Thursday – I was Mrs Post Office. Ady and the kids were booked onto a first aid course in the hall from the visiting GP surgery so they came down at 11 and I followed them in at midday when I finished cashing up. It was reassuring to realise just how much I have retained from First Aid training at work over the years. Ady went off up home to carry on with flushing loo installation while I took the kids to the GP as they both had appointments.
Scarlett was first, she has had several warts come back up on the knee which she had one frozen off of last year and I had tried to let the doc know that we wanted more frozen off in advance so she would bring the stuff to do so as the previous locum GP had refused to prescribe the stuff for me to do it at home. This woman is much more relaxed and had been unable to get it to bring but said she would send some over on prescription so we could do it ourselves. Scarlett hurt her knee when we were off on the mainland – she had gotten lost in the museum in Edinburgh and been running looking for us on the slippy museum floor in wellies and jarred something in her knee which has never recovered. Â Mairi (who is all sorts of medical having been a nurse, midwife and now more in admin roles but a sportswomen herself and with a daughter who plays rugby for Scotland knows about sports injuries) had given her the once over and a deep massage when she was last over and proclaimed ‘something’ the matter and suggested not running in wellies any more. Scarlett was still hobbling on it of an evening, particularly after an active day so we had it looked at. The GP said it was visibly inflamed and some injury of the patella. She felt it would heal itself but suggested watching it for another month, treating with ibuprofufen gel and a mix of gentle, regular exercise with sensible resting and nothing erratic. She is also sending over a tubular bandage for wearing when cycling or walking lots.
Davies was due two booster jabs so had needles into both arms and I chased up his appointment for the paediatrics which possibly by coincidence has now arrived. The kids went back up the hill, I went to have a quick catch up with Mairi who had arrived and then headed round to Fliss’ for Crafternoon. We had a nice afternoon of knitting, crochet and chat followed by heading to the shop for a few hours, Cosmic Mike’s eclipse talk and finally on to the hostel for dinner with the friends. Unfortunately no food all day, white wine spritzers at Crafternoon, a very late dinner following far too long at the shop and finally cocktails including whiskey did for me and I was most poorly…
Friday I awoke , quite rightfully, feeling pretty rough. I sucked up all of the ribbing and managed to watch the eclipse with all of the Friends over at Daves. He fed me chocolate and tea which probably kept me going…. they all went off to do Friends stuff, we came home for Popmaster and I spent the morning baking – bread, cookies, wraps. We had a very carb-y lunch, I drank lots of tea and did knitting, I had a shower, I was not up to much more than playing Home Maker to be honest. Ady was productive out on the croft though. The kids walked down to the village, Dave called for me and we walked down together, where I held out on non alcoholic drinks for the first round until Ady joined us and then I moved across. I did stick to my pledge of alternating with water though and felt hugely better for doing so, while still very tired the next day.
Saturday – I was Mrs Post Office. I had various visitors before walking along to the hostel to meet Ady and the Friends. We had lunch there with them and then Mairi and I came up to the crofts for a cup of tea and chat. She headed over to Dave’s to do some planting, the kids went out for some fresh air and exercise and I had good intentions which all went to seed when I got immersed in a good book Michelle lent me and read that in the sunshine instead. Mairi had asked me over to drink fizz so having left it as late as possible without appearing openly avoiding I went over about 430pm. Ady and Dave had been working on the Rangerover and actually got it fixed 🙂 Yay! So we all met up at the cabin for fizz and a beer before going our separate ways – us home for pizza, Friends and an earlyish night – Mairi and Dave back down to the shop and hostel for more of the same.
Sunday – I got a bit of a lie in and then we were all off to Kilmory. via the hostel to look at some work on a bridge that the Friends want Ady to do (very lucrative, hurrah!) and collecting Mairi and Gill. Dave drove and enjoyed driving his old car very much. The new track is fantastic and meant we were there super quick. We worked our way down to the beach, wandered about a bit, had our communal picnic of soup, rolls, tuna and mayo, chocolate, then wandered about a bit more before making our way back. It was lovely, if very cold and blowy. We dropped the kids off at the croft turn off with the dog, took Mairi and Gill back to the village and then Big Dave, Ady and I cleared more firewood from the fork in the track down to the crofts and bought along some scaffolding boards too that Billy had given us. Ady and I came home – he got dinner on, fed animals, brought in firewood etc. I made apple pie, read more of my book. Dave went to the shop for a beer and then came up for dinner.
A pretty mad weekend, I could really do with some recovery time!