Today - it's been fairly mobile.  It does not feel strong, but it's the first day I have been able to walk almost normally.  I can even get up stairs w/o having to do them one at a time.

It felt good when I woke up.  Ah - been lying down all night that's probably why.

During the day it's been getting more aggressively uncomfortable.  When I got back to my hotel room - I discovered why.  It's swollen even more and most of it is black.  OTOH today there seems to have been more movement in the ankle even if the foot has a strange colour.

Back in my hotel room at the moment I am sitting with it on a chair (caused a riot in the bar/restaurant earlier).  It's less uncomfortable that way.

Last Sunday at the Dave Kinder Cup match I suffered a turned ankle. I jumped for a block. On returning to ground I discovered that, instead of the usual flat floor of a sport centre, I landed on the foot of one of my teammates. An instant turn of the ankle was far too painful to stay on court. I couldn’t stand on it.

 

Luckily I could drive home and on to the GWH. There the X-Ray was clear. I can just about walk – so long as I don’t try to go far. I still have not really worked out a good way of negotiating stairs. It’s not too painful so long as I do not try to move it outside the (limited) range of movement it can cope with.

 

Sadly this week is a training course, and I will need to be walking all round the classroom for the week. At the moment I cannot imagine playing next weekend, maybe the week after.

 

In some ways I had been disappointed at the lack of pretty colours on my foot. Premature I think. I’m now seeing a whole collection of magic colours beginning to come... Read More »

I went to Whitechapel again to train with the London Lynx crowd.  As always they were very friendly.  A great session which I thoroughly enjoyed.  It's very kind of them to put up with me when I only show up about half a dozen times per year.

As we did one of the drills it did make me think that only a couple of years ago I couldn't get enough plays together to contribute very effectively to *any* kind of drill, today I felt quietly pleased that I could produce a reasonably reliable dig and get a soft smash vaguely near enough that the player could actually play it.

Most of this progress is down to a load of patience from the coaches at Wootton Bassett plus a couple of comments from other players that somehow came at the exact time when I was able to take them on board and use them to change the way I play.  Mike, the other week, was on at me to "stay low" in back court.  For some reason - that week I was receptive and it's transformed the number of balls I can get to in back court.  Thanks Mike.

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We started again last night - Whoo-hoo!

An interesting session.  The Sports Centre replaced the Volleyball equipment over the summer - very nice of them.  The new posts are lovely.  Just one problem, the net is not really competition grade and the head cord is too short to reach between the posts!  Duh!  I had nagged the centre manager a few times over the summer about us coming along, getting it all set up, and maybe knocking a few balls over it.  This was partly so we would know what to do with the new kit and partly about making sure it all worked together.

Lindsay - the duty manager - was wonderful.  She did everything she could to help us out.  With the aid of some extension cord and a few bits of string we were able to get something workable for a training session.

Sixteen people showed up.  Three people new to the club - (It was great to meet you.  I hope you had a great time and you'll stay around).  WE had a few apologies as well so we know there are more in the wings.

There... Read More »

Down to Coate water.  It's 6:45 and there's only three of us there - Irwin, Dani, Me.  It's the first time I have managed to get to play on sand this year and I really want to play!  I'm worried it might not happen!  We put up the net, begin to knock a ball about, and gradually folks arrive.  We end up enough to play seven on six!  Great evening.

We met two new ladies who were intrigued enough to come and play with us.  They abandoned their plan to go a pilates class. 

So Laurence (France), and Celia (Norway), we enjoyed having your company.  If you had a good time do come along and enjoy Volleyball again.  We play on grass over at Lydiard Park on Wednesdays so there's another chance to join in and have even more fun.

Finally to the pub with Jodie and Dani to talk about weird interview questions (!?! - Eg - How many hairdressers are there in Cologne?) and fail to answer any (OK Jodes - you got some) questions in the pub quiz.

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I tried leaving the strapping off my finger today.  It’s so odd to be able to type again!  Sufficiently odd that I cannot really do it properly! 

It's still about half as wide again as it should be.  It is completely painless unless abused in some way.  It won't straighten, and it won't bend much.  But left alone it is fine.  Just what you want in a finger!

The A team had a major match (semi-final of the KO Cup) on Sunday.  (News click here and pictures click here.)  

We (B-team) turned up to officiate.  The lads did well and won 3 sets to 1 so there was a bit of spare time and an impromptu game got started.  I could not resist.  I went on to play back court only - I refused to hit - that would have been really stupid, but I thought that careful digging should be pretty safe; and if I was really cautious to keep my little finger out of the picture then overhead passing should be OK too.

The finger didn't complain and I had a good time.

Brilliant - LOVE IT. , ,... Read More »

You arrive early and wait for an hour and a half.  During that time the posted wait to see your consultant moves from 20mins to 1hr20m!

Conversation:

"Can you move it?" "Yes." "It's healing up nicely then.  Keep the strapping on for three weeks."  "When can I play Volleyball?" (Makes spluttering noise.)

I guess that means about six weeks then.

I mishandled a ball last Sunday (It was a great serve Phil) and ended up with my little finger not looking too good.  There were no crunching sounds and I reckoned it was just a bruise.

Well - it's been swelling and hurting increasingly all week.  Tonight I went to A&E - I should have accepted Bart's offer to take me up there last Sunday.  It's broken.  Fracture clinic on Monday but "Broken bones take six weeks". 

Serious .

If you have to go to A&E then picking 8:50pm on Friday seems a good choice.  I was in and out in 40minutes.  One of the nurses said it was because "Everyone is away on Easter holidays".  I assumed it was just because the pubs hadn't turned out yet.