The cost of staying healthy

I had an appointment at the doctors this morning to talk over what vaccines I was going to need for Tanzania. I hadn't been expecting a chat. I'd been expecting to come out feeling like a pin cushion but sadly no; things are a little more complicated than that.

Thankfully I'm up to date with most of the compulsory vaccines like Diptheria, Hep A, Tetanus and Typhoid but I'm lacking in Yellow Fever and a few other "suggested" vaccines. Sadly everything I need costs money as it's not available on NHS. I think they need to find a way to break this to you a bit more gently. If I just get Yellow Fever and Malaria tablets it's going to cost me around £120. If I add onto that all the vaccines that are suggested but not compulsory like Rabies, Cholera and Hep B then I'll be adding another £200 onto that.

I didn't realise doing something for charity was going to cost me so much money! Anyway I'll be able to stagger the cost but will almost certainly go for the additional Hep B (the most expensive of the optional vaccines).

In other news I only managed to get to the gym once last week but did do a 12.5 mile walk with Shruti at the weekend in the heat, culminating in some bruises because my boots were laced too tight and I didn't notice. I got to put into practice some of my newly acquired map reading skills and managed to not get us lost. I also bought a bike. I didn't really mean to buy a bike, I'd just intended to get the old one fixed up but it was going to cost me almost as much to fix it as get a brand new one so I figured it was worth while. Plus I now realise how rubbish the old one was. I'm now happily sailing around Crowthorne and getting in more exercise. This cannot be a bad thing.

I also got my race kit in the post for the 10k race at Bluewater on June 14th. It included a technical t-shirt which feels wonderful to wear but is bright orange. At least I'll be seen I guess. So this week the focus is on getting out on the bike and for a few runs. Also I need to get over my doubts about my fundraising capabilities.

I'm really having serious doubts about all this now...