Snow + squash (the sport, not the edible kind) is not a good combination.
Walking on snow, you tend to slide and twist your feet as you attempt to find some grip underfoot. Squash (the game, not the pumpkin), especially at my level (i.e. not the best, but getting there), twisting and turning and landing in awkward positions is the norm. Together, they have meant bad news for my knee this week. So resting it has been required. Although I hate resting - having spent the majority of my life resting due to the ME, the last thing I want to do is rest some more.
I made some imitation Snickers bars, and then realized that standing may not be resting to my knee, even if baking is something I enjoy, so I had to find something else to do.
Walking on snow, you tend to slide and twist your feet as you attempt to find some grip underfoot. Squash (the game, not the pumpkin), especially at my level (i.e. not the best, but getting there), twisting and turning and landing in awkward positions is the norm. Together, they have meant bad news for my knee this week. So resting it has been required. Although I hate resting - having spent the majority of my life resting due to the ME, the last thing I want to do is rest some more.
I made some imitation Snickers bars, and then realized that standing may not be resting to my knee, even if baking is something I enjoy, so I had to find something else to do.
Which led me to sorting out. We began at the weekend to sort out DVD's and CD's - trying our best to downsize as much as possible as we are having to pay for our move. One the one hand, this is good as it forces us to spring clean our belongings: do we really need to hang on to the DVD we both hate and wonder why on earth it was produced?
On the other hand, I am a firm believer in 'keeping things for a rainy day.' My gran was queen of never throwing things away, and, along with her love of moving house, I think I inherited both traits from her. I am sure we will be able to find ribbon (if I ever need ribbon, that is - I haven't done for the past couple of years but you never know...) in Australia, and envelopes, at a push...
On the other hand, I am a firm believer in 'keeping things for a rainy day.' My gran was queen of never throwing things away, and, along with her love of moving house, I think I inherited both traits from her. I am sure we will be able to find ribbon (if I ever need ribbon, that is - I haven't done for the past couple of years but you never know...) in Australia, and envelopes, at a push...
My task yesterday was to copy the CD's onto the laptop, and then we will store our music online. We had sort of done this when we moved to Montreal, but my hoarding instinct kicked in half way through and I just had to keep the 'Hits '99' CD for sentiments sake...
So my copying started...and soon my efficiency came to an end, when hearing the tracks took me right back some sixteen years ago, to a time I was dancing around my room - one track at a time, then resting for an hour after that little bit of exertion; the only exercise I could manage for days on end.
The next CD I copied, I was transported back to my final year of school, and weighed down my exam pressure together with that whole teenage thing of needing to fit in.
Another CD, and I was at university getting ready for a night out.
Songs which remind me of cold nights in Munich; images of Christmas Market lights dance in front of my eyes and I can almost smell the scent of cinnamon roasted almonds.
Tracks which transport me to Spain: an image of driving along under the bright blue sky, windows down and savouring the - slightly cool - breeze, another snapshot of making our wedding invitations in the confinements of a hotel room, hoping I hadn't forgotten to bring from Munich a vital element, as had no idea where to buy it from in this strange new city.
Those which stop me in my tracks and I can't do anything but get wrapped up in the melodies and beats, goosebumps forming on my arms.
So, in the end; after I had song along to quite a few (it's amazing how, even after such a long time, the lyrics were still stored in my mind), and an attempted bum shuffle and arm wave at some others - as much a 'dance' as I could manage without moving my knee; I had only copied a handful of CD's...
So my copying started...and soon my efficiency came to an end, when hearing the tracks took me right back some sixteen years ago, to a time I was dancing around my room - one track at a time, then resting for an hour after that little bit of exertion; the only exercise I could manage for days on end.
The next CD I copied, I was transported back to my final year of school, and weighed down my exam pressure together with that whole teenage thing of needing to fit in.
Another CD, and I was at university getting ready for a night out.
Songs which remind me of cold nights in Munich; images of Christmas Market lights dance in front of my eyes and I can almost smell the scent of cinnamon roasted almonds.
Tracks which transport me to Spain: an image of driving along under the bright blue sky, windows down and savouring the - slightly cool - breeze, another snapshot of making our wedding invitations in the confinements of a hotel room, hoping I hadn't forgotten to bring from Munich a vital element, as had no idea where to buy it from in this strange new city.
Those which stop me in my tracks and I can't do anything but get wrapped up in the melodies and beats, goosebumps forming on my arms.
So, in the end; after I had song along to quite a few (it's amazing how, even after such a long time, the lyrics were still stored in my mind), and an attempted bum shuffle and arm wave at some others - as much a 'dance' as I could manage without moving my knee; I had only copied a handful of CD's...
As I said, we had weeded out a fair few on our last move - not too many embarrassing ones left in the collection - but quite a few compilations. It's strange, those tracks which I loved all those years ago, now fall by the wayside as others, which I used to skip, striking a chord of delight at this point in time.
As always, I had some 'help:'
Day two of "Operation: copy music CD's" was going swimmingly, until the laptop got in a tizzy with a CD and wouldn't process it, or eject it. Finally it spat it out, and I checked it expecting to find a scratch; what I found instead was something which looked like marmite on the underside if the CD??!
As well as a good job for knee-resting (apart from the dancing), it was also just the weather for it too.
Spring officially began on 12:47pm on Thursday, but I don't think anyone told the weather that, as on Saturday it snowed another 5-10cm. We suddenly realized we hadn't made maple taffy on snow - this was the perfect opportunity, and hopefully (surely spring weather is going to join this official spring-time) it would be the last. So, we scooped some snow off the window sill onto a plate (it was pretty wet snow), then spent about 5 minutes trying to unscrew the top off the bottle of maple syrup we had stored in the back of the cupboard for, oh, about a year. Finally managing to free the top, we then hurriedly poured some syrup over the snow...where the snow promptly melted, leaving nothing but a pale brown pool of liquid on the plate; no taffy in sight...
So, that is clearly not how you make Maple Taffy, and we still haven't been able to cross it off our list as done!