;P

I have a belief in astrology!

When I was first in uni I was young, not prone to the health maladies of Bleakfoot, and thought it was great to party all the time.

My PhD is testament to a huge decline in lifestyle, back to if not worse than the first time I went to uni.

How else could you live in Bleak Towers, get Bleakfoot from tripping over the cobblestones in Bleakdon, think that eggs are a huge luxury, forego hot showers, live on pot noodle ( and trout), etc...

I am doing my stretches today, and am still walking about in a taped up foot and ankle, wearing my trainers....and will see how this goes. For the first time in a long time though, I am not wincing with pain throughout the day! I hope it gets better...although its going to be a long road to recovery, apparently. Weeks, if not months...

The tight tendons is part of the problem...the need to stretch so as to avoid the chance of developing inflammation of tendons in the ankle, foot, etc, including the Achilles tendon. Its a bit ironic I have this, given that I ditched my shoes with high heels years ago for the very reason that they were cripplers, with the tendency to shorten the Achilles tendon and cause the very problem I now have...=(

Still a word of caution, people wearing shoes with high heels, you are inviting this sort of problem into your future, and let me tell you, its not fun. Its apparently an injury that occurs over time, so constant wear and tear on your tendons today is the Bleakfoot of tomorrow.

This proves my point about travel in and through London! What an experience, Chris!!! YIKES!!!! Better to avoid London if traveling...! I have heard all sorts of things for delays whilst traveling in and through London, the infamous leaves on the line, the infamous snow that halted the Underground! the fact once that a tube station had caught on fire!!! or the usual signal delays, unspecified problems at a station...etc....

Thanks all for the replies! I am not worried that I cannot get this put together, indeed, I will, but sometimes its hard to know which section to focus on. I sort of picture this thing like a field or yard being raked, I am in the process of raking relevant bits back into the whole and making the whole richer and deeper, and leaving the rubble by the wayside...yesterday's genius bit of work, today's rubble.

Not being able to walk is seriously problematic. Life in its most basic functions becomes hard! I am going to start to pay closer attention to my overall well being--ie become involved in some yoga, find some non PhD things to do for socialising, etc...am convinced that the PhD stress of isolation is at least somewhere to blame for this condition, as it relates to tight muscles, etc, in addition to many factors, including aging, but tension and stress cause tight muscles...and....there you are.

Thanks for the wishes for recovery and the use of a zimmer frame! The scary thing about this, is that apparently if you let it go and it doesn't heal, the tendons in the foot can react such that the big toe eventually overlays the toe next to it...ewwww!!!! My foot is currently taped to support the arch ( flat feet due to the effects of aging... ) and to try to get some healing promoted. As someone who is always active and takes robust health for granted, this is a bit of a wake up call.

I am coaxing my thesis to its final conclusions, at the moment trying to sort out some theoretical stuff related to nation-building, separate of course from IR, but with some related issues, looking at the effects in an IR sense of a nation that is Jacobin rather than syncretic in its nation-building focus.

Not meaning to take this thread off-topic...but I am interested in some of the discussion of IR. My own PhD has crept into many social science and humanity areas, from its base in law, and one of them is IR. IR is a small but important component of my focus--I have looked at work by Onuma and others as to why nations become involved in international treaties, in an IR context, and am curious if anyone has a focus in this area, or thoughts? I haven't really got real life access to IR scholars, and this is an intriguing area.

Sometimes the largest places are the most difficult to get to and around...London is no picnic. Smaller towns have venues not likely to be so far away from train stations, etc, usually walking distance, or a very short and cheap cab ride away. London can take an hour or more to cross, you have to hope the tube is running on time, and contend with the crush of people at all times of the day and night. YIKES! Its much nicer to travel to a small town, IMO!

You know you have Bleakfoot if you wake up and you can hardly walk...some people end up crawling to the bathroom because they have such bad Bleakfoot! Fortunately mine is not that bad and hopefully will not become that way! Stretching, ice, anti inflammatories like ibuprofen and time help cure Bleakfoot.

Who knew that one of the risks of a PhD would be losing the ability to walk....?

Bleakfoot... =(

I have now been diagnosed with Bleakfoot. =(

I suppose I should be glad its my feet and not my arms or hands, that have this horrible malady, but its not fun. Bleakfoot is caused by mature student excursions over picturesque cobblestone streets to and from the university, resulting in strained and inflamed tendons of the foot...OUCH. I am now getting some therapy for my foot, as trying to not walk and hoping it would get better and turning the radio up really loud so I would not hear the banging and clanking did not work.