Progress

If ever anything is normal, possibly the last week has been the closest for a long time.

On Thursday, I had an Orthopaedic appointment, I had forgotten about, with my ‘new’ Surgeon, he replaced the one who had jumped ship, and to be honest, I was dreading it, but it turned out to be totally unfounded, he was a great guy. It was a good job Marcela was with me, because he did talk too fast for me,but otherwise it was great. He confirmed that his Predecessor had logged that the Doc who gave me the previous nerve Block had caused muscular damage to my Hip, so if there is a problem in the future, it is there for all to see.

He went on to say that he didn’t think a protesis of the knee was the right way to go now, not because I didn’t need it, but because it was on the same leg as my new hip, and the knee would wear out first, so the longer we could delay that procedure the better. However, he wasn’t happy with the last Block, and said he wanted to give me another, with a different chemical, Marcela asked how long we would have to wait for that, his immediate reply “Ten minutes, wait outside”, true to his word ten minutes later he came out and took me to the treatment room and gave me the block himself. He told us, that the following two days after the local anaesthetic had worn off, I would be in great pain, but then I would feel the benefit…I am still waiting for that pain!

Friday, and it was shopping day, in the Supermarket, I had to check my Calendar

I have blurred out her face to save any embarrassment, but Christmas on July 1st !!!!! that really is pushing the boundary.

After doing the shopping, we nipped over to Jaime’s house for the last time, and picked up my new toy, which I spent Saturday morning trying out.

It is certainly a bit heavier that I anticipated, but it does the job, rather than four days with ladders and shears, I had it all done in less than two hours, not quite as pristine as the shears, but good enough.

I bought electric, as opposed to petrol, because of the cost, it’s three times cheaper than it’s petrol cousin, and again, petrol as opposed to battery, because the electric has a stronger cut, I also also had an extra long cable, so far so good.

We are still getting a good mixture of sun and rain, unfortunately we have been told the rain will continue until December, so no defined summer this year at all, so much for changing seasons. The problem is that with Tropical storms on a daily basis, roads are collapsing, and landslides are a daily occurrence, which is causing problems for those who can least afford it.

Our President Elect, Gustavo Petro, it making some positive and negative announcements, the positive ones are unexpected, and make us wonder what is coming next. He is making Alliances with Parties across the board, which was unexpected, he has alo declared that the National Police are to be removed from under the Ministry of Defence, although he hasn’t said who they will be answerable to yet, it is definitely a step in the right direction, and something I have been advocating since my arrival in Colombia.

He has also said that he intends to raise the price of Petrol to price cars off the road, but has not said what he wants people to use instead, we already know that electric cars are just as, if not more polluting, through, lithium mining for the batteries, which contaminates not only the soil but all the water sources as well, in addition getting rid of end of life batteries will cause further pollution, so we wait to hear from him, but I won’t be changing my car any time soon!

Fortunately his new Minister of Finance, has announced that Petro’s plan to stop all future Oil exploration has gone out of the window, because as Colombia’s main source of income, that is not possible, until there is a viable alternative, which at the moment there isn’t.

In the mean time, I carry on with all the little jobs around the house, the one I have not been able to resolve is a slight leak under the handbasin in the Cabaña, or the Mother-in-law’s abode. I have spent three mornings trying to resolve it, then found that it wasn’t the sink drain at all, but the tap, unfortunately because the unit is so small, that means taking the whole thing off the wall, so rather than inconvenience The Boss, I think I am going to wait, until she returns to the other house for a week of medical appointments, at the end of the month, then I can cause a mess, without that Mother-in-law’s eye, ha ha ha!

After a fairly relaxed week-end, I will have to get back into the swing of it tomorrow, so I think it’s time for making the most of the last couple of hours of feet up.