Only after I posted the first few days of my White Winter Tour, I realised that there were parts that didn't make sense without a bit of the backstory - so here it is:
After we returned from our visit to the
Pacific North West Coast of America, driving down from Seattle to Los Angeles
after side visits to Las Vegas, Grand Canyon and Victoria Island in May 2010
(Story to come later this year), Rab declared that she didn’t even want to think
about travelling for eighteen months – or longer. She always enjoys travelling
but …… she loves her home and misses her dogs. Given this declaration, it was
somewhat surprising when about five weeks later she showed me an advertisement for a Christmas Cruise to
be run by Scenic Tours in December 2010 and remarked how nice it would be to
have a White Christmas again, having missed out on snow for some years, well
since 2007 at least). I don’t need more than a slightest little finger of
opportunity to seize the arm and within minutes, thanks to my new iPad I found
the cruise - from Budapest to Amsterdam with side trips from Prague and to Paris and how many points we would need to fly on Malaysia to Paris and back
In due course we made our bookings
and then Rab’s panic set in because there was nothing further said in any of
the papers about the cruise. No advertising, no mention. “What if Scenic was
going bust?” – after all tourism had taken a huge knock from the Global
Financial Crisis and Scenic had embarked on a huge expansion plan just before
the solids hit the air-conditioning. They had built new ships; expanded into
the Middle East, what would happen if they did
go bust? Chelsea, our travel agent tried to calm the concerns. Booking was
good, Scenic were great – had a good reputation and had never let her passengers
down. Don’t worry.
All that was at risk at this stage
was the deposit. Not a small amount, but manageable. But….came the day for the
fare to be paid …. And still no advertising…..Hmmm???? What to do?? What to do?
We took a big breath and paid …. And
no sooner had we done so than Chelsea
called us. We knew it was bad news. Turned out that the tour we had booked was
one of two proposed tours in December and there had been too few bookings for
either to be viable. But….if the two sets of bookings were combined we could go
ahead. There was a difference of a couple of days in departure and we were
offered an upgrade – and took it.
MORE PROBLEMS…….
We
were due to leave on Friday December 17 for Kuala Lumpur
for our onward flight to Paris.
On Saturday December 11, Rab had a nasty accident. Here’s the mail to family
and friends on Monday December 13:
We have a
slight potential hiccough in our plans because Anthea had a bit of an accident
on Saturday – what is it with our spouses?
She was
sitting on the LaziBoy (MY LaziBoy actually!!) with the footrest extended when
one of our neighbours – Kevin from across the road - came to the door to ask
about which kennels we used as his daughter was looking for some advice. As I
opened the door Bilbo escaped and ran down the drive to see what Margo
and Arthur’s (our next door neighbours) dogs were up to. At the same
time, concerned that I might not give Kevin the right answer, Anthea attempted
to leap out of the LaziBoy without putting down the leg rest, tripped over the
extended piece and found out just how sharp steel can be by neatly slashing her
ankle.
I heard the
thud and the cry while trying to get Bilbo back, dashed inside and found her
lying full length on the floor with this very nasty gash starting to pulse
blood. I grabbed a cloth and wet it and covered the wound, after establishing
that she hadn’t damaged anything else and went back to try and get Bilbo before
he ran into the road. Caught him, back inside to remove the now very bloody
cloth, cover the wound with paper towel and bind a clean cloth atop; phone the
ambulance. They were here in five minutes had a good look, examined Anthea
thoroughly, taking pulse etc etc for any signs of collateral damage, cleaned
and bandaged the wound and offered three alternatives: take her to hospital
themselves: I take her to hospital or (quicker by far given how busy ER rooms
are over the weekend) take her to a Weekend Clinic. We chose the last option
and within half an hour she had six stitches and a promise from the duty doctor
that she should be OK for take off on Friday as long as she took it easy for a
couple of days. And in a little note about socialized medicine, we didn’t pay a
dime, being Senior Citizens.
Her foot
and leg didn’t look too good this morning, so we went to her doc who examined
it thoroughly, dressed the wound and gave her a tetanus shot (on
reflection we were surprised that she hadn’t had one sooner!) plus some
antibiotics, just in case. I’m sure she’ll be OK by Friday, but I’m going to
organize transport for her at KL and Charles de Gaulle just in case – those are
long hikes through airports.
Added
to this was a problem with Gandalf:
Our poor
old Gandalf – now 13 - has some sort of bladder problem which worried us
considerably. We thought it might be the start of dementia, but the vet
reckons he’s as bright as we are, being about the same age!! Still not quite
sure what the vet meant. We ran a lot of expensive tests because we want to
make sure it is cleared up before they go to their Holiday Hotel next week. The
vet thinks it will be OK and that he has some slight infection which should
clear up with antibiotics in a couple of days. Hope so, but I don’t have a
great deal of faith in medicos, as I may have mentioned previously?
Rab’s leg gave us trouble all week.
It was swollen and the wound was weeping initially. To go or not to go? Her
doctor had another look on Wednesday and thought it would be OK to travel and
said she would probably be able to take the stitches out on Friday morning
before we headed for the airport. Failing that I could remove the stitches or
we could get a doctor in Paris
(over the weekend???). We wondered how she would be able to walk and if her
boots would fit over the swollen ankle.
Gandalf’s problem cleared up and the
boys went off to their luxury holiday accommodation: we went to the doc on
Friday morning and had the stitches out: picked up some compression stockings
for Rab to help with the swelling and were at Tullamarine in good time for our
flight, especially with the wheelchair!! We examined the wound during the
layover at Kuala Lumpur
– after another pleasant wheelchair ride and it seemed OK although Rab’s leg
was still swollen.
But….onwards and upwards we went…….
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