It’s All Going Downhill Now !!

Thursday 9th July (Day 119 of 236)

It has been a couple of weeks since I last had anything to write about, but I guess that’s the way it goes when part of your life is spent working. My last ramblings ended with me about to go to the Doctors to have a ‘Steroid’ injection in my elbow and oh what a saga this is turning into. Unfortunately, the appointment was on the first day of our extended period off, the information I had received was that after the injection I would not be feeling too great so would probably just be lounging around feeling sorry for myself, so rather than both of us wasting this valuable time off, Shazza decided to use the opportunity to drive down to Doncaster to visit her Mum where she could at least spend a couple of nights. This would be the first time in nineteen months that we would have been apart but they do say that “Absence makes the heart grow fonder“, I don’t know who thought up that particular saying but in my book if you need to be apart to realise how much you love someone then perhaps you need to review the relationship altogether !! or perhaps I am just being a Mr Grumpy Head, the reasons for which may become apparent a little later. Anyway, I waved Shazza off on the Sunday afternoon, was that a tear in my eye or a spec of sand blown in off the nearby beach ?

I had made the Doctors appointment for early Monday morning, if I was going to suffer for twenty-four hours then let’s get it over and done with in one day rather than over two. I first had my Nurses appointment, remember that after my health checks ‘they‘ had predicted that I had a 29% risk of having a heart attack and they wanted to discuss the results, well actually they wanted to tell me to stop smoking as this would reduce that risk by a further 50%, all of my ‘other’ checks had come back all okay !! Now of course they are right, but will this stop me from having the occasional cigarette, I say occasional, I have reduced my daily addiction by 50% and am now down to only ten a day, of course it won’t make me stop, but all in my good own time I may just decide that ‘I’ want to quit. However, I have yet again digressed, nothing new there then, I had been dreading having this injection, well actually, to be honest it was more the after effects I wasn’t looking forward to. You know what it’s like, the actual dread starts the evening before as you start to think about it, it was on my mind the following morning as I walked to the surgery but to make matters even worse, I sat in the waiting room and waited, and waited, the time of my appointment came and went. I remember thinking ‘How can they be running late this early in the morning ?‘. Thirty minutes after my appointment time I was called and tentatively I made my way along the narrow corridor for my appointment, with what my imagination had conjured up was a picture of a very large and thick needle.

My appointment was with a different Doctor from the one who had initially diagnosed the ‘Golfers Elbow’, he asked me to explain how the injury had occurred and then to explain exactly where I felt the discomfort, a bit different to the two-minute original consultation and subsequent diagnosis ! He then proceeded to examine my arm and elbow and announced that in his opinion this was not ‘Golfers Elbow’ and that giving a Steroid Injection for something that it wasn’t could actually lead to bigger problems. However, he was not certain of what it was, there were three possibilities and he listed them in order of seriousness, a fracture, a damaged radial nerve or a strained tendon, but only an X-Ray would confirm which it was, or wasn’t, as the case may be. So, there was some relief, on my part, that I wasn’t going to suffer an injection into my elbow or the dreaded after effects, however, now I had to go straight to the hospital to have an X-Ray. So, to cut an already long story short, the X-Ray fortunately revealed no sign of a fracture but I had damaged the radial nerve and needed ‘urgent physiotherapy’ and if that didn’t work, an operation on my arm !! Now I just had to wait for the physiotherapy appointment to be made.

I telephoned Shazza and gave her the news and then settled down to enjoy the rest of my time off, alone. We are situated in such a great location on the Campsite, right at the front with a Wonderful sea view.

There are currently a pod of Dolphins just out to sea beyond the lighthouse, whilst I have been working I have seen the occasional splash as they leap out of the water, unfortunately my eyes are not that great so it is difficult for me to see them properly. Some of our campsite residents have been able to watch them through binoculars though and it has, I think, helped make their camping break a little more enjoyable, especially as we also have Seals swim into the Estuary at High Tide and they can be viewed close up from the old roman road bridge, with that, a resident Heron and around one hundred Swans I guess it is quite an experience for those that live in Towns away from the Coast. For me, I often sit of an evening, after work, and just enjoy listening to the sounds from the Sea and occasionally, just as a treat, as I am sat looking out, something worth photographing turns up.

The Air Sea Rescue helicopter !!

A Square Rigger !!

A small(ish) Dutch Freight ship leaving Spittal Docks

It’s a very narrow channel of water between the ‘Sand Spit’ and the Harbour Wall !!

The ‘Pilot’ Boat

The ‘New’ and the ‘Old’

So, all good things have to come to an end, or so the saying goes, and No ! I am most definitely not referring to the end of my period of relaxation, peace and quiet without my beloved who I obviously missed every minute of every day that she was away from my side, No, I refer to the end of yet another period of time off. The following week passed relatively quickly, we may not have shared the frazzling temperatures of some locations further South but we shared some of the rain, thunder and lightning, is that really fair ? I had another Skype video chat with my daughter in Australia, it’s so good to be able to keep in touch, I think I see her more now than when she was living in this Country. She has finally received her formal bit of paper that declares that she is a ‘Doctor of Philosophy‘…..

We are now excitedly awaiting news about the impending arrival of our twin granddaughters, now just a matter of weeks as opposed to months !!

Wednesday the 8th of July arrived, a very important day for us physcologically. You know what it’s like when you start to walk up a mountain, you know that when you reach the peak, although it may be the same distance down again, each downward step brings you that bit closer to the end. Well, we had just reached our ‘peak‘, our half way point and now each day would bring us closer to the end of this year’s season and to getting to actually spend Winter in our newly acquired Spanish Apartment, Yes, ‘It’s All Going Downhill Now‘ !!

The day after reaching our peak was actually a full day off and we celebrated in the only way we knew how, we went on a nine mile Shazza Expedition !! We are within walking distance of the ‘Coastal Route’, note I didn’t say ‘footpath’ as this is also one of the National Cycle Routes, not quite suitable for our Electric Bikes, which incidentally we have now decided to sell and replace them with ‘Hybrid Bicycles’, although we haven’t got around to advertising them yet. It was good to have a nice dry day and although it was a little overcast when we started our walk it brightened up and the sun made a most welcome appearance.

Spectacular views !!

We had some company but they were busy eating lunch !

The main ‘East Coast’ railway line runs alongside the Coastal Route for some of the way.

Very moody skies make for dramatic views

It was tempting but we already had our own picnic !

I said to Shazza “Do you think it’s stalking us ?” She replied “Don’t be stupid it’s a Heron” !!!!!!

In the foreground, Spittal Promenade with Berwick in the background, nearly back home again !!

So, another day off gone but, Day 119 completed only 117 to go !! Next outing……….. A repair on ‘Big Mommas’ Fridge combined with a sightseeing trip of the ‘Pink Panther’s’ home town ?