On The Island

We went to the beach hut at 6am, before the heat and before too many people were on the beach. Mal carried Ellie all the way down there again. This time he continued down the steps on to the beach so she could have a little paddle.

It was a very short time she was on the beach but she started limping again after her paddle. Mal carried her back to her bed in the beach hut where she lay. After about an hour we decided we had enough of the beach hut, cleared all our things out and handed the keys back at Viking Bay. I kept thinking it was far too risky Mal doing all that carrying in case he slipped.  Just bad timing!

In the afternoon I went to the second “Oneyou Maintaining a healthy weight” session. The guy who knew it all was not in attendance, what a surprise!! Today was a young guy called Sam and talked about mobility and keeping fit and gave us extra ways to keep our body moving. He said no one needed a gym and told us plenty of ways to keep our bodies moving , even while gardening and doing housework. But he discussed BMI and said it was stupid way to keep track of peoples fitness and compared two very different boxers with the same BMI. My tip for today, always keep water with you and drink little and often, not a lot at one time, far better for your body. It really is a good course to attend and FREE! OK, I know a lot of it already, we don’t eat junk food ever but it does make you aware of lots of other things. Mal looked this gem up years ago, the ways they try and manipulate the consumer to eat junk. ……

 

We took Ellie to the vets, this time we saw the vet Sorrel (she is our favourite!) She gave Ellie a very thorough examination, stretching her legs and feeling every part of her back. She told us she was in good form for her age, said her knees were good but her back left knee is slightly more knobbly but couldn’t find anything else too bad apart from some muscle wastage. She told us to keep her on Metacam for another 10 days , still resting her and then return to see her. That sounded a lot more positive than last week.

From there we went to the beach hut for a couple of hours. Again, not ideal Mal having to carry Ellie up and down the steep slope and then having to keep her in the hut.  This really has been bad timing.

Back home and more work for Mal to do at the allotment. We are nearly at the end of our strawberries or at least they are slowing down and the raspberries have begun. And Ellie just chilling in the garden.

A day at work and we were so busy. In fact it is the most I have taken on a Monday! Also of course trying to raise extra money for Bowelbabe month. Thankfully we had some generous customers.

Father’s Day. Rhys was planning on a surprise visit to the beach hut to wish Mal a happy Father’s Day but he is not well and is in bed and upset because he can’t go… not a good Father’s Day for him.  Tris and Dom were planning on visiting him down there as well. I made the decision that I would take Mal down there and come back to Ellie. I imagine Mal having a few drinks and trying to carry Ellie back up the hill …potential disaster!  So, he can have time down there with his kids.

I made him a smoked salmon and scrambled egg breakfast, then he had an hour at the allotment. I then dropped him off at the beach hut. He had a good time.

In the evening we watched Soccer Aid.

 

What a night, streets flooded and some houses and also a lot of shops at Westwood Cross couldn’t open because they were flooded out.

Mal had the crazy idea a few months ago that he had never had a beach hut and so wanted one for a week. Dumpton Gap is the only beach close by that allow dogs all the time.  So, he booked one. We had to collect the keys today from Broadstairs. Bad timing with Ellie supposed to be resting all the time added to which it is a steep path down to the beach. Mal said he didn’t care he would carry her, which he did. We then had to keep her in the beach hut as there was too much going on outside that she would have loved to have joined in. But lack of sleep the previous night and she slept a lot of the day. We took it in turns sitting with her.

But the view was lovely!

We took our chicken salad lunch with us and tea bags etc. even though there is a cafe close by.  I have to say Ellie was very good considering her normal thing was to run along the beach. When it was time to go, she just kept staring at the beach, so Mal carried her down the steps to allow her a very short paddle which she loved.

Then of course Mal had to carry her back up the steps and then up the steep path back to the car and lift her into the car! As he says it is cheaper than going to the gym!

A slightly more settled night for Ellie, she is having complete rest in the day. She lays in front of the fan in the bedroom.

Another hot day and Kent Lavender Ladies had a meet up with several other groups spending the day in Broadstairs. Only four of our group were able to make it but we didn’t mind we had such a good time.  We met up at The Pavilion to have lunch and sat in one of their beach huts.

After lunch we walked along to Morelli’s Gelato and met up with the other ladies from several groups from north Kent and Essex.

It really was a lovely afternoon putting faces to the names.

It was also the first day of the Dickens Festival but we didn’t see much of that! The weather forecasters kept threatening a raging storm for our area late evening and goodness were they right! It was horrendous, lightning was so fast, thunder so loud and torrential rain and hail. It meant Ellie was panicking and I had hardly any sleep again! Dover and Deal streets were flooded and some of the houses.