I had a delicious dinner on Saturday night - spaghetti with an absolutely scrumptious sauce. I started cooking it at about 7pm and finally sat down to eat at just after half past midnight.
In between ... ?
It started with an olive. A black olive with a stone in the middle. The way not to stone an olive is to grip it in your left hand and slice it with a very sharp knife. The olive will slip from your fingers, the very sharp knife will keep going and you'll end up with a very nasty gash. In this case, across my thumb.
I eventually managed to stop the bleeding with a pile of paper towels, and after a little lie down (cold sweat, trembly knees, singing in my ears) I decided to try out NHS24, the new dial-a-nurse service. It was excellent! I learned that my nearest A&E Small Injuries Unit was too busy to take me before it shut at 9pm. The next nearest A&E was in Livingston, which I don't know at all, so I opted for the new Royal Infirmary. The nurse said she'd fax them my details, so off I went.
It was also very busy, Saturday being the night for disasters, and a cut thumb obviously isn't a high priority case. But there were plenty of magazines and plenty of interesting people, so the three hours I spent waiting went fairly quickly. By the time I got to a doctor the cut had started to seal up, so I didn't even have stitches, just steri-strips, a bandage and a tetanus injection.
It's still extremely painful, and the area between the cut and the thumbnail is numb. The doctor said that was ok, so long as the tip isn't numb it'll all settle down. The tetanus shot didn't hurt at the time but is now a big angry boil, like a giant insect bite.
Sunday I went to a lunch party at John & Penny's place, which was jolly. A former colleague was up from London with her daughter and it was nice seeing them again, plus there were other friends there I hadn't seen for a while. I also met lots of interesting new people, so it was a thoroughly good time all round. Oh, and the food was wonderful too.
I've been doing a bit of community volunteer work that's turning out to be interesting. A local livewire has organised a survey of what residents think of the town and what they'd like to see, and I've been helping type up the results in a spreadsheet organised by another livewire. The latest batch I did were teenagers, and it made slighty depressing reading. There isn't anything for them to do, they say, it's boring. So what do they like about the town? They like Tesco, McDonalds, Burger King. What would they like to see in the future? KFC, Pizza Hut and (wait for it) a theme park.
Later: I'm on to some grown-ups' survey sheets now, and they have a lot more to say about everything. The funniest teenager "dislike" was: "Too many police so you can't get into trouble". The elders, of course, would like many more police, on foot, patrolling the place at all hours. And something called "sequence dancing".
I started this the other day and put it away due to busy-ness, so I'd better publish it now or I'll never get it done. Work is just go go go the entire time these days, from when I arrive at about 4pm right through to 1am. Tonight I went to the pub for half an hour, but that's rare. At times I want to chuck it in and be a professional dog-walker. But Bertie can't afford to pay me, and I do quite like my posh new car, so I soldier on. At least it's interesting!
The Tattoo started tonight - and it was raining, of course. We've had a very dry, hot summer, but there were a couple of rainy days last week. "Tattoo weather," said one old hand, and so it is! Poor Festival visitors, I do feel sorry for them.
