Silly me. Only a couple of days before embarking on my first caravan holiday of the year, I had bought a box of six eggs - nice 'very large' ones - which (as I don't eat a lot of eggs) hadn't yet been touched. It was a choice between binning them and bringing them along with me in the caravan. Well, I didn't want to waste them!
Experience told me that they probably wouldn't survive the journey intact. There are various ways I could have ensured their survival, such as carefully packing them in a closed container solid enough not to move around, the eggs inside swathed in bubble-wrap or similar, but I wanted to depart and hadn't the time. I put a wide elastic band around the egg box, so at least it wouldn't open, and wedged it in position in the space under my bed, where the eggs would stay cool. Hemmed in by kitchen rolls and toilet rolls, surely they'd be all right?
Wrong. I discovered the mess when unpacking at my Lyme Regis destination. The egg box hadn't opened, but the sundry movements of the caravan when being towed had jolted it sufficiently to break all the eggs. One end of the box was soggy and leaking egg. Yuk.
It took me a while to clear up the mess. I couldn't get down on my knees to make the job easier. Eventually all was washed to my satisfaction, and a couple of kitchen rolls discarded. Why didn't I give the bin a treat in the first place? Or just think ahead, and not buy eggs when travelling in a few days' time?
I hope I've now learned my lesson!
Having an osteoarthritic knee is clearly going to teach me many other things, now that kneeling is not possible. I had already worked out that I wouldn't be able to wipe the shower pan after use in the time-honoured way, doing it on my knees with a sponge and cloth. So I'd brought along a mop, to do it standing up. And I had a special bad-back gadget with jaws to pick things up off the floor if I couldn't bend down, or get hold of items beyond my easy reach. Now I'd need to use it to fish for shoes under the other bed.
The knee, by the way, seems to be improving. It stood up to 165 miles of driving (with two breaks), travelling from Sussex yesterday. That suggests that none of the caravanning journeys I have planned this year will be a problem. Loading up at home involved plenty of to-ing and fro-ing, but the knee didn't complain much. I will however need to be careful walking about towns and villages while on holiday. Beaches, slopes and bumpy churchyards will all need to be treated with caution or simply avoided. And it had best be lifts, not staircases. I will concentrate on walking naturally, and as briskly as possible as soon as possible, in order to get back to something like my previous state of fitness. If I'm sensible, I'll surely get there.
