18. 1st Dance, Less Aids & Cooking Efforts

Social Time Over – Back to Exercising

Dodgy Exercise Counting: Well party time had to end.  Della and Colin decided it was time for me to get back to exercises.  As my balance had improved, I held onto the side of the bed while I kicked my bad left leg out to the side 10 times, then I did the same with right leg.  I wasn’t able to get as high as I used to with my bad leg, but I had done alright.  Just as I thought that was it and felt pleased with myself, Della ordered me to try to kick my bad leg backwards 10 times!  What a struggle and I hadn’t done it so well.  I was made to do some scrunches, which meant bending my knees and bob up and down, while hanging onto the bed railings.  This became my new daily routine with the walks and cycling.  The slave drivers!  While I counted during exercises aloud, I had counted “6 ….. 7 …. 8 ….”, while Della counted “4 … 5 …. 6 ….”.  One of us had become a dodgy counter!

Dancing Queen – Not!  11^th April

My “Alexa” and First Dance: Our friends, John and Anisa, had been lovely and bought me an “Alexa” from their trip in Gibraltar.  As I had been limited to my bed, the idea behind that was so that I could ask it questions, learn to change TV channels by voice control, and ask for a variety of music.  What a wonderful and very thoughtful gift!  My balance had improved a little, so I could stand unaided for short periods.  As I felt rather mischievous one day, I messed around in between the exercises.  I asked Alexa for one of my favourite songs, “Happy”, by Pharrel Williams.  I didn’t care how silly I might have looked with my strange style of dancing in the video clip. However, that song really reflected the joyful, clap, happy way I felt.  I tried to independently dance, and it felt great.

Thai Lunch Reunion 13^th April

We hadn’t seen our old friends in absolutely ages.  All six of us had enjoyed holidays together in Thailand in the past, so it became a good excuse to go back to the Koh Thai Restaurant.  On this occasion, Colin parked a little further away from the place, instead of the front door.  I felt a bit nervous about walking so far, but held onto Colin as we slowly made our way to our table inside.  The food hadn’t disappointed and it was great to have shared old memories of Thai dishes that we knew, as we caught up on news and had a couple of laughs.

Rocky Move Over 14^th April

I had eaten far too much the previous day, so just as well that Colin & Della insisted I had a session on the bike machine again.  As my peddling had improved slightly, I could cycle a little faster.  For a laugh, we asked “Alexa” to put on the theme tune to “Rocky” for motivation.  Della’s sneaky little video of me had been a little dark but you could see me peddling better to the music in the background.

“Naughty Girl’s” Golf Lunch 15^th April

I felt a lot more confident not using the wheel chair, so I agreed to meet up with some golf girlfriends for lunch, after the usual Monday Ladies Roll up.  Della helped to prepare me, so I didn’t have the usual fight with clothes or shoe laces.  Colin drove me over to the El Paraiso club house.  I actually felt rather anxious when I hung onto him, while I tried to walk from the car park to the Club House.  I hadn’t been in the club, since I had last played the previous December.  As I hobbled along, we approached the terrace area and I heard quite a few voices and I felt acutely more apprehensive.  I was expecting to see a handful of girls, but it took us by surprise to see so many.  When people spotted us, they each stood up, and greeted us with such a generous applause.  I felt so overwhelmed and touched, I almost burst into tears.  Colin later told me that he had almost welled up too!  The girls had been lovely, warm and welcoming.  How on earth could I have been so twitchy about seeing them again?  Colin left me in their safe hands, as we all settled into our seats and they went onto announce that day’s list of winners.

Origin of Naughty Girls: After a while, the tables of four players began to spread out and we pulled a couple of tables together for those that stayed behind for drinks and lunch.  It was wonderful reconnecting with my lovely friends.  It had been a while since “The Naughty Girls” had been together.  Our group began when I first joined the golf club. I asked others about a group of ladies that gathered after a golf competition.  They always seemed like fun and laughed often.  I was told that the group had been known as the “Widows Club”.  I never liked that name, because it hadn’t described the fun loving and gregarious nature of the bunch of women.  As I later joined them a few times, with some of the other golf girlfriends, I began to call us “The Naughty Girls”. The name seemed to have stuck since.  Whenever we finished our prize presentations, some ladies would ask others, “are you going to be a naughty girl later?”.  So that was how our afternoon group eventually expanded in number. 

Lunch Time: We joked about me playing golf soon, but we all knew that wasn’t going to happen overnight.  However, I preferred to be positive and talk about “when” and not “if”, so it was nice for me to have made fictional goals with them.  We decided on tapa dishes, so that everyone could share, rather than have a main dish each.  I ate a lot, but still one handed. Time passed by so quickly, so I was surprised to see Colin when he came to collect me.  We cajoled him into joining us for a drink and kidded him about being an honorary “Naughty Girl”.   He responded with, “I’ve always liked naughty girls”.

Joint Chefs – My First Attempt to Cook – 17^th April: I felt bad that Colin had done all the cooking since I became ill, so I suggested to try to help him in the kitchen.   We decided to make spaghetti Bolognese together. I wasn’t able to stand up for long, as my leg and back would ache after short periods, so I had to sit down for several rest periods.  I felt annoyed and useless but, nevertheless, I carried on.  I began by peeling and tried to chop an onion.  Simple task, NO! I didn’t have a good enough grip on that round thing, but it kept slipping out of my bad hand.  I became really vexed and had to admit defeat. Colin patiently waited and said, “a guy could starve to death waiting for you to finish”.   In the end I allowed Colin to take over all the chopping, while I had been reduced to adding the meat and ingredients to the pan, then stirred them altogether.  We ended with a messy joint effort, that Colin mostly did, but at least I tried.

Good Friday 19^th April

It was good Friday, so time to wish everyone “Happy Easter”.  Colin had bought me a chocolate rabbit, so I wished all on social media a “Happy Easter” and told them I was signing off to eat my chocolate bunny’s ears off. 

Ladies Lunch 22^nd April

I had been kindly invited to lunch with the ladies at El Paraiso Golf Club again.  It was to say goodbye to the retiring Lady Captain, Alison, and to welcome our team mate, Doreen, as new Lady Captain.  It had been so nice of them to have involved me and I had a lovely time.  I didn’t have time, or think, to take photos that day, but I included one from a previous year of our group of ladies. Just to give you an idea of the number of girls involved.

Goodbye Wheel Chair and Stroller 24^th April

Although a bit unsteady on my legs, I felt comfortable enough to return the wheel chair, kindly loaned by our friends, James and Allyson.  I also had the stroller returned, kindly loaned by my girlfriend, Jayne.   If they no longer were there to easily slip back into using, I had to learn to cope.  It felt so liberating but quite scary too.  What irked me, Colin continued to hang onto that hateful commode, I had always refused to use it.  I told him that if it wasn’t disposed of, I would turn it into a plant feature for the garden.  He still annoyingly held onto that thing to get me worked up!

Another Cooking Attempt 26th April

I never wanted to feel defeated, so Colin and I tried to make my “Cataplana” dish together.  It was my version of a Portugese dish, which was a mix of pork, tiger prawns and baby clams in a lovely white wine and tomato sauce.  Afraid it turned into the same scenario when we had attempted cooking the previous spaghetti Bolognese.  I just wasn’t able to grip anything well enough to chop, which ended with Colin doing most the preparation, while I continued stirring in the ingredients.  Anyway, as a TV Chef would say, I actually had made a slide show of one that I had done earlier (above), .  Hope you enjoy it, we had.

Date Lunch 28^th April: The weather was pretty horrible, my aches, pains and spasms had steadily increased at night. I became a little “stir crazy”, as I’d been housebound over the past week.  Colin told me to get ready and took me out for a “date lunch” at 90 Miles, in Villacana beachside resort.  It was lovely being out again and among the familiar faces of Adria, Dolores and the girls.  Steve provided the karaoke entertainment that afternoon.  He had worked for us before, when we had the 90 Miles premises a few years ago, previously named, “Colin’s Piano Bar”.  It was nice for catch up on memories of those days.  We giggled when I used to “bribe” Steve with “B52” shots, to stay longer later in the night.  He joked that I had been “naughty” and got him pleasantly tiddly.  Well, as times moved on, we moved into Real Estate and then leased the premises to Adria and Dolores. The place had developed into a popular venue for good food and live entertainment.  Our food had been excellent that day. Our friends, Brian and Gill, Richard and his golf friend, joined us for social drinks too.

Goodbye Hospital Bed and Hello Normal Bed 30^th April: As it was the end of the month, it was time to end our rental agreement of the hospital bed.  Although I had spent a good part of 3 months in that bed, it felt so satisfying when I saw the men collect and wheeled it away for good.  Our lounge suddenly became so much roomier. Della had kindly tidied up and prepared me for my first night in our normal bed upstairs.  It was also going to be Colin’s first night too!

First Night in Our Bedroom: It felt strange being back in my own bed after so much time. It was wonderful not to have to lie in that hospital bed downstairs anymore.  The reality hit me later, when I tried to hobble over to the bathroom in the middle of the night.   I honestly thought that I would make it, without having to disturb Colin, but I crashed and fell into a heap on the floor.  Needless to say, I made such a racket, Colin instantly woke up and had to pull me up onto my feet to help me back to bed.  With painful bum and bruised ego, I had completely lost the urge to go to the bathroom again. I didn’t have the heart to tell Colin that I wanted to go later in the night.  It was not the best of starts back in our own bedroom!

Please view next page 19 at link “Reflecting, Declutter, Walks & Outings”: https://www.rebootinglinda.com/reflections-decluttering-the-house-walking-further-and-more-outings/

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