Chez nous!

Well................... you don`t get rid of me that easily you know!!!! Just when you thought it was safe to go back on your pc I`m back!!!

I really refuse to be ill again after this most recent episode!! It`s been one hell of a year for me!

I realised that my blood oxygen level was low again on Sunday morning when I was as wobbly as an alchoholic who had spent the night locked in a local vineyard.

So, with overnight bag packed "just in case", off we went to Valognes hospital to hand myself in! They checked me out before linking me up to an oxygen cylinder,  zipping me up in a huge sleeping bag like a caterpillar and loading me into an ambulance where I was taken, with the full flashing lights regalia, to the larger hospital at Cherbourg! I don`t see why I should go quietly - do you? Poor Mark had to follow in our car - eventually getting left behind when the ambulance driver decided to run through a red light!

I was promptly hooked up to a drip and the first of two sachets of blood was pumped into me (I didn't realise how freezing cold it was as I felt it going in!).After the second bag I was then transferred to the maternity department ( excuse me?) to be monitored, sharing a room with a very sweet 19 year old girl who asked if I was " enceinte" ( preganant!).  As a menopausal old mule I found that question very funny to say the least!!

The next morning it was very apparent that the blood they had given me was checking out as quickly as it had checked in - and I was told they would operate to see what was going on later in the day. The surgeon's name was Vlad....short for Vladimir.....short for Vlad the Impaler? Whilst I nervously awaited the op I was given three more bags of French blood; surely that makes me completely French now?

So, the op. is done, I returned home today and, hopefully, that is the end of all the hoo har!!  I am, as I write this, crumpled under a quilt ( 19th century faded floral of course!) with Digger at my side and Charles the Baron at my feet. I have been doing a little tv watching and after Ray Mears bushcraft I now know how to build a bear trap, make my own teepee and how to tell wolf poo from bear poo . That is sure to come in very useful for early morning brocanting!

Having received 9 bags of nice French blood in 7 weeks I would like to say a big 'merci' to those wonderful donors who handed it over - and hope they were rewarded with the best macaroons with their cafe afterwards.

A big 'merci', also, for all the wonderful messages of support.  Normal service is to be resumed very quickly.  Now............... how long can I hang it out under this quilt being spoiled and waited on??

A demain mes belles
xx