Easy as she goes

There was an article recently which added to the weight of  photographic and other evidence that translators are physically active despite the stereotype of a nerdy weakling staring at a computer screen or poring over huge, dusty dictionaries somewhere that seems to persist.

Like many other translators, I have been active all my life. I had a sporty youth and young adulthood, followed by energetic housework and gardening ever since.

It was only this year that I began night walking.  The hilly natural surroundings of the village I live in provide ample space for the weekly excursions with a large group of like-minded people who sweat their stuff on a set course marked out beforehand and normally measuring around nine kilometres. Added to that were the daily walks of around four kilometres with my neighbours.

Such exhilaration had become the high point of my week and day respectively until I had a wee bit of a car accident just over two months ago.  I have been going increasingly nuts at the physical restraint my slight back injury and neck injury have placed on me.  Herniated discs are not to be sneezed at, and are very bad for general fitness.

Both my parents suffered back pain at various times of their lives. Until now, more or less, I have been fortunate not to. Hence my active, busy-little-bee life.

Well today, I decided it was time to join my neighbours on their daily walk again.  They have been asking me almost every day for at least a fortnight. Normally, we walk two kilometres in one direction, and then at a certain point on the road simply turn around and walk back.  I did not make it all the way to the half-way mark, so I suppose I walked about two kilometres on this first attempt.  This meant I cut out one kilometre of quite steep downhill and one kilometre of quite steep uphill.  Two kilometres was more than enough for one day.  While I was waiting on the road for my neighbours to “catch up with me” on their return trip, another neighbour and her elderly mother-in-law came along the road, and I joined them as they walked along at a snail’s pace – a pace that suited me well.

Even though I am appalled at how weak I am, the happy chatter of my neighbours put me in a great mood.  There was an amazing sunset, too.

©2017 Allison Wright

Partly dictated on my iPhone, and then I accidentally hit the wrong button and published the blog prematurely, so dashed to the desk and finished it on my laptop.