Grocery Store Wars | Join the Organic Rebellion is yet again another Star Wars homage/takeoff – but this is the one we really needed!
Worth it just to hear Obi Wan Cannoli say, “Reach out with your peelings, Cuke!”
November 23, 2005
November 16, 2005
Progress is slow
Physio was great last Monday. Very helpful, found the exercises have begun to loosen the knee up as it has been feeling like it has rubber bands wrapped around it.
However, it now is uncomfortable or painful far more than it was when it would hardly bend. I guess this shows it’s improving.
The exercises are quite uncomfortable. They involve stretching everything that is currently helaing to ensure it doesn’t scar. Boy, is it uncomfortable.
Added to which, we had a crazy weekend trying to clear the kitchen & bathroom for the builders to completely renovate. I tried to rest up a bit, but when huge amounts of stuff need shifting & a two-year-old needs entertaining, it’s hard to take it easy.
November 10, 2005
Physiotherapy
According to the physio I saw today, I’ve only had soft tissue damage, nothing else, not the meniscus at all. Bizarre.
Either way, the guy has given me an exercise to do. Sit on the floor, back upright. Bend my (good) left leg up & hold the knee. Straighten the right gently and turn it inwards until it begins to hurt, hold it there for a second or two, and then let go. Repeat a few times; do the whole thing three times a day. It already feels better actually. At last!
Meanwhile, back for more indepth physio on Monday. Can’t fault the NHS on this one, I’m really getting some attention that’s beginning to work.
Kate Bush, Aerial
There are few albums to which I would give a full 10/10. One of them would be the criminally underrated Spirit of Eden by Talk Talk. There are similarities with Aerial. Commercially successful artist gains total control over their work, taking as long as they need to with nary a thought for the record company’s blessed “bottom line”. The album is released, bearing no relation whatsoever to anything troubling the charts, to immense critical acclaim. The music therein straggles the avantgarde and the pop worlds, and fails to find a mass audience.
Well, I can only hope I’m wrong about the last bit. This deserves massive sales, as the public recognise a truly great artist making music to move and inspire. Even the song to her son moved me deeply – let’s face it, has any artist’s paean to their child ever really achieved that? And Lennon’s Beautiful Boy is not an exception. As mawkish as Macca could ever be. If Bush can carry off that self-indulgence, she can carry off anything.
And does. She sings pi to several decimal places, giving a whole new meaning to “she could sing the telephone book”. It feels curiously cyclical, changing but staying the same too. Mrs Bartolozzi is a woman watching the washing go round in the machine and imagining her absent husband – at work? has he left? is he dead? did she kill him? How To Be Invisible would appear to be her life’s aim, but the lyrics make it sound impossible and ultimately undesirable.
The first disc, A Sea Of Honey, is discrete songs, but A Sky Of Honey is a suite I guess, exploring summer from midafternoon to dawn the next day. No wonder she has called this album “Irish Wolf-Hounds of Love”, as her 1983 album took a similar approach over two vinyl sides. One wonders if there is a novelist or film-maker struggling to get out of her, as she seems to excel at telling stories, albeit wonderfully obtuse ones.
I have a prejudice (one which I also share with my missus) against female voices. Generally I’m not keen on them. Exceptions include Sandy Denny, Linda Thompson and KB. Possibly because they often operate in lower registers than most women? The shrieking banshee stereotype of KB went a long time ago, and is not in evidence on Aerial at all. Her voice is a rich and beguiling instrument I could listen to over and over.
I’m not a great repeat listener to albums, tending to flit from one to another. I’ve listened to Aerial six times in the last few days, and still haven’t fully grasped it all.
Her sheer joy about life oozes from every note, helping me appreciate how great God’s creation is all over again. I see places I have visited when I listen to A Sky of Honey, she is so evocative of a summer’s evening.
Album of the decade? Time will tell, but it sure feels like it now.
November 6, 2005
The knee…
I spent a large chunk of Thursday morning in casualty waiting to go to the Fracture Clinic. I think it was fairly evident I didn’t have a fracture: nevertheless I was X-rayed and checked out by a doctor.
His diagnosis was what everyone has said right from the beginning. I have torn my meniscus, probably not seriously enough to need an op, but I’m booked to see a physio and have a follow-up appointment on 29th December, of all times!
It’s continuing to hurt but I’ve stopped taking the ibuprofen for a while, as I was beginning to wonder whether it was causing me to become fuzzy-headed. One of the many side-effects is “dizziness, tiredness, or lightheadedness” and I was beginning to feel like that…again. When I had labyrinthitis some years ago, I was prescribed Stemetil, to stop me feeling sick, which I later discovered was also an antipsychotic! Feeling like a zombie was worse than feeling dizzy, and I stopped taking them.
I’m praying the knee gets better soon, but I suspect the main thing I need to do is rest it. Not easy, with a two-year-old around!