They Tried To Ambush Us !!

My original plan, for our proposed journey Northbound, before catching our UK bound ferry from Santander, was to make a two-night stop, first in the city of ‘Toledo’, for some sightseeing, before then proceeding just a little further North, only a couple of hour’s drive, to the city of ‘Segovia’, for a further two-night stopover, to do some more sightseeing, before we then proceeded to Santander to board our mid-afternoon, and 24 hour overnight ferry, to the UK.

I knew that ‘Toledo’ has long been a place that Shazza has often talked about wanting to visit, whilst ‘Segovia’ had been one of those places still outstanding on my own ‘To Do List’, so my thought was that we could kill two birds with one stone. It would entail a slight deviation from either of the two more usual routes that we would take when travelling up to the Northern Spanish Ferry Ports of Bilbao or Santander, but this slight deviation to our route would be a good thing, for it would provide for perhaps a nice change of scenery for part of the trip.

Personally speaking, I thought that it was a very good plan when I presented it to my beloved, but I was soon brought back down to earth with a thump, for she came up with her own different suggestion, now why shouldn’t that have surprised me 🙄 Her alternative suggestion was to miss out ‘Toledo’ altogether on this occasion and just head straight for ‘Segovia’, her explanation being, Toledo is only a one hour direct train ride away from the bustling capital city of Madrid, which is another City that we both wanted to return to, we had only really seen a small part of it on a very brief one day visit, very many year’s ago. So, she suggested that perhaps on a future mini-break, we could actually base ourselves in accommodation in Toledo, which is itself a very scenic town, and then, from our accommodation base, we could catch a train into Madrid, perhaps returning there over a period of a couple of days, so that would, allowing for travelling time, from home and then back again, mean that those two locations could be done separately, as a five or six day mini-break in their own right.

Okay, I had to admit that her idea did actually make a lot of sense because, apart from our upcoming trip to the UK, which to be honest with you, we are not actually considering as a true holiday for ourselves, more of a ‘duty visit’ which is going to entail lots of driving to different areas within the UK, and that trip itself will be for an elongated period, a little over three weeks in duration, and so, with our Spanish stops on the way up to the ferry, this will take it up to a month that we will have been away from home. We will still have another stopover somewhere else but you will discover where that will be in a future ramble (So yes, there will be a couple more rambles in the pipeline 😉)

These days, we much prefer to do more of what you may consider mini-breaks. So, as well as ‘Toledo’ and ‘Madrid’, we also have other Spanish towns and cities in mind too, many of which are also in pretty close proximity to each other, so Shazza’s thinking was that we could also group those together and perhaps turn them into similar ‘future’ combined mini-breaks 🤔 Although with Shazza, the use of that word ‘perhaps’ actually has no perhaps about it 🙄 We both do still want to continue to enjoy our travel adventures, albeit in truth we are both finding it difficult at times to drag ourselves away from our own very comfortable home, in our own little corner of the Costa del Sol but, there is also something quite nice about being able to do some slightly longer distance travelling occasionally, one’s that we can do independently, using our own transport and making stops at our own convenience. Those trips have the advantage of us not having to first travel to an Airport, or Ferry Terminal, then spend hour’s at Terminals in advance of the actual flights, or sea crossings whereas, using our own vehicle, also means not having to be concerned about weight allowances or size restrictions on our luggage, or the inevitable queues at the security and document checkpoints. No, being in control of such things is, in my opinion, far more enjoyable, much like it was when we were travelling in our Motor Home. Once at our selected destinations we can then choose to explore the local areas, either in our own vehicle, or use the local transportation if required, buses and trains, to get to wherever else we wanted to be, much like we did when we were travelling in our Motor Home, there seems to be a common theme developing here don’t you think 🤔 So best you don’t let on to Shazza about this or she will start checking the ‘Savings Pot’ much more regularly, for any sudden substantial withdrawal 😂😂

There may of course, be occasions, when getting to towns and cities further afield for our mini-breaks, may include us having to consider those alternative means of transport, for certain very practical reasons, faster travel times for example, so we never actually say never to anything, especially if our desire is to visit other Countries further afield, even within Europe. However, for now at least, we still have so much more of Spain, and of course nearby neighbouring Portugal, to visit, both of which we can do easily just using our own transport 🤗 However, I have digressed yet again, so time I think for me to get back to the current here and now.…………………….. 🤔

As you may have gathered, from my last ramble, I certainly had no intentions of publishing another ramble quite so soon, although I had planned to write one, or perhaps a couple more, in respect of our forthcoming Spanish and UK trips. As usual, the three of us, Shazza, myself and my OCD Buddy 🤭 had got ourselves organised. I had sent off the necessary annual 2024 financial data to the tax specialist at our solicitor’s, the Spanish tax year being from Jan-Dec with the initial paperwork having to be submitted in April, although the tax bill itself, once I have been notified of how much it is, does not have to be payed until June. We have also pre-booked our Spanish hotel accommodations, and the one in the UK that we will require upon our arrival and of course, we had already pre-booked and paid for our return ferry crossings, so all we had to do now was to leisurely pack our suitcases and then get on the road. The only minor fly in the ointment, for my OCD Buddy, was with the annual car tax payment itself, a mere €36, so not a kings ransom, which I usually pay online by the beginning of April, however, this year, the DGT (Government Vehicle Agency) has changed the website in which you make these payments, but there appears to be an issue with the ‘new’ website platform and so nobody is able to pay their car tax 🤷‍♂️ However, I cannot see too many people, other than the receiving beneficiaries, getting overly anxious about not yet being able to make their payment 🤭 Neither is this a major issue for us, we have until the end of May in which to make the payment, so we can do that when we come back from the UK, subject to them of course having sorted out their ‘Technical Issues’ 🤔 As I may have mentioned previously, the car tax system in Spain is different to that in the UK, here in Spain it is not ‘Illegal’ to continue to drive your car without having first paid the annual fee, although, once it is out of date, if stopped by the authorities, you can be fined for not having paid it. But for me, and my OCD Buddy, there is a little bit of irritation, as now, not everything will be as tidy, or as complete, as we would have wished prior to our return to the UK. But, even with that one minor exception, and in the grand scheme of things, everything was sorted and we were ready to go, so now we had one week to just sit back and enjoy the sunshine, to get on with our normal daily routines, a daily walk, ‘perhaps’ even an Anti-Covid Vaccine here and there with a Tapa or two for good measure 🍷🍷 😋That ‘perhaps’ of mine, of course having the same meaning as Shazza’s use of the word 🤭)

Over the last twelve months or so, with now having relaxed into this slower paced side of Spanish life, I had allowed myself to become a little too relaxed and, as a consequence, I had left myself vulnerable and off guard to the threats from the ‘Dark Forces’, who were always lurking, awaiting their opportunity to catch me off my guard and so yes, you have guessed it, they seized upon the opportunity and ‘They Tried To Ambush Us !!’ 🫣

My regular reader’s will recall, way back in March 2022, that I suffered a detached retina whilst here in Spain on a 90 day ‘Schengen Shuffle’ visit, which was prior to us taking up permanent residency here a year or so later. But the Spanish healthcare system were excellent, I had found myself, without any prior warning, suddenly and completely blind in my right eye, but they dealt with it with great urgency and within days they had conducted the necessary operation to restore most of my sight, although the retina could not be repaired completely.

So here we are, 3 year’s later and although my sight was slightly impaired in my right eye, I had complete vision in both. The only minor issue, other than the slight impairment, which my left eye had compensated for, was a very small black dot, no larger than the ‘full stop’ at the end of this sentence. This would sometimes be visible and sometimes not, but one morning, just a week before we were due to leave home, this small black dot had re-appeared but this time it had grown a little larger in size and did not disappear at all, but even then, that didn’t overly concern me, it was more of an irritation than actually having any impact on my vision, it was much like a small black fly that no matter how many times you try to swat it, it remains circling around your head, in fact many times I have been seen swatting at this imaginary fly as I am walking down the promenade 🙄

However, within only a couple of hours, that one black dot had multiplied, to more than ten, but of varying sizes, and they were all swimming around in my eye and all over my field of vision. Of course, given my history, my natural first thought was that the repaired retina, once again, without warning, had now started to deteriorate, and was starting to disintegrate into small pieces literally right in front of my eye 😲

We got into the car and Shazza drove me to the A&E (Urgencias Department) at the Costa del Sol hospital which is a forty-minute drive away. When we arrived, the place was crowded with ‘out-patients’ all waiting to see a doctor, we were processed, administratively speaking, very quickly and told to wait, in the waiting room, until we were called, I remember looking at the crowds of people, standing room only, and when I looked at my watch it said 14:55pm and I wondered how long we would have to wait. At 22:15pm, I had had enough, there were people who had been called in to see a doctor, not once, but twice, sometimes even being called for a third time, although in truth they may have been having to go to different departments for X-Rays, Plaster Casts, Bandages and Dressings, but I began to also observe that there were people who had arrived after us, walking wounded, not limbs hanging off, or blood spurting everywhere and they were being called in to consulting rooms. I started to become irritated after being sat for what had been by then, seven very long and tedious hours, in a never decreasing crowd. Shazza just said, “Same here now then as it is in the UK”, on my two previous visits we had actually been seen very promptly, very much different to how it was this time around, I wonder what the reason is here in Spain, the lack of money for resourcing of staff ? No GP appointments so this becomes the first port of call ? An increase in the numbers of the ageing population ? Who knows but what a dramatic change in such a short period of time.

I went to see the nurse in the Triage Room, the one where they had initially booked me in, and asked if she could give me any idea of how much longer I would need to wait until someone would see me. Now you could have blown me over with a feather when she told me that ‘Eye Problems’ are considered minor and come low down on the priority treatment schedule 😲 Hang on a minute, suspected detached retinas should be treated as very urgent, as my original Consultant had told me, delays in obtaining treatment can lead to permanent blindness 😡 Then this nurse went on to inform me that there were no ‘Optomologists’ on duty, so the likelihood would be that I would be told by the doctor, when I did eventually get to see one, that I would need to come back the following morning 😡😡 It was about this time that my generally more passive demeanour started to elude me for a moment or two, although I did not raise my voice or become rude, I mean it wasn’t her fault, but as I tore off my hospital wristband, that she had issued me with earlier, I told her that I was going home and would return the following day. She advised me that if I did that I would only end up going through the whole process again, but she said for me to wait and that she would see what she could do 🤷‍♂️

Funny old thing, just fifteen minutes later, at 22:30pm I was called in to a Consulting room to see a doctor, coincidence perhaps 🙄 She checked my records and confirmed that she was aware of my history, she then made a cursory examination of my right eye and told me that, although she was not an eye specialist, she suspected that I had suffered another detached retina, in my mind I just said ‘No shit Sherlock’ 🙄 She then told me what I now already knew, no specialists on duty until tomorrow morning, she gave me a copy of her initial, but brief, examination report and told me to report to the ‘Hospital Admissions Department’ in a different part of the hospital at 9:00am the following morning to ‘make an appointment’ to see an Optomologist 🤷‍♂️ By the time we had got home we had been out for the best part of 9 hour’s, sat for the most part in an A&E waiting room, we had not eaten since lunchtime but by the time we returned home we both had gone past the hunger stage, we could not see any vending machines in the area around the A&E, although we later discovered that there was a vending area at the other end of the building, a sign would have been helpful. At the end of the day though, neither did we want to leave and miss being called in to see the consultant 🤷‍♂️ ‘At least we had managed to have an unscheduled fasting day’, I unwisely commented to Shazza who, as you may appreciate of someone who is normally a three-meals a day sort of girl, did not appear to be overly impressed by that fact 🫣

The following morning we were both up a little before 07:00am, for obvious reasons I had not slept very well, the worst case scenarios had been been playing over and over in my mind, the first retina repair, three year’s previously, had not been a complete 100% success as the retina had sustained too much damage from the tear, so in my mind was the question, what if they could not repair the original repair 🤷‍♂️ I certainly didn’t relish the thought of going permanently blind in one eye 😲 What if this current delay in getting diagnosed and treated would be too late after the fact 🤷‍♂️ Then the rest came flooding into my thoughts, if I was to undergo immediate surgery again, this would prevent us from returning to the UK as planned, the recovery period would take weeks and travel during that time would again be prohibited, we would have to cancel hotel bookings that we had made on both sides, cancel the return ferry crossings and also inform friends who had already pre-booked and pre-paid a hotel booking in the UK, for an arranged meet up that we had planned for whilst we were in the UK 😲

Now, I am not usually someone who suffers with stress and, had it have just been solely the eye issue, I would have dealt with that in my more usual matter of fact manner, but there were other people involved this time, Shazza included, as one of the reasons that we were returning to the UK at this particular time was for her to celebrate a ‘noteable’ birthday number for her, with her friends and family. Shazza too had had a less than relaxing sleep, for much the same reasons, our forty minute drive to the hospital was conducted mainly in silence that morning, both of us with our own individual thoughts and concerns.

Since we had visited this hospital three year’s ago, it has been modernised and two additional multi floored Annexes constructed, the ‘Admissions Unit’ was in one of the new buildings but we found it quite straightforward, with a bit of assistance from a nice member of the staff who showed us how to operate the all singing all dancing automated machine, which we needed to use to obtain a ticket number just to get into the queue to make the ‘Optomologist Appointment’. Being early we were called straight up to the row of desks and, on one of the desks, there was a ‘Union Jack’ sign, so we approached that and the lady behind the desk was so helpful. It was only 08:30am but the earliest appointment she could make for me was for 10:00am, it could have been a lot worse 😲 She directed us to a lower level of the building where once again we had to obtain a ticket number from another automated machine, this was a little less user friendly, even for the Spanish we observed, but eventually we persisted and got the machine to spit out the all important ticket number we required, we ran off in the direction of the Optomology Department, before the security guard could arrest us for criminal damage to the new machine, ‘come on now’ I thought to myself, my trainers didn’t cause that much damage when I kicked it, and there were barely any scuff marks on it 😂

Although we were an hour early for our appointment we were rewarded for our promptness by me being called in to get through the first round of checks. After a few sight checks, followed by lots of drops being put into both eyes, the young doctor told me that the vision in my right eye was 40%. I commented that I hadn’t realised that it was that bad, I was confused when he laughed, “That is good not bad, last time your vision in that eye was only 5%, the original repair had worked” he said. He told me to go and sit back in the waiting room for the eye drops to work and then he would call me back in. The next bit was going to be the most important factor, the actual physical inspection of the back of my eye, I knew that he would not tell me the verdict and that I would have to wait until I was then called in to see the actual Consultant, who would break it to me and tell me the next stage of treatment, however, I was hoping that I may have been able to pick up a clue from his demeanour.

He spent a lot of time checking my eye, it was painful, as the eye drops had opened up my pupils and the bright light shining directly into them made it feel like a laser burning my eyeball 😲Then, the torture was repeated, this time by a young girl, someone who I suspected was a student doctor learning one aspect of her new career path. The young doctor, who had left the room whilst the student had been examining my eye, returned with a piece of paper, the eye examination report. “Your eye is good, no detached retina, the black dots are ‘floaters’, we all have them, some more than other’s, you get more as you get older” he said, with a reassuring smile on his face. “Is their anything I can do to reduce all of these floater’s and why did they all just appear quite suddenly” I asked, “No medical reason for them appearing all at once, it happens like this sometimes, you will just have to learn to live with them, your eye will adapt to them being there and so you will not notice most of them after a time” he said. I think he was trying to sensitively tell me that it is a price I have to pay at becoming more senior in years 😉 However, at the moment I heard those words ‘No detached retina’ the relief just poured out of me, the stress, the concern just evaporated into thin air, if I could have bottled that feeling, right then and there, I would have done. Although, upon one reflection on the news that I had just received that morning, was the fact that I had not fully comprehended, until then, is that according to him, I only have 40% vision in my right eye, although it doesn’t feel that limited, even if I close my left eye I can still see quite well out of the right one, so if I had been asked to have guessed, I would have put it at least 80% 🤔🤷‍♂️ But who cares, I can see out of both eyes, I do not have a detached retina and I am not going to go blind in one eye, well not yet at least 🥳🥳🥳

Now I must be feeling really good, because I can even make a positive out of a negative with this latest ambush by these ‘Dark Forces’. Perhaps they had been lurking over my shoulder when I penned my last ramble, and they, not wanting me to stop publishing my rambles, decided to provide me with something else to write about 🤔 Fortuitous ? Or just me looking for an excuse ? I know which one I am leaning towards, you on the other hand, may have your own opinion 😂

Anyway, sorry but I have to dash, suddenly got a plague of flies buzzing around my head that need swatting 😂😂😂

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena