I've been really quite ill recently. Between the nausea, mental fatigue and muscle aches I just haven't been up to doing much. When I find myself in the low point of the cycle that is SIBO, it's hard to snap out of it as certain symptoms overlap and react with each other conspiring to keep me in bed or wrapped up in a mental fog in the apartment. However, this morning was one of those magic moments where I woke up and everything had faded into a background hum. The nausea was almost none-existent and I had this huge need to get up and out. It felt wonderful. Add to all this that the sun has been blazing in the sky for the last week and I just had to get up and out on my bike, without any breakfast and the chance of food ruining the energy levels.
I've been prepping myself mentally over the last few days for a three week course of treatment I'm going to have to start soon. Although this treatment could help solve my condition, I've been worrying as it is an extreme three week powdered diet of amino acids, monosaccharides (simple carb form), fatty acids and essential vitamins/minerals. It is called the elemental diet and I will write a full blog about this treatment and its application soon.
So it felt like a godsend when my energy levels lifted and I could exercise some of these worries away with a bike ride in the sun.
I took the long route via the supermarket to buy some bits as I'm still waiting on the prescription, then through the park and back into the city center along the river. I also managed to film some of the #Seven77 daily push-up videos I've been doing to promote steem prior to this treatment in case it knocks me out.
The bike ride was lovely and all in all I got 9 push up videos filmed. But as I rode back into town after the 9 mile ride I suddenly remembered a recommendation that a friend made for a great spot to check out for street art.
Visiting any skate park always makes me nostalgic for my misspent youth. I used to carve mini-ramps like these and kick flips down stairs in my younger days. Various skate related injuries meant I had to stop and nowadays I can barely stay on the board if I try to drop in off a ramp.
Luckily there were no skaters around to tempt me to try and have a go on one of their boards lol. This left me free to concentrate on the street art and gave me the space to look at it from as many different angles as possible.
Ever since getting a half decent phone I've started looking at a locations like this through the perspective of the photographic lens. I'm not that great in my composition yet, but in approaching a subject that you really like, composition seems to flow naturally. I've always loved graffiti art and this turned out to be the perfect break before tackling the final hill past the cathedral to make it home.
Sometimes nostalgia can be just the ticket. It is coming up to the 4 year anniversary of my best friend's death and it's at times like this that living in Liverpool can feel a bit heavy. Good and bad memories way down the mind somewhat. Thoughts of what could have - should have- been.
But hanging around in that skate park sparked memories of a time before I'd met my my late friend Matt. A time of insane youth; beer and spliffs on the concrete coping before dropping in hell for leather. Hitting transitions as fast as I could to feel that wonderful weightlessness as I lost myself to the sky. Grabbing the board boneless in a method grab to feel that washing machine feeling in my stomach as I judged the drop back to slope.
Those memories reminded me how transitory life really is. Through the lens of memory there seem to be distinct episodes as you get older. If Matt were still alive he'd say: 'enjoy each episode fully and get on with the next when it's over.'
Great advice!
Thanks for reading.
All pictures are my own property, taken today on my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. For more street art check out these posts:
Travel at Home - Liverpool Docks, Dereliction & Gentrification
Liverpool - So Much More than Just the Beatles
