A Slight Mishap.

This morning I had an appointment to see the nurse at the surgery following an incident on Monday. We were clearing the last room of the bungalow which was the worst affected room. Years of a leaking roof even before the place was closed up for a year had resulted in various kinds of growths on the walls and carpet. We aimed a lot of air freshener into the room before we even went inside and wore face masks. I had been cutting up the carpet and been very careful with the Stanley knife I was using. To clear some more space I joined Peter in breaking up the furniture. Being good quality old style cupboards they didn't fall apart after a quick blow with a hammer unlike modern stuff which would. As I hammered a chisel into a join the cupboard came apart which was good. Not so good was the fact that one panel fell back onto my shin. The board was covered on all sides with white laminate? which made the edge very sharp. It scraped down my shin peeling off a section of skin roughly 1 1/2" x 1" and causing more grazes on the way down. I was so shocked to see a section of white tissue that I instinctively put my hand over the area. Yes the hand still clad in a dirty work glove. I hobbled to the kitchen where I wiped all around the scrape then folded a tissue and fixed it in place with plasters as I didn't have one big enough. I then walked limped down to the doctors' surgery which was not far away passing the pharmacy which was closed for lunch. I asked the receptionist if there was somebody who could look at and dress the scrape but apparently there was no one there to do it. The receptionist said if I needed stitches or it was serious I should take myself to the hospital 7 miles away. As if I needed the A&E department! She did say the pharmacy would re-open in a quarter of an hour so I ate a medicinal ice ream sitting on the wall outside the pharmacy. The pharmacist looked at the wound and said I should wash it out with disinfectant before putting on a clean micropore dressing. This I did at the bungalow even though the label on the disinfectant said not to be put on broken skin. I phoned my doctors' surgery and made an appointment to see the nurse this morning. When we got home yesterday I was concerned to see the dressing looking yucky so instead of phoning 111, the non-emergency health helpline who generally cover themselves by saying go to A&E I rang my surgery. They said I was fine for the time being but to come in earlier today. This I did and a nurse washed the wound before putting on iodine dressings. As there didn't seem to be a record of when I last had a tetanus injection she gave me one anyway which as I don't mind needles was okay and I'm to go back on Monday. It was baby vaccinations morning so there was a lot of wailing. Such a shame that they have to have 2 injections in one visit or even 4 if they'd missed the first ones. No wonder so many people hate needles. I did some shopping on the way home but now I'm so tired I'm doing nothing until Saturday's Green Man festival. I did put some washing in the machine and had to hoover the kitchen because Speedy had knocked a small china bowl onto the marble floor where it had smashed into smithereens but that is it for now.

Apart from the long drives and the hard labour we did part of my tiredness comes from only sleeping for about an hour on Sunday night. Peter's snores were echoing around the empty room which didn't help my headache and my toes that I ran over with the trolley were throbbing. I got to about 3.00 when I was able to take some more of my strong pain killers but they had little to no effect. I found out later that I'd taken paracetamol by mistake, they were the same shape tablets in the same size blister pack. By 5.00 I decided to get up and by 5.30 I was out walking on the beach. So wonderful to have that on our doorstep. I saw one chap walking his dogs on the beach which I thought was admirable until I remembered that there is a dog ban on the beach for the whole summer, May to September I think.

As part of the flooding defences there is a shingle bank along the top of the beach and further rock structures which are also designed to improve the surfing conditions. Lower Borth, including all the very expensive holiday homes backing on to the beach is still at risk of flooding from a 1 in 100 year storm. Not to mention the fact that the waves will pick up the stones and throw them against the windows. The mother of the pub landlord told Peter of one house where they've spent £100k on the kitchen alone. "Come a big storm it'll all be floating down the road." she told Peter with some amusement.

In one section of the ridge there seemed to be a strange mixture of stones. beautifully rounded grey pebbles mixed with dark grey shards. It was only when I looked more closely that I solved the mystery. The pebbles are made of a very soft slate which after being knocked together suddenly shatter into dark shards. 

It was peaceful listening to the cries of the sea birds and gentle whooshing of the waves. The sand slopes very gently making the sea perfect for paddleboarding, kayaking and swimming. One of our neighbours goes down each evening for a swim in the waters which have been warming up through the day.

We ate our meals and took plenty of rest breaks out on the balcony. From there we could watch what was going on on the beach and sea; a couple of people out riding, a schools sports event, the life guards out training, the rowing club and families just enjoying the beach. The sounds drifted up at a level that was pleasant without being intrusive. Not to mention the wonderful sunsets.