COUNTING STITCHES

 The countdown to the end of K's hospital treatment is continuing and we are half-way through the daily radiotherapy now. We are in a weekly groove - driving to Heraklion every Monday and returning on Friday to have a quick laundry turnaround, cook a few casseroles and dishes which can be easily digested and microwaved and back on the road come Monday morning with a Check List which has to be gone through each time. So far we have not forgotten the kettle, the power leads, or clean clothes and bedding, but I have a complete muddle head over what we have in the fridge at either end and whether my walking shoes are at home or away. Kimon stumps off to the department on his crutches each day and queues for ages until it is his turn.  He seems to enjoy listening to the conversation in the queue with other patients.  The swimming bag is kept in the boot of the car – just in case we get the opportunity to go and he is feeling well enough to go out. The end is beginning to be in sight.

Last week was a short week. The radiotherapy machine needed to be serviced, so we had a four day break from hospital routine and the bung-you-up diet, which I have now completely rejected and which, unfortunately means that I have to cope with two lots of cooking rather than one. White bread, white pasta, no veg and lots of meat and fish is not any sort of diet that I can live with. K only can for the duration and then we will be back to our sought-after Cretan diet with lots of salads and olive oil and as much wholemeal bread as he wants and much less red meat than we have been recommended by the doctors for the duration.

All our items arrived via Nomad on Tuesday.  Great, we now have TV and it works!

There is a kitchen at the hostel, but the practicalities of cooking nourishing meals on one stove with the six or so other ladies who are taking care of their important others is a bit of a challenge. It is interesting to see what the ladies make of the dietary restrictions and I peek under saucepan lids to see liver cooking in some sort of gravy; masses of potatoes bubbling away, fish soup, and stew. From the oven emerge trays of home made bread, big pork chops and Greek sausages (which are a bit too spicy for me). All in all, it is a bit easier to make some enriched stocks at home and reassemble them later a bit of a distance from the jostling in the kitchen. Greek wives always look disapproving of anything I make, but Kimon seems OK so far and his weight is remaining steady. His blood tests are holding out OK, although we have to look out for white blood cells and platelets to see that they are not getting too low.

On Wednesday evening, a nice Greek lady (with very good English) turned up with a box of art materials and taught people staying in the hostel various handicrafts which included tissue paper flowers, painted stones, and we all had fun daubing and borrowing each others brushes and paints. Another wife of a patient was really taken with the bolero I was knitting for my little grand-daughter, so the next day I went in search of a photocopier to let her have the pattern. Kimon tried to follow me in the hospital admin building lift and it got stuck between floors. In a small enclosed area, he got hotter and hotter. Fortunately his mobile phone worked, so having alerted me, I was able to summon help and he was only incarcerated for half an hour or so until they got the winch working on the first floor. Fortunately he didn't miss his treatment!

The hostel receptionist has asked me to knit a jumper for her newborn grandson. A first size jumper in the time of 15 more treatments … should be possible!

In Skepasti, it is full-on beef tomato and melon season, and next to the French people's house is a field simply full of wonderful ripe tomatoes, most of which have been picked and crated. They brought me two bags of the discarded tomatoes which I am struggling with. I am still deliberating about acquiring a freezer. Fortunately, I had instructions from Valerie in England on how to bottle tomatoes and in the middle of a very hot day and all the laundry turnaround, I was processing large piles of lovely fruit and simmering bottled tomatoes on the stove, muttering ungratefully and somewhat reluctantly because passata, tinned tomatoes and puree are so very inexpensive to buy in the shops. Anyway, we have five jars of pasta sauce which I hope will last for a few weeks yet. I thought that the oversize Ali Baba terracotta pots used for storage in the kitchen would be the best place to put the jars, being reasonably cool and dark inside. We will see whether this works. I will also plead with the French not to bring me any more at the moment. When we are through with all this, it will be easier.

Time to catch up ... at Geronimos in Panormo

The CIC are organising a meal out in Panormo tonight (Sunday) which is nice for us because we cannot get to see our friends easily until radiotherapy is over. So I am casting off for now and will catch up again soon. As news goes, things are a bit uneventful, but so far, so good.