PANTEBOY
I have been wanting to write this one for a while.  For reasons that may come clear below, I have chosen to do it now!  I have returned to my old blog format for a while, partly because maybe this one is more personal and I don’t want it so much ‘out there’.  It will go to my old ‘friends of Snork Maiden’ list.  So no music today!  (You are, of course, free to choose your own.). Actually I like Ravi Shankar’s CHANTS OF INDIA produced by George Harrison, but it’s not everyone’s cup of chai.  
So, PANTEBOY.  Not pronounced ‘Panty Boy’ as in a man with a hobby (now listen to Pink Floyd’s ARNOLD LANE).  It is actually pronounced ‘rantevoû’ and means ‘appointment - get it?  No?  Then try saying it aloud! In lower case the effect is lost completely! παντεβου
    I suppose I am using this as an illustration of just how awkward learning a completely different language can be.  This was underlined by a recent phone conversation with the local Government Vehicle Inspection Agency in Heraklion. I need to make an appointment for the car’s annual inspection, a topic not covered in my GREEk FOR YOU course, although it does have a section on going to the doctor, helpfully entitled ‘Will I Get Better?’ l can just about make myself understood, but can’t field what comes back to me.  My interlocutor is exasperated; I am frustrated.  I will go there in person tomorrow and that will be easier.
As English speakers in Greece we occupy an awkward space.  The Albanian stonemasons and Sri Lankan cooks learn Greek much faster than we do, for the simple reason that no-one speaks their languages.  We live in Kissamos, and enough of the business in that part of the island is touristy to make English the common language for Greeks dealing with tourists of all nationalities.  Sometimes the language skills are superficial but many people are fluent, including our 12 year old neighbour at the new apartment.  
Covid, or Corona as the Greeks prefer to cal it, has not helped;  the places where we might have gone to have a more immersive Greek language experience have been closed or we have chosen to steer clear.  I am thinking of markets, ordinary shops, music venues, even the local coffee bar, walks with neighbours…
Actually I love learning Greek, and this is not a complaint, just an observation.
Why now?  Because less English is spoken in Heraklion than in the more touristy parts of the island, it’s a working city occupied by Cretans.  

K-AL-imera
Now for the difficult part. Sorry about the dreadful pun.  I have been using it as an email header because I think it stands more chance of getting through Junk mail filters.  I am sure that most of you know by now that Al is in hospital in Heraklion, some 2,5 hours drive from Kissamos.  After experiencing heaviness in the chest - classic heart signal that all is not well - we went to the clinic in Platanias, where we have been before.  It’s quiet in the winter and well-staffed (by English speakers). 

They send him immediately to the cardiologist in Kissamos (where we live), the cardiologist runs tests and says we must go to the university Hospital in Heraklion and so here we are, a week after we first walked into the clinic.

I suppose all modern hospitals look much the same with corridors half a kilometre long.

 

 

Al has had an angiogram , EKG, many blood test and now we are waiting for the data to come together.  He has found himself the best view in the room, and we are told that this is one of the best hospitals in Europe for heart surgery. 

He is probably looking at a bypass of some sort.  Options, if any, and timescale really not clear at the moment.  The initial shock has passed, but we are aware there’s a pretty long journey ahead.  Life will not be the same, but maybe that can be a good thing.  This hiatus is giving us both some thinking time. Here's the view.

I am staying at an AirBnb about 7 minutes drive from the hospital.  I have Our Cat with me now, fetched him at the weekend.  He needed company.  he's not really letting me out of his reach.  On my lap now.

I have a pretty good view of a slip road and often see ambulances passing by.  The sound is quite effectively deadened by the glazing and I like the sense of life going on.

Tomorrow I will get up early-ish to go shopping.  There's a mega Sklavenitis supermnarket quite close by and if I get there at 8am it's very quiet.  Then to a Greek MOT centre, should be more linguistic fun!

I am finding it quite hard to concentrate and have weird memory outages.  I think is just the stress of the whole situation.  It is life changing.  I appreciate the positive comments we have had from people, and it is true that this medical condition and its treatment is so common as to be routine.  But it is still big and comes with plenty of emotional accompaniements.  And that's probably why I kicked off with learning Greek.  I have more to say about the emotional side of things, but might not say it here.  But just to let you know that the support of friends has been really important - both physical here in Crete, and virtual.  I am grateful for the internet, without which life would be very different.  Sailing in the 1980's I had to queue for a phone in a bar, find coins, get cut off when the money ran out.  Mail via Poste Restante.  What a different world we live in.

 

MORE SOON