At last the weather seems to be on the turn and we are seeing blue skies, sunshine, and temperatures in the mid to high twenties. It’s been a long time coming, and this winter has been so wet, cold and long-drawn out that even I am starting to believe all the conspiracy theories about how “someone” is deliberately manipulating the weather for their own ends. The Spanish say that summer doesn’t begin until the 40th May – yes, that’s not a typo! – though this year seems a bit earlier. The chart below shows our current temperatures, which is lovely and warm, but remember that in July and August they rise to at least 44C in the shade….
The great thing about warmer days and nights is that bed changing is so easy – no mre wrestling with a king-size duvet trying to get the blimming thing into the cover. Just use the cover and pack away the duvet – hooray!
The biggest thing that’s happened since the last blog is that I’m still caught up in a round of hospital visits and tests in order to find out what the problem is with my breathing. So far it seems that the right ventricle in my heart is not properly pumping deoxygenated blood to my lungs, so I get very breathless and can’t walk more than 30m or so without having to rest for a minute. It seems now that there’s also a problem with my lungs in that the alveoli aren’t functioning properly, meaning my oxygen intake in seriously reduced. Such fun…not.
Anyhow, the good news is that it should be treatable with medication, which will make a huge difference. The really good news is that the health care here in Murcia is second to none, and everything is done quickly, no waiting around for referrals to consultants, tests etc. I’ve had quite a number of tests so far, with another two to come, which will then give the medics a very good idea of exactly what is going on. I even had a cardiac scan carried out during the national doctors strike – there were only three of us in the waiting area for our appointments so it was relatively quick and easy.
My GP had arranged for an oxygen tank to be delivered to our house, so I can “plug myself in” and get a bit of a boost. It’s a heavy beast, and a bit noisy, but makes a real difference to my breathing when I need to take a break and have a rest. These things cost over €1000 so I’m very privileged to have been given the use of one at home, though I dare to suggest it’s never going to be a fashion accessory! It’s currently my new best friend. Well…not really, as Wendy has always been, and will always be my BF, but I’m growing quite attached to it, and here’s the proof!
My pneumology consultant, Javier, also arranged for delivery of a wee portable oxygen machine,a bit like a shoulder bag, which has arrived. It should now be a lot easier to scamper round the house and actually do some chores without having to leave everything to Peter.
Speaking of the husband, he’s being a total star with all this stuff, doing and getting everything for me and generally running around like a slave. He’s even managed to set up the new monitor for the computer – both of us are more than a bit technophobic and when I tried I just couldn’t make sense of the instructions and ended up gasping for breath while trying not to cry, looking at a load of leads, plugs and other assorted bits and pieces. He even dusted and hoovered everywhere around and under the desk! I’m delighted to report that the whole computer area in my study is now just fabulous, there’s only the rest of the room to clear now!
We’ve been doing a fair bit of maintenance at home – well, Peter has – so bits and pieces have been moved from one room to another as things have progressed. We’re finally, I think, getting there – these old houses take a fair bit of looking after! Oh I need to digress for a moment, as it’s just reminded me of a particularly nasty little woman who used to spend her time insulting me online – well, trying to insult me! She posted on one popular forum that she admired me in that she thought it was great when people bought and did up “old, cheap houses”. It’s just that every time I now hear the words “old” and “cheap” I immediately think of her….the not-so-fragrant one with the poisonous breath that would strip paint at 100m and who told everyone she “had the hots” for my husband as he was “drop dead gorgeous”. Well she’s right about the last bit! But I digress, (happily, because it always makes us laugh!), back to the blog now!
The next big (ish) exciting thing to look forward to is my birthday, and it really IS a big one…70! I can’t believe it, somewhere inside I still feel about 40-ish, in my prime, and now I’m a wreck who can’t catch a breath but am waiting to be fixed. Peter loves to plan big surprises – I don’t like surprises at all, not least because I like to have something to look forward to, and I always worry that I won’t actually like the surprise. Well we were planning on having a bit of a do at home, and inviting all our friends over for food and fun, especially as the weather will be lovely. However, we’re putting all that on hold until I get something sorted with the breathing problem as I really can’t face entertaining on any scale at all. So, maybe do it a bit further into the summer? Then we thought we could get a couple of quiet days away down south in Estepona, so I provisionally reserved a fab place from 2nd to 6th June. The great thing about that is that my best friend Wendy, and her husband Ivan, would be staying at their apartment in Fuenguirola so we’d be able to get together for my birthday! Then two things stopped that one – firstly, I’m really not feeling great with the breathing problems, and secondly I managed to book the place for 2nd to 6th June 2027. Yes, 2027. Sigh. Must have been the lack of oxygen to my brain when I was reserving this one! I gather Peter is planning something anyway, but nothing taxing, so hopefully a nice lunch somewhere new, and maybe a night away in a good hotel as I will have my portable oxygen to help.
Spanish wildlife again, and now that the big leggy spiders that I wrote about last time have all but disappeared, they’ve been replaced by little black millipedes.
These wee things are about an inch long and seem to like climbing up the outside walls of the house. They don’t bother me too much as they’re very slow moving. If they get into the house, as soon as you start to brush them into a dustpan to take back outside they curl up into a wee spiral,giving you a chance to get them outside again. The main thing is never to squash them because firstly it isn’t a nice thing to do to them and secondly if you do, by accident, the smell is appalling!
However, it will soon be scolopendra season again, so we are being very, very particular abut ensuring that all mosquito window blinds are securely fastened, and the front door is never left open!
I’ve written about these wee skitters before, they are utterly vicious, with a bite that can even land you in hospital in unimaginable pain, and….they are quite speedy. I have wee tongs in most rooms, ready to catch them if we see them, and dispose of them away from the house. That one in the photo looks enormous, they range from about 2cm to 18cm and I absolutely HATE THEM! Happily we don’t come across them very often at all, as we take good precautions against them getting into the house. Using appropriate insecticide sprays round window and doors also helps.
With the unusual amount of rain we’ve had this winter, and also the heat kicking in, the garden is starting to explode properly. Our almonds are growing very well, they look as if they’re going to be huge. My wee lemon tree has taken its time in growing, but that’s not unusual for the first couple of years after planting. It’s now having what looks like a typical adolescent growth spurt at last, and is beginnning to flower, so the fruit won’t be far behind it.
I have bought some strawberry seeds to see if I can get a result from planting them – it might have been a better idea to buy the wee plants themsleves but hey, I’m ever the optimist! Failing that, I’ll just be continuing to buy the strawberries in the supermarkets!
Now here’s a thing – that photo is of a wee pomegranate bush round the back of the house and up a small hill so it’s actually level with the north facing window in our bedroom. It’s a bit difficult to explain but there’s a bit of a hill immediately behind the house before the main big mountain, which means part of the building is at a higher ground level. Anyhow, this wee pomegranate bush has been utterly neglected as we keep forgetting about it. Peter ran the outflow tube from the aircon unit in our bedroom to the base of the thing, so it can soak up all the condensation from the aircon. It seems to be doing the trick as, for once, we have little red flowers appearing! That’s the first sign that fruit might be on the way, so we shall see what happens.
It’s all very well having olive trees but really it’s far easier to go to the supermarket and buy the oil or, in our case, and because we have fabulous neighbours, we are always presented with at least 5 litres of first press, extra-virgin oil, all the time.
The almonds are different,we can pick them. roast them, do whaever we like with them before eating them. It’s a bit of a pain to shell the things by hand, but the actual shells make very good kindling when saved for the winter. They are getting very big this year with the rain and the heat, almost the size of golf balls!
My PC doesn’t have built in speakers etc as I couldn’t afford anything too snazzy years ago when I replaced the even older one with this current one. I’ve had to order new mini speakers and a microphone from amazon.es and hope that when they arrive we’ll be able to figure out how to attach them to the computer! I’ve just bought a new monitor and oh my word I was ready to throw the blinking thing out the window – and me behind it – as I found it impossible to work out where all the leads went to from the hard drive, the printer and the monitor itself. Usually this isn’t much of a problem for me, I hooked up the previous new monitor with no bother at all, but have to admit this one had beaten me! Then the husband said he’d have a go, which sort of made us both laugh, as he is even more technophobic than I am. However, what he has in shed loads that I DON’T have, especially at the minute with the lower oxygen levels I’m getting, is patience. He’s a very patient man, and he took his time and worked it all out, so I’m typing away here merrily on the computer, able to see everything on the monitor. Now that the new microphone and speakers have arrived it’s easier to have video calls with family and friends, as well as play music while I’m using the computer.
So, well done and a big hand for the best husband!
Because I’m more or less confined to quarters most of the time due to the breathing restrictions (I know, boring,isn’t it?!) I’ve decided to try to improve my baking skills. That’s not really too difficult, as there are only a handful of things I can bake really well – chocolate chip cookies, shortbread, and wheaten bread. I have been determined to master the art of scones, as they’re not exactly available here. You can’t beat a big fluffy scone with some Norn Iron butter and/or raspberry jam or home-made lemon curd!
Well just take a look at these babies – they came out really well! I shrunk the recipe as I didn’t want to be left with a big load of things as hard as bricks, so we got 6 out of it and, err, by the time I went to take the photo we’d already demolished 2 of them…
Very, VERY easy recipe…for the full load you only need 450g SR flour, 240mls of white lemonade, and 240mls of cream.
I’ve said “white lemonade” as everyone in Norn Iron will understand what I mean, but if you live elsewhere then let me explain – white lemonade is the clear one, not the yellow or cloudy stuff – called gaseosa here in Spain
Mix the whole lot in a big bowl, use a little extra flour if you need to bring it together as it’s very sticky. Plop it onto a well-floured board and knead very gently to smooth it. Roll or press it out to a depth of about 3cm, then cut out whatever size of scones you want. Put into a baking tin, with them just touching each other, and bake at 200C for 15 to 20 minutes. Mine in the photo took 18 minutes so keep an eye on them! Just delicious, and totally idiot proof. If this idiot can make them then anyone can!
Oh, back to the health stuff again…since I started writing this I’ve had 2 more tests carried out. One was to extract arterial blood – never had that before and I think I’m never having it again without a general anaesthetic! The phlebotomist lassie said “This will be very painful”…well good grief that’s not what you want to hear before being poked with a needle! She was right, it was absolutely awful and had me shrieking and crying like a baby. Peter had to leave the room…I nearly did as well. Anyway, after much poking and prodding she got enough for the analysis. Horrible experience, truly horrible.
Next delight has been the gamma scan where I was supposed to be injected with radioactive material to show up any anomalies on a specific scan. Well as I’ve already mentioned, above, my body prefers to hang onto its blood supply and is reluctant to surrender even a drop, making the extraction process quite difficult. It proved impossible to inject the fluid into a vein so I had to inhale it in gas form instead. Photo shows the aftermath of just one needle puncture attempting to slide into a vein…After that little episode I was put into a metal tube not unlike an MRI scanner but less comfortable, and watched as a thing went whirling round over my head, it was a bit like being in a Large Hadron Collider…beam me up Scotty.
I wondered if I was going to look like a Ready Brek kid and glow in the dark, but disappointingly it didn’t happen!
So, just one blood extraction at our health centre then one more main test in hospital, and that’s walking while using oxygen. After that all tests should be complete and I’ll know the outcome at the appointment with Javier, the pneumology consultant, on 18th June. I’m hoping the cardiologist’s prediction is true as she felt it was likely the condition could be alleviated and manged via medication. Fingers crossed!
Right, enough of the health stuff, it’s all a bit “poor me” at the minute, but suffice to say that I’m very glad and relieved to live in Murcia where they don’t hang around when giving out appointments and wanting to help you.
I’m currently reading a number of books at once on the kindle, mainly because I’m not able to be as active as I want to, so it’s time to relax and read. Re-reading a brilliant Stephen King novel called “Desperation”. His books are always so insidiously terrifying because they just might be possible….
Also enjoying a lot of great music. As usual I frequently play Anthony Toner, Brigid O’Neill, Staggered Junction, Ronnie Greer and Eilidh Patterson. Loving it all.
Back to the other main event at the minute, the big birthday! Still have no idea what we’re going to be doing other than putting off a party until later in the summer when hopefully I’ll be more able.
However, for those of you old enough to remember Frankie Laine singing the theme song to “Rawhide”, this just popped into my mind when I was trying to complete a form, part of which was asking for birthdate details….I bet you sing this one….
Keep scrollin’, scrollin’, scrollin’
Though your finger’s swollen
Keep those year dates rollin’
On down
Through rain and wind and weather
Your finger feels like leather
Wishing it wasn’t so far down
All those years behind us, good times such a big plus
What’s that on your face is it a frown?!
Not so fast! Missed the year?
Try again, never fear
Further down! Further down it’s there,
Find it quick, that’s the trick
Further down, further down, further down, further down don’t care!
And on that note I think I should end this here! If you get any amusement or useful information from these wandering blogs please consider subscribing? It doesn’t cost you anything and it makes me feel great! (Well a lot better than having arterial blood extracted!)
My life in Spain 