I woke up at just before 6 and heard Caitlins alarm go off at 6. Got dressed and met Caitlin in the kitchen. Made my coffee in a palm tree plastic cup this morning (still classy).
I put on my cardi and lifted a beach towel to wrap my legs in before I sit down at the beach. Not because it's cold - far from it. It was just a desperate attempt to cover my skin to avoid any more bites. I hardly slept last night as they were itching so bad.
Caitlin and I walked round to the bay and settled down.
This morning there were big clouds, so the sun fought its way though the haze then up through the clouds. 3 mornings, 3 different looking sunrises.
was lovely and peaceful again.
Came back and Caitlin went back to bed. Once up, Kevin and Kieran decided to go for a walk on the beach. I sat (im)patiently waiting for 9am to come when the CVS pharmacy would open so kevin could take me for something else for my bites. I had written down all the different suggestions from both the dibb and the AMI Facebook page I had posted on and planned to just see which of them I could get.
Sorry for the leg pics but it's just to show they really are bad and I'm not just being a drama queen! They really are driving me nuts.
Whilst waiting I also phoned capn kathe as I wanted to book a boat tour. At first, she said the only availability for 5 people was Saturday afternoon. When I explained we leave Saturday morning she started chatting asking where we were from etc. When I said I had hoped to go with her because of the pup that does the dolphin spotting, she explained she had no bookings for tomorrow as she was supposed to be on land for an appointment. Then she said she could MAYBE be back in time to take us out at 12... she said if I wanted to take the chance we could keep in touch by text tomorrow morning and she would let us know if she could make it. I decided to go for that. She told me to text her so she had my number and she replied with a lovely photo
Kevin came back just after 9 and took me firstly to dollar tree where I got this
then CVS where I spoke to the pharmacist who to be honest wasn't brill. She had suggestions for soothing them (the cortisone stuff) but no real help on preventing getting more. She more or less thought if you are going to be bitten you are going to be bitten. In the end I got these
Then we went into publix for water, milk, Oreos and some of their chicken for tonight's dinner. We also picked up some more Seagrams and some mikes black cherry as my pal Julie who was in Orlando a few weeks back raved about it. And I had to get a key lime pie as apparently that's great too.
Back home I got into my bikini, suncreamed up and tried the cortisone stuff. 15 mins later they were still killing me so I tried the calamine lotion then pottered about making some lunch while it dried in.
Not sure the neon pink blotchy look is a good one but if definitely dulled the itching a bit, although they are still very painful when I walk. You know how your legs judder when you walk? (Well ok skinny malinky, mine do ok?) I get stabbing pains in every bite then. Not fun but easier to take than the constant itching.
I was feeling right sorry for myself and as a result was being a total grump. I knew I was, but everything was annoying me. The fact that when I went to make my lunch I had to clear away someone else's stuff first. The fact that everyone else had used all the clean pool towels so I would have to wait til the tumble dryer finished to get one to lie on. The fact that all the spf50 suncream seems to have vanished into thin air. How ridiculous was this? Nobody was doing anything wrong yet I'm on a beautiful island in glorious sunshine and I'm finding stuff to be grumpy about. I needed to take myself off for a good talking to so after lunch I loaded myself up with a chair, parasol, beach bag and towel (now the tumble dryer was done) and walked my neon pink blotchy body up the road to Bean Point.
As soon as I got there I felt better. The clean fresh salty air, powder white soft sand, bright blue sea, ahhhhhhhh...
That's better
Set up my wee one woman camp and went for a dip in the ocean. The water was just perfect - right about body temperature. Just heavenly. It's so quiet out there too. All you can hear are the birds and the distant burr of a motorboat. I wish I could find a way to share what that's like, but I couldn't take my iPhone into the sea and even if I could a photo wouldn't do it justice.
I bobbed about out there for a while then started to worry about all my pink neon calamine lotion disappearing into the Gulf of Mexico. I needn't have bothered. I came out and all my neon pink blotches were intact. Strong stuff calamine. Just as well the beach is quiet and nobody gets too close to see my pink blotches. It'd be like that scene in monsters inc when the monster comes back with a sock stuck to him.
I'm not sure my blotches matched my nice new homemade leopard print bikini I had on today. I used to dressmake a lot and have been getting into it again since I finished work. The only thing I had never made was swimwear so a few weeks back I did a morning class to learn the technique for putting the elastic in, and since then have made a couple of bits. And no, I would never inflict a picture on you!
There were dark skies to my right and after a while it did actually rain a tiny bit. But it was still roasting so it felt more like somebody passed one of those mist things about for a bit.
Certainly nobody on the beach moved and it passed in 10 minutes.
I felt quite sleepy so stretched my towel out in the shade, made a wee sand pillow under it and had a wee doze to myself. Oh how nice it was in the shady heat. I think I slept for a good 40minutes.
When I woke hannah had messaged to say Caitlin was on her way to the beach so I sat back up and kept an eye out for her.
When she arrived we sat for another hour or so in between dipping in and out of the ocean. Heaven. Caitlin had walked Kieran down to Two Scoops to get ice cream while I had been away.
We walked back to the house and each had a cool shower in the outside shower by the pool to rinse off all the sand. Then we sat in the shade and ate ice cream.
After that the girls were in the pool trying to get Caitlin that perfect insta shot. Girls eh?! I then vetoed the end shot by going all auntie on her saying it was too raunchy to be putting that on the Internet!
Once I had dried in I topped up my calamine lotion (you don't get shots like that on Instagram eh) you're welcome!
Then put the new repellant stuff I had bought on. We will see how many more new bites I get with this stuff.
Kevin and Kieran decided to go down to the rod n reel to try the fishing. If you fish anywhere on the island you need a licence. But on rod n reel you are covered under the pier licence. It's $7.50 per rod for an hour including bait. Then $2 per hour after that and $3 for each new bucket of bait.
they came back having enjoyed it but caught no fish. Kevin said nobody was catching anything at that point.
I dozed on the upper deck in the late hazy sunshine which is my absolute favourite. Heaven
Dinner was a lazy affair with publix fried chicken and roast chicken, oven chips and Caesar salad. All out on that gorgeous decking.
The kids cleared up after dinner and then we headed to the beach for sunset.
It was lovely tonight. Just stunning.
Caitlin and Kieran walked back then kevin and I followed about half an hr later. By then that big rumbly cloud had started pink and orange fork lightening. It was beautiful.
Home for showers then we had our key lime pie in front of the telly watching wolverine.
Lovely lovely day.