This week’s on this day post comes from the 1st-September-2019. I’m in France with another health issue.
Sunday, 1st-September-2019. La Possonniere to Caen. 36 miles.
Caen? Yes, you’ve read correctly, Caen! Surely, that’s more than 36 miles away, I hear you ask. And considering I didn’t get much sleep last night (a noisy restaurant down the road kept me awake until about 4 am), I’ve done pretty well. Which unfortunately meant I was even more grumpy than normal. But to be honest, I do have a good excuse for being grumpy today.
Early yesterday morning, I happened to notice a blister come up on the back of my left hand, which is what happened last year just before I contracted sepsis.
Now, call me paranoid if you want, and to be honest, who could blame me? But I did start to wonder, surely not again. I wasn’t feeling unwell (but then I didn’t last year, not to begin with anyway), well, not until I noticed the blister. But feeling ill soon passed, and I put it down to my imagination.
As the day went on, I watched the blister grow. And I was now thinking about getting home so I could get it checked out. I’m sure it’s nothing, but just in case it is, I don’t want to be stuck in France, especially as I don’t have any health insurance.
By the end of the day, I still felt okay and decided to see how things were this morning. I got up this morning at my usual time and immediately checked out my blister, which looked about the same as last night. Phew, thank goodness for that. I’ll continue with my ride. But while eating breakfast, I noticed that I now had a blister on my right hand, again the same as last year! That was it. I needed to get these checked out. If it’s nothing, that’s all well and good. I’ll come straight back. If not, well, best we don’t think about that.
After deciding to return home, I cycled the 11 miles to Angers. Thinking that as it was a city, there would be more options to get home. My first thought was to get a train. And after visiting the very helpful ticket office, I had a ticket that would get me to Caen. Caen was good because there were more ferry sailings from there. The only problem was that the earliest train I could get wasn’t until 6.25 pm, which, after one change in Le Mans, would get me into Caen for 9.45.
The last ferry for England leaves Ouistreham at 11 pm, another ten miles from the railway station in Caen. But I thought I’d still try and catch it, not thinking I would, especially as you have to check in an hour before the sailing.
I arrived in Ouistreham at 10.40 pm and got the predicted, “You’re too late. You need to check in an hour before the sailing.” After laying it on a bit thick, saying I needed to get to the hospital tomorrow, they let me on. I was literally the last person on. And just to top everything off, I seem to be having technical issues again.
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