j_lj

 I belong to two Civil War reenactment groups.  The Norfolke Trayned Bandes and Little Woodham.

The Norfolks have a strong connection to Bullace Farm and many of them spend a week there every year as volunteers.  This year, the volunteers from LIttle Woodham are visiting the farm for a day.

I really really want to be there, but it's a three hour trip on a mini bus, and three hours back again.  And I'm paranoid about long journeys.  I've had three really bad (lasting more than two months) of sciatica in the last few years, and two of them were triggered by long journeys.

If you've ever had sciatica, you'll know just how painful it is.  If you haven't, all I can tell you is that it's the most painful health condition I've had in my life and it can leave you pretty much immobilised for the duration.

The last bad attack was triggered by a long train journey.   I chose train rather than car, as I knew I'd be able to get up and walk round at intervals, but sadly, even that and doing tai chi at stations when there were changes, wasn't enough.

By the time I got home I was in agony.  My husband picked me up at the station, and I didn't do any journeys after that for quite some time. Even the short distance to physio appointments had to be done lying on the back seat of the car.  Sitting upright was't an option, even for five minutes.

Over the next couple of months, I worked my way through three different physios who all agreed that I needed an operation (to be fair, my original bout of sciatica a few years before HAD needed an operation), until, finally, Manfred came back to England (he has an elderly parent in the Netherlands).  I walked in with all my weight on my walking stick, and walked out without the stick.

Took a couple of weeks to finish off the job, but that man is a miracle worker.  (He correctly identified the cause of my previous bout of sciatica, as well.)

Ah well, to cut a long story short, I shall not go to Bullace Farm, even though  I madly want to.

If you want to know what the farm is like, watch Tales From the Green Valley.