Bullet style…
- We’ve decided to buy a car – opted for a blue Honda Jazz. Hopefully that’ll be finalised in the next few weeks.
- One of my second cousins, who lives in Scotland, committed suicide last week. I remember taking her to the beach at Stillbay when she wasn’t much over one year old, so it came as a shock.
- Dalene’s computer broke down about two weeks ago. After taking it in, we needed to replace the motherboard and the CPU. We got it back, and it still wasn’t working. Turns out the power cable for the computer had also gotten fried whenever the PC broke. Strange, but at least it’s fixed now.
- I’ve developed a spasm in my neck. 3 visits to the physio later, there’s no end in sight, but it seems that bad posture has weakened certain muscles in my back, and I’m being put on an exercise regime to address it.
- We played some poker on Friday night: 6 of us, Dalene, me, Dale, Andries, PW and Flo, played at my place. We played Texas Hold’em with a limit, and devised a decentish system to prevent making buy-in too easy so that people try to look after their chips. Dalene left early, but the rest of us played on to about half past midnight, when Flo raked in the last chips.
That is, of course, a way to make a “free buy-in” less attractive. The more standard way of doing it is to actually use cash, which has generally been ruled out as an option.
I hope to join you on your next poker night! Or maybe to one day host a poker night, for that matter.
Do tell more about the exercise regime? What kind of exercises? (Not the gym, hopefully?)
My exercise regime. The problem seems to be the muscles at the bottom edge of my shoulder blades, so they’re designed to work those a bit. However, there are some stretches to try reduce spasming muscles, too, I think.
After my first visit, I was told to: first, stretch my neck by bending it 90 degrees, onto my right shoulder (without lifting the shoulder); second: twist my neck 90 degrees until I’m looking over my right shoulder; and third, put my left arm behind my back, and try look into my right armpit, after putting my right hand on top of my head. Those were to be done for 30 seconds twice a day.
Second visit: the first and third exercise were to be done every hour, I stopped the second exercise, and I was given a fourth exercise: sit with my elbows bent and my lower arms parallel to the ground. Push in with my elbows to tighten the muscles at the bottom of my shoulder blades. Hold that for ten seconds. Repeat ten times in succession. 2 sets of that, twice a day.
After my third visit, yesterday, I’ve kept the stretches, but the fourth exercise has been replaced by 3 others, 2 of which are performed using a wide strip of elastic, which has been tied hanging down from a burglar bar at home. Again, elbows bent, forearms parallel to the ground, and tense muscles at bottom of shoulder blades. Grip the elastic with the left hand and pull it down without bending the elbow, while maintaining tension on the muscles. Then slowly bring your arm back up, still maintaining tension (quite tricky). Repeat 6 times. 2 sets, twice a day. Sixth exercise is pretty much the same, but instead of pulling the elastic down, you pull it in towards you. Also 6 times, 2 sets, twice a day. The last exercise (number 7) is quite tough for me: get on your hands and knees, with your knees bent at 90 degrees, and your hands directly below your shoulders. Tilt your back to tense the muscles at the bottom of the shoulder blades. While maintaining tension, lift one hand off the ground (keep arm straight), and move it slowly forward, while resting on the other hand. Hold it forward for a count of six, bring it back slowly. Put the hand down, and repeat the process with the other hand. Repeat 3 times. 2 sets, twice a day. However, I’m not so sure about the time lengths and number of repeats for that one. All the numbers got me confused. In any case, I tend to fell I’m leaning too far back with this exercise, and my wrists hurt badly, I assume from trying to put all my weight on them while my other hand is out. Strangely, it was fine, with no discomfort when the physio showed me what to do, so I suspect I may have got this exercise wrong.
In any case, the problem with most of the exercises for me is that I’m never sure if I’m doing them right. Particularly with those about keeping tension on the muscles at the base of the blades: sometimes I feel the muscle pain, so I know it’s working, but when I start, I often don’t know if I am successfully “maintaining tension”.
Now, that was probably way more detail than you wanted ;)
(Small glitch: I forgot to say “Y” when I submitted, pressed “Back”, said “Y”, re-submitted, but then got: “Duplicate detected”…)
Sorry to hear about your 2nd cousin… :-(
About posture: buy an exercise ball at Dis-Chem (about R70?) and use it as a desk chair… and play some Ultimate…!
And remember, gambling is a sin…! :-P
Yeah – that duplicate detected thing is quite irritating. It’s because the comment gets logged in the database anyway, even if it’s rejected as “spam”.
Dalene has an exercise ball – perhaps that’s a good idea. Hehe – playing Ultimate with the way I weave around when playing FPS’s is guaranteed to give my back a bit of a workout ;)
Last, I wouldn’t say gambling is a sin – however, it can become a bad or addictive habit for some people…
Hallo from Sweden :)
It seems you’re still in Stellenbosch. I’ll visit SA in July, so perhaps we could meet up sometime.
Btw, I have a blog at http://greendemon.blogspot.com/
Hey xact.
Long time no hear. How’re the Swedish chicks?
Yep. Still here – finishing off a doctorate this year. Let me know when you’re in the area, and we can meet up.
I’ve added your blog to my subscriptions, so now I’ll be more up to date.