Health.

So after nearly 5 years of problems with my knees and hips, and over 10 with my ankle, it’s possible that the root has been discovered.

I’ve seen three physiotherapists (including my recent one), and each time they’ve pinned it on problems with my legs themselves. The first, in England, stated that the muscles were weak (despite doing up to 6 sessions of sport a week, plus conditioning exercises), and after doing some different conditioning exercises, there was an improvement. Unfortunately, whenever I would try to continue with running or hockey, there was pain again.

After I moved to Melbourne I saw another one last year. After explaining the history, he also said that it was weakness – especially as I hadn’t done any exercise other than starting to swim. So again, I did some different conditioning exercises and continued the swimming, but still the aches in my knee would still get to the point that I was taking the maximum dose of ibuprofen in a day.

So, about a year later, I made another appointment at the same clinic, and am seeing somebody else (by coincidence). She’s checked the strength and flexibility and confirming I have hypermobility in my knee joints; that could be causing some pain. In addition, she gave a deep tissue massage last week when I went – which hurt while it was being done, but had no effect otherwise. This week she checked my back alignment and strength and concluded that my core muscles in my abdo and gluts need strengthening. So I’ve been sent away to do this, which will hopefully put less strain on my back and loosen the sciatic nerves down my legs.

Besides this, I’ve been doing regular deep water running and laps in the pool. I feel I actually have a level of fitness and although I know it could be increased, I can never seem to get far before I cramp up in my feet! This then renders me all but crippled until I get into a hot shower and hope it loosens up.

I doubt I’ll be running any time soon, but I might look at doing some hockey training come winter, depending on my time restrictions. I’d love to get back into it, but the cost and the time features are an issue when I take into account swimming, photography, work and a social life, and I don’t feel like dropping any of those just yet.

Etiquette

As I went swimming today I was reminded of the continuing confusion of etiquette and manners in public places. And not so public – the pool changing rooms.

At the pool I go to, there is a larger communal area and 4 cubicles to get changed in. As I use a cubicle unless unavailable, I only pass through the communal area and use the lockers there. However, I’ve been lost a few times on what to do when making eye contact with people. It’s different to visiting the toilets at a restaurant or shopping centre, when making eye contact is normal and usually accompanies a nod of acknowledgment. When someone is in various states of undress though, the rules change.

Just after I had started, the pool changing rooms were shut for a few weeks and the gym ones were used by everybody at the centre. This area had no cubicles, so unless you braved a small and dirty toilet cubicle, you had to use the larger communal area. When I was in there, I felt it odd for someone to make eye contact with me. Generally people would look at their own belongings or face the wall, but if someone looked at me, it was hard to do anything. Looking away seems rude, but smiling implies it’s OK – and a nod of acknowledgment could lead to a conversation between strangers in the changing rooms. The last, by most accounts, is wrong I reckon. Perhaps I just have low self-esteem though. I don’t want to cause anything that will make then continue looking at me.

I admire that people can strut through the changing rooms completely starkers, but I need some set rules on what to do if eye contact is made. Granted, I’m usually looking at the floor to make sure I don’t slip or step in anything, but when that split second occurs, what am I meant to do? I guess looking away with a blank expression is all I have until the rules are made.

So last weekend held excitement for me. On Saturday I managed to get down to Vanbar in North Melbourne to get all I need to do some black and white processing. I’m starting to shoot more and hopefully soon I’ll have my first results! I’ve gone for ID-11 and Tetenal Superfix Plus to start with, but I might jump on the Rodinal bandwagon that most of the Melbourne Silver Mine group seem to be on. I’ll have to check out the results I get from ID-11 first.

Later on on Saturday, the Melbourne at Night group on Flickr went on a photo-walk in the evening around Docklands to take some photos. I went along and although I felt very uninspired at first, by the time we were heading down to the Bolte Bridge at sunset, I had my camera out and was taking some photos. For our entertainment, Vermin Inc did a little bit of swimming down at the bridge, which had all of us with our cameras out.

This was one of my first night-shoots, and I’m fairly happy with the one shot I’ve uploaded of the bridge.

Perhaps this is the start of many more to come.

Since then, it’s just been work and swimming really. I’m happy with my swimming progress – running half-laps in the deep end, focusing alternately on arms and legs. I do feel the need to mention how much I hate the pool at the moment though! Obviously, the beginning of the year is busy as people decide to lose weight, pay a membership and attend for a few weeks. So most of the lanes are full of people who are quickly learning the etiquette.

The other group of people who have invaded the pool are kids. Obviously it’s school holidays, but do the kids really have to come at the peak time after work when people are trying to do lengths? Because the lap-lanes are full, I use the ‘aqua play’ lane (essentially just for leisure), and although that wasn’t a problem before Christmas, apparently the more kids there are, the more selfish they become. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen kids dive-bomb into the pool directly next to mature, well-groomed women who are content just paddling around. I understand that the women and the children can’t avoid each other entirely, but it seems that they could just a few seconds until the woman is out of the way, or move up further.

I had my first encounter with a group of kids today. There were 3-5 young boys who were in the deep end, holding onto the wall and pushing off then holding on the lane ropes, then back again. After my first 2 lengths I noticed that they’d only do it in front of people. So without goggles and expecting it, all these people, including me, were getting face-fulls of water, as well as a child in their way. It strikes me as ridiculously discourteous, and although I told them to watch out a few times, it took until the life-saver told them to return to their parents watchful eye in the children’s pool that they stopped disrupting people who were enjoying themselves.

It takes me back to the days when I used to swim at the Adelaide Aquatic Centre with my brother and dad at the weekend. Although I was a couple years too young, I’d swim in the ‘big pool’ (2-5m deep, diving and swimming). If a lifesaver asked, I’d have to prove I could swim 25m into the middle without assistance and back again – thankfully never getting asked to go back to the crowded and warm ‘kids’ pool’. Oh the good days.

Summers have changed too much – the amount of times I’d frolic under the sprinkler in our backyard when I was young. I also have vague memories of my dad filling our sandpit with water – perhaps to make up for not having a pool? Our paddling pool, once it had a hole, was destined to cover the compost heap. These days though, kids have to come to the public pools and cause a nuisance for everybody else.

I’m looking forward to when school goes back and people give up on their gym and pool memberships!

Where are all the normal people?

So in the current state of the world, normal is difficult to define, but I’m sure everybody has those moments when they wonder if everyone else has gone crazy. When I got on the tram yesterday, it was one of those moments.

First of all, there was the difficulty of getting onto it. Everybody congregated at the doors, but plenty of room down inside the carriage. Coming from the Tube in the London, this is still alien to me. It’s normal for me to get on and go straight down to the middle – regardless of whether it’s busy. But anyway, I managed to squeeze myself in and off we went. Then I notice the phones. There were 2 mobiles which kept receiving text messages – at least 10 each in the short trip I was on there for. Instead of turning their phones to silent as some do when they are having a text conversation, they let the phones beep the whole jingle before reading the message. Every time.

The next noise I noticed was a small child, perhaps 14-18 months old, on her mother’s lap, whinging away. Now, I dislike whinging kids at the best of times, but this one was worse. The mother was against a window and the kid kept looking out the window. Then when the tram started or stopped, she’d bang her head on the window or wall, making her cry more. But the mother, instead of sitting her down properly so she wouldn’t do it the next time, just left it. So there was a constant noise of ‘bang WAAAAHHH’ for the journey.

So while I considering which to throw out the window first, the phones or the mother, I realised there was more stupidity to be seen. At a tram stop I noticed a group of people waiting to get onto the tram, and standing in the middle of the carriage on my own, I wondered why they could not get on. Then I noticed 2 girls standing near the door, who had probably straightened their hair so much they’ve lost their last brain cells, chatting away oblivious to their discourteous behaviour. Not only were they in the way, but they had those fashionable Country Road bags slung over their shoulder, blocking anyone who wanted to get on or off. When I left the tram, I said excuse me as I usually do but to no avail – so I simply pushed passed and judging by the exclamations behind me, I think her hair was caught in the zip as the bag was pulled off her shoulder by my trying to get through.

The subsequent swim and trip home was uneventful, but for that brief 15 minutes or so of my day yesterday, I thought I was the only sane person aboard that tram. I was reading and had earphones in, but was attentive enough to see if somebody had to get through, and my bag was out of the way at my feet.

Speaking of swimming and fitness, I seem to have finally got the hang of this swimming thing. I’m more consistent in how I feel when I swim, which is generally better. I actually feel relatively fit in myself, and have even started overtaking some people in the slow lane! My physio isn’t as exciting or successful, but I am definitely in less pain that I was. I can walk distances without being in agony, and I’ve all but stopped limping. My conditioning exercises are doing well too, but having only started them 2 weeks ago, I still have a while before I’ll see or feel results.