[Hill Walker]

Sorry I cannot do a picture for reasons that will become obvious. In fact this post should probably not be here as its the opposite of what was requested. I do have a picture but its a mental picture being forced to the fore by the recurrent use of the word ‘isolation’. Its a picture of a hospital ward from when I was very young and had Scarlett Fever. In those days there were Isolation Hospitals where you were sent if you had highly infectious diseases.
Visitors were not allowed onto the wards but were permitted to look in through the windows. Young as I was this seemed like a stupid arrangement as you were in bed facing into the ward and could only see the visitors of the person in the bed opposite. Being a small child in a full size bed I was a bit of an escape artist and caused all sorts of problems for the staff eventually needing to be restrained at visiting times. (Much delayed apologies to the staff!)
One thing happened during this period which is still with me to this day. Prior to this illness I liked dogs and had no fear of them. For some reason a dog, which I remember as probably an Alsatian and described as ‘the Matron’s dog’ was allowed on the ward. If it was near your bed and you put your hand out it would walk past and in doing so got stroked from head to tail. However near the end of my stay when I was allowed out of bed I tried to do the same sort of stroke whilst standing near the bed. This went wrong as the vigorous wagging of the dog’s tail sent me flying across the highly polished floor and I banged my head on something. Ok I know its a bit irrational but I am still a bit wary of dogs to this day.