Holiday Hazards

Greyrocks - particularly Ruth given her record- has received many warnings about taking care and anticipating hazards. Here are four of which we have experience this time in Goa.

Oversized Flip-flops

Ruth has awkward feet and only wears sandals for eleven months of the year. She is also mean when it comes to clothing purchases! Back in Fuerte she was persuaded to buy another pair in the Chinese shop and subsequently fell over twice when going up steps. Bob and friends blamed oversized sandals. Here, during Chloë's visit Ruth wore seriously oversized plastic things to the beach and as she came out of the milk shop tripped over and had to be hoisted up by strangers from the middle of the road! The damage was a small cut to a big toe, a substantial tear to the nail and general bruises and grazing. Lapsed first-aider Chloë cleaned her up and the only legacy is a wait for the nail to replace itself (thus dealing rather dramatically with a troublesome ingrown one)! The offending footwear was then bequeathed to the boys at The Nest

Tuk-tuk Elbow

This one can't do any damage now!

One evening soon after the three of us were jammed in the back of a tuk-tuk on a very hot evening proceeding down Palolem's very busy main road. Ruth had her left elbow resting out of the open window. (India drives on the left) As we passed a parked car it was clipped by the wing mirror! Ouch! More bruises!

Falling Coconuts
This is a hazard thankfully avoided! Greyrocks has written before of coconut incidents, and now is the season! Our room is surrounded by mature palms and last week there would be the occasional thud as a coconut fell spontaneously. Our landlord was quick to act and so we spent several morning hours watching as a very mature and skilled man shinned up each tree to lob off branches and release the fruit to the (slightly) cordoned off area below. This resulted in a lot  ("lovely bunch") of coconuts, and each occupied room receiving one duly punctured and with a plastic(!) straw!



Frisky Waves

We have been in the sea everyday bar two, and the wave conditions have been variable:- from "millpond" to "bloody big waves"! In previous years Ruth had been rather cautious - not wanting to fall on new knees, but is now fairly cavalier and can deal with the big waves either before or after  they break. On the one occasion, however, she was knocked forward by a monster wave and couldn't get up. She tried to signal to Bob at the sunbed, but to no avail, and so wallowed in the shallows until he noticed, and then he couldn't get her up alone. A nice woman came to the second side (the replaced shoulder!) and all was well!

Not so lucky was a 27 year old Indian man who perished last week after a heart attack whilst swimming. We saw the incident from a distance discerning that the body, which was spotted by Swedes, was brought ashore by the lifeguard in a jet-ski.

Lifeguard vigilance has since increased!