Last week I had an unfortunate experience, almost a 999 emergency but happily I was rescued by the Boy Scouts, or more accurately, their leaders.
As Rachel and Hannah had gone away to the Southampton Boat Show, it was the perfect opportunity for loud music and a red hot curry. Even better is when this is combined with wrapping said meal up and heading out somewhere in the car.
As part of the cooking process, I spotted a lonely chilli in the fridge and decided to incorporate it. I tasted it before chopping up and stirring it in. I decided it was too fiery and put it to one side. Unbeknown to me, that was effectively laying the trap for me later on.
The curry was cooked, wrapped up and I was off to Ivinghoe Beacon, a local beauty spot at the top of the Chiltern escarpment. I enjoyed my curry sitting in the car as I watched the golden hour arrive and the colours change. I set off, with my camera, up to see the sunset from the beacon. It was lovely and the photo above is one that I took.
As I was walking back down at dusk, I unbeknown to me I still had a tiny fragment of chilli on my finger which I accidentally wiped into my eye. The agony! It wasn’t just the discomfort of a tiny speck of something in my eye, it was ON FIRE!
I was blinking like crazy, trying to get rid of it but this just seemed to make things worse as the epicentre of pain moved up to the top of my eye, way above the eyelid. I was in agony and couldn’t really see.
By now I was a quarter of the way back to the car, perhaps another half mile to go. Nobody was around, it was getting dark and I wondered how this would play out. The speck of chilli was in my right eye and this is my GOOD eye. Thoughts were buzzing around in my mind about how I could help, what help I needed, how I was going to get home and even if I could drive home. That was looking impossible as I staggered back towards the car parking area.
On the narrow path, in a wooded area, quite a lot of young people passed me, they were heading in the opposite direction. Before the last group passed by, I stopped them and said I needed some help and asked if they had any water. No they didn’t, but there would be someone at the car park that would help me.
I staggered on, please God, help. My eyes were blurry, I couldn’t see very well and the top of my eye, well inside the eyelid, was still burning and I was in quite a lot of pain.
When I got to the car park, there were a couple of ladies and some picnic tables. They asked if I was the man with something in his eye, having been tipped off by one of the youngsters who had a walkie-talkie. It turned out they were a group of scouts involved in a night time map reading exercise.
They gave me a disposable coffee cup and all the fresh, clean water I needed. I gently poured it over my eye, quite hard as I did my best to keep it open. I carried on with this for ages and eventually it seemed to get better. Where was all the water going, you might ask. All I can say is that it looked as if I’d wet myself while standing in the rain. I was soaked but I didn’t care; my eye was feeling better.
During the conversation I asked those two ladies if they could drive and if there were any other adults around who could help. Alas no. Understandably they needed to stay for those youngsters and couldn’t just drop everything to drive home some random bloke with something in his eye, while it was now dark and out in the countryside.
I eventually felt better, although still rather sore. Certainly well enough to make it back to the car and drive home. By the time I did get home, my eye was still rather sore but I could see and drive okay. Phew. Thank the Lord.
Thank you also to the Boy Scouts for their thoughtfulness in using their walkie talkie for me. Thank you to the two ladies who made sure I was okay. I think they said they were from Leagrave, in Luton.