Old folk’scold feet scare
Happily there are still youngsters out there willing to attempt far more hazardous missions than watching Britney Spears and Enrique Iglesias music videos. In the past three weeks we’ve seen impressive new Guinness records set by; “The youngest person to walk to the South Pole” and “The youngest person to sail single-handedly across the Atlantic.”
Congratulations to them both and may they and their courageous contemporaries continue to astound us.
In the same period Judy and I set an own personal record of sorts.
“Caribbean sexagenarians survive shocking 21-day cold feet spell” might be the overlong London tabloid headline best describing how we overcame this frightening challenge facing us during our recent UK trip. And although we are both deeply concerned by the threat of global warming, there was a fleeting moment when I hoped it might suddenly happen, as we walked through Trafalgar Square during a blinding snowstorm.
Dashing for cover in the cosy reception area at the Savoy Hotel, we racked our brains to see if we’d ever had collective cold feet for longer, if you see what I mean, and came to the conclusion we hadn’t.
In earlier times, high in the wintry Swiss,
French and Austrian Alps, we found any number of ready antidotes. Warm grog, hot mud baths and saunas were always there waiting to come to our rescue. But the most pleasurable and effective remedy was to cling closely together under a thick down-filed duvet and after enduring the initial shock of four freezing feet meeting it was never long before hot blood reached our nether extremities, especially those in need of chiropodial warming.
So, as you’ve probably gathered by now, you won’t be reading about us walking to one of the Poles or sailing across any major ocean although we’d encourage and admire anyone wishing to become the oldest person to do either.
We’ve also gone off warm grog completely and find any normal West Indian afternoon more therapeutic than sitting in a tub of warm mud.
But don’t take this to mean we’ve also ceased our clinging closely together activities.
They worked wonderfully well and helped us through our recent crisis in Britain, and now back home in the tropics where neither of us suffer from cold feet we’ll continue to practise them to keep our other nether extremities active and performing at maximum efficiency without breaking any speed limits.
