Show Pony - Mr Swallow

 It's been a somewhat varied week. 

Work continues to be a bit strange as boss is still off, I hope he's back soon, but time will tell.

The weather has been all over the place. It seems impossible that last Thursday and Friday husband and I were sitting in the sunshine by different types of waters edge. Though as I mentioned the air temperature wasn't hugely hot, certainly not in the shade.

This week suddenly the temperature dipped. There was a December chill in the air and then suddenly on Tuesday out of nowhere we had a series of extreme hail storms (this week's photo). Since then it's been a bit like having the flu. One minute the sky clears and the sky is blue and you are stripping off all your layers, within minutes grey clouds come over and the temperature drops by about 10 degrees and you're piling all the layers on again.

As a result this morning I put on the hugest ever clothes wash with a bizarre mix of summer and winter clothes.

Wash also included a big fuzzy blanket I'd been staying warm under last night. The shopping arrived and son was helping unload it. I'm not quite sure what he was doing - taunting the dog with a jar of cream - or something! But before you know it the cream had flown out of his hands and was all over the sofa, my blanket, the rug and.............. the dog. The dog was thrilled as you can imagine. It was something of a race, clean up the cream before the dog could get to it. I didn't fancy the fall out if she got to it - she's lactose intollerant!

But what happened before last night. Tuesday night I just couldn't sleep because I was one minute hot and one minute cold so I was shattered all day. Husband and I were due out that evening. All I wanted to do was to have a hot bath and go to bed, but I also really wanted to see the show. We had tickets to Nick Mohammed as Mr. Swallow - his Show Pony Tour. It's not something we'd seen before, but we'd heard a lot about it.

So in the end I was a big brave girl and got tarted up. As I've put away my winter clothes I went into the depths of my wardrobe to pull out something warm and there I came across a great velvet shirt I didn't know I'd owned. I can only imagine it was purchased in a sale in July and put in the wardrobe for the winter and then been forgotten. However, I've no idea what July that was, perhaps I've owned it for years! Anyway it was perfect. 

I always worry about wearing too much in the theatre because there are a lot of bodies around, but I was grateful for the velvet shirt because we were sitting right under an air conditioning unit. It was freezing.

But I doubt you care about any of that - so let's go onto the show. Nick was supported by somebody called Benedict Pope. It's really not a name you forget is it. The first bit of Benedicts act was really funny, the second half wasn't so great, but I'm guessing he's just building his act at the moment. At least I hope that's the excuse. But really it was all about Nick Mohammed and Mr Swallow. It was absolutely brilliant, huge laughs from start to finish. 

If you haven't seen him do his Mr Swallow act and he comes to a theatre near you, make sure you go and see it. Otherwise take a look on YouTube. It was really surreal and as we walked home husband and I mused on whether what he'd talked about was real or whether it was just part of the act.

Anyway, it's another comedian that I'd definitely go to see again. 

It's a slightly early blog this week because I can almost guarantee that nothing exciting will happen for the next few days..... why???? (I hear you ask). 

This morning I decided dog walk would be through woods. It's been a week since I've been in there and it's done that spring thing. Suddenly you are shoulder deep in nettles and other woodland weeds that have had their crazy spring growth spurt. Usually they start to die back quite quickly, but when it first happens it's startling.

As a result I couldn't see dog, she'd sprinted off ahead. I was calling out for her and looking for her and that's why the disaster happened. I've mentioned before that I'm dyspraxic and walks really hold no joy for me because wherever I'm walking I have to look at my feet. If I take my eyes off them for even a second disaster happens.

So you've guessed it, I took my eyes off my feet for a second to look for dog, immediately twisted my ankle and fell into a ditch. I was lying in the ditch covered in mud trying to assess the level of damage. Sprained ankles are not unsusual for me but they break down into 5 cateogories. With 5 being severe and 1 being 'get over it you'll be ok in a minute'. This one is a level 3 - which is fortunate but more about that later.

As I lay there I was thinking about the next step, getting out of the ditch and getting home. Fortunately it was right at the beginning of the walk and I'd been lazy and had driven to the wood rather than walk there (trust me that's unforgivably lazy, it's only a 5 minute walk). I was only about 50 metres from where the car was parked.

Next thing you know the dog leapt into the ditch with me and started licking my face - either to see if I was ok - or to test whether I was worth eating - either is possible. I managed to wrestle the dog off me and started the climb out of the ditch.

It was sore, but maneagable. Once out of the ditch I headed to the car. I wasn't sure how driving would go, it's not an automatic and it was my left ankle I'd strained (clutch ankle). As it turns out it wasn't too bad and I made the journey home without too much trouble.

So that's it really - I know my weekend plans, largely on the sofa with my foot up. Hopefully I can find a new middle-aged womans quirky murder mystery series. Though I've pretty much finished them all now and am on the dregs of what's available. I'm still holding off from Midsommer Murders - I've not sunk to those depths yet! Maybe this is the weekend.

Mum and dad are over for lunch on Sunday. Hopefully by then my ankle will be strong enough. In fact, that's a good point I'll sign off now, I'm off to see if I can find a tubygrip.......