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| Morning sunshine |
What a lot of time has
passed since the last blog in the series. The cooler weather did
come at last and with it the hard work of changing over clothing,
washing blankets, and all the roofs to paint, the trees to pollard
and garden to trim so that the cuttings can be taken away. The log
pile has to be put in place and various brokering undertaken for
other neighbours and friends who wanted logs for their fireplaces.
We had a few complaints
about not being in touch, but we have had our hands full with
hospital scans, nasty injections and other miscellaneous aspects of
getting on a bit. Also a few visitors over the summer and autumn.
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| Trauma Teddies (I have a simple pattern, if you are interested in having a go!} |
The refugee crisis in
Greece continues and the weather was getting much colder, so there
was a call for help to knit lots of baby woollies which exercised the
knitters and crocheters of our group … and just in the midst of
that our most expert knitter had to rush back to the UK after
hospital tests had detected cancer.
Mrs Crozier took a
short pre-Christmas trip to London recently and, having a very early
flight opted to stay at an airport hotel in Heraklion to be almost
next to the check in desk for the morning. Unfortunately, after
dropping off her luggage she took a little walk down to the nearest
coffee shop and had a nasty fall on the lethal Cretan pavements
injuring her ankle. Knowing that going to A & E in Heraklion was
likely to take all night, she did her best with frozen peas,
bandages, strapping and Ibuprofen. Also knowing that Greek airlines
give the best passenger assistance in the world, called the airline
and was wheelchaired through the airports in Crete and in Athens. If
passenger assistance was an Olympic sport, Greece would win gold
medals every time. Those guys manoeuvre two wheelchairs at a time
across Athens Airport from Domestic flights to International and from the gate they
use trucks with elevator platforms which gets wheelchairs right to
the front door of the plane.
Wheelchair assistance
broke down at Gatwick when waiting until all the passengers had left
the plane, no one arrived to meet the patient. A well meaning flight
assistant used a large pushchair to move Mrs Crozier off the plane
and down a corridor to be parked at the bottom of a staircase,
outside a lift. And there she stayed, very very cold and alone for
quite some time. Shouting “Hello is anyone there?” a few
times, and getting more and more desperate as no one was around and
even with a mobile where was no one to make contact with except
family on the wrong side of passport control. After a very long
wait, desperation meant that by turning sideways in the pushchair to
hold the brake off and scooting crablike with the good leg, Mrs C
made it into the lift and tried to decide which floor to go to. The
door opened into one of those long corridors with a walkalator
halfway along and Mrs C paddled along the deserted area beside the
moving walkway wondering where everyone was. After a long period of
scooting, stopping, resting and scooting some more, she came to a
hallway at the far end where the passengers from another flight were
bursting towards baggage control. By some miracle, one of the
electric carts came round the corner with two people in the front and
waving her arms, Mrs C asked for help. I guess the predictable
jobsworth UK response came back from the driver, “Oh I can't help
you, I'm on my training”. (What are you training for if not to
help people?) but the accompanying Trainer did (reluctantly) get on
her walkie talkie to summon help. Eventually a puzzled person
wearing a beanie hat appeared saying that he had been to meet the
Norwegian flight but no one had showed up. I noticed that the
Norwegian plane was in the next bay down to the Aegean plane … and
think there may have been a walkie-talkie mix up. Anyway, I was at long last packed on board the swishing buggy and swept through baggage claim
and passport control towards Leo who was beginning to give me up for
completely lost.
At A & E the next
day, the Xrays showed that the ankle had a break and the lovely
Doctor took a photo of the Xrays on the screen to take home on the
Ipad and prescribed a large, heavy, black boot covered in velcro
strapping. It rather put paid to any ideas Ma Crozier had about
achieving much in the UK or Christmas shopping but the Christmas
cards got written and posted and she made it to the Stone Revellers
Pantomime, which was a great evening after all the hassle. So that
was an improvement on last year, when the Christmas cards took two
months to arrive and she missed the Panto altogether. She arrived
back to Crete a couple of days ago with instructions to get
everything checked by an Orthopaedic doctor asap. So Mr and Mrs
Crozier have had their wings well and truly clipped with neither of
us able to drive for the next few weeks. Watching the pair of us
hobble down the street with sticks and crutches is almost comical
unless you're doing it! Negotiating our rustic stairs with the boot
is a no-no!
Sadly, we won't be able
to comment on what is happening much this festive season as we will
be at home, indoors most of the time...I expect you, like us, have
watched a lot of TV coverage about Brexit and are still none the
wiser! We seem to have daily doses of it for two years and nothing
gets any better, only worse. What an unholy mess! PS I visited
three Post Offices by taxi in the UK to get forms for an
International Driving Licence in case my current UK licence becomes
invalid in Greece. Not one of these quite large post offices could
supply an application form. This is only one of the problems we are
encountering as UK subjects in Europe. The complications could be
ghastly … or not. Only time will tell and I'll worry about it when
driving becomes an option again!
However, we can wish
everybody a very blessed Christmas and happy New Year from wet and
windy Crete. Kala Christouyenna!
