Blister 101

Having worked from home for nearly 10 years I have developed rather tender feet which are more used to comfy slippers than outdoor shoes. Any court shoe will sooner or later rip open the skin on the back of my heel/ankle. Any high heeled shoe makes the soles of my feet burn. It all sounds rather dainty but I wear a size 8 so they are not exactly what one would call cute.

Regrettably my 15 year old beloved walking boots are falling to pieces. So I am dutifully walking in my new walking boots and blisters are on my mind!

Here is the science bit:

A blister or bulla is a defence mechanism of the human body. When the outer (epidermis) layer of the skin separates from the fibre layer (dermis), a pool of lymph and other bodily fluids collect between these layers while the skin re-grows from underneath. Blisters can be caused by heat, frostbite, or friction.

What you can do to reduce the chance of ending up with blisters (who are they trying to kid):

- Good fitting shoes, walk new shoes in

- Keep your feet dry and clean, a seam or even a bit of fluff can aggravate the skin if it is rubbing against the foot for long enough

- Wear walking socks and some even suggest two layers of socks.

- Cover vulnarable areas in Vaseline (sounds messy)

- Cut your toe nails nice and round

- Use a precautionary plaster or better (I am wondering if it really makes a difference):

- a Hydrocure-Plaster which was specifically developed to avoid blisters in hot spots and is available in German pharmacies

And here are some of the more ‘out there’ suggestions:

- Superglue

Glue loose top layer of skin back on with superglue (suggested by our friendly sales assistant at the North Face shop)

- Stag fat or Hirschtalg

If Vaseline seems too straight forward…………………

What you should do when you do have a blister:

Wherever you look you get two opinions: To lance or not to lance that is the question.

I am in the lancing camp. A sewing needle sterilised by the flame of a lighter and in you go. Dap with antiseptic and put a plaster on when the top layer of skin starts flapping but do not remove until absolutely necesssary.

A new obsession

Some people might have noticed my slight obsession with the exact number of kilometres we are going to walk (I like measurable goals). But now I have a new one – WEIGHT. Not my weight, that is an old obsession and a different blog……………… the weight of our rucksacks.

Naively or wisely we have never walked anywhere with a big hiking rucksack on our backs – EVER. I am sticking with ‘wisely’ because having experienced our first outing with a slightly weighted rucksack makes it insignificant if we walk 100 kilometres less or more. Even though our first outing went well, our journey has just gotten a whole lot more challenging in my head.

Luckily Gary and I can be very determined and we have also told way too many people about our plans so we can’t chicken out anymore. However, I still have a slight niggling worry in the back of my head that I will end up with egg on my face because I can not last the distance. So I have to remind myself that for me this walk is a lot about feeling the fear and doing it anyway. When the going gets tuff I can become totally single minded with tunnel vision. This trait has served me well in the past and I am sure will kick in when needed. It is also comforting to know that Gary is one of the most mentally strong people I have ever met. So unless our bodies fall apart we have a pretty good chance of making it.

But I digress, back to the weight issue. I am now wondering about how much five pairs of knickers weigh and will I really need hair conditioner or will walking without its weight make up for my hair looking and feeling like a scrubber. I have never been much into make up so that will not be a problem. Overall it is of course not about one individual item – it is the accumulation of them which adds the pounds (great metaphor, I should write a diet book). In particular it is our current need to have some home comforts with us, like two I pods, a diary, two books, mobile, camera, deck of cards…………….. a laptop ...................plus all the power cables and chargers for the electronic gadgets.

You can purchase pretty light yet amazingly powerful laptops these days. Rule of thumb, the smaller the more expensive. Our current one is out of the question as it is weighing in at 5 kg plus a very heavy power lead. We have seen a good range in funky colours weighing about 1.5 kg and then there is a more expensive one weighing about 1 kg. Gary and I are talking ourselves into a purchasing decision by collecting arguments ‘for’ and ignoring the only one ‘against’ which is that it has to be carried all the way.

There are also all the maps we need to bring along because we decided against a GPS system which was just one gadget too far. Electric toothbrushes have already been ruled out and Gary is looking for an acceptable alternative for his electric razor. Just listing all these items makes me aware of how many electronic appliances we rely on.

Anyway, if any of the things we will take along get in the way of achieving our goal, there is always a post office nearby where we can post all the surplus stuff home. Oh we are soooooooo skilled at talking ourselves into stuff.

It's all part of the cunning master plan

Uebernachtungs update

Wir suchen Uebernachtungen hier (in pink haben wir schon)

29.04 in der Naehe von Kuernach / Rimpar Danke!!

30.04 in der Gegend von Helmstadt Danke!!!

01.05 in der Gegend von Wertheim Die Jugendherberge schaut dort ganz gut aus

02.05 in der Gegend von Buergstadt

03.05 in der Gegend von Vielbrunn

04.05 in der Gegend von Oberostern

Bis wir wissen wie schnell wir voran kommen wird es schwierig sein genaue Daten durchzugeben wann wir wo sein werden. Aber legt ganz einfach eine 'bookmark' fuer diese Seite an (wie heisst das denn in Deutsch?) und kommt regelmaessig um zu hoeren wie es uns denn so geht. Ueber Kommentare freuen wir uns natuerlich immer.

Und dann gibt es da noch die Moeglichkeit uns eine Aufgabe zu stellen die wir waehrend unserer Wanderung gegen grosszuegige Spenden erledigen koennen. Wir sind einer guten Herausforderung immer offen - Gary liebt nichts besser als zu gewinnen.

Lily's Opium Den

My mum has been prescribed morphine to help her get over the effects of her radiotherapy.

Unfortunately, for reasons that I don't need to go into, it didn't arrive until a few days after the treatment and is taken in a manner that my mum pronounced “ridiculous”. And, having visited her last night, I have to agree. Suffice to say it involves a hard to fit stopper, an inverted bottle of liquid, a syringe with tiny measurements and a manoeuvre to the inside of the cheek. It was a challenge for the visiting district nurse, let alone a woman of close to eighty.

Rational, scientific, out-of-the box-thinking person that I am, I came up with a radical alternative. Pour the appropriate dose into a spoon and slurp it down. So last night we gave it a go. Mum was delighted with the new method, as it was so much easier and she would actually take it, rather than, as I suspect, simply not take it because it was all way too difficult.

The only slight problem was that mum filled the spoon a little more than required. As she had obviously not been taking it anyway, I thought there was no harm in taking a “catch up” dosage. As it approached her usual going to bed time, I decided to wake her.

She awoke, very smiley and contented. We joked about the effects of the morphine and the dangers of addiction for a woman of her age, fighting cancer. Was she a bit giggly or did I imagine it? She went up to bed, where she normally reads and listens to the radio for a while but, on this occasion, went straight off to sleep. This morning she was still more smiley and cheerful than usual.

It is clearly pretty good stuff. She has three bottles of it and I will look forward to our conversations over the next few days with great interest.

Wise words

'There is more to life than making it go faster'
Ghandi

I am still thinking about what will be challenging for me during the walk - apart from my feet and the rest of my body taking turns in hurting. I like my own space for example and great ingredients cooked simply. But one of the things that will require the biggest adjustment is our inability to get anywhere fast when we have to walk every step of the way. I am one of the fast brigade; when I have decided on something, it has to happen there and then and I will not stop until it has. I will search for the fastest connection of trains, research at length (!) the shortest routes, drive speedily, get wound up when others slow me down and lately even lament the fact that my broadband connection is a little sluggish.

Anyway, I will have to adjust on the walk and slooooooooooooooooooooooow dooooooown. I am looking forward (in a gently dreading kind of way) to the perspective change that will take place. When trains were first introduced people were sick on a regular basis because their vision could not adjust to the 'fast' motion. I know how they must have felt when we sat on the Shinkansen train from Tokyo to Kyoto - I could only look straight ahead and even then I felt slight sick.

Gary and I recently tried to judge the time it would take us to walk across a gently sloping valley and up the hill on the other site. We were miles apart in our estimates and probably both wrong. At the end of the walk we will be pros in guess the distance!

I am not the only one thinking about the speeding up of information and time. The very resourceful Elisa send me this very interesting slide show (don't bother with the head set - the music is quite annoying). She is wondering if the shift will take us to discover "values, trust & best communication practises". To help ponder that question I can suggest a read of the Tao Te Ching. Here is one with several translations on the same page or read a clever version summarising the Tao's message in todays language.

I was just talking to my sister Ulrike who is preparing a talk about the need to change views around time management. I see how much more information my niece and nephew have to cope with. Felix who is 6 worked out by observation that all information he will ever require is available to him through google. He pronounces this practice goggling - great word!

We are going on a walk - how will you slow down?

The Slob

“Why have you become a slob?”, asked my mum, who was spending the weekend with us.

I tried to stutter a response but no words came out, as there were so many implications in that one short, loaded, sentence.

It had been preceded by, “I have been thinking about something and it's been bothering me.” This is the sort of sentence that, when I was a teenager, used to precede the discovery of pornographic magazines, condoms or other things far too embarrassing to reveal here. It is said with a particular tone of inquisitiveness that makes my stomach flip.

On this occasion, I had expected it to be about our journey. The previous day, I had finally gathered the courage to tell her about it. But no, it was about me being a slob – and the reasons for it!

Pressed on the subject of my new found status, she responded that I had been designated a slob because I, “go around in my pajamas all day”. Interestingly, after many years of somnolent nakedness and t-shirts, I was now the proud owner of not one but two pairs of pajamas - birthday presents from Doris. And, I had been in the habit, not being at work, of enjoying the decadence of wearing them until 09:00 on many days and, as I proudly but now mistakenly told my mum, all day on my birthday. Was mum exaggerating for effect, as she is prone to do?

“Hang on, it's 8:15 and I am dressed,” I said tetchily, relieved that, on this day, I was out of my pajamas earlier than usual.

“You're in your pajamas,” she said, pointing at my ultra-comfy, extended belly accommodating, grey check jeans from The Gap.

“These are jeans from The Gap – what did you think when I went out wearing them yesterday to buy your newspaper?”

“Well, I thought that was a bit strange.”

To be fair, she immediately apologised but, alas, with the grace of someone who felt that the facts had temporarily let her down but not undermined the essential assumption.

It is an ungenerous thought but, unfortunately, as she gets older and more ill, she becomes more cranky. Perhaps that happens to all of us as we get older and our dignity is stripped away? Always fiercely independent and proud of her hair, she now finds both compromised. It must be frustrating and dispiriting.

Sadly, her breathing difficulties do appear to be due to the encroachment of her cancer rather than a chest infection. The doctor, therefore, prescribed radiotherapy treatment which she had this week. It will be between four to six weeks before we know whether it will make a significant improvement.

Despite all of this, her morale seems high and, outwardly at least, unfazed by our trip. We shall see.

Fuer unsere Deutschen Freunde..........

mal was auf Deutsch!

Gestern haben wir Garys 50. Geburtstag in Stil gefeiert. Garys Geschenk ist unsere Wanderung aber er hat natuerlich auch ein paar andere Sachen bekommen. Vielen Dank an meine Geschwister und Anhang die sich so viel Muehe gemacht haben.

Je naeher der Tag rueckt, desto animierter sprechen wir ueber unsere Reise und was dort passieren wird. Wir haben schon ein paar Leute die einen Teil des Weges mit uns laufen werden und freuen uns sehr darauf Zeit fuer lange Gespraeche zu haben.

So eine lange Strecke zu Fuss zu gehen ist fast unvorstellbar, vor drei Wochen sind wir von Deutschland nach London geflogen und haben die Strecke zwischen Grafenrheinfeld und unserem Haus kurz ausserhalb von London in 7 Stunden abgedeckt. Wir werden um die zwei Monate brauchen, die selbe Strecke zu laufen und Zeit wird ein anderes Mass annehmen. Ich bin ganz gespannt darauf ob es mir auf die Nerven geht das alles so langsam voran geht oder ob sich unsere Koerper darauf einstellen und wir einen anderen Blickwinkel in unser Leben bekommen. Auf jeden Fall werde ich es geniessen mehr zu sehen. Schilder, Plakate, Menschen, Natur ....... alles kann genauer angeschaut werden wenn man laeuft.

Hier ist unsere Route und wir moechten viele Menschen kennenlernen. Wir suchen nette Leute,Hotels und Herbergen die uns unterbringen koennen. Fuer jede kostenlose Uebernachtung die wir auf unserer Wanderung erhalten werden Gary und ich 50 Euro fuer unseren guten Zweck spenden und ihnen ein herzliches 'Danke Schoen' in unserem bis dahin sehr gut besuchten Blog schicken. Fuer den Anfang der Reise habe ich schon genaue Daten und Orte:

Wir suchen Uebernachtungen hier:

29.04 in der Naehe von Kuernach / Rimpar

30.04 in der Gegend von Helmstadt

01.05 in der Gegend von Wertheim

02.05 in der Gegend von Buergstadt

03.05 in der Gegend von Vielbrunn

04.05 in der Gegend von Oberostern

Danach wird es alles etwas weniger klar. Vielleicht koennen wir mehr Kilometer am Tag abdecken, vielleicht muessen wir manchmal langsamer machen - wir wissen also nicht so genau wann wir wo sein werden. Falls ihr Leute kennt die in der Naehe unserer Route wohnt waeren wir Euch dankbar wenn ihr Sie auf unser Blog aufmerksam macht. Vielleicht ist ja jemand dabei der Lust darauf hat uns kennenzulernen.

Andere Wege unseren guten Zweck 'Aerzte ohne Grenzen' zu unterstuetzen waere zum Beispiel wenn viele Leute uns einen Cent fuer jeden kilometer den wir laufen werden geben. Nur 12 Euro oder wer sich reicher fuehlt darf uns natuerlich auch 10 Cent fuer jeden Kilometer sponsern. Man muss nur auf den Knopf 'donate now' auf dieser Seite hier links druecken. Nimmt leider nur £ als Waehrung im Moment, vielleicht koennen wir daran noch was aendern aber ist ja nicht so schwierig einen Eurobetrag in Pfund umzurechnen.

Hinterlasst uns doch eine kleine Nachricht das ihr unseren Blog gesehen habt und was ihr von unserer Reise haltet. Wir freuen uns darauf!!

Only 8 weeks to go

That IS a scary thought. We are both amazingly laid back in our preparations but something little is happening all the time. The route is done, we have got house sitters, we have a list of all the stuff we want to bring (and need to purchase). A couple of days ago I even found a 20 week training plan for people who want to complete a walking marathon............. spot the problem??

I just ignore the fact that we are planning to walk a half marathon every day for 60 days and hope the tips on how to avoid and later deal with the inevitable blisters are good. We will report back.

Here is Gary during one of his finely tuned workouts:

Gary and I have a ‘thing’ for stationary. We both LOVE nice stationary shops and my best present this Christmas was a beautiful ink pen and lots of ink in the most beautiful colours. Anyway – he thinks he found the walkers equivalent. A Northface shop in town! My intuition tells me that we will be spending lots of money there. Wellllllll it is his 50^th birthday on Tuesday next week…………. a little indulgence or ten are called for.