Yesterday at lunch, I wandered across the street at work to a small park that has a duck pond. I was going to go sit by the pond for a few minutes and watch the ducks, which is nice and restful. There is a creek between the road and the pond, which I just normally hop over instead of walking down to the vehicle bridge and back. Yesterday though, there was a new fence that made the narrowest part of the creek inaccessable. So I jumped over at a wider part of the creek. As I landed on the other side, I heard a crunch as my left foot twisted sideways. That sort of hurt. So I hobbled over to the pond and sat down.

By that time (just a minute later), my ankle had swollen up to the size of a hacky sack. I figured I had best get some ice on it, so I limped back to the office (the long way around over the vehicle bridge), and found some "instant ice" in the first aid kit. (The instant ice contained a liquid plus solid beads, that when mixed together caused an endothermic chemical reaction and got cold. I'd never had to use that before.) I iced my ankle and kept it elevated for the rest of the day.

Today I went to the doctor. Here in New Zealand, all kinds of accidental injuries are covered by Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), which makes medical treatment for accidents essentially free (they're paid for through taxes). The doctor said that it was probably a minor sprain, and gave me a referral to see a physiotherapist (which also will be free). It's good to be able to get patched up under proper medical care without having to worry about whether you can afford it.

Anyway, my ankle still hurts a bit to walk on so I've been doing a lot of hopping. It turns out that I can hop on one foot faster than normal walking speed! I can stand on it right now but it doesn't like to bend certain ways, but I should be able to at least walk on it again reasonably soon. This weekend, however, I'm planted on the futon with my foot up on a pillow.

I'm kind of bummed out because I can no longer do any of the following until my ankle heals:

• Walk
• Hike
• Tae kwon-do
• Ride my bike
• Fly gliders

That pretty much encompasses all of my non-work non-computer related activities these days. Hopefully I will be able to resume some of these as my ankle gets better. We're well into spring here in NZ and the weather is great. I don't really want to be stuck inside too much.