Nearly there

We’re just about feeling we’re home. The land under our feet is settling down. We could still feel the motion of the sea & vibrations of the engines most of the week.

It’s been a busy few days. Holidays always seem to involve so much work. This time is no exception.

With it being so hot before we went away, we disposed of most of our fresh food before we went. We had a big restock this week. It almost seemed a waste as we’re off to Italy soon. However, we do need to eat in between time & after poor food on the cruise we are desperate for real food again, food with flavour. Our home food may not look as prettily arranged on the plate but it is hot & tasty.

We also went up to the surgery about the Fox’s legs. They seem to be doing better than they were before we went away. He’s largely regained movement now. The GP suspects it’s one of two things – a virus or our old friend, stress. However, next week we’re having our annual medical health review so the GP has arranged extra blood tests to check for a virus. The Fox is to go back if it gets worse again.

The GP was surprised to discover there was no reference to the Fox ever having a stroke in his notes. They’ve been re-organising their files. Clearly something has gone amiss as this is an important part of the Fox’s medical history. The doctor is going to look into that too.

We’ve caught up with some of the adventures of our friends. One got rushed into hospital while we were away. While out, he’d suddenly started shaking violently. He was sat on a bench with a blanket around him, while he awaited an ambulance. He had a night in hospital. Conclusion – a virus brought on by the high heat. It also caused him to have a low potassium level & a heart murmur. He’s already had heart ops.

Our gardener too has been round. She’s so overjoyed to see some rain at last. I suspect she would have been even more overjoyed yesterday when it was announced the hosepipe ban had been cancelled.

Our home help came with photos of the local flash flooding. We’d realised some rain had fallen in our absence by the return of the greenness to the lawns around. We hadn’t realised whole streets in Lancaster were under water once more.

There’s been the inevitable huge pile of washing & ironing. I’m relieved to say I’m back to normal with that now. There was also the library to visit. I was getting desperate to get some new reading & new jigsaws. There was also the need to get our remaining Norwegian kroner changed back into sterling. We can’t see us returning to Norway again for a while, much as we both loved the country.

Yesterday we went along to the golf club for the first time. The Lakeland fells across the Bay looked so small after the soaring mountains on the fjords. Having said that, I’m sure we will soon be loving them once more. It was good to see the golf course once more green. It had been quite yellow when we’d last seen it.

I would say now I can settle down to telling you more of the holiday but I can see another busy week ahead. We’ve already got two medical appointments – one for our annual MOT & one at the Breast Clinic at the hospital for a review.

As I said I suspect we’ll only just feel we’re home, settling down into our regular rut, when everything will be thrown up in the air as we’re off to Italy. Oh hum!