It's been a long, long time since I've been able to use the gym. I think the last time I was there was in June, just as our second semester began. Since that time the gym has been either out of bounds due to the rising numbers related to the pandemic, or I've had problems with my back which have precluded any attempt at real exercise. (I'm not sure the 'or' is correct there - I've got a feeling that the obstacles have run concurrently, but I might be a bit muddled.)
I'm now trying to get out walking on a more regular basis as a way of getting at least some degree of exercise. Thankfully the problem of my cranky left leg seems to have gone into remission, and I've nearly completed the latest round of medication related to that. Must admit I wasn't best pleased when my back doc decided to keep me on the meds for another two weeks following my last appointment since the problem seemed resolved back then, but he detected some lingering degree of stiffness in the area and I thought it best to be a good boy and do what I was told was good for me. However, I'm convinced that keeping those muscles moving is the best way to fight off decrepitude, hence the attempts to get some serious walking done.
Yesterday the Missus and I enjoyed a morning at West Coast Park (some weak evidence above) and today I went solo to Kent Ridge Park. Felt all the better for it.
2 comments:
Hello Mr Connor, first I must apologise if I’m intruding in some way a personal online space of yours... I had to reach out as I’d finished reading a novel and really suddenly, thought of you and your perfect straight-backedness, and then this came up in the search.
You wouldn’t remember me, but I was in your class of 2002 to 2003 in TKGS. I’d always found a home in books, but having you as our teacher, tirelessly annotating page after page of Abraham’s Promise, such that our scribblings melted into and transfigured the original novel itself… In hindsight, that really was my formal introduction to an unremitting, painstaking, yet deeply rewarding world of literature. It was beautiful and I have you to thank.
With you, I remember: after-school hours in a darkened drama studio full of fidgety girls watching (repressed) Victorian Jane Austen film adaptations (Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice), your insistence on our timeliness because of your Friday mosque visits, how you were served cabbage as a boy, poorly cooked, which forever ruined your impression of that vegetable, what it meant to “have had a day and a half”, your remark that Scousers spoke like they had a tennis ball stuck in their throat (I hope I remembered this correctly!)… You have been a real inspiration. Caustic, funny, stolid, absolutely thorough and rigorous, wholly passionate, one of everyone’s favourite and most memorable teachers. Thank you. Wish you and your lovely wife good health and peace.
Sam
I'm so sorry I missed this comment the first time around, Sam. It's a bit late to reply (this being 9 September, 2023) but I'll do so happily and with thanks for your post. I hope I did make that comment about Scousers as it strikes me as really funny, and reasonably true.
Glad you've found a home in books. It's a fine old place to live.
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