Starting Over

Its the early hours of Wednesday morning as I type this.

The good news is that I have been increasing the miles I have cycled. I did 11 miles on Monday and 15 miles on Tuesday. I know its not much, but its the start of my road to recovery and to the Police Unity Tour. I lost all of November, December and most of January through injury. I would normal have done over 1500 miles in this period (possibly as many as 2000 miles with the Christmas break, instead I have done 36 miles in this period.

Tuesday's ride even included a hill or two. Nothing particularly hard, but its a start. I need to get used to them again. My knee is not 100% right and there was some pain whilst riding, but nothing I can't put up with and there was no long lasting pain after the ride.

More good news is that I'm planning to return to work on Monday of next week (1st February). I rang work today and broke the good news to them. I have to say that for all I may complain about my work at times, they have been excellent about the time I have had off. I have not been put under undue pressure to return or been made to feel bad about the time I have had to take off. So to that end I should be grateful to my work.

Ironically, today I received a letter from the NHS asking me to contact them to arrange an appointment to see a consultant about my knee. I have only been waiting for an appointment since Dec 21st. I will be contacting them to see what date they offer, but I am lead to believe there is at least a 4 week wait, if not longer. Thus it would be at least 2 months since the scan results were given to me before I get to see a consultant. If he were to refer me for physio, I can imagine another few weeks delay would ensue. I'd still be unable to work in April if I had waited for the NHS.

Last night (Monday) night, I went to watch Leyton Orient play away at Charlton in a League One football match. The emphasis being on the word s "went to watch". When I arrived at the ground I realised that my match ticket was in my other coat at home- whoops. I had the choice of paying £25 for another ticket or waiting in the pub next to the ground till the game ends for a lift home. A third option would have been to travel home alone by public transport, but this was a none starter owing to the time it would take.

The pub next to the ground advertises live football on Sky TV and as the ground was next door and the game was on Sky TV, you would expect it to be on would you not?

You would be wrong. The pub chose to show Zambia v Nigeria in the African Nations Cup. Can you imagine pubs in Newcastle showing that game instead of a Toon game that was on TV? All I can say thank you for my mobile phone and lengthy conversations to pass the time. No thanks to Greg who sent me constant texts from the ground telling me how fantastic the game was.

The final insult for me was that Orient got a rare away win at a side 3rd in the Division. The consensus in the car on the way home was that I should stay in the pub instead of going to all future Orient games. I agreed on the condition they paid for all my drink whilst I'm there. Sadly they decided the price was too high.

The Sun Always Shines on TV

Since my last post, I have had another session of physiotherapy and it has again helped my knee. I am now walking a lot easier and intending to get on my bike this coming week and try to build up my fitness. I am hoping to get back to work a week on Monday (2nd February) assuming the knee continues to recover and the medical advice is favourable.

I have to say that the knee is not fully right, and I don't expect it to be by next week, but it has healed enough to let me start thinking about getting back to work. I think the tear in the cartilage was not the main problem with my knee. I repeatedly complained about pain above the knee, not from the cartilage area. The physiotherapist thinks that I suffered 2 injuries not one, and I agree with that.

If I had not paid to see the consultant privately, I would still be waiting for an appointment with him, and would probably be at least a month away from having physiotherapy, and consequently be at least another month away from being able to get on my bike or to consider going back to work. So much for the NHS providing treatement to everyone according to their needs.

I gave my leg a good workout yesterday when I went to see Newcastle lose in the FA Cup to the referee (oh, I think there was a team called West Bromwich Albion (WBA) there as well, but they only had a supporting role to play). He managed to give 1 goal where the ball was not over the line, 2 very dubious penalties, sent off a Newcastle player (wrongly) and booked five others, whilst not giving anything to us or booking any WBA players. Even the papers today were slating the referee, so its not just my biased view. Didn't want to go to Wembley this year did we? Still the good news is that we are playing at Swansea on Valentine's weekend. I guess that females around the Tyneside will be rather upset as it seems to be a game everyone is planning to go to.


Even the West Brom Fans Failed to Turn Up

Let me start by giving my apologies to a certain lady now about that weekend. I told her the news yesterday when I got back from Birmingham about Valentine's weekend. I suppose that when she said "You love Newcastle more than me", it was rather tactless of me to reply "I love Sunderland more than you". I can tell you plates hurt when they hit you- especially with your dinner on them. A lesson learned.

To bring the thread back to cycling matters, I'm relying on the weather being ok this coming week so I can get some miles in. I need to be back to doing 25 miles a day before next Monday so I can commute to work again. Its a case of hoping that its not just on TV that the sun always shines.