“Cheeeeeps, Swingers, Heartbreak Hill &
Coming of Age”
June Update
I’m writing this on the evening of 21st
June. Carol & I got back from 11 days on Corfu about 5 hours ago, the
washing machine has been working away in the background ever since. It was a
good holiday, not a great one though. With hindsight we possibly travelled 8
weeks too early in my recovery. However Carol needed the break after all she’d
been through since Christmas & I needed a change of scenery. I found it
quite tiring being away & certainly needed the afternoon sleeps each day. I
also managed to get through the best part of a bottle of liquid Ibroufen, not
quite every 4 hours, but not far off it. I’m not sure if it was the heat that affected
me, but my throat was awfully sore at times & most mornings my neck was
very swollen. One day the side of my neck blew up so that I looked like the
Elephant Man. I mailed the CNS Ladies & to their eternal credit they came
back to me the same day suggesting I try using citrus fruits to reduce the
swelling, it seemed to work quite well. Finally on the subject of “Oi I am ill
you know!” I’ve also as near as dammit lost my voice. It’s hardly even a croak
now, more of a whisper, again it may have been the heat. Returning to an
autumnal England may solve the problem. Don’t get me wrong, we enjoyed
ourselves but it wasn’t the “Full on Holiday” we were used to.
Corfu in June is a different beast to July
& August. We had one of the most spectacular storms I’ve ever seen - https://www.facebook.com/groups/145814900152/ there were also a few other overcast &
coolish days. Instead of spending every day on the beach in the love shack we had to find other ways
of entertaining ourselves.
One way of keeping ourselves entertained was to sit
by the pool & try & guess the stories of the other guests. Well we
already knew that two set of guests had severe timekeeping problems. One family
thought their flight out to Corfu was 6pm in the evening when it was in fact
6am - £300 for new flights & one less day of your holiday! Another family
said their goodbyes to those around the pool on Thursday evening to fly back
home. It was a surprise to see them the next day, until they admitted that
they’d got their day of departure wrong by 24 hours to go home. Now I may be
slightly anal when it comes to checking my holiday details, but at least it
means I know the difference between AM & PM, Thursday & Friday! Then we
had the oldest swingers in town. A lovely couple who went to the North end of
the beach early every morning to get their all over tans. No idea why this
makes them swingers, but it was Carols comment initially. Finally we had ex Porn Star & her Director. A lady of a certain
age who’s rather large breast seemed to still defy gravity & her older,
creepier & controlling partner. You could almost hear the clapper board
going down each night J Now I realise this makes the pair of us
sound like a real pair of snobs, but I promise that’s not the case. It’s just a
bit of fun & we made some good friends whilst we were away.
As I’d mentioned previously in this blog,
our experience of food in Corfu in the past has been mixed. I’ve found it
fairly bland after two weeks, with little use of spices. The seafood is
generally great, as is lamb, but I keep away from steaks as they tend to be
pretty ropey I’ve found. There are probably a dozen tavernas in Arillas, we
tended to use four. Horizon, expensive but quality. Brouklis, probably the most
authentic of the tavernas. Decent spit roasted lamb, & a host who’s wit is
as dry as his red wine. Graziella was the main place we ate in the evenings.
It’s family run & specialises in sea food. I also ate the juiciest lamb
chops there. Each time we ate there I cracked up when Thomas, one of the
brothers who own the place took orders. His patter was always the same……
“Cheeeeps, roast potatoes, boiled potatoes, rice, Greek salad pleeeeeze” All
said in the very best Harry Enfield “Stavros” Greek accent. The final place we
used was Ammos Beach Bar. A bit expensive but oh was it worth it. The two
waitresses got to know us after a couple of visits. It was a case of stopping
in on the way back from the beach at lunchtime for a Corfu Brewery beer &
more than likely staying for lunch. Having a coffee after dinner in the
evening, before facing “Heartbreak Hill”, or on a couple of occasions, having
dinner & a rather nice bottle of red whilst listening to live Jazz, a very
laid back vibe to the place. The sheer amount of food we were served at most of
the tavernas caused a problem for me. I’m still struggling to eat massive
amounts & night after night I felt guilty about leaving at times a third of
my dinner uneaten. Thomas at Graziella eventually asked if everything was ok. I
was quite touched by his concern that evening & beyond when I explained why
I was struggling to eat or talk properly.
Anna’s Apartments are generally wonderful.
There is only one problem, & that’s “Heartbreak Hill”. They’re situated
above the village and away from the main hustle & bustle which is ideal.
However the last 150 metres is up & around a steep hairpin bend which
really tests the calf muscles, especially after a decent meal, bottle of wine
& large Metaxa. We were pretty lucky in that Anna’s family also run the
local Car Hire company & on a number of occasions either Tasos or Theo were
driving up the hill & stopped to give us a lift, life savers the pair of
them.
Coming home was a bit of a shock, whilst it
hadn’t been roasting in Corfu at least it was pretty warm. Landing at Gatwick
wearing shorts & a t-shirt probably wasn’t the brightest idea of my life. The
new passport with “Recognition” technology got their first work out, after
queuing for about 40 minutes!!! I was under the impression this was supposed to
make things quicker……………
Thursday 23rd was of course a
momentous day, not only were we being asked to vote to stay or leave the EU, it
was also Max’s 18th – As is traditional for birthdays in the Clark household it was off to
Nino’s for a spot of dinner to celebrate. It wasn’t a late night as I was
feeling fairly rough. I’ve not slept well for a couple of weeks now & the
fatigue is beginning to catch up on me. As usual the service at Nino’s was
wonderful, as was the food. Max was given a birthday card & a massive
chocolate cake at the end of the evening. I think we’ve spent at least 10 of
his 18 birthdays in Nino’s, a few more to come I suspect.
I’ve been contacted twice now by the cancer
charity McMillan. I commented on their site following the “The Big C & Me”
program on BBC before we went away. They’ve since read my blog & have asked
if I would share my story on their website, of course I’d be delighted if
anything that I’ve written can help anyone who’s going through a similar
process. They’ve also asked if I’ll write the “Tip of the Week” article for
their site in the next couple of weeks. The subject will possibly be about the
therapeutic power of writing about your experiences. I’m pretty sure I
mentioned a long way back in this blog that I’m not great at talking openly
about my feelings, but sitting down at my computer & banging away for an
hour or so can help to release any built up tensions.
Waking up early on Friday morning to the
news that the UK had voted to leave the EU was a bit of a shock to be honest.
This isn’t the forum to debate the rights & wrongs of the vote, all I can
hope for is that stability for the future of our kids is somehow maintained.
I’ll be having my monthly check up next
Thursday, I’m going to request to see either of the CNS Nurses as I’m concerned
that my voice is so bad at the moment. Unless it improves dramatically over the
weekend I’ll struggle to talk to anyone on the phone at work next week.
As always, thanks for reading.
To be continued…………….
#shouldertoshoulder
House is rather quiet x
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