After my twenty two mile extravaganza on Good Friday 2013 I was worried about my right knee. It became really painful towards the end of the walk and, with so little time left until Moonwalk night, I was terrified it was going to turn into something bad that would scupper the whole thing. Another worry was the fund raising, or lack of it. The whole point of the Moonwalk is to raise money for breast Cancer research and, so far, I was doing far better at walking than collecting money.
30 March 3013
The twenty two miles wasn’t the finish of my walking yesterday. After a bit of a rest, rubbing some of Commandos’s magic muscle rub on my aching calves and a bottle of chocolate milkshake, Commando and I walked up the Big Hill. We had to pick up a couple of things as I’d been too busy walking to go shopping. It was a slow old walk I can tell you, I felt like a little old lady and my right knee was still quite painful.
To be honest I was worried. There was nothing I could remember doing that might have caused an injury, no stumbling or twisting it, but it felt as if I’d injured it. There was a sharp pain behind my kneecap when I put weight on it and it looked swolen to me, although I could have been imagining that. Maybe prodding it every five seconds just to check wasn’t helping.
Thankfully, this morning my knee is fine. My leg muscles don’t even ache although I was half expecting a bit of DOMS. If you’re scratching your head and wondering what on earth I’m on about right now, DOMS is delayed onset muscle soreness, the bugbear of gym fanatics, runners and the like. In my training so far I’ve been lucky with it. My legs might ache a bit or stiffen briefly straight after a very long walk but the next day they’ve been right as rain. Commando thinks its because I walk so much in my day to day life so my walking muscles are used to it. We will see after the last two long walks. I’m not sure anyone’s muscles are ready for twenty six point two miles.
Maybe it was the magic muscle rub. After I stopped walking my calves were all knotted and tight even though I stretched out. Once I’d massaged in the muscle rub they did feel better. Of course it could have been the massaging rather than the rub or it could have been psychological, whatever it was it worked. Maybe I should get some magic muscle rub of my own.
My Walk the Walk collection tins arrived this morning which was good. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some money in them soon because I’m a bit worried about the lack of sponsorship right now. All the walking will be in vain if I don’t collect anything. Commando is going to ask if he can take one to work but, as his company frowns on any charity not ‘on their list’ I’m not sure he will be allowed to. Think I may have to wander around with mine and accost people. Maybe they’ll be so afraid of the mad woman they’ll chuck a few pennies in.
Today I had to get the shopping for the week because, due to the Easter weekend, Sainsbury’s won’t be open tomorrow. This meant I had quite a lot to get. CJ wasn’t around to help carry my shopping bags so Commando said he’d pick me up in the car if I phoned him once I’d finished shopping. The shop was packed, anyone would think it was closing down for a month, not just a day or two (I’m not sure if it will be open on Monday or not). There were also a few log jams where people had stopped to have a chat, blocking the aisles with their trolleys. I do wish they wouldn’t do that, I start to get really wound up. The ones who abandon their trolleys while they go off to get something annoy me too and the ones who stand in the way dithering about which brand of margarine to buy… Come to think of it shopping annoys me full stop. If only I could go round the supermarket when no one else was there, like Victoria Beckham in a boutique.
It took ages and the checkout queues were massive. The scouts were there helping people to pack though which was nice, CJ just stands there and watches me do it. Eventually I got outside and phoned Commando. Of course, right at that moment I realised I’d forgotten a couple of things but by then it was too late. So I stood, surrounded by shopping bags looking for our little black car and watching people come and go.
There was a beggar sitting outside the shop quite near me. He’s often there, sometimes he has a dog with him. Today he was alone. Normally I’m quite a soft touch for things like that but I never give him anything because he tells everyone he’s homeless but I’ve seen him sneakily using a top of the range mobile phone. As far as I know all mobiles have to be charged somewhere so I figure he must have a home to go to. For all I know he could have a Mercedes parked around the corner and a suit on under his raggy old coat and blanket. Bard knew of a beggar who was like that, drove to town every morning, changed into old clothes, sat outside WestQuay for a few hours looking sad then drove home again. Apparently he made a good living out of it. I’d rather give some money to a homeless charity, at least that way I know the people getting it really need it.
Just in the five minutes or so I stood there about ten people stopped and gave him money. Probably it was just a handful of change each time but I got to thinking, even if it was only fifty pence, that was a fiver in five minutes, that is a pretty good hourly rate I’d say. Maybe I should put on some old clothes and sit with my Moonwalk collection tin.