broken/mended - a new DJ mix

Last weekend, I finished and published my first DJ mix in over two and a half years. This post is to 1) tell you about the mix and 2) tell you why the completion of this mix is a significant event for me.

In September of 2006 through a combination of working too much and not looking after myself enough, I developed RSI in both my arms. I'd had some discomfort in my arms for a while, but rather than listening to my body (for reference, pain is one of your body's ways of telling you something) I continued working and did perhaps the three hardest weeks of work I've done yet in my life. When the work was completed and the adrenalin cleared out of my system I realised that my arms really hurt a lot, all of the time.

The doctor diagnosed me with bi-lateral epicondylosis (aka tennis elbow in both arms), prescribed anti-inflammatories and rest, signed me off work and told me I'd be feeling much better in a week. After a week, there was no change, and the doctor moved me up onto diclofenac and signed me of for longer. At this point, everything hurt; getting dressed, washing my hair, opening doors, driving... I couldn't chop vegetables, lift heavy things, type, play video games - in the 12 weeks I spent signed off work my life became increasingly defined by things that I couldn't do. In fact, May became so fed up with taking the brunt of the housework while I was unable that she pretty quickly went out and bought us a dishwasher.

I remained on the diclofenac and started seeing a physiotherapist who turned out to be ex-Army. He put me on a program of regular icing (20 mins ice, then rest) and delivered some brutally painful massage. In January 2007 I returned to work on partial hours and started using Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice recognition software instead of typing. By this point, my physio was unhappy with my rate of progress and referred me back to my GP who prescribed steroid injections into both of my elbows. I had these done two weeks apart and just as things were starting to look up I was involved in a car crash which significantly worsened my symptoms.

Shortly after my accident, my ex-Army physio emigrated to Australia, leaving me searching for someone new. I called BUPA and asked to see a physio specialising in forearms which led me to my current physio Sam (yep, from the acupunture story). On my first appointment with her I rather meanly said "I've been told you're a forearm specialist, is that a true statement?" to which she responded "No, I'm a general physio. I suggest that I perform your assessment today and if you're unhappy with me after that I'll refer you to someone else"; great answer. Meeting Sam was a pivotal moment in my recovery as she identified the cause of my problems (restricted movement in my neck causing inflammation of the nerves in my forearms) and started addressing them, as opposed to the ex-Army physio who was just treating the symptoms.

Since then, I've been gradually piecing my life back together and shifting the balance from being defined by things I can't do back to things that I can do - which brings me round in a rambling way to highlight the significance of being able to release a new DJ mix. Putting a mix together in Ableton involves some intensive computer time, and mindful of my tendency to get deeply engrossed in the process, I've been too terrified to start work on a mix for fear of setting back my recovery. Unfortunately I require my arms for my livelihood, so recreational computing has had to take second place.

At the beginning of April, I finally plucked up the courage to start a new mix with the confidence that it would not interfere with my health. Spurred on by my brother's request for a new breaks mix to run to (he'd been using my Air Breaks mix as his soundtrack for a long time!) I produced broken/mended; hopefully the reason behind the titling is clear. Throughout my illness, I continued buying tunes from Beatportand Juno Download and so had quietly amassed a rich seam of quality dance music to mine; I expect this to be the first of a series of comeback mixes.

Broken/mended underwent five revisions before I finally finished it, with some severe nitpicking in the order of the tracks and the addition of more cowbell, crash symbols and square waves. This was mostly as a result of Morcs complaining that the 2nd half of the mix had "nonce-le-ponce singing about the future", which was his way of saying it was getting a little too soft. I'm really pleased with the final result, and for your interest I've included a screenshot of the finished mix as produced in Ableton. The red line is the BPM which as you can see varies between 134 and 146 - hopefully good for the exercise crew.

It's ended up being a full-on, no holds barred rave-tinged electro breakbeat mix filled with big synths, squelchy bass lines, huge drum rolls, crash symbols and cowbells. Please give it a download and a listen, then let me know what you think - I hope you enjoy it.

The myth of cross country skiing

I recently enjoyed a winter holiday in Austria. Before I went, I was surprised to find that most people who asked what I was going to be doing reacted with mild horror when I told them I would be cross country skiing. "Cross country? Isn't that incredibly tiring? Doesn't sound like much of a holiday" etc. I was doing classic style cross country, where you ski in cut tracks as opposed to the skating style which is more like what you see in the Olympics. As you're skiing in tracks, you only have to concentrate on forward movement which is a handy benefit given that your skis are about 2" wide and for anyone with downhill skiing experience a little tricky to find an edge on. To go with the super light, 2" wide skis, you also get very comfortable boots that clip into the skis only at the front. This is awesome because the gear is very manageable, but it also means that you can fall over in pretty much any direction you can imagine.

The myth I want to dispel is that you have to be incredibly fit to cross country ski. It's no different from anything else really, you perform it to your level, wherever that level may be. I can go for a run, you can go for a run, Gordon Brown can go for a run and Usain Bolt can go for a run; we're all running - just each to our own level of fitness. For me, that means when I cross country ski I enjoy nice little breaks where I can take in the scenery. This is a great benefit of cross country skiing over downhill, as you move a lot slower (we averaged around 6km/h) and can really appreciate your surroundings. The motion required for classic cross country is similar to ice skating/rollerblading; you have to transfer your weight from foot to foot, first propelling yourself with the weighted foot and then gliding on it as you transfer your weight. Because this requires quite a lot of co-ordination, another benefit is that it's atually quite hard to think about anything other than propelling yourself, listening to the swish of the skis and enjoying the scenery. Any worries or stresses quickly evaporate leaving you with a rare, and pleasurably clear mind.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's easy, but it's certainly not as hard as you might think. The max we skied in a day was about 15km, which took about 2.5 hours, and the last 2km of that were pretty painful. Another observation is that I seem to have got into cross country about 20 years earlier than most people; it seems to be a sport for 40-60 year olds. This is pretty inspiring because by the time I reach that age, I should be an amazing cross country skier, but it's a bit irritating when you're brutally over taken by a lycra clad, silver haired blur.

You can watch my holiday video below, perhaps it will inspire you to give cross country a go the next time you get the opportunity. I highly recommend it.

The continental European approach to nakedness

I've just got back from a holiday in Seefeld in Austria, where we stayed at the Alpenpark hotel. One of the reasons we chose the Alpenpark, apart from being the #1 TripAdvisor hotel in Seefeld, was for its spa facilities, including the recently-built adult spa. The adult spa contains an excellently hot sauna, water beds, a steam room and a brine pool, and as in many other mainland European countries, swimwear is verboten and the facility is mixed male and female.

In the UK, we don't generally seem to cope very well with the concept of communal nudity, and although I don't personally have a problem with it, spotting other Brits on holiday was easy by their innate awkwardness. I think that the rest of Europe have the right idea here, as in the UK there seems to be a tendency to be shy of and unhappy with our bodies. I’ve seen other Brits abroad confronted with the prospect of a naked sauna flatly refuse to enter, seemingly having hot flushes of shame just contemplating being nude in company. I've saunaed in Germany, Austria, Italy and Finland where swimwear is typically forbidden and because that is the norm, people just get on with it. It’s not like everyone sits there, legs akimbo, with everything on display as it were, or even that people stare at you. I can't be certain, but I suspect that the net result of this social acceptance of nudity is that continental Europeans have a healthier body image than us Brits do, which I think is both enviable and desirable.

The one part that I did struggle with a little was chatting to people that you've met outside of the sauna, at dinner perhaps, in the sauna when you're both nude. That still seemed a bit weird and there's an interesting challenge of where you can look without being too rude. Also, I think because as a Brit it's not a common situation you find yourself in, there's still a bit of a voyeuristic thrill at seeing so many naked bodies, but I appreciate that could just be me.

So to summarise, next time you get the opportunity to swim or sauna in the nude, don’t be bashful and give it a go. Once you overcome the initial weirdness, it’s quite freeing to be naked in company and realise that no one really cares. Who knows, it might do wonders for your body image.