed.
I am very proud. In a similar spirit, at the end of December, I impulsively decided to buy a monthly pass for “Fitness Tivoli”.
THE GYM!
After Kingston University, for the second time in my life, joined a gym. I ended up doing sport in the gym every day. Even weekends – instead of the pub, it was off to the gym.
It’s a great feeling to achieve a goal – especially when the effort spans a longer period. In my frenzy, I wanted to keep the momentum going and I renewed my membership for February. I suppose, once the ice is broken, it’s easier. The plan is to get my running legs ready for April when outdoor running is back on the menu.
On a different note: I am glad that January is over. Though February is not much better; still a dark and cold month, associated with memories of dad (it was the month of his birthday and day of passing) However, I enjoy the light dusky sky when looking out the window at seven o’clock while cooking my first coffee. The anticipation of spring is getting stronger, just like the birdsong in the mornings. Even though the north-facing fields of Tivoli park are sill covered in snow, I (and Atlas) can feel the sun’s reclaimed strength.
Encouraging news from a friend who is reporting the first sight of a snowdrop. – Der Frühling will kommen…
Here’s to 2024. And the resolution to post at least once a month.
The year of 2023 was an odd one – I wonder if 2023 is a prime number? It definitely felt like a prime number; incredibly out of kilter. With unpredictable events and a flow that was hiccupy and irregular.
– WRONG –
I just found out that 2023 is divisible by 7 and 17. The next year being a prime number will be 2027. { How could I forget the series of 17 ? 🤓 }
Anyway, thinking ahead – 2024 sounds a much more friendly number. An olympic kind of number.
Come midnight on the 31st, I shall raise a glass of Champagne welcoming the New Year, toasting to the Pirates of Penzance.
Reflecting on this year – having neglected this blog far too long – it’s been quite the journey. I’ve discovered innovative approaches to boost my productivity by automating the tedious administrative tasks that used to bog me down. And, I have restarted to run regularly, managing to run 5K without having to walk.
On a personal note, fitness has been a bit of a rollercoaster. The year began with the all-too-familiar challenge of gaining weight. However, I took charge in June, committing to running regularly. By August I was able to run 8K – without stopping – HELLO!!! August was also the month where my vestibular organ (I think on the left side) ceased to work.
It was the 16th of August at about 11 pm, I was working on my desktop, doing admin. It was a beerless night, just coffee and a bitter lemon. All of a sudden, my head felt disturbed. I stood up and the whole room was spinning around me. It all happened from one second to the other. I experienced no pain and, upon doing a thorough neurological self-examination: there was no neurological deficits. Shit-scared I lied down as this was the only way to stop the room spinning. I checked my ECG on my Apple Watch: Sinus rhythm. No signs of ST elevation (I know it’s only one lead… but still). I called Gogi who was next room on the PlayStation to bing me the blood pressure machine: BP was high – very high. At this stage I could exclude a cardiovascular shock. But what was it? A stroke? A brain tumour?
Even minimal head movement triggered severe rotational vertigo, making the walk to the bathroom extremely challenging, almost unfeasible. Once seated on the bog, nausea ensued, rapidly escalating to several episodes of vomiting. Back in my bed I spent a night next to the bucket. Waking up in the morning, the nightmare continued, I was sick again. The only way to calm it down was complete stillness of my head. Fortunately, over the next day, the nausea and vomiting stopped. And after 3 days I managed to walk without nausea. After a thorough neurological exam to myself, I concluded that everything apart from the head movement/balance was fine. I asked Gogi to check if I had a nystagmus… (He thought the fast eye movement was going to the right). Ok… the left vestibular organ.
I improved initially, or I thought that I improved. Obviously, I didn’t move my head in a normal fashion and I walked slowly. After two weeks I thought that this pesky problem is on the way out. Wrong!!! I started to get episodes of lightheadedness when walking at a normal pace. It is the most strange feeling as if I lost contact with the ground and going through all my inner organs, the feeling of impending doom.
I had good days and bad days. Trying to find anything that would exacerbate or alleviate it. Coffee? Alcohol? A hang over? Tiredness? Nothing seemed to be linked to these floaty episodes. Perhaps it got a bit better with alcohol. Over the weeks, I started to get more anxious. My neck was often stiff and my head did not feel right. My initial worry about a space occupying lesion came back. High levels of anxiety now accompanied my daily vertigo when walking Atlas.
I was able to do a self-referral for a CT head. I needed to know what was going on in my brain. The good news, it came back as normal. This took away the anxiety. Even though I still experience vertigo on fast head movements and episodes of light-headedness, it feels less threatening. I have stated to do vestibular rehab and accepted to be patient for my brain to get reprogrammed.
I have always associated the number 22 with my grandmother, because she was born 1922. Just as I did number 11 with granddad. Or the number 44 which was their wedding year. If I told you that grandma had 11 children, you probably think I’m making things up.
On the 28th October grandmother would have celebrated her 100th birthday.
Still miss her.
In Ljubljana – the dark season is upon us. Two more months and 22 is over.
Ooh la la. I travelled. After 5 years. I returned to London. Back to my old home, the witty island. The big smoke.
— England my poor England. What have they done to you? —
“Tooting, you still look tatty, glad you kept the charm. Old Neighbours have not forgotten how to queue. But Londoners, you look tired! Maybe exhausted keeping up with the Jones’?”
Britannia acts like a battered lioness! – pretending power, hiding behind inflation. Why licking the wounds in the dark?
Are you ok, Soho dancer? Why rub your eyes mid morning? Are dusty assholes sill sat in Westminster?”
Voilà. A warm welcome, nevertheless. Lovely to see old friends; South London’s glow. Funny tough, I missed my dog, the cool forest path. Atlas, skipping on the green grass.
Home now is different. Home was, yet never is – a Nomade in time and space. Where will home be?
Ollie T 