Sisterly Self-Care

By Monday 3rd January (2022) my sister and I were on a roll with this self-care idea. Forgoing breakfast for the time being, I rolled out my exercise mat and lay it out on the living room floor for her, then I asked the home assistant device to find us some meditation music, got down beside my Sis and started to take her through a stretching routine. In an ideal world I’d walk one day and stretch the next, but I’m a long way off settling to that routine. All is not lost though. I can still get my bended knee to my chest (while lying down, that is 🙂 ).

I’m no expert, but over years of intermittent motivation, I’ve got a store of routines that stretch the back, legs, ankles, knees, glutes, neck, shoulders, etc, etc. Looking over the internet for an example of what we did, I came across this Home Stretching Routine from KTB Physiotherapy in England. We actually did a number of these as we worked our way up from the floor to standing stretches. I wish my sister was here every day and I’d be inspired to do it more regularly. Before COVID we used to have an exercise physiologist who would come to our complex and do a weekly group session. Signs are promising that she will soon return. Meantime, many of the other residents kept up with her via Zoom classes.

After 45 minutes or so of that, we rewarded ourselves with a breakfast of muesli, fruit, and yoghurt, eating out on our sun-drenched balcony. My sister said she felt as if we were at a health spa. Oddly enough, because of insulin resistance, this is not really the healthiest breakfast for me. I got a low level hypoglycemic tremble a couple of hours later and knew exactly what had kicked that off. Too much carbohydrate in one hit for the body to cope with. Sounds weird, huh? Not everything that is touted as healthy eating works for everyone.

Sadly, knowing our holiday together would have to end soon, we then turned our attention to the less fun things we had been putting off. My sister is fabulously artistic and visual, and in her current job, plans and executes the displays for the events at the RSL (Returned Services League) club where she works. There are three clubs in the network, so she is often running from one to the other with decorations and signage. On the other hand, I, like our father, got the business brain. So for the next few hours we sat in front of the computer getting her administrative paperwork in order. Some forms could be completed on line, but as some of my followers know only too well, these can have a mind of their own. I mucked up one, and my sister had to fix it up the old-fashioned way a week later.

It was time to reward ourselves with a brandy and dry on the balcony overlooking the golf course and ocean. As you can see from the below photos, the clouds were creating their own artistic show. Click on the photo to see a larger view.

This is an easterly view – as you’d expect given we’re in Australia and that is the Pacific Ocean out there – and you can see that dusk is falling. You can hear in my sister’s video that the birds are getting ready for bed. The chatty ones are the very pretty Rainbow Lorrikeets.

Bird Bedtime in Wollongong January 2022

So we picked up our things and switched to the balcony on the other side of the apartment, where we could watch the sun setting over the escarpment, to the left of Mount Kembla. The steam rising into the sky is from the steelworks. One of the things I love about this apartment is the mix of scenery and industry we see from our balconies.

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It’s not only birds who are settling down for the evening

Even though we’ve talked about a barbecue every day, we have been too busy with other things. We’ve been making creative use of leftovers all week, often dishing up a lunch revamped from an earlier dinner. One year I got so carried away doing that it was sometimes difficult to remember which ingredient was the original and when it was cooked. But no harm done.

Tonight, given it was about 8pm by now, we muddled the leftover lamb shanks and rissoles into a sweet and sour, red wine and herbs pasta sauce, and I can tell you, it was delicious. But there is a tinge to tonight’s shared meal and conversation, as, much as we would like her to stay on, those pesky home and work responsibilities are beginning to call. My sister and I plan one last adventure for the next day…

To be Continued in our Next