It's been an expensive start to 2026. First my car needed 4 new tyres, followed by a full service, then some new front suspension parts and a replacement steering rack. That little lot came to £ouch! but the result was good until we went to the local Aldi for some bits and some dear soul keyed the side of my car, more expense, Ggrrr!
While and in between the work that was going on with the car we took off to Budapest for a river cruise on the Danube, which got me thinking how we take mobility for granted. We drove to the airport, walked in from the car park, boarded a plane and flew to Budapest where we jumped on a coach transfer to the moored up boat. That night it set off up the Danube and over the week we visited towns and cities along the river - Bratislava, Krems, Passau, Linz, Vienna and back to Budapest. These visits involved lots of walking plus the use of metro and trams. Since returning back home I've been out and about on both my Kawasaki Z650RS motorbike (51 miles) and my e-bike (34 miles over 2 trips). In all that's a whole heap of miles and variety of transport modes.
All the above has been achieved while suffering probably the longest and worst period of health in my 70 years on planet earth, no details but I have a way to go to get out from being under both my doctor and the local general hospital. It would have been better if both had started with some real analysis instead of just making assumptions and prescribing three courses of antibiotics when the first 2 were totally ineffectual leaving me now on a long term antibiotic for an as yet unspecified period of several months. Apparently my infection is very rare (like 1 in 100,000) and more serious due to the 3 week delay in getting their correct diagnosis.
But life goes on and I am still vertical and breathing, every day is a bonus.
