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It is just gone 12pm on this cloudy, last Sunday of May, and I am sitting at my desk at home instead of than at Chessington World of Adventures where I was supposed to be enjoying the birthday celebrations of a friend of mine.
There was an email last week sent to everybody attending with specific instructions on where and when to meet. I read the email again last night to make sure I had all the details and off I went early this morning to be there on time. I arrived at Chessington at 9.40 which was a tiny bit earlier than agreed. However, suddenly, a doubt entered my mind: the meeting point was “the car park”, however, this car park was huge, so I decided to go towards the top of the car park, right next to the entrance of the adventure park. So there I waited, and waited, and waited a bit more. I saw how the queues for the ticket booth were getting bigger and bigger, but I didn’t want to join the queue in case I got to the end and my friends hadn’t turned up yet.
Now, the most important fact to this little story is that I didn’t take a mobile phone with me (long story short: my personal phone died a hundred years ago, so I use the work phone most of the time. However, the new work phones that we now have are utterly rubbish and run out of battery even if you are not using them. I had two lines of battery on Wednesday. I had none last night, despite the fact that I hadn’t used it since. And, the charger is at work – So, no, I didn’t have a mobile phone to take with me).
Still, I was confident that the instructions were clear enough for me not to need a phone. So I waited and waited, and waited a bit more (sorry, I am repeating myself, but it was a lot of waiting I did!).
At 10:30 I had waited for more than 45 minutes and my patience had run out. I decided to leave and come back home. Almost three hours of my life and 100 miles in the clock of my car that I am never going to get back.
So, yeah, how did we use to manage in the pre-internet/pre-mobile phone era? I think I’ve forgotten… I most definitely don’t remember this hassle and the pain of having to wait for someone for 45 minutes. When my friends and I agreed to meet somewhere there was no question that people would make it, without having to check and double check via internet or text. We have become too accustomed to rely on these new technologies and I can now say that we are pretty much lost without them.
How sad.
I want to apologise for the lack of updates lately, but Jon and I have just gone through the worst and most mind-challenging weeks of our history together.
I can’t face writing a long post about every single thing. This whole set of events has actually affected me in a bad way. I won’t say I am depressed, because I am not. But I am definitely not in a mood for much.
In summary, the set of events run like this.
Jon’s car goes for a MOT and we need to spend a small fortune to get it fixed. Right after that we go on holiday to Cornwall (which was a very good holiday, I am not complaining about that – but it’s what came next in the story line), a couple of days later Tommy breaks his tail. Horrible and stressful few days looking after him, taking him to the vet, etc. Next, one of Jon’s grandmas died. Very sad couple of days as well. Then came my operation – which was a positive experience as I already described the other day, but the days before it were quite nerve-wracking and quite heavy and intense (I didn’t want to do it and it took me quite a while to auto-convince myself that it was the right thing to do). I had to take a few days off work and then explain to my boss the whole thing (you see, I thought I would be able to go back to work right straight away, but when I was discharged I was told that I had to take 2 weeks off work. TWO weeks!). Right after this comes my car going in for a MOT. Failed and we were told that to bring it up to scratch it would cost us around one thousand pounds. WHAT!? We wanted to have the car MOT’ed so we could trade it in for a nicer, bigger car, and now it turns out that we have to spend some good money for something that would have costed us nothing six months ago. Stupid us. And last but not least in the saga of the horrible things that have happened to us in the last few weeks is that due to still not being completely 100% after the op, and the whole issue with my car, Jon and I had to miss the Taking Back Sunday concert that I had been looking forward to go for months. (I am fine, I would say I am 99.9% okay, but spending the night standing at a concert, being pushed and stuff, maybe is not the best idea for my recovery)
Sorry for the massive paragraph and the lack of “returns”, but it has more impact if everything is told at once, because that’s how it feels to me that happened: all at once, with no much time to recover from one thing to the next.
Now I keep my fingers crossed in the hope that the next few months go back to the usual “everything is cool and I enjoy life just the way it is”. I certainly miss it.
There’s a lot of controversy going on about the NHS these days in the UK. There have been so many complaints about incompetent doctors and uncaring nurses that you always see something in the news that make you shiver about it.
However, I have always defended the NHS. In so many years in the UK, I’ve never had a complaint to make. Not that I’ve needed medical services that often, but when I have the service has always been correct. All my GPs, from the very early ones in Portsmouth to the latest ones in Basingstoke have always treated me correctly, with respect, as a person and not as a number.
I had to go through minor surgery earlier this week. Due to the nature of the operation I was worried and stressed. It was my first ever operation of any kind. I’ve been lucky in the past and I’ve never needed medical services going beyond something that can be sorted on a quick A&E visit. So I think it was quite understandable that I was nervous.
From the moment I arrived in hospital until the moment I was discharged the treatment and manner of the staff was fantastic. Reassuring, caring and professional. At no point I felt like I was being looked down on, or even treated with contempt, like I’ve heard so many times on the national news. On contrary, everybody seemed very interested on my name (having an “exotic” surname can be an advantage in certain circumstances), where I came from, and everybody seemed to have friends living somewhere near Málaga.
I really feel sad for all those people who have actually been on the other side of the coin and experienced the worse side of the NHS care. Doctors and nurses probably deal with hundreds of people a day and I would bet that at times it is difficult to just show that you care, because, let’s be honest, they can’t care about every single person on that ward at once! No excuse, I know.. but let’s try to be on their side for once..
So here’s my little contribution, my little piece of praise towards the NHS and especially the gynaecology department at Basingstoke’s Hospital. You were all great and I deeply appreciated it. Many thanks.
There’s no new Top Model on television at the moment, so I’ve had to find other programmes to watch in order to keep my thirst for reality tv at bay.
My new favourite programme at the moment is So you think you can dance. It started about 3 weeks ago and I already have my favourite dancers (two boys, two girls). I know it’s very early days, but If I could pick my finalists now, it would have to be:
Girls: Katrina the ballerina and Katie Love
Boys: Matt the tapper and Shane.
The ones that I don’t like very much are Bethany Rose and Lee (who reminds me of the guys from Tears for Fears.. it’s all in the hair!)
I have also been watching a bit of American Idol. I haven’t followed it like last season, but I’ve managed to catch a good 50% of the episodes so far. My very best favourite ones this season are: Scotty and Haley. I hope one of them two wins. I know Scotty is very country and I can’t see him doing anything more pop, but I still love his voice.
In the same way as with American Idol, I’ve also been watching a bit of Britain’s got talent. The program is still on my favourite stage: the auditions. I can’t believe some of the stuff that people do in front of an audience. The have no shame and have never known it (as my mum always says: no sabes lo que es la verguenza ni nunca la has conocido, LOL) But still, that’s what makes it such a funny programme to watch!
The Apprentice is due to start next week and I am already looking forward to it. It has to be one of my favourite reality tv programmes. Not only because of the “business” nature of it but because it is one of the programmes in which the females are always the most bitchy about each other (I would dare to say that even more than on ANTM…) and that makes great television. On top of that, they always manage to cast one or two “special subjects” that will come up with catchphrases or ridiculous situations… Bring it on!
We had a fantastic time in Cornwall. It was a very well deserved break that both Jon and I felt was much needed.
I don’t have the time to write a full account on everything we did with much detail (back to the old busy routine, I am afraid), so I will try to keep it simple and do this on “status update” style…
- The journey down to Cornwall has been much more pleasant now that Jon has fixed the aircon in the beemer.. Gosh, was it hot or what!
- I’m loving the hundreds of yellow rapeseed fields on the way down to Cornwall!
- The bikes are full of dead mosquitoes! Must have been Jon’s speed down the single carriageways behind tractors that did it…
- Mmmm… Lovely apartment. Well equiped. Great views. Fantastic location. HOWEVER. What’s that smell? Damp!
- I love watching the sunrise from the balcony in the apartment. The sun comes up from almost behind St Michael’s mount and it’s the most beautiful scene I’ve seen in a long time.
View of St Michael’s Mount from the apartment
- On our bikes.. and go! Great day in Marazion. The bike ride was easy enough and the place is great. A tiny bit disappointed with my Crab Linguini lunch. I could see the linguini, however the crab was a bit spare.
- My bum hurts. I’m not used to the bike’s seat. And still, off we go again to Hayle with our bikes (on the train there first though)
- Oh oh… The map we are following is not to scale and the distance that looked like only 3 or 3.5 miles is actually much longer. And “coastal path” doesn’t necessarily mean that the way is suitable for bikes!
We left the coastal path and made it to the beach
- No, it doesn’t look like we’ll make it to St Ives today.
- The best Steak and Ale pie with chips that I’ve ever eaten in my entire life… mmmm… (@ Old Quay House, Hayle)
- Cornish ice cream is awesome. The ice cream parlour in Penzance rocks! (@ Willy Wallers)
- Land’s End has disappointed me a bit. I was expecting an actual rock standing out where the infamous mile sign would be.
I still smiled for the picture 
- Oh bejesus.. The route that the sat nav has taken to St Ives was just simply ridiculous. At least we have managed to park the car safely-ish.
- Proper sea food for lunch in St Ives (@ Alba Restaurant)
- Worst day to come to Newquay. It’s cloudy and chilly. Still, I really enjoyed the beach chillout watching the surfers and the weirdo building the most rubbish sand castle ever.
- Eden Project is awesome to photograph. The biomes look amazing against the blue sky!
It was a lovely day.. so sunny and no clouds!
- I’m dying here inside the tropical biome. It must be around 35 degrees and I’m not dressed accordingly! Sweat, sweat, sweat.
- Mmmm… nice 15 minute back massage in the mediterranean biome. Thanks Jon, I needed that.
- Up early to see the Royal Wedding. Gosh, I love weddings . Fascinated by some of the fascinators. And can’t believe the bridesmaid is wearing THAT dress!
- okay, maybe waving the Union Jack in the streets of Cornwall wasn’t the best idea. These people are very Cornish!
The infamous Union Jacks
- Back home a few hours early. A good decision… Three more days off!
And that’s it. I can’t wait to go back to Cornwall soon! There are still so many more things to see and do!
