Friday 13 June 2014

Habit forming.

During this period of lovely weather I have spent much of my time outside. Old friends drop in and we often sit in glorious sunshine with a glass of lemonade in front of us.

"Do you always do that ?" I paused and looked down. Without thinking I had taken the coasters under the drinks and put them on top! My reply was immediate.

" it's to stop the wasps falling in."

There were no wasps around at the time and it started a flash back to one of the most scary moments of my life.

The first David and I had a cabin cruiser on the Great Ouse. One day several miles away from the nearest lock we were having a glass of cider whilst gliding slowly through the water.

Suddenly David gasped...coughed and a wasp fell out of his mouth. It had been in his glass and it was soon obvious that it had stung him in the throat. He fought for breath whilst I took over the wheel. I had never been allowed to drive it before and had only the haziest idea of what to do. He could only gesture at this point.

The nearest lock was about twenty minutes away. The countryside was empty of habitation.

He was turning blue...fighting for breath...I increased our speed to make a dash for it. Approaching the lock I started hooting...slowed down and shouted our predicament to the inevitable set of on lookers. The lock gates swung open and I had to get the boat between the gates . The lock keeper took a rope and guided me in and David was taken off.

This left me in charge of a boat inside a lock on a busy Saturday. I had to somehow get it out of the lock and tied up to the bank safely out of the way. David meanwhile had been taken to the nearest hospital.

The hour before he came back were some of the scariest of my life. He had had an injection of anti histamine to reduce the swelling and came back nearly as good as new.

I on the other hand was left with a weird habit. I never ever leave a glass of anything uncovered on a lovely day. ,

2 comments:

Ray Barnes said...

What an experience. Action woman to the rescue.
No wonder you cover glasses,
Wasps are an absolute menace and since I have been stung quite badly a few times I never eat or drink out of doors these days.
Nothing seems to deter the little stinkers, they seem to sting for pure spite.
I hope David duly thanked you for saving his life?

Revjeanrolt said...

I may have given the impression that I knew what I was doing but the truth is that I was anxious every inch of the way! Dithering was perfected then!