ABBA and DIY Exercise

Ever since being a child, I’ve tried a few different sports – not particularly to any great level given my disability.  However, I enjoyed trying, and the exercise they gave me.  I also did some DIY exercise at home, be it in Japan, Saudi Arabia or elsewhere over the years.  I would put on some music and do some aerobic and other  exercises for a period of times.

I have recently started this practise again.  At 61 I realise I need to try to keep as active as possible, especially given my cerebral palsy and scoliosis.  It would be easy to say that I don’t want to put myself through the effort, even a little pain at my age.  Easy to just sit back and vegetate…

So, this is where ABBA has played their part – four tracts, three times a week…roughly 20 minutes a time working up a sweat.  OK, I admit it’s only comes to about an hour a week, but it’s an hour a week of  exercise I wasn’t doing.

Even after a relatively short time, I feel the difference.  It’s helping to ease some of my spasticity, especially in my left arm, as well as loosening up my joints.  Even with this limited exercise, my stamina has improved – I feel it.

Also, I feel good after each session.  All in all, some ABBA and some DIY exercise is convenient and proving again  to be a beneficial combination!  The effort is worth it; and I’m quite likely to be healthier than many able-bodied people the same age or younger…

 

Do Minorities Need ‘Examples’ To Achieve Their Potential?

It seems that in today’s world it is a given that minorities need those of the same kind to achieve their potential in life.  I can see that there is some truth to this point of view; but it need not be the case.

I would argue that you don’t need ‘examples’. Yes, it might be nice to see those similar or like you.  However, don’t use the lack of ‘examples’ as a crutch or excuse for inaction.  As a minority, you will most likely always be a minority – a fact you can’t change.  Accept it and deal with it!

So, do you then revert to being a victim, or accept your situation, and make the most of it despite there being none or few others in your situation. I personally don’t see why there is the big need for ‘examples’ in the public eye like me.  You can lead a full life without seeing others like yourself.  I know, I’ve been there, done it!!  I think I have a valid point to make, speaking from a life-time of experience.

As a child in the 1960s, I went to an able-bodied primary school in Nigeria and Scotland.  I don’t remember any other disabled pupils.  At university in the US in the 1980s, it was the same.  I didn’t encounter any other disabled travellers when I back-packed through SE Asia, and across Australia, and the US in the 1980s.  Nor did I encounter any other disabled teachers in the 1990s and 2000s in the countries i taught in..  To be honest, it never crossed my mind that I didn’t see any others like me.  I was who I was, and I was simply doing what I wanted to do.

 

With the Will You Can Improve You Physical Condition

It’ll be seven years next month since my three concurrent operations on my left foot/ankle.  After the operations and seven weeks in yet another cast( oh, the fond memories of past casts – the first about fifty-five years ago!!!!)

I went from using a wheelchair to crutches to a walking stick.  I had to start walking from only a few hesitant ‘half-steps’ to normal strides now. When I started out on my road to recovery in 2013, I had no idea how much I would be able to improve.  I initially started on my own, then after a few months I started seeing a physio which helped enormously.  Even after all this time, and after all the effort, discomfort, and pain, there has been more improvement which I recently discovered when swimming.

As I said, I was not in a very good place in 2013, but I wanted to try to get some mobility back, and to see how much I could get back.  I also wanted to try to improve my general overall physical condition.  Of course, I could have decided to accept the condition I was in, but that never entered my mind.  So, I did what I could.  It was a very slow process, but the small improvement I saw and felt spurred me on to trying to improve further.  When I reflect on my condition in 2012/13 to today – it’s night and day!  I would like to see some more improvement, but if I don’t, I am happy with how far I’ve come.

I could have taken the easy way, and accepted my condition especially being in my 50s, but no, I picked myself up, and started again, as I’ve done after past surgeries. Easy? No, but it’s been worth it.  I only pushed myself to do more when I felt able to, not before.  This meant it has been a very slow process, but the correct one for me. I think I’ve done pretty well for someone who is now 61, dealing with getting older and a disability as well.  Aging and disability is a double whammy!

Underlying everything has been an acceptance of my situation, and working to improve it, however much or little this may be.  If you can’t accept a situation, you will have a hard time changing or improving it. I’m speaking from  a lifetime of experience.

 

 

 

Encouragement of Small Positive Steps

Most people would probably look to big improvements in difficult situations to feel encouraged eg. after surgery.  There’s certainly nothing wrong in this – big improvements are good.  However, encouragement from small positive steps are not to be discounted.  I can speak from a life time of taking encouragement from both big and small positive steps forward.

Becoming a disabled teacher with a stammer, teaching in different countries was a huge step for me. I built my confidence, and this encouraged me to continue when I might otherwise have given up.

At the opposite extreme is a recent move I’ve started to try to improve my health/physical condition by doing a little DIY exercise.  I’ve started doing some exercises/aerobics to ABBA tracts. Doing multiple sessions a week is not earth shattering, but I do feel the benefit of them.  I have also increased the length of each session which is another small step, but being able to do so, has given me encouragement of what is possible, even at almost 61!!!

Even just going back to 2012 when I had my operations of my ankle/foot, there have been both big and small improvements to make life easier which have given me encouragement.  I’m glad for all the improvements, be they big or small.  even the small ones can have a large impact over time.

Hard Copy or Kindle

I am a reader of both.  My taste in books is eclectic; I read whatever genres piqued my interest – history, current affairs, adventure, crime historical fiction… Being of a certain age, when Kindles appeared I was what some would say, a member of the ‘never a Kindle’ brigade. Reading in hard copy was only ‘real’ reading.

I have a good friend who travelled a lot for work, and had had a Kindle for a number of years. Doing some travelling myself, and seeing how convenient a Kindle can be, I decided to take the plunge, and bought one.

Yes, it is a different reading experience, but for me, no less valid than reading a hard copy for that.  In fact, in two ways, it’s a superior experience for me.  I find the dictionary facility adds to my reading experience; and I usually like to read two books at once.  I find being able to switch books on my Kindle is another big bonus.

I consider e-readers to be positive items of technology.  As much as I enjoy reading hard copies; I enjoy my Kindle(even more so as I recently upgraded to an Oasis). People have their own tastes in how they want to read.  I enjoy both.  For me, what is important is the fact of reading, whichever way you do so.  I do love my Oasis because of the reading experience it gives me.  I’m happy to have opened myself up to trying something new which has been a positive experience; and there will always be room for hard copies.

One Big Regret

I don’t have many regrets, but I do have one big regret, and it concerns my father.  He died 15 years ago.   The regret I have is not talking to him about his youth, and his life before I was born because his early life is interesting – well, I believe it is.  He was born a farmer’s son in Scotland, and ended up literally leaving a physical legacy in Nigeria – a dam he designed a led the construction of nearly 50 years ago and still operational.  I remember well him drawing up the plans at home in Nigeria.  I’ve got those plans here in Scotland.

Before he left farming he had his own agricultural repair business.  He also had  knowledge of crops and livestock.  He also designed simple agricultural equipment, which he put to good use in the Gold Coast/Ghana where he accepted a job in 1953.  He didn’t know what work he would be doing or where about he would be sent.  This was his first time abroad; he was sent to the far north, where my parents’ first home was four walls, a corrugated roof, and windows without glass.  Their food came once a month, from hundred of mile away, and if a river was in flood, it didn’t arrive!!   One of his first jobs was the building of earth dams. Going from being a farmer to the building of dams and designing farming equipment in Africa without any professional training.  In Nigeria my father expanded his work into other areas.

My father didn’t have any professional qualifications; he did finish secondary school, but no professional qualifications in civil construction, mechanical engineering, woodwork, electrics, watch repair or photography to name a few areas he had professional-level knowledge of.  He also gained his private pilot’s licence.  Now, I wish I had asked him how he gained all his deep expertise without formal training in any of these areas.  All his reading was of a technical nature; he wasn’t interested in literature.  He also played the organ.

It amazes me how my father gained the breadth of know-how/knowledge he had without formal training.  He just seemed to be able absorb information without effort, just by reading.  His knowledge wasn’t just superficial, it was deep.

Fortunately, he lived in a time when he didn’t need those formal professional qualifications to succeed, and succeed he did.  I can go on to Google Earth and see the institute he helped build, including his dam. I know his contribution because I was there.  I just wish I had talked to him, because he was an unassuming man of many talents.  If I had even a fraction of his knowledge, I would be happy.

Liking One’s Own Company

Having just returned from two months in Cyprus, I’m once again adjusting to enjoying my own company as I’ve no real friends at present here in Scotland.  I know I can take steps to meet people.

I really enjoy socializing but only with people I want to socialize with; I don’t like large groups of people.  One reason why I enjoy Cyprus is that I meet up with people I enjoy spending time with;  this mainly involves eating out, which I did a lot on this trip.  It helps that there is a good choice of restaurants, and prices are very reasonable.  So, I make the most of it when there.

However, all this changes when I return to Scotland.  Having recently moved  into a new flat which I’ve decorated and furnished to my own taste, I’m enjoying being back in it, back in  my own space, on my own.  I like being alone, doing what I want, when I want.  I’m basically a solitary person, but a happy one. One who likes to choose carefully  who they spend time with.

G-AKGK

This is G-AKGK, 60 years ago this past January, I was a very young passenger on this aircraft on BOAC’s London-Rome-Kano-Accra route; in 1959 this took just over 14 hours.  This was the first time being taken back to Africa for the first time as a nearly 4 month old baby!!  This was my second flight because in December 1958 I was taken back to Britain for the first time as a 3 month old baby!!  Now, it’s only a 6 hour direct flight from London to Accra.  I earliest memories of flying are from the 1960s,  still flying BOAC, but on their London-Lagos route using VC-10s; I also remember flying on BEA between Glasgow and London.  So, it’s with some nostalgia that I see the BOAC and BEA livery flying again as part of British Airways 100 year anniversary.  So, I’ve seen a few changes in international travel in my time, including the transition from travel by ship(not cruising) to mass travel by air.  Sailing between Britain and Nigeria by ship was a whole other experience – a two-week, one-way(with a stop in Las Palmas) experience!

Being the Victim

If I had seen myself as the victim of some unfair/unexplained event or conspiracy my life wouldn’t have been what it has been.  For on thing, I’d probably have spent my life on state benefits because I wouldn’t have been able to work.  Consequently, I would likely not have travelled very far afield.  Also, I may well not have thought myself able to live independently. I don’t think I would have developed the social skills I have over the years because I wouldn’t have had the opportunities to do so. Being a victim would not have helped instill a sense of independence to venture out of my comfort zone, and in so doing, grow as a person.  I’m almost certain that my stammer would not have improved as much as it did if I had been a victim; my independence, and venturing out of my comfort zone, improved my speech immeasurably.  It was very hard, but I did it.  If I had seen myself as a victim, I would have lived a life being consumed by other people’s opinions – what people thought of me, be it how I looked/walked or by how I spoke.

‘It Is What It Is, Make The Most Of It’

Let me get on my soapbox for a brief moment!  Today far too many people and groups are playing the victim card…Oh, all my problems, difficulties, and failures are because I’m a victim! Mmmm…let me tell you from my decades of personal experience, playing the victim would have got me nowhere.  In fact, not being the victim got me here, there, and a lot of place in between!!!!

I accepted that I had significant disabilities, but I always expected to get an education, go to university, and get a job, or jobs…and hopefully, abroad.  All these came to pass: I got an education; I did go to university(in fact in Florida, and Illinois); and got jobs in places diverse as Japan, Kenya, Taiwan, Turkey, Kuwait, Oman, and Saudi Arabia.  I also did a lot of solo travelling, including backpacking in Southeast Asia, Australasia, and across the United States.

I’m certain I would not have done just about everything I’ve done if I had played the victim card.  This would  have got me literally, nowhere – no jobs, nowhere.  I accepted my situation for what it was; and then tried to make the best of it.

‘It Is What It Is, Make The Best Of It’