Advertisement
Published: April 23rd 2015
Edit Blog Post
Woolly says – The sun was shining and I had settled into my temporary accommodation one road from the sea. Following our longish drive we spent the next couple of days investigating Torrox Costa, the sea front was lovely and ideal for my skateboard once Jo has unpacked it. Having got our bearings I prompted the humans the need to visit a supermarket and stock up on the vital necessities for a mammoth. I do wonder if he will ever manage a day without thinking about his stomach! Woolly says – having gathered together the makings of some meals and dragged Jo away from the cheap wine we passed a rather quaint building with a square tower, Graham informed me that this was rumoured to be the holiday home of Hitler’s mistress Eva Braun. The land had been given as a gift to the dictator from the Spanish ruler Franco. Belle Époque villa had an amazing garden and retains many of its original features with a wonderful palm grove along the entrance avenue and in the garden. Having delivered the supplies to the kitchen cupboards our friend Dale suggested a trip into the nearby town of Nerja and the opportunity to try out some tapas, being the sensible traveller that I am I indulged in a quick snack to keep me going for the journey and eagerly jumped into the car.
The short run along the coast was lovely and entering the historic town and its small Spanish streets proved to be a real find, strangely I had forgotten the camera so we will have to arrange a further visit to delve further into the town and photograph the beauty that lies within. Woolly says – Having lectured Jo on her transgression and the lack of snaps that couldn’t be taken I quickly decided to indulge rather than moan, a visit to the Round Bar provided me with a vast array of tapas to choose from and I tucked into a rather yummy tuna and potato dish before we moved onto the next feasting point and I was presented with some pickled peppers which were equally scrummy, with bowls of nuts being provided with each round of drinks I think I will adapt well to living here. If he keeps eating like this he’ll be the size of a house! Our second day involved an early start and having prodded the fur ball awake we set of for a meeting in Benalmadena.
Woolly says – it’s rather nice riding down the coast in a convertible with the roof down, why haven’t I been given these luxuries before as befitting my status as a super star? I’m really not treated very well! We had made arrangements to meet someone to view some business venues, the email to Jo said to meet at the Lidl carpark in the town, we sat and waited, I watched the clock ticking, I inspected the many baskets of shopping that people were carrying out of the supermarket, I tapped my paws on the dashboard until Jo finally told me off and suggested a game of I spy, this lasted all of two minutes before boredom set in again, we tried ringing the contact number given only to have the call cut off, sigh there are a lot of minutes in an hour. Finally after a long debate with the human elements on the need to eat pistachios at least ten times a day to remain healthy I suggested that we find some wifi and tried messaging the company.
My little friend can be quite bright at times and having cruised down to the sea a handy McDonalds presented itself with their wonderful free internet service. Woolly says – with nothing else to do the decision was reached to meander round the area and see what it was like, what competition was around and generally recce the situation. I wasn’t impressed, although beer and wine were really really cheap as was the food this was great for the visitors but not at all good for running our own bar. My companions seemed to agree with me, not the area for us then but we always knew that we would need to discount places or add them onto our maybe list and that this might take a few visits before final decisions could be reached. Monday dawned with the sunlight flittering onto the patio area and the chance to celebrate Graham’s birthday. Woolly says – I do like a burpday even if it isn’t mine and having had a wander round the local market and stopped Jo from buying any clothes we decided to head to the car and take a ride to the town of Frigiliana, I stood waiting for Graham to open the car door, when nothing happened I coughed a few times to remind him that a mammoth needs to be on the move and that I would need feeding again before we got there at this rate, still receiving no response I scurried round to the other side of the car, I tried kicking him a few times to get us moving and received no reply, strange. Jo was trying to talk to him but getting no answer we helped him to walk the few metres back to our accommodation, while I rushed off to get my doctors kit to check him out Jo ran into the home of our friends Dale and Lorena shouting for help, with no response from inside I suggested phoning them as I started taking Grahams vital signs.
Knowing that Graham was unable to talk or move his right arm we needed a hospital quickly, Dales phone went to answerphone and I quickly debated the quickest route to get medical assistance when you don’t know the address to the place your in. It felt like several hours passed as I considered our options and having decided on a course of running up the road to the nearest bar and getting help I breathed a huge sigh of relief as Dale and Lorena arrived back. The drive along the motorway to the nearest hospital seemed to take for ever and having booked Graham in we stood waiting anxiously for the doctor to see him knowing that the quicker a stroke situation is dealt with the better the chance of recovery. Thankfully with Lenora’s Spanish he was off into ICU and being well looked after within 35 minutes of the stroke happening.
Woolly says – I tried to explain to the doctors what had happened but was rudely shoved out of the room, Jo took my paw and we joined Dale and Lorena in the waiting room as they worked on Graham. Our life of travel does seem to involve a lot of hospitals and for the next week we went into hospital mode, getting up, collecting stuff together that he might need including snacks for me and spending the days sitting in amongst the equipment while the efficient staff carried out test after test on my friend. His recovery was rapid and within 24 hours he was able to move his arm and fingers and tell me off for standing on his cannula so I knew he couldn’t be too bad.
After five days of a Spanish hospital we were all able to return to our base and allow Graham the time to continue to mend whilst sitting in the sun.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.087s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 12; qc: 27; dbt: 0.024s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
taracloud
Tara Cloud
Wow--scary!
How great that your friends returned and were able to get Graham quickly to the hospital, that he was treated quickly and is now on the mend. Best wishes for a relaxing, full recovery--the bar locating can wait, though how fun to explore Spain, looking for a sweet spot to locate your new enterprise.