Struck a nerve

On a friend’s recommendation I managed to slip into a cancellation slot with a physio a few streets away. On the phone the practice manager advised me to bring one of the disposable masks, as lots of their customers ‘are turning up with bits of curtain fashioned into a mask.’ It made me laugh.

The physio was very good at diagnosing why and where my back is hurting. She did some effective cracking of the spine and told me to buy some tennis balls, sellotape them together, and roll my spine on them. It sounds hilarious, so I’ll try it.

I said I imagined she was seeing lots of people with back issues and she said that was the understatement of the year. She also said Joe Wicks and his online classes have brought her lots of business, as people who aren’t used to working out jump around and injure their joints and tendons.

I left in less pain, and relieved that if I try the tennis ball trick, things will settle down. Sixty-five notes is a small price to pay for a much reduced fear of twinging my back during innocuous activities.

The scenic car park view from where I’m staying. Apparently some residents are up in arms because the couple in the nearest house have replaced their lawn with artificial grass, and because out of frame to the right there is a fence built to an unseemly height (even though the only thing it borders is a communal walkway and not anyone’s garden). I don’t ever want to get involved in neighbourhood wars wherever I may live in the future.