I've spent large amounts of the last ten months helping Mum re-home and recycle the material contents of Emily's world and finally today her home joined that list too. I feel relieved in a way that such a big and difficult task is almost at an end but while dealing with Emily's things, I have really struggled with the concept of where 'she' is.
What I mean is that 'Emily' wasn't there when I last saw her and not being of a religious bent I have no simple answer for where 'she' might be: She's not in the stuff she owned; I was able to recycle and re-home Emily's furniture, TV, music collection and even her clothes and shoes - which were (largely ;) ) good choices - with a fairly level head. Her flat wasn't a home without her in it, just some bricks and plaster, and because of all this I have struggled because I want her to 'be' somewhere. My brain longs for her to 'be' somewhere, and to be ok.
It's such a huge thing to grapple with yet I do find comfort in thinking about some of the unique things she did and created that convey the essence of 'Emilyness' to me, and perhaps that's where she is, however difficult it is for me to comprehend.
This brings me in a rambling way, and via several sheets of tear-soaked kitchen roll, to the playlist on the left.
Mum, Dad and Emily came along to support Iain and I when we ran the London Marathon in 2007. As a typically, lovely gesture Emily presented us both with a self-curated mix tape of motivational tunes for Christmas. It was awesome and creative, and I wanted to share this particularly relevant example of 'Emilyness' so that members of TEAM! can experience it for themselves in the countdown to April 21st - or even on the big day itself. The only track I personally added for my 2007 playback was 'The Trap' film theme as performed by Ron Goodwin & His Orchestra, so that I could relive the watching-it-on-the-sofa experience as I ran over the starting line waving like a loon...
So this was a picture of my right knee the week before last...
According to the Physio the stripes of tape across the kneecap crinkle the skin when my leg is straight to help the swelling which appeared around it to drain away. Which is nice. Thankfully the swelling has gone but I missed 2 runs and a swim due to all this and the Physio's instructions to lay off the exercise for 3-4 days. I'm very frustrated having trained with a slow build-up since last summer and choosing a training plan that helps minimise overuse injuries by running 3 times per week with 2 cross training sessions. It seems a lifetime's worth of rubbish running technique can't be solved by simply doing lots and lots of running. Arse.
So having completed a triumphant 20-miler a week last Saturday, rightly or wrongly my confidence was dashed in Ryan the Physio's advice to have this knee swelling appear on Sunday so I went to see a group called Six Physio at Monument. I went in with a swollen knee and came out of there feeling utterly wrecked! A seemingly lovely lady called Philippa determined the weaknesses and twistedness of my pelvis that results in the knee being unhappy and then went about destroying the golf-ball sized (maybe a slight exaggeration) muscle knots is my calf and hamstring to the extent that I was sweating with the pain and I left with bruises!!! I have been using Philippa's special instrument of torture namely the common or garden tennis ball to wreak havoc on the knots since and nothing much seems to happen apart from me yelping and inventing new swear words but I shall persist 'cos she said so.
I had my second visit to Six Physio on Tuesday last week and was scrutinised by Jen whilst running, walking and balancing whereupon she proclaimed my power muscles to be good (oh yeah!) but my core muscles to be pathetic (boo!). So all those Pilates-goers were right about something all along! Alongside the stretching and tennis-balling I've now got a daily set of exercises including aforementioned 'Clam' and some that I've chosen to perform using a foam roller. As a household we now have two of these since I had to buy a longer one to lie on but I suppose post-April when I've regained my lazy slouching posture once more we'll at least be able to use them for (rather one-sided) Gladiators-style podium battles instead :)
Trying to remember how to do the exercises in a less-than-optimal environment i.e. having both Iain and our friend Rob laughing at me proved challenging...
Thanks to Iain for taking the opportunity to entertain you once again and apologies for my oh-so-stylish fleece. Please also note that my 'weights' were the first two items of same size that I came across and that we're not total alcoholics, honest.
Mum, Dad and Emily came along to support Iain and I when we ran the London Marathon in 2007. As a typically, lovely gesture Emily presented us both with a self-curated mix tape of motivational tunes for Christmas. It was awesome and creative, and I wanted to share this particularly relevant example of 'Emilyness' so that members of TEAM! can experience it for themselves in the countdown to April 21st - or even on the big day itself. The only track I personally added for my 2007 playback was 'The Trap' film theme as performed by Ron Goodwin & His Orchestra, so that I could relive the watching-it-on-the-sofa experience as I ran over the starting line waving like a loon...
