Trouble Spots and Hot Sports

 

A great fun triathlon event that I went to with my friend,
 Mary Ann Wallace.It was in Key Biscayne in Florida.
 It was so hot I thought I would melt. Look at that beach!

 

This morning has been quite busy and after stripping down our bedding and chucking the fitted sheet and the pillow cases in the washing machine, I set about sorting out more of the surplus rubbish from the big move at work. Steve had brought home a pile of odds and ends, bags and boxes that have been sitting quietly on the top of the little office we had in the warehouse unit that we have now moved out of completely. 

Steve had brought the assortment home, on the theory that if we had not found a use for it in the last twelve years, that it is highly likely we will never need those items. So having done a few emails on my desk at home, as usual, there is always something that needs answering; Steve asked if I would like him to transfer the rubbish into the car to take to the tip. 

Huge flashing warning signs started to explode in my head, remembering the last time he was so helpful! Steve has been barred from the tip for putting things in the wrong containers. I have also barred him from the tip, since I have developed a nice friendly relationship with the guys who work there. It took me about thirty minutes to sort out the things Steve had brought home. I explained that not only do you need to sort trash into ‘like’ bundles, you also have to know your way around the tip and therefore you have to load the car in the correct order or you are in trouble, and making life more difficult than it needs to be. Eventually I had everything sorted, all paper and cardboard together, all electrical items together, wood metal and plastic, all in separate bags plus two old vacuum cleaners, why did we keep those for goodness sake. 

I belong to the small, and getting smaller, group of people who prefer to treat others how they would like to be treated themselves and I find that this attitude helps a lot. A friendly smile and a warm ‘Hello and how are you’ goes a long way. A small tip, very discreetly given is also helpful, though not officially approved of. Working at the tip is a horrible job and it is best to remember, that the guys working there are doing a job that I for one would not enjoy being obliged to do. It would also be fairly hard to be stuck with a mucky job like that and be expected to be helpful and civil.

 

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Having cleared my car of trash, the next stop on my list, was to call into the doctor’s surgery. I had hand written a short note asking my doctor or the duty doctor, if you don’t want to wait several weeks for a reply, it is best to not be too firm about wanting to see the doctor that you are registered with. I am more concerned with getting the result that I have requested, rather than waiting two or three weeks for the next step. The note was to ask that I be referred again to the consultant in the dermatology department at Southlands Hospital. It is about a year since I was last there for treatment of a little skin problem caused by so many races that have found me biking and running in the blazing sun for all the hours of daylight and more.

 

I think this is the finish in the Hawaii Ironman World Championships

The timing clock reads 16 hours 30 minutes and 21 seconds... a long day.

 

Over the last handful of years I have had a couple of these little gremlins removed or frozen every year. The first one needed a minor piece of surgery to remove and it was followed some time later by a letter from the dermatologist saying that it was a Rodent Ulcer and that this ulcer was right at the end of the leaf shaped piece of skin he had removed and that there was the outside possibility that every scrap of it had not been removed and that there was a possibility that it might return. Well, it has and right bang in the centre of the original scar. It seems to be growing more quickly this time and has started to seep a tiny dot of a blood like substance. There is another small changing speck on my forehead a few inches away from the other. I hope that I do not have to wait to long to get an appointment. They may only be tiny dots but the worry is greater.

 

 

 

 Another hot day in Kona, Hawaii