but she's too rough and I'm too delicate....

I'm pretty sure that, when I was a younger man, I didn't have conversations with sales assistants.

Well, OK.... I did have conversations with sales assistants.  On my better days and if conditions were absolutely perfect.  I just didn't have conversations with sales assistants where we compared notes about our various ailments and our complicated strategies for managing them.

It turns out that Claire suffers from plantar fasciitis too, and she was very impressed that I was disciplined enough to follow a strict stretching and icing routine. Well, I said. It hurts less when I do these things, so I'll do them until it stops hurting. At which point, of course, I'll stop doing them immediately. She told me about the homemade sock she'd made with elastic on the toe to stretch her tendon out, but that it was an unsatisfactory arrangement. I was able to wholeheartedly recommend the strassburg sock as a relatively inexpensive way of managing this and reducing your early morning pain. Available on Amazon, ladies and gentlemen. You could have one of your very own by teatime tomorrow if you order in the next 14 minutes.

Yes, so it was a running shop, and it was just after a hill interval training session with running club... but still, talking about how you ice your tendons, roll your calves and wear an attractive remedial sock in bed are not exactly the conversational gambits of a 20 year old, are they?

I am so old and broken.

You can sponsor me here though, eh folks.....