I saw a physiotherapist this morning regarding my wounded hoof. I can leave my aircast/walking boot off any time I like. I get to try cycling. I have two exercises to do three times a day and I go back again on the 22nd. I’m going to go try cycling once I’ve finished writing this.

I took my scooter to the appointment. I was amazed at how courteous drivers were. Normally, when I’m walking or cycling drivers pretend I’m not waiting to cross and I wait. Sitting in my scooter waiting they all stopped and waved me across. I didn’t know how to feel. When I used to commute to work on my bike I crossed a busy roundabout and no one ever stopped for me. I couldn’t understand why, especially when it was raining. Another mystery.

Anyway. I had a lovely weekend with Horatio. There was much chatting, Scrabble/Cribbage/The Settlers of Catan, Alias/Castle/Alcatraz and yummy foods. I got to make Horatio coffee in his two cup cafetières, I love making it. We went into town on Saturday and I was able to find replacement buttons for Weasel’s favourite jacket. We bought a container of black and green olives with feta and then dumped all of it on a pizza. Delicious!

Weasel had an eventful weekend too, she did some very brave things and I’m so proud of her. She isn’t always so good at taking care of herself so when she does it fills me with joy. I am sorry to be vague, but it isn’t my story to tell.

Tomorrow is going to be so fun, I have a hair appointment at 11 and a hearing test at 3:30. I’m kind of hoping that cycling is super easy so I can just cycle to everything, but I’ve got plans involving wheelchairs and buses otherwise.

It seems I neglected to mention that my last appointment with my vasculitis doctor went very well. I’ve halved my dose of azathioprine with a few to stopping it next week. If all is well I’ll be reducing steroids by the end of this month too. The rituximab seems to be doing its job.

I’ve been pretty quiet for the last few weeks, life has been calm and fairly predictable. Things will pick up once I can walk without trouble again.

My reader is out of new items to read. This hasn’t happened in months! I feel strangely light and not a little lost.

I’ve watched seasons one and two of Cougar Town and knitted a hat for Mal over the last four days. The former is essentially a cross between Friends and Scrubs given the producers, writers and actors that is not a surprise. What did surprise me was that it wasn’t as misogynistic as the title suggests. Scrubs is most visible in the short introduction and the ‘moral’ of the episode voice-over at the end. It entertained me to see which Friends shows would be re-hashed [can the couple stay together even though one wants babies and the other doesn't?! can Monica Jules pull off the perfect family friends Thanksgiving meal?! Joey Bobby decides he cannot rely on Chandler Jules for financial help - you get the idea]. Despite my snark, I do like it and I’m looking forward to season three.

The hat is epic, see:

I’ve been feeling pretty crappy all week, thus the resting. On Monday at Scrabble I went out twice in a row: prisoner and peltries. My new goal is to break 500, my mentor in the club got 505 a few weeks ago.

I listened to Linkin Park earlier and now I have Crawling in my head, good times.

I have a habit of not being able to remember how to pronounce people’s names. This is illustrated every time Justin Bieber comes up in conversation, I don’t know if it is Bi-ber or Bee-ber. I ask whoever I’m with which it is and since I do not have access to any of his fans they don’t know either. Mostly we talk about how strange it is that people seem to hate him so passionately to the point of wishing him dead. It doesn’t make sense to me. Fair enough if you don’t like his music, don’t listen to it. If you can’t escape it, stop listening to the radio station or leave the shop. Otherwise, do what I do and wear headphones with MP3 player everywhere you go. Helps my social anxiety. I also use the method of wearing no hearing aids, everything is quiet then.

Anyway, I digress. Names!

I’ve started watching New Girl on Channel4 On Demand and I can’t decide if I like it or not. When I talk to people about it, I say it stars Zoe Dachshund because I cannot remember her proper surname. Plus, I totally like dachshunds.

Then I realised I do it to M Night Sha-ma-la-ma-ding-dong and Natalie Imbru-gli-oo-gli too. To be fair, it isn’t just famous people. Weasel has a sci-fi writer’s habit of making up names so her e-mail address [as far as I'm concerned] is sem-a-lem-a-ding-dong@gmail.com [minus the hyphens of course!]. We actually made that her username in L.A. Noir because we’re hilarious.

Why I’ve been missing all week: I hadn’t realised a week had passed. Additionally, on Sunday, I was getting dressed and managed to fall over [thank you broken foot!] and cause all kinds of havoc. I fell on my beautiful dressing table and whist using one of the handles to gouge my back managed to essentially shatter it [the handle, not the table, that would have been even more distressing]. All the pieces are in a little pot while I try to get my courage up to examine the remains and see if it is salvageable. My back is very angry about it too, see a picture:

In other news, I’ve finished watching Lost. I was fairly confused about which lines of plot were real so I had to ask the internet. SPOILERS ahead. Once it explained that the island totally happened and the reality that seemed to result from the atom bomb was not, things made more sense. Once I realised that Jack died and his own personal heaven had to wait for his people to die too so they could meet made sense too. Overall, I liked it. I don’t think I’ll watch it again though.

My foot is healing well, I vacuumed yesterday, the boot made it challenging. I can stand for longer periods of time and I’ve walked around the block twice. I’ve been able to stand and cook too, so I’ve made a stew and buckwheat pancakes for Shrove Tuesday. Doodle and I made wonderful pizzas yesterday; I sautéed onions, peppers, mushrooms, veggie sausages and tomatoes and covered everything with a wonderful blue goats’ cheese.

And on that note, I’ve run out of things to share so I will go.

Kate Harding wrote about Charles Murray’s book Coming Apart: The State of White America. There is a series of questions to establish how thick one’s privilege bubble is in chapter four and she shared them. I found them so interesting, read her post first please, then read my responses and please at least think of your own responses.

It is worth reminding readers that I was born and lived in the US until I was 18 and have been in the UK ever since.

1. Have you ever lived for at least a year in a city with a population greater than 1 million?
No. I grew up in a rural town of just below 50,000 people. I now live in a small city with approximately 130,000 people, the population fluctuates because we have a large student population.

2. Have you ever lived without a car for longer than a year?
Yes. I haven’t driven a car since 1997 [one too many accidents meant I couldn't afford insurance]. When I moved to the UK in 99 there just wasn’t need for one. I’m not a fan of cars so I’m grateful I don’t need one.

3. Have you ever lived for at least a year in a municipal area in which more than 10 percent of the population was not white?
Yes. My city is ‘only’ 74% white. Growing up the racial diversity didn’t exist. I literally knew five non-white people. I’m delighted that I have access to the internet, I love reading about lives that are different from mine, so that obviously includes people of different races. I’ll never truly understand, but I want to be the best ally I can be.

4. Have you ever had a close friend of a different race?
No. I hadn’t even realised this until now. If it was just friends – not close friend – then I’d be a yes. I don’t make friends easily.

5. Have you ever had a close friend who is openly atheist?
Yes and I am myself.

6. Have you ever been to a gay wedding?
Yes, my own!

7. Are any of your close friends gay couples with children?
I don’t have any close friends with children. The only children in my life come from my sister and Weasel’s extended family and they’re all straight.

8. Do you or any of your close friends have more than $50,000 in student loan debt?
Yes. Not me, but I know several friends who have had to deal with student debt.

9. To your knowledge, have you ever met a transgendered person?
Yes. Several.

10. During the last year, have you attended a free public lecture, reading, performance, or movie screening in your community?
Yes. When the libraries were threatened with closure I went to a meeting. I should probably get more involved, but I dislike going out at night.

11. Would you and, if applicable, your partner and/or children be able to attend a different free public festival every weekend between Memorial Day and Labor Day, without traveling more than fifteen miles from home?
No. If it was 100 miles I’d be golden, London is sure to have something going on.

12. Have you or, if applicable, your partner and/or children ever been to a Planned Parenthood or similar non-profit clinic for affordable contraception, preventative health care, and/or STI testing?
No. I wasn’t that sexually active when I lived in the US. In the UK I enjoy state funded health care.

13. Have there been one or more homicides in your neighborhood in the last month?
No. Worst crime we deal with locally is drugs.

14. Have you lived for at least a year in a community with a visible homeless population?
Yes.

15. Do you have a YMCA or YWCA within five miles of your home?
Yes.

16. If, as an adult, you wanted to play a sport, take a dance class, or learn or a foreign language, would you be able to in your community? Would you have more than one option?
Yes and yes. I’ve taken Japanese, yoga, sign language and pattern making at four different facilities. There are loads more available too.

17. In the past five years, have you seen homeless people fishing in your neighborhood?
No.

18. Have you ever patronized a fast food drive-thru that had a revolving window of bullet-proof glass?
No. See question 2: no car. Additionally, drive-thrus are not common in Europe, I only know of one in my city.

19. Do you live within five miles of a mosque?
I’m not sure. I think I do. I asked Google, I totally do!

20. In the last year, have there been one or more newsworthy acts of violence at your local public high school?
No, or at least none I remember/heard about. There may have been violent acts that were hushed up or deemed petty.

21. Is there a public playground within easy walking distance of your home?
Yes. It’s about 15 minutes walk. There’s another one 30 minutes walk away.

22. Can you travel a mile from your home on foot or by wheelchair or mobility scooter without running out of sidewalk?
Yes and I do all of those modes of transport regularly.

23. Can you get from your home to a public library without using a car or spending more than $3? (How about an art museum? A sporting event? A beach? A fireworks display?)
Yes. I can walk there in 20, cycle in 10, scooter in 30 minutes. Art museum might be doable. I’d have to plan carefully. No idea of sporting events, not my cup of tea. No to the beach, but yes to bodies of water and nature. Yes to fireworks display.

24. Choose one. Who was Jane Addams? Or: Have you ever bought a tamale from a man who came by your local bar at 1 a.m.?
I don’t know who Jane Addams was and I’ve never bought a tamale from anyone.

25. Does your state receive fewer tax dollars than it contributes?
No. My county is woefully underfunded from government resources.

Isn’t it amazing how much privilege can come just from living in the ‘right’ place?

Recently for bad movie and yummy pizza night, I’ve been lazy. Cooking frozen pizzas or calling Domino’s instead of making them from scratch. I didn’t feel up to making the dough, I couldn’t face all the vegetable chopping and cheese grating, I hated the idea of standing up long enough to put them together.

I decided this week though that if I waited until I felt well and up to making them I’d just never make them again. So Thursday night I made the dough [and a loaf of bread]. Friday morning I made the sauce. I didn’t get around to grating the cheese.

Doodle arrived and we started creating pizzas. He is the crust master so I leave that to him while I chop veggies. I apologised for not having the cheese ready to go and he said something that a lot of other people have said to me, but for some reason it really hit me this time: “You do more with a broken foot and illness than a lot of other people manage.” My wife, my therapist, my parents, my sister, my in-laws, everyone I know has said similar things to me.

I so fervently wish I could get my emotional side to understand this, my logical self has it down pat no problem. But that’s not that part of me currently berating me for not going for a walk today. Logically, I know that I did a large batch of dishes, I cleaned the oven and the toilet, hung the laundry and used the shake-weight. My back and arms are sore, I’m not feeling very well. And under all of that I’m getting guilt because I didn’t go for a walk with my broken foot.

I’d had a vague idea of having a go just to see how I did – a very short walk. My evil side took that and ran, I was going to go on a nice long walk and it would be awesome. There’s no middle ground here. I have Put Your Shoulder to the Wheel and ‘if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well’ in constant loops in my head. I’m exhausted.

Three things that my brain has done lately for my amusement:

1. Weasel told me she was going to a pantomime on Friday night a few weeks ago. We ended up doing a little sketch with Fergus hiding behind her and me saying he was behind her etc. A few hours passed. She walked into the lounge and asked me if she’d told me about the panto. I said yes and reminded her of our sketch. We laughed a lot. A few more hours pass and she is getting ready to go out. I ask where she’s going and she says the panto. We may have some memory problems at our house.

2. Last week when I couldn’t walk and carry water at the time Weasel was kindly refilling my glass for me. After dinner one night, I pointed to my glass and said, ‘Could you please get me some more menu?’. Word confusion for the win!

3. Last Friday Horatio and I were walking to his house [well, I was wheeling in my chair] and he mentioned that he’d discovered a few friends via Twitter who happened to live in my city. I asked him if he told them he had a sister there. Later on the phone I told my parents they now had a son.

And so to bed!