So, on Friday Cal's life was in the balance for a few seconds and today it was Baggy's turn!! But first let's go backwards a bit to the weekend. Calum finally managed to get home from work at lunchtime on Saturday. It was obvious to Furry Mama that the incident had affected him a lot. He didn't want to leave the house, so they didn't! On Sunday Clever Bird persuaded him that he, Hormonal Hannah and Furry Mama needed some positive ions from the sea. Baggy had had a migraine, pretty much since Calum called her in distress on Friday evening. Despite this, she knew that she should drive, so they all headed off to Southwold in Billy Bob. Suddenly it's definitely autumn in Suffolk. It was cold! But beautiful.
Poor Calum was definitely not in a good head space, so Furry Mama left him to it and threw the ball for the pooch. Fortunately, the café was open, so they had a coffee to warm up, just as a huge black cloud decided to empty itself.
Having had an unexpected booking for the holiday cottage, Clever Bird decided that they should treat themselves to Sunday lunch at the Harbour Inn. They parked outside, but the queue waiting for a table was literally out of the door. Not entirely realising that that was what was going on, they headed in. The place was heaving. They headed straight out again. 'Shall we go somewhere else Cal?'
'Yes, the supermarket, then home.' But at least Baggy's headache had cleared a little bit.
Yesterday was beautiful at the beach. Rather windy, and even colder, but the pooch doesn't care.
Today however.......
After Grotty Groom had been to see her Boys, Furry Mama and the pooch headed back to Southwold once again. Clever Bird knew that they were going to get soaked because it was raining pretty hard, but she had lots of layers on. However, it was still a shock when Baggy saw just how rough the sea was.
The photos are not great Baggees - sorry - but a) she couldn't see anything b) it was pouring with rain, so the phone was soaked and c) her hands were so cold that she couldn't hold the camera still! Then they got soooooo cold that the screen no longer recognised that Baggy's freezing fingers were touching it, and it wouldn't do any more. So Creative Clara picked up sea glass, getting Baggy's bottom wetter from the rain every time she bent down, as Furry Mama threw the ball. It was crazy blowy, but Baggy felt happy to be alive.
As they approached the harbour, Baggy was starting to feel cold, and the pooch was getting tired. The sea, which was pretty much at low tide, was coming in, and was rather hairy by the harbour. As this is often where Pepper goes in for a proper cooling-down paddle, (see yesterday's photos above), Freda Fretter was concerned, so Clever Bird decided that they should head back - straight into the wind and rain.
As they wandered along, Baggy had her jacket hood done up around her face like some kind of mad person, so Clever Bird didn't see or hear the absolutely huge wave that was heading towards them. By the time she realised what was happening, it was too late! Suddenly, the water was around Baggy's ankles - over the top of Grotty's knee-high boots - pushing so hard and fast that it was all the way up her jodphurs - pushing her powerfully and going up to her waist! At the same second that Baggy was trying to remain upright and realised that she was actually being swept inland on her feet, Furry Mama realised that she couldn't see Pepper. Baggy swung round to look for him, almost falling over in the process, just in time to see him under the wave, trying to get his head above the foam, being swept onto the sand dunes! As quickly as it had swept in, the wave began to recede, nearly pulling Baggy over once more. But the pooch was now shaking the water off him on the dune, so Baggy just laughed.
As she set off once again, she noticed just how far the tide had swept in - it had come in at least fifteen yards past where Baggy and the pooch had been walking, meaning that they actually had to walk up the side of the dunes to get out of the water. As Pepper once more went into his, 'Mum will you get a move on and throw me the ball please?' stance, none the worse for his unexpected swim, it occurred to Clever Bird what a close shave that had really been. They were the only two souls on the completely desolate beach. Had Baggy lost her footing, or the pooch not succeeded in getting his head above the wave, it could have been very different.
Soaked and totally frozen as she was, Baggy just felt 'alive'. However, she did still have the full length of the beach to walk back to Billy Bob who was parked at Gun Hill. To avoid a repeat experience, she took her hood down and as it was pouring with rain, got even wetter, if that were physically possible. One advantage of having a campervan is that at least Baggy had a change of clothes and a towel. Minor detail though, she was so wet that she couldn't get her boots off. Having warmed up Pepper and settled him down, she had a ten-minute fight with her boots, then peeled off her jodphurs and knickers that were stuck to her frozen legs! Her (no longer) waterproof jacket and cardigan were also soaked, as were her socks.
Heaven knows what the people (Baggy hadn't noticed), in the next car were thinking, as Billy Bob rapidly steamed up, and Baggy attempted to use the sliding door as a boot jack.
Eventually Baggy stopped shivering enough to drive home to hot soup and central heating. She's almost warm now (two hours later). But next time Baggy is at the beach, she will show a little more respect to the sea........
Note to readers (my lovely Baggees): For the avoidance of any doubt - every character in this blog is me!!! No Baggy was harmed in its writing.
Baggy's daily state!
Depression (Black = really bad/Grey = not great/Blue = okay/Yellow = sunny day): Yellow.
Anxiety (From 1 = barely any to 10 = gibbering wreck standard): 4.
Tears: A few.
Baggy: 215
