For the sake of mind and body

 This past week has seen the arrival of various goodies for mind and body!


First the Guardian Weekly newspaper arrived, the first one since I took out the subscriptin in January.

Next to arrive  was the box of second hand paperbacks I left with friends Paul and Gill to post This arrived intact as you can see. I'd thought it would be good to test the postal system with something that didn't matter too much if it never arrived. As it happens it survived amazingly well so I now have even more reading material and ones I can do some swaps with the other VSO volunteers hereabouts.

Then this morning a real treat, a goodies box sent by my friend Helen.  A real mixture - what you don't see in this picture is the amazing packing job she did, each item was individually wrapped in bubble wrap! The woman is a star! The Oatcakes haven't even crumbled! What with Muesli bars and tins of fish my diet over the next few weeks will  be a bit different.


Before you ask , the face atop the pile is a soft ball for exercising my wrist as the soft tissue repairs after the break. Time and patience heals!

Here in Orissa, I  am back to spending most of my time barefoot. In fact the only time I have anything on my feet it is flip flops as I wak to and from work, and actually I could probably do it barefoot now. The soles of my feet have toughened up again. They were beginning to return to the soft western soles of their origin last year. So far I am doing OK with them, Other volunteers report terrible probems as skin adjust, with bleeding cuts - yuck! For me,. the "râpé" stage as Ahmed calls it where the skins shreds and peels past without to much trouble, although I still get some cracks at the heals which fill up with dirt really easily and look totally unsightly! I love that turn of phrase, râpé, from the French for a grater, so descriptive!
Anyway back to my feet - I indulge them. They need to get washed at least once a day, over and above the normal everyday showering that one does. But even a good wash never gets the dirt out, they still look  mucky. So twice a week they get a real going over, a hot water soak, a scrub down, and a massage with foot cream.  That will probably increase in frequency as the weather changes. So Helen's other goodies were for my feet - cream, nail files and a fantastic looking foot scrubber/scraper which I can't wait to use.

So in total from these 3 deliveries real treats awaits my feet, my tummy and my mind! Now I wonder what else needs a bit of pampering? :)