I have spent the last few days gardening under a blue sky and warm temperatures. Today it has turned grey much cooler and now rain. My beans should appreciate it, and the water butts should be re-filling. Our daughter put her car into the garage for a new clutch. The owner finished it, and took it for a test run. He didn't get too far before it went completely. Daughter now has Mme's little car until the problem is sorted.
I forgot to close the tap on one of my empty waterbutts and it rained a lot for the first time in about 7 weeks and the butt is still empty. Duh
Had a hairy 24 hours. I have to have blood tests regularly and I had a raft of them on Friday. Dr rang me personally on Tuesday to say I needed to get to a hospital straight away for a repeat potassium test as my potassium levels were sky high. So I dropped everything and sped to hospital..and spent an awful night envisaging kidney failure etc..and having to cancel our journey south today and how the kids would not be able to fly over for half term etc.... ..... well perhaps you can guess what happened... Dr rang me just after 8.00 the next morning to say the repeat was perfectly normal...and that the Lab had left my sample on a shelf over the weekend and it had 'cooked '. Needless to say I was ecstatic....but wonder how on earth this things are acceptable. .. as they can be very troubling...
I had some blood tests earlier this week thanks to a swollen/painful right knee - and got the results this morning. It seems I may have some sort of infection in it and have to get to the nearest hospital for an x-ray tomorrow morning. True to form, my car has a broken front spring - and my wife's is currently abandoned half way to Banff as it broke down this morning - giving her a nice 5 mile walk home through the countryside. Thankfully we have a very obliging Ambulance Service who're going to pick me up, carry me downstairs as I can't walk, then do the reverse trip. Once home, our GP - who by then will have seen the x-rays - will be here to inspect the knee more closely. Can't fault our NHS...
The blood testing system is rather different here. Unless you are in hospital, you go to an outsourced private lab. It will cost you between €2-€10, but you and your doctor get the result in your e-mail box about 3 hours later. It will tell you the result, what is normal, and how it has changed since the last test. All very efficient, and stops the hospital waits.
Everyone seems to have some health issues. Hope all are ok given. It has rained here two nights in a row. Very, very welcome as it was up to 35. Take care y'all!!
A year ago I bought a large petrol strimmer that said it was "easy start" after my cheap one that had seen great service after 7 years would only start if in the right mood. Now my new one needs repair as it will not start. The English version of the Manuel says it must go to an authorized repairer, the French version says to take it to where you bought it. Only parts supplied by the manufacturer in Germany can be fitted, otherwise the warranty will become invalid. I suspect I might be wirh out it for some time.
The saga of the strimmer continues. Monday I had a paper saying it would be repaired free of charge. Tuesday, a phone call to say they wouldn't be, as it seems they were just promoting it on behalf of The German company. Wednesday collected my machine, and emailed the French address I found for their branch here, asking what I should do now. Thursday evening, no reply; so sent another email to Germany. No response from there either, so the grass just gets taller. Customer service with this company is pretty poor.
I see that three WWII era unexploded ordnance have been discovered in the middle of Köln! 3x 1000lbs US bombs!! Hope they get it all sorted okay. Cologne hopefully lives and works far away from site!
I live in Engelskirchen which is about 40km east of Cologne Fez and only visit the city occasionally at weekends. The main site is at the Deutzer wirft on the other side of the river and they have evacuated all areas within 1 km of it. Almost as far as the Cathedral.
20,000 have been evacuated from the area Fez including a care home and residents of a hospital. Defusing of the bombs is taking place and is expected to be completed in about 90 mins. In the meantime emergency beer and sausages are being brought into the evacuation centres !!
