Further

I commented that after 45 minutes or so, my spastic diaphram muscle starts acting up, and the asthma pump tends to stop working. When I was last in hospital (after being stung by several thousand bees) I was constantly with oxygen being fed into my lungs via a pipe with nose attachments. It was either this or the face mask!

Anyway, I managed to breathe better, The problem with this was that the oxygen was distributed from a wall connection. It would be extremely unpleasant to have the oxygen connection at the pulpit and not in hospital! I suppose that I could have an oxygen bottle to carry with me, except they weigh plenty! I found after I was released from hospital, that I was breathing badly because my diapram was extremely swollen by the effects of the bee venom! This cleared up, and now I find that I breathe better in the Bay than I have before!

I also have discovered 2 further items:-

I am (apparently) now likely to be allergic to shellfish. This is hardly a problem as generally, I dont eat shellfish (crab, prawns, crayfish etc)

If I am stung again, my anti venoms that were built up, will react just as if I have been stung by another several thousand bees! After 10 or so have stung you, you tend to lose count, not that counting is a concern when you are trying to escape the stings! The effects of this is then that I am now allergic - to me! I think that the stingings were a case of live and learn - I lived (just) and the bees learned - the hard way!

Christine is really concerned that I am now allergic to snails, the same way that I am allergic to shellfish! I am not worried, as snails are hardly shellfish! I am not convinced that I am allergic to shellfish, but I am hardly inclined to put this to the test! I rather order calamari when I eat sea food!

When I lived in Zimbabwe (I was in the army at Independance) the RLI Pay Office often used to go and eat out in a restaurant downtown. We always had excellent service in this restaurant, but thinking back, this was more likely because the waiters and staff were scared witless that the 4 army guys would get upset and start using their 4 FN rifles, or the 4 holstered pistols we had - 1 set each.