Do you have pain in the soles of your feet?

A few months ago, I slipped and fell twice on the morning ice in winter.  I thought all I had was 2 sprained feet (still went to work) but now the pain had gotten worst so I resorted to seeing a Chinese doctor who is also an acupuncture expert.  The first thing she said to me was I had very poor blood circulation in my feet.  No wonder I always had extremely cold feet and could never seem to get them warm so I end up wearing socks to bed as most old houses in NZ do not have central heating.  

Not only did she tell tell me that I had poor blood circulation but also my pain in the heel part on the soles of my feet when I put pressure (like walking!) on them is also due to my sciatica which I had for years.  I did not even think that my falls were that bad.  Anyways, the 2 treatments I had seemed to be working but I still have a lot more to go.  All I am hoping for is the pain to disappear in the near future so I can go back to enjoy my walks while doing window shopping!!!

It has been quite a few years since I had acupuncture done and I do believe they work on chronic aches and pains.  However, I was a bit surprised that now they have also attached some electric current to stimulate the points and speed up the process.  I am not a newcomer to passing electric currents through my body as I had that done for my sciatica years ago.

I cannot wait for the day when I can walk pain free.....

Visit to a NZ sheep farm

Jo-Ann with Mower the Mohair goat with some sheep in the background

Our friend, Winnie, with the mother sheep and 2 day old lamb

In between our competitions we had some free time where we went to a sheep farm as my daughter has never been to a real farm in her young life so I thought it would be a good experience!

She decided after the visit that she does not like farm life as she was all squeamish at the amount of mud, poohs and some dirty animals (after a full rainy day before!) in a farm.  The only spark in that visit was "Mower" the Mohair goat they had!  She was tied up but she hated Murphy the town dog who was there on a short holiday while his 'mum and dad' are off on a vacation.  Mower kept chasing after Murphy each time he passed in front of her so that was really hilarious as Murphy was so hyper jumping into the pond and out despite the cold water.  The 2 black swans in the pond just ignored Murphy while the white duck was more cautious.  

I also learnt that a lot of farmers are switching to dairy farms due to the high price of diary products where each cow is worth about $2000.  However, the sheep farmers do not like the diary farmers as apparently the diary farms are polluting the rivers with their discharge.  Diary farms are more work because of the twice daily milking that needs to be done but the returns are high with the current milk prices.

It is nice to be in Southland as the people are generally friendlier and that was what struck the Aucklanders the most about how life is more relaxed and people are not stressed or in a hurry to get anything done!  The small town of Gore welcomed the 500 odd people who visited Gore during the Figure Skating Nationals as all the visitors are always hungry and in search of food all the time!  The small town does have Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut but too small to have a MacDonald's.  I think the nearest big M is in Invercargill about 45 minutes drive away.

NZ Figure Skating Naitonals

We have just returned from my daughter's NZ Figure Skating Nationals in a little southern town called Gore, famous for its country music and brown trout.

It is amazing how the standards keep improving every year so the competition gets tougher and tougher.  It is also nice to catch up with skaters from the North Island whom we see once a year at the nationals.  My girl came in 5th in her grade but she still maintained her position as the top skater from the south.

This is the first time that we have professional sports photographers taking photos so I purchased my daughter's and it is good to see her shots and she can also see her actual posture and if they meet the standards.....