A quick catch up

My poor blog – so neglected…..

I start a post in my mind and then stop.  Too much information, too boring, said already or whatever the reason the thought gets ditched.

So, I am writing this one, one not thought out ahead of time.  I have nothing much to say but so what…. Here is a basic update of what is happening in my Ordinary Life.

• I am still doing the Art Techniques course through Coursera.org and loving it.  I don’t feel that I always have enough time to do the art project but you only are required to do 2 to pass and I have already done two, so am not too concerned if I miss a week here or there.  I am just completing all the theory quizzes and that will be enough.  Here is a picture I drew (the London taxi) for one of the assignments, the topic was “Mail Art”

• I am driving Mr OL batty with thoughts of trying to start (another) business.  I constantly have ideas in my head but generally they don’t get much further than the planning stages
• I bought another property – think I already mentioned this – and have since found out that the tenants that I was led to believe were “good” have not paid rent in 5 months.  I am hoping that the current owner gets rid of them before I take over.  I am sure that it is a breach of contract or something if he said that they were paying when I signed for it but they were not???  Any ideas?
• My foot is …. I am actually not sure.  All I do know is that I still can’t run.  I am going to take 6 weeks off and then hope for the best.  We do know that there is no muscle damage, no tendonitis, no ligament damage and nothing else that can be seen in x-rays or an ultra-sound.  These however do not rule out a stress fracture.  In the meantime I am going to go for Gait Analysis because something I am doing has caused this.  I am also going for massages (yay) and to the chiropractor who is doing dry needling as my muscles in my legs are in knots.  I am hoping that this all makes me stronger. I am also trying to stretch in.  I really need to get in the pool and on my bicycle…..
• I am having a serious case of “mommy guilt” at the moment.  Next weekend I was due to go to the Knysna Oyster Festival to run the HoutKapper Trail… Mr and Little OL were going to stay behind in PE.  Now obviously the running is out – however I have already sorted out my accommodation….. So…….  A weekend away sans husband and kiddy????  I am going to go but why do I feel so guilty about going away by myself for the weekend?  My mom, brother, sister and a multitude of my friends are all going, Mr OL does not want to go….urgh!  Would you feel guilty?

Wow, for a post that I did not think about I sure had a lot to write.

Oh, yes – MR OL surprised me with an Asus Transformer – well, he actually surprised me by asking if I would like an iPad Mini – I said no.  After he got over the initial shock I explained why.  So he helped me get the Transformer instead.  I LOVE IT!

Not a happy camper!

So it is beginning to look like I might not be running this city after all.

For the past 5 / 6 weeks or so I have had a pain in my foot.  It is an odd one as the pain is not constant but when it does hit, it stays – usually for about 3-4 days.  I then rest, the pain goes away, I go for a run and it comes back.  Not straight away, I can run for about 10km and nothing, as long as the run is flat.  As soon as I hit an incline the pain hits, and then it stays for another 3 – 4 days.  It is on my right foot near the outside edge and is ANNOYING!  Especially as I have so many races lined up.

I went to the chiropractor, and he did a few things (that involved needling and lots of pain) and it eased up, but then I ran again (up a hill), and it was back.  On Wednesday he sent me for an ultrasound scan and then x-rays – nothing showed up.  No ligament damage, no muscle tears, no tendonitis, no nothing.  All good, that ruled out a whole lot of things, but the one thing that it does not rule out is a stress fracture.  They don’t always show up.  To rule that out we would need to do another (much more expensive) scan – which at this point I can’t really afford.  This is not good news.  But here is what we are going to do.

I am going to rest until Wednesday, he is going to treat me again and then I need to go for a run – shortish and up a hill.  Hopefully the pain will be gone, but if it comes back we are going to treat it like a stress fracture – which basically means rest it for 6 or so weeks.  I will also go for gait analysis (which I will probably do anyway) to see why it happened in the first place.

URGH – I want this to be gone.  I really wanted to do the trails and especially the trail run in Knysna but the Dryland Traverse is much more important to me.  I really need to be fit enough to do that.  If it is a stress fracture (and I am still hoping it is not) I guess my bike and I will be bonding a lot more to keep my fitness levels up, and I will be hitting the pool. At suppose at least I will be then be getting a head start on my triathlon training for next season.

Paint the Town Red – Painting

I have been drawing and painting quite a bit lately and love it.  One of my friends requested a large painting for her lounge, saying she wanted a city scape.

I got all excited and downloaded a few pictures to see what she liked and thankfully we had similar ideas.  We both like the same two, one quite abstract and one quite a bit more realistic.  I suggested that I try to combine the two and change the colours a bit to suit her room.  She was game.

This is the result and I am very happy with it.  (So is she, which is probably more important)

Paint the Town Red

 

Her lounge wall is red so this works very well.  Here is a photo of it in place.

Paint the Town Red – in place

This one also gives you more of an idea of the size.

It is acrylic paint on canvas.  Each canvas is 50cm by 100cm, meaning that the entire painting is 150cm (wide) x 100cm (tall)