Shazza was still in her dreamland when I awoke, it was early but I had slept well and felt quite refreshed, I got out of bed and tip-toed around, trying to not wake her, I decided to get my shower first as that meant I would not have to put any lights on in the bedroom area, which I would need to do when I made the coffee. By the time I had finished in the bathroom and went back into the room Shazza was awake, “Did you sleep okay ?” I asked her, “Not really, I woke up a couple of times in the night, but at least I didn’t need to get up, but my whole body just ached and I was sweating quite a lot, did you find it hot last night ?” she said. I told her that I didn’t feel overly warm but that the temperatures are still pretty high at night, around 22 degrees(c) so I was surprised that she didn’t get up and put the Air-con on. She said that it is quite noisy and so she didn’t want to wake me. I asked her how she was feeling and she said a bit tired from the lack of sleep and still a bit achy but she would probably be able to walk that off, but at least the other symptoms appeared to have finally stopped 🤮💩 I asked her if she still felt up to visiting the Alcazar and she said that she was actually looking forward to it, and to just get out of the hotel room.
“I’m making a coffee, do you want me to make you one too, or would you prefer one of your herbal tea’s ?” I asked. She said that she hadn’t had a coffee for several days, and now that her stomach seemed to have settled she really fancied one. Whilst she drank her coffee she went on to her iPad and then informed me that we had to purchase our tickets to visit the Alcazar from the Tourist Information Office first, but that was in the Central Plaza, so whilst there we could ask for directions to the main official entrance. “At least you will get a chance to see something in this place rather than just furniture in a hotel room” I said, and gave a little chuckle, “I know, it has been a bit of a nightmare for both of us these last few days” she replied.
We both agreed that this whole trip had not really lived up to our expectations, although we did accept that the reason for some of that had to actually come down to some of our own choices. If we had made an actual plan of where we wanted to be, we could have, and should have, pre-booked Air BnB self-catering accommodations, instead of hotels, but there you go, hindsight is brilliant eh 🙄 Had we have done that we could have shopped for ourselves, at least most grocery stores had our sort of readily available ingredients so we would have been able to cook the type of meals that we normally both enjoy. The different places that we then chose to visit would not have been an issue, as far as finding suitable places to eat. But Shazza did finally concede that had we have done a bit of advance research we could have identified suitable locations and accommodations which we could have used as a base, for several days at a time, and then used that base on a daily basis to visit different locations for either our more preferred type of hikes, or sightseeing. Once we had covered a certain area we could have then moved on a bit further, to a slightly different area and then done the same again 🤷♂️ However, all good in theory, but even had we have done things differently, that would not have changed anything in respect of Shazza’s sudden unexplained illness, although I would have been in a much better position to have looked after her, certainly very much better than I had been able to do in a hotel room. So we both agreed that we had learnt from our mistakes but, at the end of the day, we cannot turn the clock back, but I think that Shazza may now be a little more accepting of my OCD tendencies, and convinced her that whilst it can sometimes be irritating for her, perhaps a bit of OCD may just sometimes have some distinct advantages 😉
Shazza has always been a good researcher and organiser, so usually, once we have agreed a plan, or a direction to head in, I generally take the responsibility for planning the routes whilst she looks at things to do in each area we intend to visit, boat trips, visitor attractions, hiking routes etc and then she would go ahead and, where necessary, pre-book any tickets that we may require. So, historically, especially during our nomadic adventures, jointly we have always been a good team, so why hadn’t it worked on this trip 🤷♂️ I think we finally agreed that ‘Going With The Flow’ works much better when you have the ability to travel with a lot more independence, a bit like having transport that is also a home that you take with you, something like a caravan, camper-van or even a Motorhome perhaps 🤔 which generally allows you to travel for as long as you want in a day, and also to stop when you need to, wether that be for a coffee, a bite to eat, to sleep or even to change direction to chase better weather condition’s, okay you already know where I am going with this 🤭
Shazza then went to get a shower, I was just generally scrolling through my iPad when I heard the sound that I didn’t expect, or want to hear, ‘wretching’ noises coming from the bathroom 🤮 When she came out she was ashen faced with watery eyes, “Oh no !” I said, “The bloody coffee, it can’t be anything else, I haven’t eaten anything” she said. “Let’s wait for half an hour to see if it persists, but time to pack up our stuff and head home, you are definitely still not right” I told her, “But you were looking forward to looking around the Alcazar, and I was too, maybe it will settle as there can’t be anything left in my stomach now” she said, “Look, let’s be honest, there is no way you are up for it and I just need to get you back home now, sooner rather than later, really we should have just gone straight back when we left Vigo” I said, but in a sympathetic way, it wasn’t her fault that she was not very well, just bad timing really. She lay on the bed whilst I started to get our stuff together, I packed her case for her, although she remonstrated with me for doing so, “I can do that for myself you know, you don’t have to do it for me” she said, “I know you can, but I’m not doing anything else” I said. I told her to stay where she was whilst I took the cases and rucksacks down to the car. Then I walked with her to the car before returning to reception to ‘check-out’, explaining to the receptionist that we were leaving a day early as Shazza was not well, I didn’t expect a refund and so I wasn’t disappointed when they said, very apologetically, that they couldn’t give me one, although they didn’t charge for that day’s parking
At least it would only be a four and a half hour drive, I had planned to make only one brief stop to re-fuel and a quick comfort break, but that would be dependent on how many stops Shazza may need. We didn’t actually need to re-fuel, we could have made it all the way back on what we had, but we would have been close to empty by then, I never like to get that low. I was happy to do all the driving again, I actually enjoy it and I was very familiar with the route, it was all ‘toll free’. Shazza was better than she had been on the previous journey, she remained awake and relatively chatty, but she persisted in apologising for spoiling the trip, no matter how many times I kept telling her that it wasn’t her fault and that it could so easily have been me with one of my kidney stone incident’s, or me being the one that had whatever it was that she had gone down with 🤷♂️
I took a more positive view on the trip, and relayed to her everything that we had actually managed to do, from our very first stop at ‘Jerez de Los Caballeros’ where I discovered a lot more history pertaining to the ‘Knights Templar’, then we had a visit to ‘Badajoz’, The stop at ‘Lake Sanabria’ on our way into Vigo, the walk to the ‘Fortelesa and Stately Home’ in Vigo, the two walks we had taken just outside Vigo, and the wonderful exploration that I had just taken around ‘Trujillo’. For Shazza she could only think about how many days she had not been well but then, when I had recounted everything, she realised that, actually we had done quite a bit and although the food aspects were probably not as envisaged, we had both enjoyed our two ‘Mexican Fusion’ experiences. I reminded her that it is all to easy to look on the negative side of things, then poked a bit of harmless fun at her saying that it was good that one of us was an ‘Optimist’ rather than there being two ‘Pessemists’ in our family 😂
For me, as the driver, the journey actually went quite quickly, we only stopped the once, for the refuel, but I could visibly see a deterioration in Shazza, she became much less chatty and she began to look very tired again, when I asked if she was still okay she occasionally complained of a slight, but not excrutiatingly painful, stomach cramp which I suggested may have been more to do with hunger. To be honest I didn’t really consider the Mexican dishes, the Pizza, Calamari or Salads that she had been eating, as proper ‘nourishing’ meals, so she hadn’t really had a proper meal since we had left home. You can last without food for much longer than you can live without water, but in my opinion she was now close to suffering from serious malnutrition, another reason to get her home and back on to our more regular ‘Plant Based’ dietary regime 😲 I suggested we call in to the A&E department at our local hospital on our way home, but she was again adamant that she just wanted to go straight home 🤷♂️ I think if she had been in the same condition she had been in when we had departed Vigo that I would not even have given her an option, but she had certainly not been as anywhere near as bad as that and had actually perked up a bit over the last couple of days. However, we had depleted the fridge/freezer before we came away, thinking at that time that we could be away for up to a month, so I suggested that we stop at one of our local supermarkets just to buy some immediate essentials to get us through the rest of that day. She said that she still didn’t feel hungry and would rather go straight home, there was enough in the cupboards for me to cobble myself a meal together, sometimes it’s good to be a ‘Flexitarian’ 😉
It is such a nice feeling when you get home from a trip, but even more so this time, for obvious reasons. I told Shazza that I would bring our cases and rucksacks up and that she just needed to get into the apartment, by the time I had done the second run from the car back up to the apartment, I came back to find her already in bed saying that she just needed to sleep. Although I was obviously concerned, I knew that although Shazza can be very obstinate at times, that she was not stupid, so if she had believed this to be anything more serious (the ‘C’ word) then she would have told me herself that she needed to get to the Hospital, or our Health Clinic, before going straight home.
I was more concerned by the duration of her not being well, in my personal experience, Gastroenteritis, doesn’t usually last longer than a few days until the worst symptoms start to subside. I sat down and googled the differences between it and the new strain of Covid, known as Covid FLiRT 2024, and became more convinced upon reading the differences that, actually I do genuinely suspect that she had contracted Covid, which can take 3-4 days for the external symptoms to materialise, and which generally then lasts for around 10 days, or was I just manipulating the information to fit in with my own theory 🤔
Based on this information, and the amount of time she had started to display the early symptoms, I decided, although I had not voiced this to Shazza, that I would give her a few more days before demanding that she let me take her to the hospital. If it was Covid, and she wasn’t displaying more serious life threatening symptoms, they certainly wouldn’t want her anywhere near other more vulnerable patients. But, if after 14 days she has not shown any sign of recovery, and has not eaten, then it would be time to seek medical intervention. I could not explain why, being in such close proximity of each other, that I, so far at least, had not been displaying any similar symptoms myself, so was it Covid ? Was it Gastroenteritus ? Was it something else 🤷♂️
The following morning I was back into my usual routine, up early, sat on the balcony with my mug of coffee watching the sun rise, the cars driving past with their occupants on their way to work, the kids with their rucksacks going to school, watching the boats passing to and fro, I have to admit, it felt really good to be back to some sort of normality and to be in familiar surroundings. I checked on Shazza, she was still asleep, so I got my shower, got dressed and started to formulate a shopping list, enough to see us over the next four days and the sort of meals that I was happy to put together for the both of us, a lot of the Plant Based stuff that Shazza regularly cooks is beyond my ability, due generally to the amount and variety of spices she uses, and the exacting measurements which just come as second nature to her, but I knew what she liked as far as Salads were concerned, on top of the normal salad suspects she also liked Avocado with Feta, or Mozarella, a jacket potato, and sometimes a bit of fish, Prawns, Tuna or Sardines and then, if need be, and by way of a change, a Vegan Burger with home cut oven cooked fries and some Baked Beans, they may not be worthy of a Michelin Star, but they would be nutritious and flavoursome 😋 I would also get some bread, eggs and cheese for myself, so for lunches I would have several options just by using those three products if need be. Not being certain as to how often Shazza would eat initially, I would get in a couple of tins of Heinz Chicken Soup, always the number one choice when you are feeling under the weather and have not got much of an appetite, but for those items I would need to visit a different store, one in the Marina that sold typical popular British products and which also stocked bottles of Lucozade, a glucose drink that we also associate to drinking generally only when we are ill 🤷♂️ So that, I think, would do very nicely to tide us over for a few days, with of course a variety of fresh fruit.
Shazza still didn’t eat anything at all that first day and remained in bed, but as the coming days progressed, she started to eat small amounts, starting with the bowls of soup, by the weekend she had gradually built up to eating both a light lunch and then dinner. She spent more and more time up and about and sat with me on the balcony, or watching some TV in the evenings, at first just for an hour or so but then longer and longer during each day. I started to see an improvement in her physically, she was still a little paler than usual, but not as gaunt and by the Sunday evening she was back to her usual pottering, burning my ear about not being able to find things in the normal places in the kitchen cupboards 🤭 and making long shopping lists of stuff she needed to make her sour dough bread, her spicy red lentil soup, cheesy broccoli soup, stir fries, med veg dinners, pasta dishes etc. it was good to have my Shazza back 😘
We never did discover what it was that Shazza actually suffered from, but I think in the end we both agreed, based on the symptoms and time frame, that she had more than likely contracted the Covid FLiRT strain of the virus. I firmly believe that the busy period we had, prior to going on the road trip, had already left her tired and exhausted, and that may have contributed to her becoming more susceptible to picking up bacterial infections, but the honest truth is that we will never know 🤷♂️ The important thing is that she has fully recovered 🙏 and this experience has provided us with an opportunity to now re-think how we manage and plan similar future adventures 😉 Unfortunately, although putting it forward rather strongly as a potential option, I have been otherwise informed, that this will in no way involve the purchase of another Motor Home 🥺😭
Until the next ramble, whenever that may now be…………………
Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena 👍
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