Early July 2015 I had return flights already booked for the UK. This was great timing as after the moto accident in February I had been really struggling with my back again and was really finding it hard to get around. Sitting and standing were painful and I felt very twisted up all the time.
As soon as I landed I was at the chiropractor who started work on me, I was hopeful that a couple of appointments would do it and I'd be good to go for flights back in early August. After a couple of appointments with her it became clear that was not the case. I went to see the GP for more painkillers and a referral for an MRI. The GP was really hard work and pretty horrible, indicating I should just get on with it and being rather anti chiropractor, eventually he agreed to the MRI and the scan and results were out within a month. Two herniated discs and a trapped nerve later revealed I was stuck in the UK until further notice. I spent the next 7 months in a lot of pain travelling between the GP, chiropractor and neurosurgeon, narrowly escaped spinal surgery and had to have a spinal injection. Movement was limited and I was still working for my job in Cambodia, so my time was occupied, but being in constant pain and fairly immobile was debilitating and pretty depressing. At times I couldn't walk further than 5 mins without being in pain and having to sit or lie down, wasn't allowed to sit for longer than 20 mins and had to stay as mobile as possible despite how much it hurt, I thank painkillers and a tens machine!
"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever." Lance Armstrong
It was quite important to try and keep my spirits up as the whole experience was pretty rough. So around medical appointments, work and resting / being in pain I did manage to do a few nice things.
"Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain." - Joseph Campbell
Mum and I had a short trip 'up north' and took in some lovely countryside and called in at Vindelanda archaeological site...
We went to Banburgh castle to have a look around...
...and some stormy sea.
The castle was impressive outside and in...
...and there was a private apartment upstairs - imagine living in a castle!
"A man's house is his castle." - James Otis
Somewhere in the castle there is a well, which is also a tunnel to the village green, apparently sometime in the last 50 years some young school boys climbed into the hatch on the green and climbed up into the castle, the castle owner was too impressed to punish them!
We then headed to Lindesfarne...
...and saw the castle from outside...but could not go in as there was a wedding.
There was also a piper to pipe in the wedding guests...
"These are bagpipes. I understand that the inventor of the bagpipes was inspired when he saw a man carrying an indignant, asthmatic pig under his arm. The man made sound never rivaled the purity of the sound of the pig." - Alfred Hitchcock
This was such a wonderfully wild and remote feeling place.
Upturned boats turned into small sheds or rooms or dwellings...
Lovely harbour...
...and even an old fashioned telephone box!
The castle had a garden for flowers and herbs...
"A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them." - Liberty Hyde Bailey
[reminds me of Mr McGregors garden in Peter Rabbit]
Whilst on Lindesfarne we also saw the Abbey...
There was a role playing society doing their thing...
Before heading to Bowes Museum in a very old grand house and estate...
During out visit there was Yves St Laurent Collection showing...
"Give me a museum and I'll fill it." - Pablo Picasso
"Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it." - Yves Saint Laurent
One of the main exhibits here is the mechanical swan made of silver with many moving parts that only shows once a day - very beautiful.
We drove back through the English countryside - super green after Cambodia.
On this trip home I was also lucky enough to catch up with family, the girls from school and some friends from London.
Sadly despite the length of the trip I was pretty held back with the back injury, so there were many people I didn't manage to see, but hope to soon.
"Good friends are like starts. You dont always see them, but you know they're always there" - anon
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