Breaking my back.

My garden is in the process of being re-landscaped. Work started around ten days ago and they haven't quite finished yet. They have removed all the large plants and trees from the garden and dug out a BBQ pit at the end of the garden where it used to drop away quite steeply. They have also re-laid the patio and made it much larger. There is only the pointing to do on the patio and the borders to be cleaned up by the gardeners. They're just waiting for a dry day to finish the pointing.

My garden after the biggest plants had been removed.

Removal of the very dubious patio. A lot of love went into that patio, but not a lot of skill.

Since my holiday week in Barcelona I've had back problems. For some reason the base of my spine really aches when I'm standing up or walking for long periods. Because of this I've not been exercising fully during the week or riding my bike as much as I would like to.

Another view of most of my back garden after they have dug out the BBQ pit at the end.

Initially I went to my doctor to see if he knew what might be up. He said that it wasn't a slipped disc or any torn muscles on my spine. He then suggested that I go for some x-rays at the local hospital. After I got the results, the x-rays showed nothing conclusive. His only advice was to rest it to hope that it got better.

The side of my house which was overgrown for the eleven years that I've lived here, now it's all lovely and gravelled.

I spoke to my fitness instructor Mark about my back and he said he would take a look at it during my next gym session with him. During the session he concluded that it was my hip flex flex muscle being contracted due to all the cycling and office work that I do on most days. Because of this extra pressure is put on the base of my spine, which is why when I stand up or walk for long periods it aches so much.

Anyhow as a result of this he has given me some extra stretching and gym exercises to stretch out my hip flexor and hopefully relieve the pressure on my back. There is almost certainly some muscle damage on my lower spine, which will probably take a bit longer to heal.

Laying the foundations of the BBQ pit.

Mark is also going to stop giving sessions at Esporta, the gym I go to. He says that they £600 a month that they charge for him to work there is just too much and I totally agree with him. He can still see me at a local sports academy, so I may consider changing gyms to this sports academy as well. Esporta charge me £54 a month and that's only for part time membership. I'll welcome a chance to change gyms to somewhere much cheaper.

The view from the pit to the back of my house.

This time last year I went on the Real Ale Wobble, I had signed up to go again this year with Wiki, Catherine and Peter. Unfortunately because of my back I couldn't really go, despite having paid up for the event already. I probably could have made the ride but it wouldn't have done any good for my back and probably made it much worse. After I told everyone else of my decision not to go, poor Wiki came down with a virus and bad knees, so she decided not to go, and because of this Catherine wasn't going to go. So Peter could have gone on his own, but decided obviously not to.

I'm quite annoyed that I couldn't do the wobble this year as I'm sure I would have really enjoyed it and it would have been a weekend to remember. Oh well maybe next year, and I really can't wait for my next bike riding weekend away with my good friends.

The state of my garden so far. Hopefully my next blog entry will show a completed garden.