The Walking Wounded

I’m a free woman – the bondage of my cast has been ripped away and I can see my leg!! It was not a pretty sight, but a good soak in the bath got rid of the dead skin, dried blood, Betadine, and scabs!! Sorry about the gory details, but I like to share.

Going, going, gone...

Anyway I am now sporting the world’s largest and ugliest boot, and it’s grey. Who wears grey footwear???

The good thing about this piece of fashion disaster is that I can take it off and shower standing up. This is a breakthrough on my road to normality. No more clunking Lawrence with my cast in bed. Sleeping with an unfettered leg is a joy.

Where are the Fashion Police when you need them??

I can also hobble around without crutches, but took them to the pub last night for our celebration dinner. They are good for the sympathy value, and give me a sense of security.

So many people stop me to ask what has happened to my leg, out of kindness, but always tell me about some distant relative who broke their ankle, or a personal story of their own broken bones. When comes to how many pins, screws, plates etc, I trump them every time. “11 screws” I boast, no contest, I win every time.

The physio starts next week, this is where the real pain and work begin. Not looking forward to it, but has to be done. I should be dancing on the tables again in about 4 weeks, but I think my kickboxing days are over.

Wish me luck.

Send gin...

Highland Fling

We’ve just spent 10 days in Scotland, a real Cook’s tour.

We left Wales great excitement as I was allowed to put weight on my right foot for the first time in 9 weeks. I now have an ugly blue shoe strapped onto my cast. I asked for something in red leather but just got a strange look from the nurse.

We spent the first night with Helen, Lawrence’s sister in Glasgow. After a lovely evening catching up we set off for Stronian in the west. We drove through the hauntingly beautiful Glencoe Pass and past Ben Nevis, which I had walked up 22 years ago – not to be repeated this time for obvious reasons.

Kilcamb Lodge

We stayed the night at Kilcamb Lodge, a lovely country house hotel overlooking a loch. The 5 course dinner was a real treat as was the very hearty Scottish breakfast next morning, meant for walkers and climbers, not sedentary lame folk.

From there we headed to Dingwall just north of Inverness. Lawrence’s friend from school, Maggie, lives in town and we stayed with a friend of hers, Iain, who lives out of town in a fabulous converted stables. Both Iain and Maggie were great fun looked after us very well, and of course we ate too much great local food and drank a wee bit too much vino.

What a sight!!

I finally got to race around in a Gopher (electric scooter for old ladies). It needed a turbo charger but was great fun burning around the battlefields of Culloden. Perhaps if the Jacobites had these they might have defeated the nasty English.

Lawrence the Jacobite re-enacts the Battle of Culloden

We left the wonderful hospitality of Iain and Maggie and headed north. Firstly to Dunnet Head, which is the northern most point of mainland Britain (not John O’ Groats as lauded by tourists). From there we could almost touch the Orkney Isles, quite a spectacular site.

Dunnet Head and the NW Coast

As I can’t walk much, it became a driving holiday. We followed the stunning west coast of the Highlands to the Isle of Skye with the Cuillin Hills beckoning. 

I fell in love with the Cuillins in 1990 and have wanted to go back for some time. It was so frustrating not being able to walk in these wonderful mountains. Last time I was here I was reported as a missing person but luckily found in one piece at the pub!

Skye really turned on some great weather for us, with sea looking like a milky blue pond reflecting the lovely sky. It is still a truly breathtaking place.

The Cuillin Hills

Our last night was spent in Glasgow again, this time with Andy and Susan. Another lovely meal and fun night to end our jaunt, before heading down the M6 and back to Wales. Pete & Kath hadn’t moved house in our absence thankfully. You know when your house guests have stayed too long - they start inviting their own guests. Jen from Sydney is coming to stay with us next weekend, we'll out number our hosts, the takeover is almost complete.

Hopefully on Wednesday I'll be getting rid of this cast and get my walking boot - watch this space...

What’s That Golden Orb in the Sky??

“What can it be?” we cried as we squinted in the unfamiliar light. “Could it be the sun – remember that from Spain?”

Yes, the sun has come out in Wales. It’s extremely exciting, and the locals are baring their translucent white legs in fear that this week might be all they get of summer. Yesterday it reached 28 degrees – unheard of in this part of the world in May. Kath is almost melting in the heat, which is hilarious to an Australian. This time last week we had a maximum of 11 degrees.

Barbecuing in the evening - what a treat!

 So we’ve been out and about. I can get around a lot better now and we’ve been to Anglesey for lunch, taken the Festiniog Steam Train to Portmadog, and taken a train ride up Snowdon, the highest peak around here. Of course we've also been in ducking into pubs to have pint in the sun, there are a lot of very cute pubs around here. I feel it's our duty to visit them all. Lawrence is trying to drink his body weight in beer whilst we are in the UK. It’s been quite a week.

Snowdonia National Park

Festionog Steam Train

I’ve also starting pulling out the tatty stuff from the new home (still nameless).  I’ve ripped out curtains, thrown out nasty cushions, an old pot, the ancient satellite TV equipment, the fridge!!! Well Lawrence and Pete threw out the fridge. We needed a new fridge as the old one was the smallest fridge in the world. One couldn’t fit wine AND tonic in it, let alone food.

This coming Wednesday I get my walking cast and we are heading off to Scotland (driving, not walking) to visit Lawrence’s sister in Glasgow and friend Maggie in Dingwall (just north of Inverness).

That’s all from us, must get outside to top up my vitamin D levels whilst I can.

The View from the Front Garden

Not the Mog Blog

Here is the news (and this time it’s NOT about my ankle)… we are selling the Mog. Yes, you heard it here first, the big yellow Unimog is 4 SALE!!

There are a number of reasons for selling the old girl, but briefly, we want to spend a lot more time in Europe just tootling about and the Mog is not the vehicle to do that in. It uses way too much fuel and is not much chop in hill towns and cobbled lanes. Plus there is the obvious fact that I can’t drive the thing, especially now that I have a dodgy ankle.

The decision was made pre ankle breaking, in Morocco actually. We have really taken to the whole camper-van lifestyle, and have now bought a suitable retired persons old motorhome – a 1990 Hymer, with lots of space but not too big.

Our New Home in Pete & Kath's Driveway

If we ever get out of Wales, we’ll spend about 2 years pottering around Europe, focussing on wine regions, and Eastern Europe. Driving back to Australia eventually is a whole different story, more on that later.

In further news, we have won our battle with the Allianz. My wonderful surgeon wrote them a stern letter with his views on their proposed treatment and they smartly changed their minds, so we are £8,700 better off, PHEW.

I now have cast number 6 on my leg and this one stays on for 2 weeks, then I get my weight-bearing cast. 2 further weeks on that I think, then I get a boot (black leather, small stiletto??) that I can walk in and hopefully ditch the crutches soon after. That’s when the physio starts. As you can see we will be hanging around here for some time.

Cast No. 6

I now have a plate and 11 screws in my ankle, I’m thinking of entering it in the Guinness Book of Records.

The weather is still very dodgy with the temperature struggling most days to get into double figures. If the sun does shine, a cold cold north wind drives us back inside. Oh for those lazy days sitting in the sun in Spain drinking wine!!!