Fresh eyes, bad foot

Typical isn’t it? You have a bad day, you blog about it. You get all the negativity out and feel a bit better. Then you have a nice evening, a couple of good days and you want to blog about that to balance it all out and then Live Blog goes down!

Well, it’s back now so here goes.

Wednesday night I caught up with an old friend, the beautiful Kate, in Cheltenham. I got chance to show here the shop too and despite not being remotely into comics she loved the shop. Loved the look of it, the reality of it all. It was really great as seeing it through someone else’s eyes made me realise how much I have achieved this year.

It’s easy to take for granted the things you do to change and improve your life and that of those around you. Days blur into one, weeks become months and what was once a source of great pride can become commonplace and everyday.

Suffice to say, my batteries got a massive recharge, so huge thanks to Kate, currently mid-air between the UK and the US as I write this. She’s embarking on a three week holiday of a lifetime. Good luck matey - have a superb time!

Mind you, Kate was not the sole provider of love and support that week. The other wonderful thing to happen this year is I’ve met a great group of friends down here in Cheltenham, who always rally round when I’m low.

The friends in Swindon have all drifted apart and whilst I love ‘em to bits - real life, social politics and the boring business of growing up have slowed them down. The true friends form Swindon still make an effort, and I with them, but frankly I don’t miss the town anything like as much as I thought I would! So that’s another feather in the cap of the previously maligned 2008. Thanks guys!

I’m also loving the BSG game. I am concerned athat I will overplay it, but so far the game retains variety and the sheer tension that made the first play so captivating. Game of the year? Good well be.

The shitty part of the rest of last week was the accident or whatever with my foot. Perhaps it’s gout - in layman’s terms, the crystallisation of acidic chemicals that would otherwise be flushed out in your urine.

Instead these build up on joints and form needle like crystals that jab into the nerves and tissue causing swelling and intense pain. Stereotypically it affects the obese, though it is linked more to the acidity of your diet than your actual weight.

In the same way that the body can only excise so much alcohol, it can also only process so much uric acid. This is found in foods ranging from almost all meat, to vegetables like asparagus, mushrooms and cauliflower, to pulses like lentils and split peas.

So it could be that, but it is the top of foot that I’ve hurt - along the tendon that runs from the big toe back to the ankle. The most likely explanation is I put it between the metal bars of my bed frame in the night then turned over. I always was a violent sleeper, as a kid I used to sleep in a single bed next to a wall and was forever trying to bash my brains out!

Strange thing is, I did dream that someone was breaking my foot that night, which many have told me was my body reacting to the external stimuli.

Either way, it’s been swollen like a melon and really hard to walk on. I’ve been gobbling down Ibuprofen and being thankful that I don’t take painkillers for smaller headaches and pains. Plus I found a copraxamol left in my medicine bag and necked that on day two. Though it was stupidly on an empty stomach so I nearly threw up ten minutes later at the bus stop! Ooops.

It seems to be getting better now, so I’m going to attempt to do my final 50 lengths tonight. Final 50 of the swim challenge that is. 1064 lengths or 22 miles in less than 12 weeks. I’ll have raised £100 for the spinal injury charity, Aspire. It’s not too late to sponsor me, head to the link here - http://www.justgiving.com/benfardon

I’ll shall probably blog again later, as I want to talk about the proposed 15% VAT rate. But I’d best do some work first!