Wheely good...

...my new chair. Sexier than the crutches too, although I haven't had the chance to personalise it yet as Mo suggested, which is a great idea as I was disappointed not to have a plaster cast for people to decorate - just lots of subcutaneous permanent ironmongery to fix all the bits together and leg bandaged to a backslab (means I can't put any weight on it yet).

This picture suggests I'm having a whale of a time, and compared with recently I was here. My lovely friend Sara took me out for lunch - no biggie, we do it as often as we can in view of her ultra busy life. The difference was the 4 hours it took to get up, washed, dressed and down the stairs in preparation, the getting to and from and into and out of the car, trying to fit the new chair in the back and working out how to fold it, and the whole hour it took to eat a single bowl of mushroom soup, my appetite being somewhat depleted. Despite all that it was a wonderful day which boosted my spirits enormously. We went to a cafe in Greenbank sports centre, a centre of excellence for disabled users, and a gorgeous, patient and kind man there helped me practise manoeuvring my wheelchair around, and getting out of it and onto crutches, in a safe, flat and obstacle-free environment with wide automatic doors; not the sort of place I will be tackling from now on but at least it built some confidence.The trip was over all too soon and the rest of the day was spent initially buoyed up by the progress I felt I'd made, but then the overwhelming ache of little-used muscles and agonising pain from the tib and fib area. Getting up to bed on my own was the scariest thing I can remember doing, but guess what - I did it! Now for a good long rest.

In case you're wondering, I didn't get anywhere near the basket despite many attempts.