I got stung by a "Uhrelly Icshhh"
I was a very curious child. I used to love going “hunting” whilst on holiday with the family. Unfortunately for me however I am also one of these people that seem to attract stinging animals.

You name it, spiders, ants, scorpions, wasps, hornets, bees, lizards, snakes I have been bitten, stung or poisoned by the lot. Luckily, none of the above where not of the “life threatening” verities and most incidents simply left me in tears with a swollen finger\hand\foot\leg for a couple for days.

I learnt my lesson one day though. I was about 12 and on holiday in the Med with my parents and we had taken a small motor-boat out to go exploring. We settled in a cove and I jumped out to do some snorkelling and saw something interesting, it was quite small, jelly-like and swam with a odd flapping motion (you guess it!) so I decided to drive down for a closer look. So there I am, stalking an evil looking, BRIGHT RED jellyfish miles away from the nearest beach.

After some frantic flapping with my flippers I managed to get all the way down for a closer look then something catches my eye, another one, and another and another, they where everywhere!!! I had not seen them due to the cloudiness of the water. I started to panic, turned around and BANG swam through about 8 of the bugger’s one catching me right on the throat! Instant firey pain followed, I could hardly breath. I managed to struggle my way back to the boat and spluttered something about “Uhrelly Icshhh” then just collapsed in a ball of tears and pain for the 30min it took us to get back to the beach.

Honestly the most painful experience of my life, I had a big scar on my throat for about a month as well as some smaller ones on my chest and legs.

I am quite content to just leave things be these days but if ever see anything that looks even remotely like a jellyfish (plastic bags, seaweed etc) you watch me turn into a gold medal swimmer as I power my way back to the beach!!!
(Minty Hit, Thu 2 Jun 2005, 15:46, Reply)