Paul VfMH România: Phew! What a Scorcher!

Consistantly Hot

Temperature is now averaging 25-29 C during the day. And it is still Spring. Wonderful! Except that the hot weather is often accompanied by sudden and very heavy thunderstorms. We forgot to take coats to the club the other day and got stuck at the hospital when it hailed then rained so hard we would have been drenched within 5 steps. In fact, thunder has just started again as I write this.

Very short blog this week. Software problems trying to edit a few short kitten videos together. More, 'Oliver' news below - BIG (!!) changes.

Tee Shirts

"The Thrills"

I have explained who Cory Haim was to a few of the patients who would understand the specific irony of it (see last weeks blog). I thought you might appreciate a photograph. Or maybe I would appreciate a photograph.

Strangly, and it is only Monday as I write this, I haven't seen a single Cory Haim or Dolly Parton tee shirt on anyone. Although there are a few Artic Monkey ones on display. I will order an Arctic Monkeys CD off Amazon and let you know how it goes own with the new found Actic's fans.

Club wise, we have had more sessions outside. We are trying to ensure that everyone gets the chance of a relaxing ice lolly outside basking in the sunshine. We tend to go round to the front of the hospital so that patients can get a view of 'normal' life going on outside. We would dearly like to do some trips into town with patients to grab a coffee and a bite to eat etc. This has been done in the past by the charity (please go to the link if you haven't already http://www.vfmh.org.uk/) so should not be beyond the realms of possibility to start this up again.

Quite an upseting day today - maybe I'll write about it in a future blog, maybe I won't. I don't want to give the impression that the one hour that patients spend in the club per week is some magic panacea and that it makes the other 167 hours bearable in some way. It doesn't. What it does do is provide some therapeutic respite to be a self, or even ones-self, for a very short time. Direct feedback from patients is that it makes a huge difference to them; and that is all that counts. Taking patients back up to the wards after sessions is becoming more and more difficult as we now know everyone so well as total equals and friends - you don't take friends back to be left in places like that. Stuff happens on the wards.

Oliver

Blue bits are what is left over from
the very strong anti-septic spray from
when she had a wound in her stomach

Whoops! Oliver is a girl. Luckily the name is one of those that is easily converted. Therefore Oliver is now Olivia. She continues to go from strength to strength. She has just started to lap milk from the lid of a jar. She is also using a litter tray. And today, she had her first solid food - which she wolfed down. Royal Canin of course - see previous blog for how brilliant that company is.

Oh, by the way, I have ignored the rabbits totally since first mentioning them in this blog. Suffice to say that I also got that wrong and they are both females. One has just had her kits (is that the correct baby rabbit word?). Rabbit man wants everyone to tip toe around them at the moment. Photos when they get cute - they are seriously not cute at the moment.

But talking of cute, here is a recent video of Olivia showing just how strong and bonny she has become.

Travels

Kiki and myself have a few travels planned, but we really want to wait until we can be sure that we will not get rained out. In the meantime I have been out on my bike again. I am getting closer with videoing on the move, but things are still a bit shaky. I took a trip out past Adamus (remember the D170 video?). I took a detour to follow the river rather than the road and spotted a few small 'rustic' houses getting closer. Before I knew it I had accidently cycled right into someone's back garden. - Rather than explain that I was a complete idiot, I said that I was a bit lost and needed directions to the road back to Tarnaveni. The young lad of the house jumped on his bike and led the way. He was very happy to explain that his bike was German and therefore much better than my Romanian one (which it was!). When we got to the appropriate turning he starting bargaining for his 'guide' services. First he wanted my cycling gloves, then 1 Leu - I finally agreed to give him one puncture repare patch. He seemed happy with the deal.

I also tried a track leading out of Tarnaveni. Very, very steep but well worth it for the views of the town. It looked like it should lead to some woods (Forest?) and then towards Herapea. - I couldn't believe it when there was a no-entry sign at the top of the hill. Private property. I am still finding my way around the off road bits - no equivalent of OS maps here.