Grandad John gets a cuddle |
Wednesday 21 October 2020
Meeting baby Arwen
Saturday 17 October 2020
Good news from King's Lynn
Rosie, Arwen and Matthew |
Arwen's first walk |
We finally returned home, a day late but glad to be back and relieve Rae and Malcolm who had gamely stayed an extra day to manage the dogs. Bronte is very weak, mostly just lying down and eating little, but she does not seem to be in pain or distress. We visited the vet this morning to get an update first hand. she has a large splenic mass that the vet thinks is a hemangiosarcoma, a particularly aggressive cancer with a poor prognosis, with or without surgery. We are reluctant to move straight to surgery as there is a high risk she might die under the knife, so we have opted for a needle biopsy to confirm that it is malignant and not benign. In the meanwhile she is to be kept quiet, with gentle walks on the lead and no running or jumping.
Wednesday 14 October 2020
Clouds gather over Santorini
How quickly does honey turn to ashes. We are stuck in Santorini, and though the sun still shines it has turned into a cold and malevolent prison. This afternoon, we had a phone call from the vet in Haverhill to let us know that our dog, Bronte, was seriously ill with a large sarcoma in the spleen. There was already evidence of metastases, and she was considered to have but a short time to live. Mary-Ann is going to pick her up and look after her. But BA have just rung to say their flight home tomorrow has been cancelled, and we will be stuck here until Friday at the earliest. Edwin has been looking for other flights, but nothing is available, all alternative flights have already been booked or cancelled by the other airlines. It is as though war has been declaired, and we are caught behind the lines, desperate to get out.
STOP PRESS: We now learn that the Air Traffic Controllers are going on 24hour strike tomorrow (Thursday) and that's why the flight's cancelled. All flights have been cancelled from Santorini, and Athens, so no one is leaving Greece until Friday. Apparantly, the strike is because they haven't been paid their wages - Greece is nearly bankrupt, so we can't even blame their greed. Everyone needs to be paid for the work they do, but it's the poor travelling public who are paying. It is certainly not the way to encourage a return of tourists to Greece. We have had to fight for one more night in the hotel: everyone who should have left needs an extra day too, and they've run out of rooms. We've managed to keep ours, but poor Edwin has to change rooms early tomorrow morning.
Saturday 10 October 2020
Santorini sun
Sunday 4 October 2020
Preparing for Santorini
Ben captured in oils |
Friday 2 October 2020
Byron - another picture completed!
The smallest pub in England |
A portrait of Byron |
Wednesday 30 September 2020
Welcome to some good news
Welcome to baby Arwen |
Good news at last - after a tumultuous day and evening, during which Rosie had bad pre-eclampsia with all its symptoms, they team at King's Lynn decided to operate this morning to get baby out quickly. We had a message just after 10am that Rosie was going down to theatre, but then silence. We could only wait anxiously, fearing for them more with each moment that dragged slowly past. Then, in mid afternoon came a call from Matthew to say she had been delivered safely and was well. Baby was small as expected - but just over 4lb (nearly 2kg), so bigger than we feared, and able to breath unaided, though incubated and given oxygen like any prem. So welcome to the world, baby Arwen, and we all look forward to meeting you. Alas it may be a little while, as under the new rules we are all barred from hospital visits.
Last night, we had an unexpected invite to visit Eds and Andre for a meal, to celebrate the end of their two week quarantine. They made us welcome and served a grand veggie roast meal for us with all trimmings. It will be the last time we see Andre for a while; he goes back to Brazil on Sunday for his sister's wedding, and will be in quarantine again for another two weeks when he returns.
And Luke gets a new car |
Tonight, we will welcome Rae and Malcolm again to another take-away meal, and hopefully a chance to watch the video we couldn't see last week because of the blackout. They will be coming to look after the dogs on Sunday while we're away, so this is the last chance for a get-together before then.