A sunny day, though still not with summer warmth. My back stiffness and pain subsided quite a lot overnight and it didn't take me so long to get mobile. After lunch Clare drove me over to Westbury Park in Bristol for my osteo treatment. It took me ages beforehand to fill in the forms which were emailed me but it all made good sense as preparation for Ruth the therapist who was to treat me. It's the first long drive Clare has done since February, and she insisted on driving back as well, so her confidence hasn't been eroded by the long layoff.
The Vital Health Clinic in North View is a few doors away from St Alban's Parish Hall, closed for community activities currently, its doors and windows covered with notices about continuing Parish engagement in Foodbank collections, and information about on-line services. I had quite forgotten that it's an Ecumenical Parish, of Anglicans and Methodists congregations. Bristol Diocese pioneers these back in the 1970s.
In 1983 we lived for a year in St Alban's Vicarage in Canowie Road, during an interregnum, while I took a sabbatical year out to train as a secondary RE teacher. I didn't do locum duties in St Alban's Parish but was assigned to Holy Trinity Westbury on Trim as an honorary assistant priest for Sunday and occasional weekday duties. It was such a change to move from the energetic multi-cultural working class community of the St Paul's area to living in a sedate middle class part of the city with its wealthy and well attended churches.
I guess I was well occupied with learning new disciplines and skills during that year, as I don't remember a great deal of what it was like living and leading worship there. What I do remember vividly was Clare and I taking a romantic train trip to Venice for Carnevale and a quiet Canadian student called Linda Maine looking after the children for the inside of a week.
The clinic has two therapists working out of a small converted terraced house with its front door on the pavement. Everything about the practice was beautifully and strictly organised with precautions against virus contagion properly and systematically observed. The treatment was beneficial and also helpful n that Ruth explained as she went along what had gone wrong and what she was working on. It certainly made me think about my habitual stance, and the subtle impact of having had surgery in the lower right side of my body - three times so far in the perineum and once for a hernia repair. It's something to take into account, to be aware of and making allowances for.
I felt much better afterwards, back pain almost gone, my neck so much freer and my head clearer than it has been for weeks. Both of us are booked in for a treatment in ten days time. Clare has been having headaches which, by a process of elimination with our GP, leads to the conclusion that the problem is in the neck.
We were home again by six, a pleasant drive home as the roads were not too congested. Pollution monitoring services are saying that atmospheric nitrous oxide has not yet returned to pre-lockdown levels, despite road traffic increasing since restrictions were eased. It seems that vehicle usage has not yet returned to previous levels so traffic congestion is still lower than normal, and a noticeable decrease in pollution from emissions is the result. Must we return to the way things were? Haven't we yet learned the lesson that ridding ourselves of diesel powered vehicles (a key emitter of nitrous oxide pollution) is essential for everyone's health? How many people have had their body's ability to cope with covid-19 undermined by having to live in a polluted atmosphere?
After supper I watched a couple more episodes of Non Uccidere. I had intended to watch Huey Morgan's programme on Cuban music, but for some annoying reason the iPlayer stream kept on freezing probably due to demand. I'll have to watch on catch-up instead.
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