Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start!
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Hello Hatters! Sorry I've been MIA lately. I've just been really busy. Snoozie I hope your back is better. All that moving isn't helping, I'm sure. Is it all done now? Great news on not having to go back on the meds. You've got this! You can do it!
Vail, how's the hip? You talked about never being able to walk long distances again and I hear you. This pain in the ball of my foot is not pleasant but it's not a hip.
We leave on our trip in about two weeks. I have not been walking/hiking every day to prepare. I've dreamed of doing this walk along Hadrian's Wall for ages and now I'm full of anxiety about whether I can actually do it. The first day is 10 miles, second day is 7, we're supposed to rest the third day but I think we're going to do about three miles then we'll have 10 the last day instead of 13. I've just got to suck it up and do it. I just thought that I'd enjoy it and now I'm so out of shape. My own fault, totally. I've gone to the gym twice a week for a few weeks and met with a trainer for thirty minutes each time. I have yet to go on my own. We did a five mile hike to a rustic Inn a few weekends ago. It's the only way to get to the Inn. The hike was pretty strenuous and I felt awful that I did so poorly then when we ate dinner with all the other hikers they were all complaining about how hard it was. Even the people much much younger than me. So then I didn't feel quite as bad. lol.
At this point I'm just hoping that I can complete the four day hike and still have energy for some hiking in Scotland.
I hope you're both doing better between the virus, hip, back and all our lovely issues! Don't you just love getting older?0 -
My hip is OK, thanks. I was doing some travelling again recently, and I was finding all the walking and stairs quite hard at the airport. I have a couple of future trips planned and am looking at booking hotels with the least walking which are unfortunately much more expensive! It is a bit frustrating, to be honest. At the moment I can physically do the walking, but I get a lot of pain if I do too much.
My last trip was to Vienna to see the band I like. I met a woman there, around our age, who had flown from Australia just to see this band perform! We are a bit obsessed! Somebody else had come from Argentina, and others from various European countries. I am going to see them in Sweden next.
Well done for the gym commmitment! I need to get back to regular exercise. I had been quite good but the various illnesses and travelling has knocked my routine.
That's kind of funny you thinking you were struggling with the hike to the inn and all the younger people felt the same! I'm always really impressed with what you can do. Despite your foot problems, etc.
Good luck for the Hadrian's wall trip. At least the weather here seems to be staying fairly cool - I think it's easier walking in cooler weather. And maybe you can take it easier in Scotland: do some shorter hikes and just enjoy the scenery!
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Have a wonderful trip Suzy and Vail so fab to hear you've been travelling and getting to see your fav band in concert and even more cool getting to meet fellow fans from all over the world!! That's amazing0
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Vail i thought of you this morning when i saw on the news that Switzerland won the Eurovision this year0
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Was that your favorite band, Vail? I can’t remember.
I’m in England now. We’ve completed two days along Hadrian’s Wall. Yesterday was absolutely exhausting! Today was an off day and we walked about four miles round trip to see Vindolanda Roman Museum from our B&B. It’s so hot! I’ve got sunburned! I wasn’t expecting such warm weather. It did rain on us all day the first day though.Tomorrow is our last hike day and it will be almost ten miles. My calve muscles are screaming at me. lol.
How are you both doing? What’s new?1 -
Oh wow i can't beleive you're there in England now Suzy!! How did i miss you actually left on the trip!! OMG ten miles!! you are a far better woman than me - what an awesome accomplishment!! Yikes on the sunburn - if your calf muscles scream at you, scream back at them LOL!! have a wonderful time0
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Are you still here, Suzy, or back home now? I hope the last hiking day went well. I have such admiration that you are able to do that despite the foot problems, etc. The weather has been very strange here. Torrential rain, storms, hot sun, and Northern Lights!
Thank you for thinking of me at Eurovision. I was over there ... very long story, but Eurovision was a bit of a disaster this year! I won't bore you with all the politics and scandal! But I think the winner is great, loved them and a lot of the other acts too.
I did get to see the Eurovision band I like and it was an incredible experience. They loved their Eurovision experience so are playing a gig in the host city every year. Lots of stories about that, which again, I won't bore you with. I am really wanting to enjoy these experiences while I can. I have made friends with other fans that I've met at concerts, even shared a room with a couple of them in Copenhagen, and they have been so lovely and accepting of having a 60 year old tag along (they are 20s to 40s). It was also lovely to see Copenhagen (where we stayed) and a bit of Sweden. This travel is costing me a fortune but I haven't gone away for years, and you just never know how things are going to be in the future: I don't want to waste my chance.
Eating wise ... I had not been so good. When I was away I normally go for McDonalds or something with the young ones, but this time a few wanted to go out for a nice meal at a Mediterranean mostly vegetarian restaurant, which was really lovely, and I was able to buy healthy food the rest of the time (fruit and nuts and stuff).
I've just had some more of my ongoing dental work and can only eat liquid/soft food at the moment, and I think it's actually making me think more about the nutrition. I am eating quite healthily (soup, fruit and veg purees, yoghurt, etc.) and losing a little of the weight I'd gained. Exercise not so good, what with recovering from a virus recently and going away and hip pain and so on, I haven't done as much as I need, so going to get back to that gently.
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Vail - i think its absolutely AWESOME that you are going to these events that bring you joy, and experience the wonder of travel and making friends of all ages and having experiences you would never have if you just stayed home!!! So i hope you keep going to EVERY single event or concert or trip that you can!!
I'm sorry about being reduced to liquids and soft foods for the moment.. i had a similar experience so hope it's on to the next stage soon and you can expand your food horizons in a bit
I haven't gained any weight but I've been making very poor choices food wise and need to smarten up.. im still trying to at least walk every day and hopefully can get back to pickleball more often but i KNOW what i really need is to figure out some strength training ..
we have had some gorgeous weather finally - i may actually be able to put away my winter sweaters and jackets now lol... i did actually buy myself a few pairs of capris and a pair of shorts for the summer...i'd really love to figure out a vacation but i'm still stuck on what kind and where as a solo travel... its like a hamster wheel it just keeps going around and around and never makes any progress
i did plant my community garden this year after all.. i wasnt going to but it's the last year i have it then it goes to someone else.. but i scaled back at least so as not to waste anything and so people dont run away screaming from me and my bags of cherry tomatos this year lol... i just went with lettuce, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and of course the cherry tomatos but only 3 plants this year instead of 6 LOL
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I don't think I realised that the garden was just temporarily yours! But maybe it will give you some more time when you pass it on the next the person. I should probably have another go at planting food in my garden. At the moment, I struggle enough just to keep the plants under control!
Lovely that you are having some warm weather at last!
I hope you work something really good out for your travelling. Is there anything you've really wanted to do/ see? It has been funny with my solo travelling to see this band: I am in a couple of chat groups with other people, and I think it was me, out of all of them who first went ahead and started buying tickets to see this band abroad, then some of the younger ones decided to come along too. A couple of them have then gone on to do a bit more solo travel. I'm quite proud that it was me as the older person who took the plunge and the younger ones who then got inspired to do more on their own!
Anyway, there has been a focus for the travelling, that I've needed, and it has been social because I've always either gone with people or met people at the gigs. I think if I was going for longer I'd need to be sure I was meeting people at some point. I think you were looking at more guided tours and cruises for that reason? I'm really interested to know what you decide on!
It's good that you are exercising and not gaining weight ... you say it as if it's not that great! I understand you want to add in more healthy choices though. I know I'm always raving about strength training, but I do think it's important, and anything is better than nothing. I'm still doing the programme I signed up for ages ago, although I'm finding it a lot harder now. But I hope you find something. You'd mentioned using the gym where you live, maybe the rowing machine or something? I can't remember how that went.
The soft diet is fine, and I think is good for me: I think I really love crispy, crunchy, chewy food and this is helping to break what is almost an addiction. I should be able to eat more normally in another week or so, I think, but I will have to be careful not to go wild!
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Hello you two! We got back home on the 29th and had a wonderful trip. I ended up not doing that last day of hiking. My body was protesting and I just didn't want to do it. Luckily, my husband was very understanding about it. I mean...it was supposed to be a vacation! lol. It ended up that the last day was mostly walking along the road anyway so no big loss. We enjoyed the North York Moors by basically resting in our airbnb which was on a farm and very private. We had two days in Edinburgh which was plenty for us. It absolutely poured rain while we were in Inverness but we managed to tour Culloden. The Isle of Skye was breathtaking! Those roads though. Wow! Basically single lane roads with pull offs to pass...full of pot holes and the edges were just drop offs. We did minimal hiking on Skye due to crowds of people. I did manage to slip on some loose gravel and I've done something to my left thumb. I guess I need to go to the doctor.
I was sick with a cough and cold the first five days of our trip. We got home and four days later I was sick again...a cold I think. I'm really starting to worry that my immune system is compromised. I never used to get sick and now I've had this congestion, cold, cough off and on for over a year. I'm so tired of it.
We watched the news in the UK and did see something about a Eurovision scandal but it went over my head. I'm so glad that you're traveling, making friends and having that experience, Vail. Keep showing those young people that 60 isn't the end of the world! I turned 63 this past Monday and I'm a little shocked that I'm that old. I just don't think of myself that way.
Snoozie, I think the gardening is awesome. I wish I was green thumb inclined but I'm just not. I do go to the Farmer's Market and support those that are though. Did you ever decide on what you're going to do travel wise? The whole time I was driving in the UK I kept thinking that being on one of those tour buses and letting someone else do the driving and planning sounded pretty darn good!
I've got to get back to some sort of healthy routine. The gym is running a special on personal training packages and I may do that so that I can figure out a good fitness routine. It's a ten session package and I could go twice a week and have them show me strength training routines. Oddly enough, I haven't been as drawn to sweets lately as I've always been. Wouldn't that be awesome if I didn't crave them all the time? I need to schedule my annual physical but I really dread my A1C results.
Anyway, sorry I haven't been on as much lately but things are hopefully calming down now.0
