Friday 22nd August - knees bend, arms stretch...

 I had  zoom consultation with the ILD (interstitial lung disease) nurse yesterday. It was to check up on how I was getting along with Nintedanib, a drug which slows down the progression of lung fibrosis. 

The good news; I'm doing fine, and please don't lose much more weight! That was a surprise; at 5'2" short and nearly 10 stone heavy, I thought they'd be all encouraging about losing a bit more weight! But no, apparently this condition causes me to burn more calories than a similar healthy person, and 'we like you to have some reserves in case you become unwell.' Hooray! Pass me the biscuit tin, someone...

The 'bad' news;

'Please make sure you keep doing strength exercises. Especially step-ups, sit-to-stands, and arm exercises with weights.' Noooo... I hate step-ups! I loathe sit-to-stands! I suppose the arm raises and biceps curls are just about bearable.

So today I dutifully did some step-ups using the steps by the back door, and some arm raises and biceps curls with 2lb weights.

I'm still aiming for 2000+ steps per day on my watch thingy, even if it is adding chopping veg to to the count.

Reminder to myself

I've added to the Moonlight Sonata Playalong... art sources to come soon

Podcast on BBCsounds

Last night I discovered a new series (it's been going for ages); Tim Harford, the 'Behind the Numbers' man, does 'Cautionary Tales for Adults'. I listened to 'Bowie, Jazz and the unplayable piano'. Why is it that, from never having heard of the world famous jazz pianist Keith Jarret and the Koln concert until Beth introduced him to me, he now crops up everywhere? This episode was on how obstacles can cause sudden bursts of unimaginable creativity. 

I shall be exploring more of these quirky programmes. 

Music

One usually associates Czerny with pages of dull exercises. I remember working steadily through op 139 with one teacher... the main thing in my view was that they were short!

This is something else entirely. If I hadn't seen the description I might have thought it was Chopin;

Czerny op 740 no 14, played by Jean Frederic Neuburger.