Summers of Yesteryear in Scottish Meanderings

Well that ear pain was absolutely horrendous and got worse, much worse, before it got better. Turned out it wasn’t an infection at all - it was literally just impacted ear wax - I say ‘just’ but my God the pain was so bad not only did it have me frequently in tears, it completely stopped me sleeping as well - I went a whole SEVEN nights with absolutely no sleep whatsoever.

When I saw the doctor on the 5th July (I got a cancellation), I’d been dealing with it for a month by then but she said she couldn’t see enough to diagnose an infection so all she could do was give me ear drops to soften the wax then make another appointment for the following Friday and it might (MIGHT!) be cleared enough by then to see what was what.

I actually broke down at the thought of another week of that pain so she prescribed me strong painkillers (which didn’t even touch it). That night it intensified and the second I let my head loll back even just a milligram it got worse. I can tell you now it’s impossible - even sitting upright - not to let your head relax when you start to drift off. So for the next seven nights I watched the most complex films I could think of and found series about horrific things which would keep me alert while I tried to stay in an upright position. By the time the second appointment came round I was almost delirious and was ready to chop my head right off!!

I was terrified the wax hadn’t softened enough because there hadn’t appeared to have been a lot come out in the interim but she said she could see a big dollop just sitting there and if I was up for it she would go and get tweezers and try and get it out! Not a recommended course of action I don’t think but she felt it would relieve a lot of the pain if it worked and certainly what she was getting out was rock hard stuff like tiny pieces of stone. It seemed to get worse at first but then that evening, after the next lot of drops, I also got a lot of the same hard stuff out and things started to improve considerably after that.

I still wasn’t right though - I was off my food, felt grotty, was still in a lot of pain and couldn’t sleep on that side for a good two weeks after that - it’s only really in the last week that it’s been better and my right ear is still occasionally blocked. I have an appointment with the nurse at the surgery to get both ears syringed in September though so hopefully that’ll be the end of it.

As you can imagine the whole thing completely knocked me off my stott and I’m desperately trying to catch up with everything. The car MOT ran out at the end of May, it needs booked in for a service first, and the insurance ran out on the 6th July so all that has to be sorted pronto. I was also half way through a long e-mail for my counselling manager before it happened because the supervisor I was working with has left the Agency so the manager is taking over where she left off but needs brought up to date. So apart from that having to take a back seat, I was thrown at how much that pain debilitated me and kept thinking how would I have managed to commit to weekly sessions with a client with all that going on?

I sometimes wonder if my body struggles more with things like that now because it’s having a daily battle just to get through a day anyway so something extra which invades it may have a much bigger effect than if I was healthy. I don’t know - the jury’s still out on that one. Does make some sense though.


Determined the kids were going to have a fun summer, Nikki created a spectacular table of activities at the start of the school holidays which she sent to me because she wanted me to participate in some of it (mainly the Wednesdays and Saturdays or Sundays). It was actually quite handy to have it visible so that I could see what was coming up and what I’d need energy for but it also meant I was doing extra stuff during the week (usually I see them all on Thursdays and Saturdays) and I think just that extra day may have had some impact healthwise.


It did make me think of summers long ago though. I doubt very much if my mum would have (had she been able to) created such a timetable of activities for me at the same age - I imagine my poor sister (7 years older) was delegated to keep me amused a lot of the time thereby ruining half her summer I’m sure! And when I was older it was very much the norm to take off on the bike for whole days, exploring, with no adult having a clue where I was and returning only at teatime. And then long hours playing out in the street or the back garden in the light evenings with neighbouring kids.

Another favourite place was the local swimming pool - again we could spend the whole day there - this was before there were regulated times - and I vividly remember one Sunday morning convinced I’d gone blind because I couldn’t open my eyes. I’d spent the day before in the pool and the chlorine had crusted over my eyelids and hardened as I slept so that they were literally stuck together in the morning!

If it was raining we would go to the ice rink and spend hours in there or the cinema - again you could watch a set of films (always at least 2 in those days) over and over if you wanted - there was no-one to check up on you and throw you out. And if the sun shone there was a brilliant park about 20 minutes’ walk from the house with a paddling pool, putting green, tennis courts, playpark and lots of green space. To get to it I would have had to cross at least two extremely busy roads (not to mention walk down a very lonely, isolated lane) but I can clearly remember walking down there myself on many an occasion then I would call for my friend who lived just beside it and we would spend hours there. Or we'd go explore places, rollerskate round the streets or climb trees and see who could get the highest.

I don’t know how we’re all still alive :)

Despite the ear pain, I was pleased that I didn’t have to cancel anything with the kids although I had some pretty hairy days where I had to grit my teeth to get through them but nevertheless we all went swimming together twice - Ruari was a bit nonplussed with the whole thing but he was so chilled the first time we went that he actually fell asleep in my arms for a good 20 minutes! The girls found some good hidey holes to pass the time while Nikki got him dressed (the place was closing that day so no-one needed the lockers), and I was glad they did because it reminded me that I'd forgotten to retrieve my pound from my own locker!



to the circus - and Nanna Jane came too which was nice - due to Nikki’s shenanigans we hadn’t yet been anywhere where both grannies have been present although I was kicking myself for not sitting beside her - she was a bit isolated at the end there - but it was just the way we ended up going in,


Lily sat enthralled the whole way through.


Lilah on the other hand asked Jane 15 minutes into the performance "Has it started yet?"! And Ruari very impressively managed to nap through some of it :)


met my sister who was down for the day with 2 of her grandchildren. We met at a playpark at the beach and I was marvelling at how many years we’ve had fun at that playpark although it’s changed a little bit since I was a kid. I used to come down to Aberdeen for a couple of weeks to stay with Mum’s sister who was childless but just adored kids and there were certain places which we made a point of going to - that park was one of them. Because it was at the beach we combined it with a trip to the swimming pool which was there at the time (gone now) and if it was nice enough, a picnic and an ice cream on the beach itself before travelling back to the house on a double decker bus, sitting at the front upstairs because it had a huge wide window so had the best view (and so's Uncle Charlie could have a smoke). Halcyon days!

So between the 4 of us we must have been going to that park for over 50 years - and then of course I took Nikki and all her cousins when they came up for a holiday - and now the next generation are getting just as much fun out of it. Value for money I’d say :)


At the left is my sister, Lorna, holding (or trying to) her grandson, Robin, his sister, Roseanna, me holding Lily’s hand, Nikki giving up on trying to get Lilah into the photo (because she was throwing a strop at the time - that's her walking away, pissed off that we were having to leave the fun to take Lily to her swimming lesson), my niece Catriona holding her son, Matthew (and with Baby Number Two in her tummy). Catriona’s brother Craig was also there but was taking the photo. The park's in the background on the left and the beach is across the road on the right.

On sunny days, we spent some of them in Nikki’s new back garden - she’s recently had it all landscaped with new grass and paving stones (and I realised I never took any photos of it).


and had a few days in my front garden, sometimes with the girls, sometimes just Nikki and Ruari when the girls have been at Joel’s,


He really is her Sunny Side Up baby :)


Today we had a rare sunny day so she was trying out a new paddling pool and Ruari just loved it!


Tomorrow she’s trying a new plan whereby she’ll take Lily to Codonas (the permanent funfair we have down at the beach), leave Lilah and Ruari with me then swap round and take Lilah, leaving Lily and Ruari with me (I stay about 20 minutes drive from the beach) to give her some one on one time with the girls. That’ll fairly task the energy barrel for me so I just hope I last out!!

Next week is the University Zoology Museum unless it's good weather - if it is we'll go to the bike park instead - and the following one is a splash park in a town about 50 miles south of Aberdeen - that one will need good weather too so may well be subject to change but we’re hoping it comes off because Lilah gets her jabs that morning so it'll be an ideal carrot to wave when the tears start! We’re also hoping to get to a rather wonderful aquarium in another town about 50 miles north at some point - I wouldn’t mind joining them for that as it’s been a while since I’ve been there.


And how ridiculous is this? I bought more Vitamin D3 yesterday and the contents literally cover about an eighth of the bottom of the bottle - what a waste.