I know I went off-grid for nearly a year. School was stressful. Life was stressful. I just lost the writing plot. So here is what my last 9 months have looked like.

We spent August – April in a marina so that Alan could work and I could attend university. I was only going part-time but living within a reasonable distance was important. Also, I am not a big fan of muddy towpaths and trekking miles for my essentials when it is cold. I am also not a fan of it being cold but that I couldn’t avoid in the UK. So we weren’t going anywhere to show any new and interesting places.

University was part-time but still stressful. The first semester was better than the second as I only had one class and I generally manage to focus better in the autumn but that didn’t make it easy. The second semester I was doing three classes. One was 20 credits and the other two were 10 credits each. The teacher of one of them only held like 2 lectures and otherwise left us to figure it out ourselves. That one luckily was not complicated and the workload was reasonable. The other 10 credit class had more work than even the 20 credit class, was almost entirely based on a group project, and was the biggest waste of my time having learned nothing particularly useful from the class. Worse yet is that I was in a massively heightened state of anxiety for about 3 months due to group projects in two out of three classes. I did not find my university experience terribly enjoyable.

In September I was training for a half-marathon. Due to last summer’s injuries, I decided to walk the half so the training was simply walking the route to be prepared on the day. All went well and we walked the whole distance in 5 hours or so. At the very end I noticed my right leg around my knee was tight and niggly. Now understand that I had noticed some tightness in my leg through the end of summer but i just assumed it was standing at the back of the boat in the heat and I just needed hydration and maybe extra electrolytes. On the day of that walk I was hydrated and I had been using the electrolytes to make sure my body was ready. I felt good going into it and only slightly niggly after. I was ok but the stiffness was still there for the next couple weeks. I ran a parkrun and was feeling good until I got to my in laws house and I couldn’t put weight on my right leg. This continued to one level or another until spring.

From around Christmas break until May my leg was getting better and stronger. My balance was just about normal and I was walking a bit more each day. There were a few busy days when the stiffness seemed worse again but I was sure it was getting better; then I overdid it on May 1st with 6 miles of walking/running and by the end of the day my balance was gone and my leg screaming. It stayed that way for a couple weeks while I finished all my studies and we left the marina for our summer cruising. The leg is better now. I still have pain straightening it out and some numbness and weakness when I have walked too much. I can manage a mile or so now but at times this last year walking to and from the car was too much so that is why I haven’t managed any walking posts.

So why no cruising videos if we have been out since May? I just needed a break from everything. My stress and anxiety have been so high at just the times that my leg troubles have flared up the most that I feel like they may well be related. So though we are actively boating I am also resting. We have managed a few nice pictures though and I will share them as best I can. I think I will try to do some sort of post about our cruising so far as it has been enjoyable. We have been on new to us canals and met one of our favourite narrowboating Youtubers.

One last important bit of information. This will be our last summer on The Nut House. Circumstances have changed and we are needed to take over the family home. So in the autumn or possibly late summer depending on how things go we will be moving into an old Georgian cottage. The Nut House will be going up for sale as well because we cannot afford to maintain the house and the boat. It is sad but at least we did get a short adventure before getting back to ‘normal’ life again.

Sorry about disappearing for so very long. It was never the intention. It is just that sometimes it all just gets a bit much and something has to give.