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Hi everyone,
From a cold, wet, snowy Siminoc. What a week we have had!
Monday was an early start for John and Sian, they had to leave at six o'clock to collect Gela and Mel to get them to the hospital by eight o'clock. The car got stuck in the mud and Lew was needed to steer while John and Sian pushed. They were back at seven to drop Sian off and pick up Lew and were at the hospital by eight. As I thought everyone is booked in at eight and you wait your turn to see the Doctor. Lew rang about ten o'clock to say they had begun the tests the hospital doctor wanted, then the consultation. The Doctor wanted to know who had told them Mel would need an operation on his eyes, they told him the optician, he was cross and informed them that an operation was a last resort and he wanted Mel to go through some intensive therapy at a clinic in Constanta. They left the hospital and headed for the clinic, they agreed to do the therapy and he could start at two o'clock, the therapy would cost 80,000 lei (£1.60) a session, he needed an initial ten sessions. Gela looked at Lew, that would be 800,000 lei (£16.00) not including the cost of getting Mel to Constanta each day (as you will remember Gela and Nico could in no way afford the treatment let alone the cost of transport). Lew knew that we could go ahead and told the clinic to book the sessions for Mel. The first session took twenty minutes, it is a machine which makes his eye muscles work, he looks at pictures of two dogs through lenses and he has to move the pictures of the two dogs to make one dog, the whole machine moves and his eyes have to work hard. He doesn't wear his glasses for the exercises. He has to move the lenses with his arms and Lew said it would give him big muscles. The exercises are quite tiring and Lew knew with Mel's heart condition it would not be wise for him to have to cope with the bus journey as well, so it was arranged that we would pick them up and take them back, this also means that Mel will not have to miss any school. After the initial ten sessions he will have a months break, then another ten sessions. By now it was three o'clock and everyone was starving, a visit to McD's was called for, Mel and Gela had never been to McD's and John did the ordering, but John did not know about Happy Meals so ordered a straight meal, Mel could not eat it all and took the rest home for big brother Gelu. Lew showed them round the Centre shops, Gela had not seen shops like them before and was quite in awe. Then it was back here for a change over, Sian and John took them home and arrived back home about six o'clock. As well as John driving, he also acts as interpreter for Lew with Gela, Mel, the doctors and clinics. Sian and I were busy while all that was going on, we feed, then made the soup for the school. I left Sian holding the fort while I caught the bus to Medgidia to take the soup to the school. On my way back to the bus I realised Sian and I hadn't stopped to eat, so I bought a bread ring from the bakery, it was made from plain and chocolate sweetbread and cost me 4,000 lei (8p) and filled a hole nicely. I only had to wait about ten minutes for the bus. By the time I arrived home it was time to start cooking the pig food for the evening feed. I always have a coffee before I feed and while I was having that Lew arrived home. I am glad it was cold meat, pickles and chips for dinner tonight, (yes, I know the guys had already had chips but I didn't hear any groans) because everyone was too tired to cook. John was pleased, he likes pickles, he did say he didn't want any dinner because he had eaten McD's, but he found room.
Tuesday and we had a breakfast meeting to organise how we fitted in the transport of Mel with everything else that needed doing this week. It was decided that Lew and John would leave about half past eleven, taking Laura and Chip to Medgidia, then through to Pestera to collect Gela and Mel, back to drop off the soup at the school (if you remember they have the facility to heat the soup), then into Constanta to the clinic. Lew had his eyes tested today, his glasses have become very scratched, he had a general pair within the hour, his new bifocals will be a week. Then it is the drive back to Pestera and home. Leaving Sian and I to feed and try to clean up after the snow. I needed to try to do some washing but the weather is against me.
Wednesday John and Lew drive to collect Gela and Mel, but also pick up Nico because he has to see the Doctor at the hospital in Medgidia. Then they drop off the soup and head for Constanta, Mel has his session at the clinic. They want Mel to have two sessions on Saturday, Lew explains the problem we will have getting back from Bucharest in time for the treatment and it is decided Mel will not have a session on Friday. Lew and John pick up Nico on the way home, he has to go into hospital for a hernia operation on Monday, because he is not working he can get a paper from the Premier so that he does not have to pay for the stay in the hospital (he will not be fed by the hospital, but, have to take food in with him) but he will have to owe the hospital for his operation and pay it as he can. It will cost about 2,000,000 lei (£40.00).
Thursday Sian and John leave about nine to do some shopping in Basarabi and we get a phone call from them about an hour later, a plug has blown out of the engine and the thread has gone in the 'block' and the plug won't go back in and stay. They are not far from the services and Lew tells them to get the car to them and see what they say. They start talking about new blocks and new engines, John doesn't want the responsibility of saying yes to such expensive work. Lew goes down to get John's dad, Stelica, to take him to the services. Stelica and Lew talk to the guys in the services, Stelica goes off, comes back five minutes later and the car is towed somewhere else where a sleeve is put into the plug hole. The car is back on the road about one - thirty, too late for the soup run, but Lew and John head for Pestera to get Mel to his treatment. (The children at the school are not forgotten, a message is sent to the teacher to buy food and we will pay her on Monday). Sian spends the day packing up her room and packing her case.
Friday and we are up at two in the morning to get Sian to the airport. We pack the car with her luggage and emergency supplies; blanket, flask of coffee, two kinds of biscuits and mars bars. Well they are threatening snow for us again. We leave Lew to go back to bed and head for Bucharest, I drove through fog with the white line going down through the middle of the car, Lew said that the fog cleared after Medgidia yesterday afternoon, he was right by the time we drove through Medgidia it was clear and clear through to the cafe we usually stop at for coffee. Nobody wanted anything to eat so we carried on, John driving now. We had only gone about ten minutes down the road when we hit fog again, John was driving with the white line going through the middle of the car for most of the way to Bucharest, but we arrived with half an hour to spare. We ordered coffee, John was horrified at the price 100.000 lei (£2.00) for cappuccino and 80.000 lei (£1.60) for coffee. Sian's flight is called and we say a tearful goodbye as she heads for England. John had never been to the airport before and we went up to the viewing area so that he could have a good look at the aircraft, he is not sure whether he wants to fly. Back to earth and the drive home, however, I am hungry and the only place I know is McD's, but, they don't have the breakfast menu here so at quarter past nine in the morning John and I are eating Mc Chicken Meals, well we had been up seven hours by that time, so dinner time for us. I decided to try and find the new 'autostrada' (motorway) on the way home, it isn't through to Constanta yet and I am not sure where it finishes or even where it starts. I am sure we should be able o get onto it from the ring road so that is where we head. We pass the turn off we usually take and carry on round the ring road, this section has not yet been re-laid and the road is nearly as bad as the village road. The autostrada is clearly marked and we drive along the almost empty road, John is eager to drive the autostrada so I told him we would change drivers at the services, but, the services are not even started so I pull up at the side of the road and we change. We pass five service areas altogether on the 100 kilometre road but not one of them is started. At the end of the road I wonder where we are but follow the signs only to find we have come out on the junction by the cafe we stopped at earlier this morning, we stop and I have another coffee, John is coffeed out. I can't make up my mind whether going on the autostrada is worth it, the road is better until you get to the ring road, but the total distance is further. It is just after two when we arrive home. We need pig food we will not get through the weekend with what we have left, so Lew gets the bags ready but John insists on going with him to get the feed. So I think he actually goes home about four o'clock. Lew was left to feed this morning and feeds again this evening. I manage to finish the first sleeve of Gelu's jumper this evening, then fall into bed about nine o'clock.
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