Getting out

I had been hoping to get off on the Mean Machine, my electric scooter, down to the fish shop this morning. We're having salmon for dinner tonight, a Japanese recipe for a change. However this week we seem to be once more in the land of rain & hail, & the Mean Machine doesn't like the wet any more than I do. Still we can go off in the car this afternoon when we're also intending to go to the butchers' for some chicken thighs for tomorrow's spicy chicken. It will just be another stop on the way.

I do enjoy my little trips on the Mean Machine. I usually go along the prom which gives me ample opportunity to look across Morecambe Bay over to the Lakeland fells & the Furness peninsula, to watch the changing light & the busy seabirds. It's also a chance to see & exchange greetings with the many friendly folk walking along the prom, usually accompanied by their dogs. The prom is a much favoured dog walking area. The dogs are sometimes let off their leads to go & play on the sands & splash in the shallow waters as they come onto the sands. Sometimes I watch the children playing in the fountains along the way, especially when it's a warm sunny day. Above all I appreciate just being in the fresh air, ideally with some warmth on my skin. The latter would certainly have been unlikely today.

It's one of the things you miss about having a mobility problem. Most of the time spent out is a quick dive in & out of the car to & from a building, be it shop, surgery or pub. The time is so brief you rarely have opportunity to smell the air, let alone to stop to meet someone, even just to say hello. I'm quite sure it's this refound sense of liberation & independence which  gives so many scooter users that benign, rather silly, beam on their faces. It's almost impossible to stop the grin appearing.

PS The urge to go to the shops is also a sign that the abdominal pain isn't playing up today. It always seems to be worse at night, though these days it does seem to be continuing  increasingly into the daytime as well.