Thursday 4th June:
More Arm Movement: Although I was still robotic and had twinges of pain in activity, I wanted to demonstrate that I was capable of a little more arm movement. I think I did OK in the video.
Thursday 4th June
Our Daft Dog: This was Oscar’s way of relaxing on our sofa with us. He may be Colin’s buddy but I was “Mummy Belly Tickle”.
Wednesday 10th June:
My Orchids in Bloom: So pleased how my orchid plant gifts survived and beautifully bloomed this year. It was amazing considering I had been neglecting them and tend to kill plants off!
Bike Exercise: I still cycled but not as often as I should. I noticed that my left foot kept drifting to the left and the back of my heel banged against the machine while I peddled. It was annoying as I stopped to adjust my foot position every so often. After cycling for a few rounds, my left foot naturally slid back into the same awkward place as before. I really detested that machine!
Thursday 11th June
Villain Dog!: Colin sometimes came home with a stuffed toy treat for Oscar. The new one, “Spiderman”, seemed to be well made but hadn’t lasted too long! We thought this one would survive a bit longer than usual. Wrong! Spiderman ended in tatters within 5 minutes! I guess the little super hero had a new arch enemy! Our dog, such a villain!
Sunday 14th June
Great BBQ Get Together: Matt and Andrea kindly hosted the first get together with almost 20 guests. It was so wonderful to mix with more than a handful of folks. It was a lovely, sunny day and everyone were in good spirits as we exchanged our stories of life during lock down. I made my curry puffs as an offering for the buffet, which Ellie (Eldest daughter) had eaten most of! The girls got together for a lovely group photo as the guys looked on.
Home in Disgrace!: I made the big mistake of not mixing my wine with con gas (fizzy) water. I stupidly thought that I honestly would be alright after over a year of sensible drinking. Wrong! In the middle of my 3rd drink, I suddenly felt really strange. Poor Colin and Matt had to carry me back to the car in disgrace as I brought a new meaning to the term “legless”. The next day I woke up so mortified. It hadn’t been fair to Colin or our hosts that I had very little control of walking at all. I sent text messages of apologies but I still felt awfully ashamed and horrible. It was official, I was not the “Party Animal” that I used to be. What an embarrassment!
Monday 15th June
Spain to Accept Tourists: We heard that Spain would be moving forward into phase 3, by relaxing restrictions and discussed opening the borders to tourists. On 21st June they intended for citizens to move around more freely and across different regions in Spain. This decision would be a great boost to the economy and encouraging for businesses to restart with positivity. On the other hand we had reports of other regions in countries like New Zealand, Australia and China that suffered set backs and had to enforce new lock down rules.
Black Lives Matter Movement: The USA was convulsed by nationwide protests over the death of an African-American man, Floyd George, in police custody outside a shop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The arrest, on 25 May, was recorded and went viral. The video clip revealed a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck, for 7 minutes and 46 seconds, while he was pinned to the floor. This all began with a report of a fake $20 (£16.20) bill. All this led to public outrage after Floyd’s death and the mantra, “I can’t breathe”, and started the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
The death resulted in demonstrations, sometimes riots, throughout the USA which spread to Europe, especially in the UK. I thought, what had started as an outrage against racialism in general, actually turned non violent gatherings into violence and anger in places, instead of the intentional first peaceful mass groups of people.
I had first experienced racism when I was a small child when we moved to the UK. Children are usually cruelly honest, but when a kid called me a “Paki”, I had no idea what he meant. By the same token, that child never understood where was Indonesia, as he blindly decided to call me that name. After my Mother explained, I just decided he was an idiot and just ignored him until he wanted a date with me later in life. I still ignored the ignorant fool! However, that experience hadn’t angered or defined me for life but prepared me to handle things better and be more aware in the future.
Personally, I couldn’t understand the “anger” that came out of the demonstrations and riots that followed the increase in the “Black Lives Matter” movement. I equally couldn’t understand, or condone, the malicious destruction and graffiti of particular old statues that represented some ancestors. If somebody from history had been judged as racist or a slave trader, defacing or pulling down their statue hundreds of years later could not hold them to account. They were long dead and gone. Surely there was no reason to obliterate their history. I thought that we were supposed to learn from good or bad history. Not to have it re-written all of a sudden because a certain generation or religion decided to take offence. Also, so much for the demonstration and riot crowds with the social distancing rules! It was all very sad to witness a peaceful message from some, to have been hi-jacked by so many irate people and others with an ulterior motive for destructive purposes.
Thursday 18th June:
Dame Vera Lynn: I couldn’t believe the news that Dame Vera Lynn (the Darling of the World War 2 UK forces) had passed away. I was even more amazed that she was 103 years old! There’s hope for all of us!
To read more about her, please click HERE
My Condition: I still had rigidity and twinges of pain. However, inspite of this, I was able to move my left limbs a little further and better. I know I had mentioned my frustration of feeling as if I had regressed instead of progressed, but to be honest, I really had nothing to complain or feel down-hearted about. I thought back to the days when I hadn’t been able to move at all. The months of gradual progress from the ability to touch my chin with my left hand, then my nose, my forehead and eventually to actually touch the top of my head. There was a time when I thought that I would never walk again. However, I progressed from wheelchair, my first “baby steps, to a gradual walk (limp) independently and able to manage a little awkward dancing. How could I be down-hearted about that? The past year had little episodes of victories, so I was pleased with how far I had come. The new and different sensations had shown me that I began to feel more, after so many months of numbness or dead muscles. The pain and stiffness I hoped were signs that my body was gradually “rebooting”. I realized I would have more struggles to face, but those would be other challenges yet to tackle. The main thing is, I felt in places I never thought I would 18 months ago.
Friday 19th June
First Beach Lunch: We met up with John and Anisa to pre-celebrate their wedding anniversary on the 21st, at El Velerin Beach. I was previously invited to join Michelle and some of the girls on the same beach but I already made the lunch arrangements with John & Anisa. Our foursome were seated in the main eating area inside. As I couldn’t join Michelle and the girls on the soft sand to say, “hello”, it was so lovely for some of them to come over at different times so that we could say, “Hello”, and catch up on sweet memories and chat.
The restaurant part was immaculate and all the staff had to wear face masks. When it came to look at the menu, they had a QR scan code mounted on the table, which we could read from our phones. All wonderfully organized! It was so good to see other tables enjoying their meal, the beach beds also occupied, which was a good economic sign for this area. This must have given the place huge encouragement.
Tuesday 23rd June
Cooking Again: As I felt a little less pain, I decided to try out another of my Indonesian style recipe experiments. This time it was “Daging Rendeng”, which was a coconut beef curry. Although it took ages to prepare, about 4 hours to cook, I was glad I made the effort. It was something different and quite yummy, which Colin enjoyed. Another successful meal.
Wednesday 24th June:
Malaga Medical Appointment: Due to the lock down, my medical appointment with the social security department was postponed from May to this month. To be honest I’d been dreading this day since the last awful experience. I had read the reviews of this office online, which were dreadful and the majority commented that it appeared that they automatically failed everyone. This was probably due to the high number of disability benefit fraud cases to obtain medical benefits or early retirement. I was really terrified to go. In the past, whenever I had to go through customs with my passport, took exams or got stopped on the road by police road blocks, I automatically felt anxious or even guilty!
Over 17 years ago, Colin applied for early retirement, at the age of 57 yrs., due to a treble heart bi-pass. Although he had his medical records and the scar on his chest as proof, the department had denied his application! It took Colin 18 months to fight them in court until they finally agreed and backdated his pension payments. It was of little surprise how petrified I felt about the prospect of my next medical ordeal.
Our friend James kindly drove us to the lunchtime appointment in Malaga. As I’d been to so many medicals in different places, we really weren’t too sure where to go to. However, once we got to the address, I recognized the imposing office building from a previous visit. James went off for a coffee while Colin and I went in. It was strange walking in with our masks and greeted by a masked security guard who checked my papers and made sure we got our number in the waiting area. It was equally odd because the place that had been packed on the previous visit, but this time there was only a handful of people waiting for the screens above to indicate appointment number. The seats were marked accordingly to ensure social distance seating 2 or 3 seats apart.
The Medical: While we waited for my turn, I noticed a number of people with walking sticks, crutches or leg braces. Colin naughtily whispered to me, “fake”, whenever a new person hobbled in. I tried not to laugh too loud, in case they realized what Colin said. When it became my turn, Colin was allowed to accompany me into the consulting room. This time I had a pleasant female doctor, which put me at ease immediately. Colin told me earlier not to be nervous and just tell the truth, as I had nothing to hide. When the doctor asked me how I felt, I eagerly told her that I felt much happier than a year ago when I couldn’t move my arm very much and showed her how high the left arm would go. She went over my medical records then asked if I ever used a walking stick or crutches. I told her never, because I wanted to walk independently, and the only time I had to use anything was a wheelchair when I couldn’t walk at all. She smiled and turned to Colin and said, “you’d be surprised the amount of walking sticks and crutches I’ve seen in my office”. Later I was asked to walk up and down the office. Colin prepared himself to do battle on my behalf if a negative comment or report was to come. The doctor took the wind out of his sails when she told us that she considered me a genuine case and recommended me for early retirement in a few weeks! In the UK, the retirement age for women is 66 years but no possibility of an early pension. In Spain, the age is 67 years and there could be cases for early retirement due to ill health or disability.
Celebration Lunch: I was so relieved that I no longer had to go through any more medical inspections. Happy days! The three of us decided to celebrate with lunch in the La Resina golf club. It had wonderful views of the course and water feature from the outside terrace area. That was a good day …………
Please view next page 33 at link “Flexibility, Friends & Restrictions”: https://www.rebootinglinda.com/33-more-arm-flexibility-my-first-professional-hair-cut-meeting-up-with-friends-and-more-border-restrictions/
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Once again your topics have been enhanced by the attached photos that are perfect throughout the blog, keep up the great work. You are very lucky your drinking episode didn’t have an adverse effect on you and you might consider something else to drink instead! You seem to be approaching the present day with the blog and it will be interesting how much further and longer your recovery is going to take, but still interesting. You have come a long way baby!
Thank you so much. Yes the drinking episode definitely had shown my weakness – no more wine without fizzy water! Coming up to the present soon so we’ll see what happens 🙂 Take care LINDA xxx