owww

well the year is almost over and today i was given a big hint that old age is finally beginning to catch up with me.
where i work there is a big car park and it is a bit of a fag to walk around the outside of it when the door to the office is only 50 feet or so away from the fence. the pavement by the office is higher than the carpark itself. luckily there is a strategic gas shed right by the fence and it is a relatively easy job to climb the over the fence, step onto the shed and jump to the ground and walk to the office door. it shaves a couple of minutes off of the journey into work and when you are as late as i often am that is a good thing to do.
while i have never been elegant in my movement there was a time when i was quite supple and agile (stop laughing paul), but that was back in the day of regular running, regular martial arts and playing rugby.
these days the closest i get to exercise is the occassional huff and puff for the bus.
plus my terrible love of cream cakes means that i may have stopped growing upward but like the universe i seem to have no trouble expanding.

so back to the fence.
my climbing over is not a pretty sight, it is not filled with fluid balletic movements - oh no. it is a brutal thing to watch. often i get looks that say "what on earth are you doing up there you old man....." but still i continue.

today i was in work early, even so over the fence i go.
up, leg over, stop, get a grip, steady myself, other leg over, leg down onto the shed, other leg down onto the shed..... oh my good googlymoogly that was the moment my knee when POP. all day i have been feeling the knee just being wrong.... i have limped like some hip hop singer.
all bloody day my knee has been crying out to me "don't be stupid from now on old man - you are not built for climbing over fences......"

tomorrow is another day and i am going to give the fence one more go. lets see if the knee can do it.
looks like 2006 is starting with me knowing i am getting old and haggard.