Belgium, cats, wheelchair and wedding

No - I have no idea either.

Earlier tonight a couple of people came round - they said they had not seen us recently and wanted to know if we were ok.

The conversation then developed along the lines of Belgium, Cats, Wheelchairs and wedding, the context of which I must admit was lost on me. It might have been that someone was away in Belgium getting married and now has a wheelchair we can borrow and they saw our poster in Bar Gato (cat), and they'd come round tomorrow.

Or it might not - we'll find out more tomorrow (perhaps)

Little lizard

Davy was chasing a little lizard tonight - perhaps 1 inch or so long. It dropped its tail in the chase - but with help from Ian it escaped next door.

Schnukems and Dookems are getting more confident with their jumping, but it still goes wrong, and Ian has been entertained by the fact that they regulary slide down the wall having got their aim slightly wrong.

We went to get our Almendejo to get our NIE numbers yesterday. I am not going to the healthcente until Friday so we had a clear day and it meant we didn't need to rush. Almendejo is bigger than Zafra, and we were surprised at the number of hotels - but I don't think it is as pretty as Merida. There was a bit of faffing at the police station - but no where near as bad as we expected. We didn't see much of it, just the parts where we were looking for the police station, I think it might be worth a further explore - if nothing else to find out why it is so big. We asked Adelardo and he said it is an important wine producing town, we did notice the number of grapes around, and indeed got caught behind a couple of tractors towing trailors full of grapes - however at 30,000 people it did seem like a big town to just live off wine business.

Ooh, another thing - you might remember in an earlier blog I mentioned about the evil doctor - well, I thought that perhaps I thought he was so bad as everyone else has been so good. However, Adelardo said today that the village is raising a petition as this doctor is so 'strange' - although he is a locum they want another. So it wasn't my imagination! I couldn't pass comment on his ability - but my first experience (when he locked his door) was definately odd! Luckily I don't have much to do with him and we've bonded with the nurse and I guess the proper doctor will be back on Monday.

We've been wondering about the man and the lamb - and we think that the shepherds 'train' a lead sheep and this is what this one is. it would explain why he had a corgi as a sheepdog - with well trained sheep probably less need for a proper sheep dog...?

Man with Lamb

Walking down the road this morning.

Sunny sunday

All the staples are out of my ankle. It was painful Friday night, and quite painful yesterday, so I spent as much of the time I could with my leg up which definitely eases it. I’ve also got back ache which is a bit of a pain (pun intended), I am sure that this is something to do with sitting with my leg up as I think I slump a bit in the chair. I tried a new shower technique today, but it was unsuccessful and required me needing rescuing as I has sort of ‘set’ in position with my bad leg stuck over the side of the bath.

Well, Schnookem and Dookems have both grown quite significantly. I thought that they seemed to have doubled in size when I was in hospital – but that is unlikely. Dookems has grown upwards, with very long legs and a hugely long tail which trails along the floor. Schnukes however has grown, er, outwards. Dookems has developed as we expected – he is turning into a rather sleek and handsome cat. He is very shiny and fine featured – a bit like an egyptian cat. Schnookems is more cute and like we would expect a british moggy to be.

Although they are now more cat like than kitten like, they still like playing, with each other, dogs tails, jasmine bush etc. When Emma was here she made the cats a cat toy – namely a peg on some wool. They were delighted and Dookems in particular had great fun developing a game which entailed him ‘wearing’ Ians sandal with his front legs out of the toe end, tapping the peg. Petal and Tinkerbelle were fascinated and have been trying so hard to see what the fun is. They both sit there and watch as S&D roll around playing with the peg, and Petal or Tinks give the peg a little tap and seem so disappointed that they are apparently not having the fun that the cats are. Petal, being horrible, took the peg and wouldn’t let the cats have it back – she obviously didn’t want anyone to have more fun than she did.

Davy is a bit fed up as he has always had a safe haven on top of the fridge – however now Dookems can get up there too, much to his chagrin. Schnukes can almost get up there, but via a chair, trouble is Schnookems jumping is a bit random and sometimes he/she (still not sure) ends up going backwards, much to his surprise.

We trimmed Billy yesterday and he was quite well behaved, they do fidget so when we are trimming them, and if that wasn’t bad enough I have to put up with Ian flinching every time I get within a foot of him with scissors. If only they understood that the trimming was for their own good and that they must feel so much better afterwards.

I think that the evenings are beginning to draw in. We noticed last night that it was getting dusk-y at 9.30ish. We’ve been wondering what autumns will be like. Everything is brown now anyway so I am not sure that we will see the great changes we would be used to.

Tomorrow after we have been to the health centre we are going to almendrejo which is north of zafra to apply for our NIE cards (identification number). We ought to have done it ages ago, but didn’t for one reason or another. Apparently it is a long-winded process which entails a lot of queuing so that will be fun!

All the staples are out of my ankle. It was painful Friday night, and quite painful yesterday, so I spent as much of the time I could with my leg up which definitely eases it. I’ve also got back ache which is a bit of a pain (pun intended), I am sure that this is something to do with sitting with my leg up as I think I slump a bit in the chair. I tried a new shower technique today, but it was unsuccessful and required me needing rescuing as I has sort of ‘set’ in position with my bad leg stuck over the side of the bath.

Well, Schnookem and Dookems have both grown quite significantly. I thought that they seemed to have doubled in size when I was in hospital – but that is unlikely. Dookems has grown upwards, with very long legs and a hugely long tail which trails along the floor. Schnukes however has grown, er, outwards. Dookems has developed as we expected – he is turning into a rather sleek and handsome cat. He is very shiny and fine featured – a bit like an egyptian cat. Schnookems is more cute and like we would expect a british moggy to be.

Although they are now more cat like than kitten like, they still like playing, with each other, dogs tails, jasmine bush etc. When Emma was here she made the cats a cat toy – namely a peg on some wool. They were delighted and Dookems in particular had great fun developing a game which entailed him ‘wearing’ Ians sandal with his front legs out of the toe end, tapping the peg. Petal and Tinkerbelle were fascinated and have been trying so hard to see what the fun is. They both sit there and what as S&D roll around playing with the peg, and Petal or Tinks give the peg a little tap and seem so disappointed that they are apparently not having the fun that the cats are. Petal, being horrible, took the peg and wouldn’t let the cats have it back – she obviously didn’t want anyone to have more fun than she did.

Davy is a bit fed up as he has always had a safe haven on top of the fridge – however now Dookems can get up there too, much to his chagrin. Schnukes can almost get up there, but via a chair, trouble is Schnookems jumping is a bit random and sometimes he/she (still not sure) ends up going backwards, much to his surprise.

We trimmed Billy yesterday and he was quite well behaved, they do fidget so when we are trimming them, and if that wasn’t bad enough I have to put up with Ian flinching every time I get within a foot of him with scissors. If only they understood that the trimming was for their own good and that they must feel so much better afterwards.

I think that the evenings are beginning to draw in. We noticed last night that it was getting dusk-y at 9.30ish. We’ve been wondering what autumns will be like. Everything is brown now anyway so I am not sure that we will see the great changes we would be used to.

Tomorrow after we have been to the health centre we are going to almendrejo which is north of zafra to apply for our NIE cards (identification number). We ought to have done it ages ago, but didn’t for one reason or another. Apparently it is a long-winded process which entails a lot of queuing so that will be fun!

Henry

Henry sitting under the Jasmine bush.

It becomes horribly clear...

Mike came round yesterday. Schnookems and Dookems came from him, and they were busily showing Mike how they get their food - ie squeeking at the top of their voices, when Mike told us that his cats do the same - until they get given sausages. His cats get a frankfurter sausage every morning. No wonder Dookems has been off pinching sausages, he was obviously genetically programmed to have a sausage quota every day. Ian has been trying to fix a lock on the fridge to keep Dookes from raiding his sausage stash.

Evil Doctor

Yup, today was evil Doctor day at the health centre. We knew as there was this huge black tinted window BMW parked over the disabled ramp. Oh joy.

However he wasn't quite as bad as last time ie he didn't lock his door and did let me in. And he did give us a presciption for the new drugs. We then saw the nurse - Rock Chick as I will now think of her. With skin tight jeans and large leather studded belt heading towards me, I started to wimper softly. Ian however started to blow out his chest and play air-guitar hoping to impress. Anyway she wasn't too bad and did take out some staples. When Ian finished playing the lead guitar with Black Sabbeth she said she'd see us tomorrow. All in all a Good Day.

PS - the storks have gone. Parents and young. Don't know when this happened but I guess sometime over the last three weeks. Where have they gone....?

More ankle...

Ian has been injecting me with the anti-coagulants - you can imagine the scanario although he does have an advantage as I can't run away. As he was away on Monday I was going to go to the health centre. I must admit that I had a rather strange idea of how far I would be able to go on crutches. The baker is about as far as I can get and this entails resting on the way back. It was impossible to get to the health centre when Ian was away so I gave Emma a note and asked her to see Tony and Montse in their bar and see if they could ask for a nurse (any nurse) to come round. Tony has a bad back and is also going to the nurse regulary so he was going to ask when he went to the health centre. However a nurse didn't turn up which left us all a bit high and dry.

Tuesday was a Spanish holiday and Tony came round to get me and we went to the emergency clinic in Llerena to be injected. Me with the anticoagulants and him with his painkiller. We must have looked a right pair and we got injected at the same time, so we were stood there me exposing my stomach which now looks like a pin cushion and him his back. We buy our drugs from the famacia and keep them here, so I was amused by us sat in the waiting room with our hyperdermics clutched tightly.

The normal village doctor is away and I had a not-so-good experience with the locum doctor who didn't seem to want to answer my questions about getting my ankle checked. He told me to go to the hospital who sent me to Llerena health centre. he actually locked the door when I was in the waiting room - however the Spanish girls in there were not having it and banged on the doctors door until he opened it!

The first day at the Llerena health centre was ok - but the second day was horrible. Ian thought I was going to hit the doctor with a crutch. The dr read my 'enforma', was muttering and shaking his head about my muy mucho malo torbillo (very bad ankle) and then as if to double check started prodding it so roughly that I screamed and clutched a crutch. Apparently neither the two 4 inch scars, nor the fact that the fracture is classified as severe did not suggest the pain that I might be in! He was also prodding around the staples at which point I was going to either faint or leave, but he was actually seeing if they were ready to come out. I am hopefully going to have half out next week - but what half.... If it is the same man then I am definately leaving, I can imagine him coming towards me with a staple remover.

I've run out of anti coagulants which we will have to get tomorrow. I have to take these for another few weeks. Ian is very gentle and quick, but my whole middle is feeling very sore. He keeps telling me that these are a lot smaller needles than he used to inject the goats. I did point out that goat skin is likely to be a bit tougher than me. Well hopefully.

When Emma came back from Tony and Montse's on Monday she was armed with a huge platter of cakes. Cream cakes, chocolate ones, biscuit cake etc. These were from a group of people in the village and go with the quails eggs which I have also been given.

We went to have breakfast at Tony and Montse's bar on Friday. We didn't have churros (I have enough problems without a major churros-induced seisure), but had tostada with tomato and oil. It was lovely and very simple but very refreshing. The tomato is pulped with olive oil and it is spooned onto the toast. This is the first time we went out for breakfast and we really enjoyed it - sitting and watching the world go by in the square. Needless to say Ian made us tostada and tomato the next day for breakfast.

Adelardo is back from his holiday and I asked him about the locum I saw. Ah yes, he replied 'you saw the strange doctor'. Apparently he is famous in the village for being strange. I think locking your door so you can't see patients is very strange and it was obvioulsy the same doctor.

It never rains...

Title can be taken both ways - literally as I cannot remember the last time we had rain and metophorically as we are in the middle of a bad luck down pour.

Quick recap> tenants refusing to leave Bridge End means that the sale which has been lined up has been significantly delayed > agent and solicitor show amazing amount of incompetence further snarling up the process > too many things out of our control so we decided that one of us needs to get a job > clever Ian gets interview.

So Ian had interview on Monday 31st. We talked about the issues about him working away during the week etc and decided that although not ideal, as it would only be for a few months we'd just live with it. Ian gets train to Seville and hires car at Seville. The day started in a bit of a flakey way as the car hire people did not have his hire details and I could not call 0800 numbers from here. Luckily a quick SOS call from Ian to Jim and things were sorted.

Ian wasn't sure if he was going to drive back from Marbella or not, as if he drove home he would need to get up at 6 to take car back to Seville. However at around 9 he was in Seville and realised he'd be home not long after 10 so decided to come home.

We had a nice evening together, went to bed and I fell asleep with the light on - got up to switch lihgt off with pins and needles and fell over. How lucky Ian was home. When I eventually managed to shout louder than his snores he picked me up and we looked to see what I had done.

Quick action with a bag of frozen sweetcorn reduced the swelling and I could move my toes, so I thought that it was a sprain. I knew it was something quite serious as the pain had actually made me sick (sorry for the detail), but thought muscle as opposed to fracture.

We discussed a bit what we would do as Ian still needed to get car back and we'd be facing a 80 euro fee if he went over the time, so we decided that Ian would take me to the hospital at 6.30 on the way to Seville and I'd get a taxi home.

I was treated very well and was exrayed within an hour. It started to go downhill then as I was told by a doctor that I had to stay in hospital until I was seenby a consultant. I still thought at thsi time that it was a sprain - or a minor break, but when they made me take off my clothes and put on a gown, and start to get details from me, I started to worry. The consultant then came and told me I had an 'unlucky' ankle with complete breaks of the bones. This still confuses me though as the x-ray showed three broken bones but the internet says that your ankle has two.... Anyway, surgery was on the Thursday and I experienced 6 days of spanish health service. An experience which was actually excellent, but I was glad to get home.

I have plates and screws fitted and two months on crutches to look forward to.

Anyway, I am writing this in installments so will write more over the coming days.

Welcome back Blog.