A Big Day for Dad...

It was a big day today for Dad as I was taking him, Mum and the surgeon to Limassol so that he could have his cataract removed.  It turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far and I had a pair of my winter trousers on!

We arrived outside the surgeon's surgery at 9.00am as agreed but there was no sign - this was not a good start as Dad does not do waiting.  Eventually he managed to contact her by phone and she appeared unconcerned and hauled him in to give him the first of many eye-drops which 'stung a bit' according to Dad.

Mum and Dad sat firmly in the back so I had to try and make conversation with Mrs whatever her name is!  Disconcertingly she got into the car and crossed herself - John says she must have heard about my driving but I prefer to think it was because she spotted the icon which is attached to the dashboard and which we inherited with the car.  She asked me if I was Roman Catholic!

Anyway I managed to make a reasonable amount of conversation but I think she was just happy to be able to sit back and look at the scenery on such a beautiful day and let's face it the 'motorway' from Paphos to Limassol is never very busy.  I was a good girl and, mindful that Laura and I had seen speed traps on both carriageways the previous week, kept very firmly to the speed limit.  

The route to the clinic was reasonably easy except for the last bit where I had to turn left where there appeared to be a no left turn sign and although it is not unusual for drivers here to completely ignore these kinds of warnings it was referring to an almost hairpin like left-turn rather than the one I needed to take.  We arrived, parked up, got out and Mrs Surgeon told me that I was a very good driver.  I should have had this recorded for posterity or John at the very least!

The clinic was rather posh and housed both eye specialists and a dentist.  It was high-tech, very clean and stylish and probably accounts for the fact that the cost of private medical care here is pretty expensive (or seems to be) having said that it all seemed very professional and the staff were all very kind and caring.

When we arrived Dad had to sign his life away and had more stuff put in his eye which still 'stung a bit' and Mum and I were given a cup of coffee and we watched the Cypriot equivalent of a programme which was a cross between Loose Women, This Morning and Create and Craft!  Mum and I are now fully conversant in how to make Easter dolls that appeared to be stuck to a beesum!  Fascinating stuff particularly when you can't understand a single word!  

When Dad was taken to have his lens measured Mum and I nipped out to get the plethora of pills, drops and lotions for which we had been given a list and fortunately there was a chemist just across the road - bet he does a roaring trade in prescriptions for eye and teeth medicines.  Having been sat in the very pleasant air conditioned clinic waiting room we had absolutely no idea how hot it was outside and we were glad to return.

Finally it was time for Dad to walk up that rather lovely curved staircase for his operation and Mrs Surgeon had assured us that because he was older they would not rush things so we were expecting the procedure to take a little longer than the half an hour or so that others had mentioned.  Mum and I went outside again to kill time and to have a nosey in a clothes shop that we had seen just up from the Chemist.  On wandering round the curvaceous assistant very politely pointed out to us in broken English that the shop was for BEEG Ladies and that Mum and I were 'No BEEG' - blimey that makes a refreshing change as most Cypriot clothes shops seem to stock clothes for stick insects.  Still it whiled away a few minutes and accessories are for everyone aren't they - BEEG or small!

Dad was away in the operating theatre for just under an hour and then emerged looking like a battle weary soldier with a patch over his eye.  More drugs were administered before we all got back in the car and made our way back to Paphos.  Bloody hell it was hot in the car - 31 degrees and me still in my winter trousers! It was a positively chilly 29 degrees when we got back to Emba!!  

Dad slept all the way back and was pretty zonked out all afternoon so we left him dozing with Missie for company.  Missie is still about, growing old gracefully or disgracefully I am not sure which.  She remains an odd shape and is now an odd colour and although the fur round her tummy and legs has grown back it is white and so she looks bald but Mum and Dad love her to bits and that is all that matters.

Mum and I went out to pick up some bits and pieces and I wanted to investigate a plant that Laura and I had seen at the London Supermarket last week.  We couldn't believe that the price (€5.50) on the pot was correct as this is a pretty large specimen and looking at it has been in that pot for EVER.

Well I went with Mum and checked and sure enough that was the price they sold it to me for and I was pretty pleased - John will probably hate it as I seem to remember him spending ages digging up one very similar when we first came over - clearly we should have dug up and moved rather than dug up and discarded - a lesson learned the same lesson we have learned about things we discarded or sold before we moved which we wish we had brought with us!

John drove down from Emba to join us for a pre-dinner game of Rummikub - the operation does not seem to have dulled Dad's sense of logic as he stuffed us on several occasions.  After dinner (thanks Mum for a lovely meal - yet again) we picked up Janice and Ray and headed off for the quiz where we put in a fairly mediocre performance by our standards.  It was packed last night which is great for the fund raising - particularly as the jackpot of €1,000 was won and donated back with a request that it went to Help for Heroes or whatever the local equivalent is but not so good from a timing point of view as it was well passed 11.00pm when we returned home to Droushia and the kids.

John met our neighbour Paul today - he is the Lawyer who owns the 'abandoned' house behind us where there are mosquito fish in the swimming pool.  Apparently he hasn't been to see the house for sometime as he has had a triple bypass but thinks he may come and recuperate there - whatever that means!  It looks as though the property might get a long overdue tidy which can only be for the good but I fear that we may now get yet another set of builders disturbing our peace!