Silly Moo

Subtitled "Two for the price of one"

Slept a little restlessly last night. Not sure why - I didn't think I was worried about anything, I was warm and snuggly, the sound of the ocean was like a lullaby and I felt at peace with the world around me. Still, I was awake at about 4.00am and remember also looking at the time at 5.45 . . .

I did fall back to sleep but not surprisingly, didn't re-awaken until close to 10am. That's the nice things about holidays - body clocks can do their own thing :) Made a slow start to the day as it was a little blustery outside - coffee, reading and contemplating the world around me then decided early afternoon that I wanted to get moving. Before I left though I wanted to stretch the legs and take a nice long beach walk which, with the tide just beginning to rise again meant there was plenty of beach to walk on. Just me, the cormorants and the sea.

I can't say how far I'd walked - about 30-40 minutes I guess - when I came across a low rock shelf dotted with pools, rocks covered in tiny mussels (?) and slippery seaweed. Picking my way through the dips and across the pools and rocks was a little tricky but things seemed to be going well until I lost concentration and slid off a seaweed-covered rock . I think if the slip had been video'd it would have made very graceful but nevertheless embarrassing viewing. I literally landed on my bum, rolled onto my back with my feet high in the air. That was the sign I needed to tell me that I should go no further so, picking myself back up I gingerly made my way off the rock shelf and back onto relativley firm sand.

I enjoyed the meander back along the beach whilst drifting in my own thoughts. As I approached the van I put my hands into my pocket to get out my keys and . . . . . . no keys!

'I must have left them in the van door when I locked up' I thought as I raced round the van, checking the doors. Nothing.

Then the reality slowly dawned . . . . . . they must have fallen out of my pocket when I slipped over. Which of course meant they were all the way down the beach.

That put pay immediately to my relaxed state - my heart was racing. I was miles from anywhere, I'd left my cell phone in the van (there's no coverage in this neck of the world) there may or may not be anyone in the houses I'd driven past yesterday, the tide was still rising and, even if I did get back down to the rock shelf, that still didn't mean I'd be able to find them.

Replay the walk in double-quick time.

I got to the rock shelf with the waves beginning to lap at the lower reaches of it then tried to retrace my steps. Funny how one rocky pool looks much like another at times like this. I walked aroud in a few circles feeling the panic beginning to rise in me. But then a calmness swept over me and I remembered a few details about the area I'd slipped - kind of between 2 rocks that I'd been able to reach out to and brace myself against. I looked around, saw something that looked like the scene and, as I made my way over there, they were - resting between 2 rocks, looking up at me with a big smile - my keys :) (Yes - I swear they were smiling at me!)

Cue the 4th leg of the beach walk.

The rest of the day of course was a bit of a fizzer after all that excitement! Lesson learned about zipping jacket pockets up! These cows I saw on the drive home looked at me and reminded me about the date - Friday the 13th. Are black cows considered to bring good fortune?