Toe Curling or Eye Popping?

[Tresco]

Well, as it turned out, both.

Our neighbour, Yves popped round and asked if we could take him to a place about 2k away from here, to help join in the hunt for Guys' Toe.

Guy had been doing something old men round here seem to do a lot. Walking round a field and sticking his spade in hard at various places. I don't know why they do it, but they do.  Anyway, he chopped his own big Toe off, clean through his wellies. 

 Guy is 84. He walked or hopped home, and was about to call the Pompiers (is that odd, I mean do Pomiers do operations like that?), when he realised that he had left the toe behind, and that that was a bad thing. Something to do with his insurance being invalid because he was out in someone elses field? I'm not sure, but i do knwo he wanted that Toe found and brought home. 

So before calling the Pompiers (can you believe it?) he phoned up a couple of friends. Word spread, and by the time we got there my neighbour Yves wife and daughter were there in the field (they had left him behind because he is a bit bonkers) and  6 or 7 other people, all looking for the Toe: or if they were anything like me, pretending to look while desperately hoping they wouldn't be the one to find it.  

One of the people who had somehow made it out there was Jean-Claude, who uses a wheelchair. He was sitting there at the side of the field 'directing' the search operations. Somehow he fell out of his wheelchair, and went head first half into the fosse (ditch) at the side of the field.

MOH and another chap managed to get him upright and sitting on the side of the fosse. He seemed a bit shocked but unhurt. MOH used to be a nurse, and decided to check J-Cs eyes for signs of concussion. Suddenly J-Cs  false eye popped out, and fell into the fosse. Now we'd never met this chap before, but I found it astonishing that OH could mistake a glass eye for a real one.  Later he told me it was not the first time in his career that this has happened, with the same result.

So there we were, one set of people looking for the Toe, another few looking for the Eye, and us taking J-C back to Guys house.  When the Toe/Eye Hunt Parties rejoined us at the house, about 20 minutes later, an ambulance was called (presumably putting an eye back in is one of the things Pompiers can't do?).

In the meantime we all sat there having a drink, a laugh and a chat, with the Toeless Guy and the Eyeless J-C, and two clear plastic bags on the kitchen table (near the nibbles), one containing the toe, and the other, the eye.

We left before whatever combination of emergency services were deemed appropriate arrived.

 

 

[SaligoBay]

Congratulations!   Have your Brownie Integration Badge!

Spent a happy Fête de la Musique once searching for a finger and thumb in the neighbour's garage. [+o(]

Must admit that when I saw "toe curling" I did wonder if it was the latest Scottish speciality sport in the Commonwealth Games.

I think they should stick to elephant polo, they're good at that.

[Miki]

I don't know, I read in the Highland Games monthly that the men were

good at tossing their wotsit. As you rightly say, what a fantastic win

for the mens elephant polo team, especially when you consider that

elephants in Scotland are rarer than rocking horse poo. So one can only

surmise, that practising on the back of sofas must be their only

training ?

What a marvellous story Tresco (in a tragic sense of course). I would

think  that Archant would want to ask to put that story in one of

their mags. Admin, jump in first and get Tresco to elaborate the story

for L.F mag. Perhaps doubling it up in the next months mag, with SB's

finger and thumb search ?

[Tresco]

After you Miki.

Scroll down the thread for:

 The Tale of Mikis Goat

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/524633/ShowPost.aspx

[Tresco]

[quote user="SaligoBay"]

Spent a happy Fête de la Musique once searching for a finger and thumb in the neighbour's garage. [/quote]

By strange coincidence Saligo Bays Town Digit Hunt is in the same thread that I linked to above.

[Christine Animal]

... and is Guy the guy whose feet you wash, in which case you will have a bit less work   [:)]

[Tresco]

    Christine.

The Toe-in-a-Bag looked enormous, (could it have swelled after the event?) but no, it wasn't the lovely Mr R.

Apparently there was a small incident after we left yesterday, where one of Guys mates put his Toe in the bin.

Anyway, MOH informs me people can manage fine with either the big toe OR the little toe missing, but not both.

Not that I'll ever believe a (health related) word he says again.

[Gardian]

Tresco - must admit that I read this last night and wondered whether it was real or an excess of the old CDR on my part.

Wonderful story & couldn't have been made up. Is that what you folks in the NW do all the time? (as in chopping off toes, etc?) 

[Tresco]

North-West!

I used to live in the North West, In England. Now I'm a Sou'Wester, i'll have you know.

Cheeky blighter, where do you live, Australia or somewhere? 

I don't know what they do round here, but they're a lot of fun.

Miki used the word 'tragic'. Well there was no sense of tragedy at all; everything was taken as it came and there was a fair amount of laughing going on.

If it took Miki 5 years to get his 'goat' story that well honed, we are well on our way. I'm thinking of saying the eye ended up in the nibbles, the dog ate the toe, and so on....

So you see, in the end you could 'make it up', given the bare bones.

  Ouch sorry, time for bed)

[Gardian]

Well, it's north west-ish from here.

Whatever, you're in another world. Our neighbours' eyes glaze over when we mention visitors coming from the UK - it might as well be Mars! As far as they're concerned, foreigners are people from 'Pont' (Pont St Esprit), just 20 kms up the road. Long may it continue.

Going back to the eyes and toes, reckon I saw something similar on the deli counter today. Tasty!  

[Tresco]

Ian, seriously, round here it's all grapes, for table wine, but mostly Cognac or Pineau. I still don't know what the old men are supposed to be doing when they cho their toes off though.

See, how it has already become 'they', not just one man....