Today myself and the two Sarahs (whom I call Sassy & Sarah and who I have mentioned once or twice on this blog - the ones I grew up with in my neighbourhood; we had a group, we had our games and stupid 'in' jokes...you KNOW who I'm talking about) decided to have lunch together as it had been a good while since our last meet. We decided to head over to the farm across the road armed with a picnic basket and a feast of delicious foods. The sky looked a bit dodgy, always threatening to open and lash at any minute, but we got lucky.
(I add at this point, that the fourth member of our group, my sister, was working today so could not make it. We do not exclude people who are in the group from the group. It is outsiders we shun)
We had our lunch, munched Doritos, savoured each strawberry as though it were our last, and chittered and chattered. We talked and gossiped and had a thoroughly enjoyable time. And we obeyed the number one rule of the group - bring up embarrassing childhood memories! Ugh.
After we had spent ample time (2+ hours!) eating and talking, we decided to go on a walk around the farm. Our tummys were full but all was going well; we were walking a dusty trail, heads down babbling about something when I spotted a white shape way up in the distance. We continued to walk, while Sarah fixed her shoes. The 'white shape' then became clearer and it looked very much like a goat or donkey or bull. It was running. No, it was RACING. And it was racing towards US. I nearly wet myself! I shouted to the others to run, but Sassy had already taken off as I followed close behind, passing Sarah (who was still fixing her shoe and holding on to the picnic basket!) and thinking how bizarre this whole set up was. (I might add that I did feel a bit guilty for just legging it past the shoe fixing Sarah instead of offering to help but anyway). There was (for all we knew) a BULL charging at us, there was nobody around except the three of us, and there was nowhere to run to. They don't call Sassy a Leinster champion sprinter for nothing is all I can say!
We figured someone had forgotten to shut a gate somewhere. When we got around the corner we caught our breath between the fits of giggles. It was rather alarmingly scary though. After a while, we decided to return and thankfully the bull thing was gone. We carried on about our walk, and made our way into another humongous field where three (grumpy) goats appeared to have escaped from wherever they were supposed to be as well. We then figured it was probably a goat and not a angry charging killing bull (as previously suspected) that we had encountered earlier.
We finished the walk, saw some sweet children and that was about it. It soon began to pour out of the heavens when we returned home, which signalled the end of a lovely day spent out with friends. And so four friends (my sister joined us at this point) who used to spend every single summer day together (except when one or other of us would jet off for their annual two week holiday) parted ways once more. Oh except Paula and I, because we sort of live together, so 'parting ways' for dramatic effect would be a bit silly really....and that rain was coming down HARD! No better way to spend a free day then catching up with old friends me thinks...
I am doing another FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions!) about transplants (or CF if you so wish) in my Medical blog at the end of this week. If you want me to (try) answer anything, please leave a comment (publicly or privately) in my guestbook.
