Well, I fell off my bike on Tuesday and sprained my ankle. I’d like to say it was as I was traversing a mountain or jumping across a river, while in fact I hit a pile of sand and came to a standstill, falling off in slow motion. I’m not sure what hurt most – my ankle or my pride following the fact that Ian thought I had laid down for a rest. As if I am in the habit of lying down by the side of the road…..
We went to the hospital as I couldn’t move my toes, and three hours later I was allowed home. They x-rayed my ankle from all positions and were very thorough, but because my foot was swollen they couldn’t see any stress fractures in the bones by the pins. But even if they could there is nothing they could do, so I was sent home. I was so happy I was almost in tears. Ian was also almost in tears – but for different reasons. I think he was looking forward to the meat-fest which is a combination of Ian’s cooking when I am not there and the 100% meat content of hospital food that I used to save for him!
I can move my toes now and today have started putting weight on my foot again. I have a super ankle brace coming. I am looking forward to it. It says that I will be able to play professional level support. Amazing, obviously some sort of miracle brace, seeing that I am normally a sports sloth. I obviously just need to decide what sport to play, put the brace on and I’ll be playing at professional level. Like a sports-Superman. I put the brace on and I become sports superwoman.
Spain got through to the final of the world cup. I was trying to tell my class about the German octopus, however it got very confusing. They are all painting their faces on Sunday, so I am sure that we’ll see a few red and yellow faces at the door! Last night we were left in no doubt as to the result. Not sure what we’ll do on Sunday, I guess we’ll go and watch the match somewhere. I wondered if they’d put a big screen in the square, but Ian pointed out that they’d be unlikely to get something like that sorted at such short notice.
Miss Moppet and Babbity Bumble are now very much part of the family. We’re pleased to see that they are becoming very social and actively seek out other animals or us to join during the day, but we still shut them away at night.
We’ve had a severe heat warning this week. Following the summer of 2003, when in Europe 30,000 people died over a 7 day period in August because of heat (15,000 in France), the countries most affected now have a traffic light system. We were on orange alert, Badajoz was on red alert. The big thing is dehydration and people who are housebound are particularly at risk. There is a system now where people who are housebound can register and they get a telephone call every day to make sure that they have water and an alarm is raised if they don’t answer their phones.
We cope with the heat quite well now, the key really is to just go with the flow and do like everyone else. On Monday we went out for a cycle ride at 6.30 in the morning and the village was already in full swing and really busy – nearest thing to a rush hour! Go out at 4 in the afternoon, however, and you are walking into a ghost town! Until about 11 in the evening, that is, when things start to get busy again (yet again I had to clarify to the parents of my class that the class was starting at 10 in the morning and not 10 in the evening!!).