Telstales

Tag: health

  • It comes in threes…

    So following on from my bashed eye and buying protective goggles ‘after the event’, I felt confident to continue my gardening business in the complete knowledge that I’m now super protected from damage by herbage.

    So, on Monday, it was a simple task, once again clearing Brambles ( this time from another customer’s garden)…. And, yes I had my goggles and gloves on ( oh, and work clothing too, that would have looked a bit silly without!)

    A simple task, flat ground, cutting away brambles growth arching over sprouting Daffodil, Bluebell and Snowdrops plants, taking care not to cut through those flowering Springtime jewels. Simple action, cutting in a short sweeping motion, side to side, left the right and repeat.

    Then from no where, this acute and intense pain across the whole of my lower back. “Ouch”, I said, or something similar. “Flipping heck”, I also exclaimed as this pain stopped me again in my tracks.

    What on earth have I done this time, I wondered? Well, not being able to stand in an upright position, feeling intense pain if I dared to twist sideways, I somehow managed to pack up, scuttle like a crab sideways to my van and load it and eventually sit into the driver’s seat and get home.

    It’s Friday now and the achy pain is subsiding but standing up from a sit down position on the settee leaves me bent over until I can straighten my back.

    Grief, I’m only 66 with no previous medical issues like this I’m having, and although the acute pain is slowly going it’s leaving residual aching for me to cope with.

    Anyways, I ‘will’ be out gardening again from Monday, albeit, taking it easy until my back says to me “ok now!”

    The problem is I was always told about things cloming in threes…..well, two down, one to go!

    now for a cup-of-T

  • Ouchy….

    Well today’s gardening for two customers included getting whipped across the eye by a bent over stem which decided to wizz onto my left eye as it passed by and in my anguish turning to one side, banged my head on a low branch next me only for me to reel in the opposite direction for my head to connect directly with another ‘low’ branch!

    The words “ouch”.. or similar rang out repeatedly.

    My eye is sore this evening and I have a lumpy head!

    So, today’s score is Garden 3…Tel 0

    Time for a cup-of-T

  • Sunshine

    Well, after such gloomy grey skies through January, yesterday was brilliant clear blue skies and bright (too bright) sunshine all day.

    And when working in folk’s gardens, gardening, made me feel so much better and much more positive.

    Everything and everywhere was lit up brightly with contrasting dark shaded areas throughout the day.

    For my wellbeing, it was a win-win!

    “Stay away gloomy grey sky days…just need brighter and sunnier times!”

  • 2pm snooze..my body chose it

    There’s nothing really wrong in just snoozing for fifteen minutes in the afternoon is there?

    I mean, tomorrow I’m going out to play working in folk’s gardens so I’m entitled to charge up my batteries before hand!…

    Well, that’s my excuse anyways.

    Now for some biscuits and cups of T!

  • The scales lie…you can’t blame Christmas… Christmas says it’s New Year’s fault!

    Every Friday evening I weigh myself just to keep a check on my weight.

    Every Christmas it increases …I get that.

    Last Friday I had put on a couple of pounds in weight over Christmas week..that’s ok..can accept that.

    Sneakily though without me realising it….New Year decided it would lump a load of weight onto me…why New Year?… Why did you do that to me?

    Ok….so here comes two months of hard work to make it all melt away!

    Halt the biscuits..drink more ‘cups of T’

  • What?…. The flu jab doesn’t work?….

    So each year I trundle off to my GP to get my annual flu jab, and each year I usually get a mild dose of flu soon after receiving the jab. I can cope with that.

    Well, this time round from November 2024 January 2025, I haven’t had any effects from my flu jabs whatsoever…. Until…now!

    I’ve caught it..flu….Not making it up…totally zonked out with aching joints, crazy temperature fluctuations like overheating one minute, freezing cold and shivering the next ( adding clothes then taking them off almost just as fast), coughing, tickly cough, sore throat, headaches, and runny nose pipes….I mean…I thought that having a flu jab was really to prevent such a concentrated dose getting to me….

    So next year, need to think again.. What’s the point, and reading up on flu jabs, lots of articles say they don’t work, or more accurately, they don’t protect against every strain of flu doing the rounds. Now I thought flu was flu and I guess you can’t get protected against every type of flu going, but me, just as usual… presumed wrongly, that having my flu jab would provide total cover from me catching it and being like I am currently.

    Now where’s the biscuits and cups of T!

  • Stress isn’t a me thing anymore?

    Times have changed over the years. I had a stressful Local Authority job for 37 years and as the years went on and the ladder rungs I climbed, I realised how stressful it was all becoming.

    So, at the age of 55, ‘fortunately’ (in hind sight, not at the time) through the Conservative Government’s ‘helpful’ (not) tightening on public funding and the squeezing of budgets, I was made redundant.

    A blessing in disguise. Tried for more ‘stressful’ jobs at other employs but after some time and again the stressful interviews attended without success, I gave up applying for employed jobs and eventually established my own gardening business. (More on that later in further articles)

    But the main point is that all my stresses eventually fell away following my redundancy, and it showed me just what the effect of such a job can have.

    So I have for nine years been self employed and loving everyday of it.

    However, I am really concious of being in situations which are more stressful to me. Perhaps as my life has changed to a more stress-less lifestyle, when more stressful events occur then my stress levels skyrocket and I really feel anxious and agitated to be in these situations.

    Take a visit to a local supermarket on evening of 23rd December 2024….a visit to collect prepacked Christmas food for Christmas Day….the supermarket was heavingly busy even at 7pm. I was expecting that….even parking the car was traumatic possibly due to me really knowing what it would be like in the store…..I was the one pushing the trolley whilst it was being filled by others. Wherever I stood with my trolley in hand someone would reach over to get something from the shelf behind. So, I was always in the way. Even when I did wait at the end of an aisle where there was a blank area, an elderly guy tried to reach for something behind the trolley and I politely said “there’s nothing there, it’s a blank wall!” I think he was on auto pilot going around the store and must have thought, ahh there’s a trolley stopped, there must be something behind it!

    I could feel my stress levels getting worse so decided just to track my blood pressure on my watch….

    And there it was, the evidence!…. It was only one supermarket visit yet it’s effects on me we’re quite profound. Needless to say all’s returned to normal as soon as I left the supermarket as I would expect it to!

    I do need more of a stressless lifestyle nowadays and do refrain from putting myself in situations where I will be stressed but it is impossible to do every day!

    So, all in all, stress isn’t a me thing anymore!