21/04/2024 - '2 bins and a rock' by David

I didn't leave the house for 5 days this week! I still didn't feel right after feeling ill last week so from Monday to Friday I stayed home and relaxed.

I wasn't bored though. I drunk lots of coffee, played a lot of records, did a lot of writing on a little project I'm working on, and sorted through my library of books. I have a big pile of annuals that I have collected over the years that Alice doesn't want so I've put them all on Vinted to see if there is any interest in them. We all used to love an annual at Christmas and my collection includes The Pink Panther, The Magic Roundabout, Popeye, Whizzer & Chips  Blue Peter, Top Of The Pops, Hotspur, Tiger, and lots of Roy Of The Rovers.

I have another pile by my bed of all the books I want to read before my fingers can't turn the pages. It's a mixture of novels and non-fiction, and again Roy Race features heavily.

I even managed to sit outside a couple of times in the sunshine, although there is still a cool breeze in the southern England air.

I have some codeine tablets that I picked up when I was referred to the pain clinic in the days when I thought the leg aches and cramps were just long covid, and anytime I feel bad enough I get them out. The reason that they only come out if they are needed is that they are strong and give me crazy dreams. I only take one tablet after once taking two and I felt like I was high on drugs. My dreams this week included one where I was putting out a bin bag that was leaking with dark, pungent liquid and as I carried it downstairs, Alice had laid out all the clean washing on the stairs and all the shirts and sheets got dark lines all down them as I tried to tiptoe between them. Another was my daughter Anna, who has never sat behind the wheel of a car, driving me around in an old mini, and she was so confident and nonchalant that she was reversing at speed along the road, just talking matter of fact, without a care in the world. She touched bumpers with another car, and the dream concluded with me waking up as two men were chasing us on foot, up the road. The best dream I had though was my dad playing with my daughters when they were young, and I could see their faces just as they used to be, all chuckling away - it was really lovely. 

You may remember that I'm on the MND Smart research trial and that I thought that I was on the placebo arm of the trial, well in the last few weeks I am beginning to wonder if I am actually on the drug, Amantadine. I'm still not feeling any of the side effects associated with the drug, but I don't feel that the weakness in my hands has progressed very much, if at all recently, which is obviously great news.

Of course, this might be the placebo effect, which as a researcher, I know is a real thing, or maybe my symptoms have just plateaued, but either way, it feels like a ray of hope, and I'm clinging on to it like a sloth to a tree!

Our parkrun of choice this week was a meet-up at Lee-on-the-solent for their 400th event. It's a lovely out and back, along the sea-front and Alice and our friend Andy took turns pushing me in The Bakermobile.

Because there were runners in both directions, space was tight and Alice is still getting used to knowing how much room we need for the wheels and we actually hit two litter bins! Luckily they move so it wasn't too much of a shock for me, unfortunately the big rock that Andy hit, didn't move, and it shook my bones! Unless their driving improves soon, I might have to start using the clips to secure myself in! There was also a short patch of shingle beach that was just too hard to push me through, so I actually got out and walked that section. What people must have thought as they saw a man in a wheelchair, getting out and walking, I don't know! Even worse was when Alice sat in it for our group photo, with me standing behind her!

When I got home, I took delivery of a custom made headrest for my running buggy (which I could have done with while being steered into bins and rocks earlier at parkrun!) This was an expensive item which I will really need when my neck becomes weaker and it was paid for by yet another kind benefactor. I am very grateful people are so kind and would like to help me. 

There was a reason we chose Lee-on-the-solent and it was to tick another item off my bucket list - The Hovercraft Museum!

I have always been fascinated by Hovercraft (or Hoovercraft as I like to call them) and I even enticed a few vegan runners to join us after parkrun to have a look round with us.

Hovercraft were manufactured for many years on the Isle of Wight and are still used as a passenger craft to get to and from the mainland, and as I grew up on the island, we regularly used them. A Hovercraft is such a crazy idea - a vessel that floats on top of the water on a skirt of air, propelled by big fans - what a crazy but brilliant idea! The museum was much bigger than I expected, very interesting, and I really enjoyed it. We were given a guided tour and got to go inside lots of different types, including the SR.N6 the one I used to watch from the shore that ran between Cowes and Southampton in the 70’s, the one made for the James Bond film Die Another Day, and the massive SR.N4 that carried 60 cars and over 400 passengers across the English channel to France. As usual, we got some comedy photos. 

I was still feeling under the weather when we got home so took to my bed again but my week finished with a lovely afternoon when my younger daughter Anna, came down from London to see us and the new house. I haven't seen her since my older daughter Rachel's wedding three weeks ago so it was lovely to see her.

We went for a walk around the area and Anna got to push me in my buggy for the first time.

As I mentioned earlier she doesn't drive so I was understably nervous, but she did just fine. After showing her the house and lunch we caught the bus into Southampton town centre for coffee a wander around the shops before she got her train home. It was lovely to see her and Alice and I are planning to pop up and visit her in the capital in May.

It was the London marathon today and although I was never lucky enough to win a place in the ballot and run this historic race, Alice was, and did in 2019. I followed her around via the underground and she was looking good at all three points on the course that I saw her at. Although envious I never got in to London despite trying the ballot 8 times, I was lucky enough to get into another marathon major via the ballot system on my first attempt and completed the Berlin marathon in the same year. The medal hangs proudly with all our other running medals in our new house. 

Alice and I watched the marathon on the TV this morning looking for two friends of ours, Jenny and Laura, who both regularly attend our Hampshire vegan runner meet-ups. We woke up to a message to say Laura would be wearing a pair of Baker socks on the course, which was a lovely thing and the go-faster stripey socks earned Laura an impressive finish time of 3:13:00.

Jenny also smashed a time of 3:27:27!  Fantastic results for both ladies.  Darren, our South East regional rep for vegan runners, also ran the marathon in Baker socks today 💚🖤

We enjoyed watching the comedian Rosie Jones being pushed round the course by Ivo Graham in the same buggy we have. Alice immediately spotted their Delichon Delta but they have racing tyres rather than the all-terrain tyres we have. There were lots of assisted runners taking part today and we are pleased to see more and more events being inclusive for people with disabilities. Ivo and Rosie finished the marathon in 3:36:22 which is extremely fast - we will do parkruns and 10ks and we might even do a half together but Alice says no to pushing me for a full marathon!

Alice and I were also mentioned in the local MNDA monthly newsletter, which talked about both our fundraising and this blog accompanied by a nice photo.

The blog has now had over 25,000 views and we will continue to write and update it for as long as we are able to. 

So with that being said, same time next week?