enforced go slow

We are home. The week is progressing. Landed late Friday night. Got up in time for an hour of karate Saturday morning, then had a gig Saturday night. No drummer so we did it as a three piece, which was a little different. Very drunk, enthusiastic crowd.

Sunday indulged in a lie-in and spent the morning with Nik, before heading off to sailing club to race the Laser in their summer regatta; Amanda and I had originally planned to rig and re-launch the Albacore, but she got hijacked by her in-laws. Poor Albacore has been much neglected this summer. Sunday evening, the band joined me at the club and we entertained everybody with a lakeside gig. The crowd were enthusiastic, but markedly less drunk than Saturday night.

Our usual drummer, Bean, was still drunk in a field at some festival or another, so we were joined by our friend Leah on drums. Her first gig with us, she was, as we'd expected, superb. 

So went to bed happy and fit as a fiddle Sunday night, with nothing planned for the Bank Holiday Monday and the last day of my two week's leave, except a lazy day tidying up the garden and walking the dogs.

Woke up with backache and pain in the heel of my left foot. The backache happily faded as the day wore on, but conversely, the pain in my heel grew worse, to the point that by the end of the day I couldn't put any weight on it.

Tuesday was miserable and today is much the same. Happily, I can work from home so didn't need to head into the office. The dogs have been very helpful, generally getting in the way and trying to trip me. Navigating back and forth from the kitchen to fetch the necessary cups of tea to keep me going is taxing, each trip requiring inordinate amounts of planning and time to execute.

My guess is that it's Achilles tendinopathy, although I don't quite get how I did the damage. And I appreciate that self-diagnosis via Google has its pitfalls. Seems the only remedy is paracetamol, ibuprofen, icepacks and something called "rest"?

for later days

I'm just going to park this here to remind me in later days. 

It is a little past midnight. I'm sat alone in the cockpit of "Amore" in the dark, reading on my kindle with a glass of local beer in my hand, moored to a bouy in a sheltered bay on the southern tip of the island of Mijet, off the coast of Croatia in the Adriatic. 

The black sky above is festooned with stars. Dad, Nikki and I ate well earlier in the restaurant ashore that owns our mooring. Eating there was the price of our berth for the night. The peiple were lovely. The tuna was delicious, Dad's a d Nikki's steaks were huge and beautifully cooked. 

I had my tuna tartar, which was a first for me. It was okay, but I found myself not terribly impressed so won't bother with anything tatare again, fish or otherwise. Nikki couldn't finish her steak though, so I helped out.

Everybody else is now asleep below. A balmy wind blows off the shore, caressing my shoulders.

It was a gorgeous sunset. Again. Last night was as gorgeous, if not more so. I can hear the lapping of water about the boat. The surge of the waves back and forth on the near beach to windward.

This feels like peace.

On Friday night we fly home. I am in love with Croatia. But I miss my dogs. And my children. But mostly my dogs.

My children are old enough to look after themselves (and each other) these days.

Šćedro

two weeks

I took the photo above as I was walking Jack through the park last night. It's too warm to walk the dogs during the day at the moment. That's not the sun setting, but rather, a very rusty moon rising. I'm reminded of the desert, which is oddly apt, given the weather at the moment.

It's Saturday morning and I'm on day two of a two week holiday. Which feels lovely, as it's the first real break from work I've had since Christmas. My brother will pick us up in forty minutes to give us a lift to the airport where Nikki, Dad and I will then catch a plane to fly out to meet our friend Mark aboard the lovely yacht "Amore", a Hanse 415, which will be our home for the next couple of weeks. My youngest son Sam has kindly offered to look after Jack and Lottie. Boo has gone on a holiday of his own and is staying with my in-laws.

He likes them. They are not above bribing him frequently with biscuits.

Wednesday evening just gone was the penultimate of my mid week races. There are four more races in the series, but I'll miss two, and have a Safety Boat duty immediately upon my return. September 7th is the final race before the evenings draw in. I'm currently tied in 2nd place but a lot can change over a couple of weeks. I may have some catching up to do on the 7th.