@Dina
Oh dear. I'm feeling with you. I don't have hallux valgus myself, but I know some who do, including my mom. So I guess it'll come to me too, some day. Because it runs in families and I also have the kind of foot form which results to that some day.
But I do have the inflammation. It is annoying and it hurts. It is annoying because it hurts. But I have had good results by wearing the right shoes with extra soft soles and doing some of the things you mentioned. Also sometimes cooling the foot helps and sometimes warmth is better.
I'd like to not have to take ibuprofen for a longer period, because it does funny things with my blood pressure. So I try to get by without medication until it gets so bad that I have to take it again. Then I alternate between those causing low and high blood pressure, damaging my liver and damaging my kidneys, in the hope to give everything time to heal in between.
The Olympian Affair: I'm still just in chapter 3. The book is big and I can't take it with me everywhere as I would my kindle. My good friend made a crocheted bookmark for me. It's the form of a black and white cat and I made a picture of it while it was between the pages. And I told her how fitting it is especially for this book.
She should definitely read it, too.
Next week we will have a concert with our choir. It's the 30th anniversary. I am a member for 22 years now.
The kittens are still cute and fun to play with. Yesterday Mini's best friend was visiting and she was very shy and seemed a bit afraid of the cats, though she was looking forward to playing with them. They have a dog. She would like to have cats of her own, but her father is allergic, so we told her she could be godmother of our cats, lol. She's very proud of that.
personally I think young dogs can hurt you more when playing with you. Also depending on how strong they are and how tall you are, they can run you over. Ok, technically a cat can run you over too and they have very pointy teeth and claws, but it never happened to me. And they are usually much smaller than dogs. The rug rat races excluded.
There are some not so nice names for small dog races.
Like Trethupe:
If you step on the dog, there will be a honking sound.
Halbe Leberwurst: a half liver sausage (not sure if this one is official though, my dad used to say it)
Wadenbeißer: bites you into the calves, meaning the dog is so small, it can't reach further up.
There are no such names for cats though. At least I don't know any.
But imo there are less weird looking cat races than weird looking dog races. Except those without hair and those almost without noses. Poor things.
So maybe I'll read some more today. My favourite characters are Grimm, Benedict and Rowl. But I am generally not so addicted to books that constantly change between different characters. Just when I have adjusted to one, suddenly everything is from another's point of view. Makes it hard for me to stay in the flow of the story.