On Sunday I went to a BBQ on the Common in celebration of Faff’s birthday. It started as a really grey day but it was SO HOT. Kadek summarised it by saying “I opened my window and nothing happened.”
Oh Lordy, it was hot. My clothes got damp with sweat just from having my shawl on when we left the house. For the first time ever, I went INSIDE Aldi! Will took me there years ago when I first started needing a chair, but it was really packed inside so I waited outdoors. It was a really exciting place to go into, they have all this cool and cheap food. Aldi does, however, give you the constant feeling of being in somebody’s way, while you yourself are in turn waiting for somebody to get out of your way. And a lot of the good stuff is on a really high shelf, e.g. the iced coffee, crisps etc. Unfortunately their vodka is just as expensive as vodka elsewhere, but the rum seemed pretty good value.
We also looped round into the Tesco, for the all-important Pepsi Max. I couldn’t actually get close enough to the till to use it because the shelves had been positioned so close to it, it’s hard to explain but it was a real nightmare and all the man did was stand there and frown and not be helpful whatsoever. This is the same Tesco where a card-carrying member of the Fun Police served us on the way to Eurovision though.
This day also just happened to be Flying Ant Day, which was difficult for Louise. We eventually got to the Common though, ran into Beckoi and Colin, and had a bit of a rest by the pond. We weren’t sure if it was the correct pond, but it didn’t matter in the end because we moved to a different spot anyway.
Also I saw a Labrador have a bit of a swim and it was very cute :3
I forget why I took this picture of my own bag.
Check out that cake!
Iced coffee ♡
Weird self-portrait.
We moved around the corner a bit, near to the field where we usually take Freya for off-lead exercise. There was blowing-up of balloons and hanging of bunting, and generally a lot of effort put in by Beckoi.
Kadek got me a present! It’s got paw prints AND SPACE!!!
Balloons.
Lovely chocolate.
The sun was originally at an OK angle.
Balloon clitoris?
Not sure why I felt the need for a second picture of drink.
A shaped balloon.
Me after blowing up balloon. My eyes imply slight intoxication.
It’s a shame this picture came out so dark really.
The sun was originally in an OK place but unfortunately it eventually moved around, and the clouds decided to not be helpful. Because it had been so unrelentingly grey in the morning, I didn’t apply sunscreen. Well of course I was now paying for this, and even though Beckoi did put some on me, I have still ended up with a red and wrinkly back and shoulders. Lesson: No matter how dingy it looks, if you are going to be out for hours, put your damn sunscreen on anyway, buddy. I earned the metaphorical adulthood badge of . . . public urination! I’d assumed we’d use the toilets at the Hawthorns, but it was Sunday, so we had to use the bushes instead. I feel like I must surely have done this at some point in my life, but this was definitely my first time since being a chair user. And it was awkward. I just had to get on the ground in some brambles, with my boobs out because I’d decided to wear a one-piece to the Common, with Kadek’s cardigan on my upper body that I couldn’t get to stay buttoned, and just general awkwardness. On the way to the peeing area and back, there was a lot of long grass, which got raked through my toes on my footrests, and there are still seeds sprayed on various parts of my chair. However, my chair handled that grass like a pro!
Someone who used to bully me showed up to the BBQ for a while, but they only did one snide thing that I even noticed, and it says a lot about them that after 10 years, they are still someone who gets off on publicly being awful to somebody, and that’s what they’ve peaked at life as. I just dealt with their presence by drinking and smoking until they fucked off.
Faff receiving presents.
Chocolate raisins. These eventually melted and needed a fork to scoop them up.
Kadek doing a BBQ.
A pleasant burger.
Faff receiving cake.
Faff and Beckoi with cake.
The sun made these pictures too dark to see when I first took them, but they now appear to be of Louise doing egg-based sport.
I seem mildly perturbed.
Overall, having an event in a public place seems like a good idea, as it doesn’t involve doing anything to your house! The only problem is the lack of toilets and the UNRELENTING SUN. I’d certainly like to do it again sometime if we picked a spot that was consistently shadier, especially as I will hopefully have my new working bobble soon. Bobbles need the shade.
I should have been smart and have taken myself home as soon as I started needing to lie down on a picnic blanket. But I didn’t, and eventually I felt really terrible and just had to go home. It was a bummer knowing that everyone was going to keep having fun without me and I was going to miss loads of stuff, but I just couldn’t do it, even though I had originally wanted to stay until nightfall.
I have an ear infection in my right ear, (which isn’t hearing aid-related as I get them really often), which meant that I could only have my aids in for short bursts because it was obviously painful, and by this point in the day it had become unbearable and was throbbing through my entire head. I’d compare it to migraine pain, but without the visual aspects.
Joints and tissue were also really hurting, and my skin had started to complain about anything touching it, such as the legs of my jumpsuit and the strap of my bum bag. It wasn’t too tight, I could fit a hand between it and me, but it was just so painful to have it touching me, so Kadek hung it on the back of my chair. All the bumping of the pavement on the way back didn’t help with any of the pain, especially not the ear infection.
When we got back to my home street, the neighbour’s cat was outside, he rubbed himself on my footrests and was generally a cutie patootie. The stag beetle we saw recently (well, maybe not the exact same beetle) was also on next door’s path and the cat was sniffing it for a while.
Freya practically licked the make-up off my face because she’d missed me, I think I would have appreciated it more if it didn’t hurt so much.
Will was very good to me at home. He brought the fan downstairs because I was boiling, even though I then immediately realised that I should actually go up to bed, so he moved it again. We also didn’t have any paracetamol in, so he went to the shops and got some. I had both water and Pepsi upstairs and, even though it was just as painful to lie in the bed as it was to be out of it, I had a 16-hour sleep and I feel great in comparison, today.
My ear is still bothering me and I am still a bit achy and burned, but I’ve recovered a lot. It is apparent, though, that I am not going to do any of the chores I had listed in my planner.
I have this bruise on my foot today and I can only imagine it’s from the heels I was wearing, even though I was sat down in them.
