Advertisement
Published: April 4th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Resting Clancy
Driving through Welsh hills Our last few days in Caerphilly unfortunately have left us with a bad taste….we arrived home to Caerphilly to find that some intellectually challenged nobs had slashed all four tyres on Kit! (Kit is/was our beloved Volvo sports car!?see earlier blog) It wasn’t worth paying to get new tyres so ended up having to give her away to a group of local bums (probably the same guys who slashed her tyres). A very sad farewell indeed. Never mind, it could have happened anywhere.
We spent a few days packing up our room in Caerphilly before heading off for the next chapter in working in the UK. We had to rush our leaving a little as our landlord had decided to put his house on the market whilst we were away, so we left in a little bit of a rush before we’d had a chance to fully recover from our flu.
Spent three nights in the van travelling up the west coast of Wales to Manchester. A truly spectacular and rugged coastline. Clancy drove very well, even if she was a little slow on the hills with the huge load we had. It was nice to finally test her
out. The weather was not the kindest and we even camped in snow on some nights.
Saw some great little seaside villages and visited the very informative Alternative Living Centre. On our last night before heading to Manchester (where we were hoping to pick up work) we stayed in Llandberis on a farm out of town. The view from our campsite was amazing, even better when we awoke to snow covering Mt Snowdon in the morning! We also visited the Pontcysylite Aquaduct near the Wales/England border. They have built a bridge 200m off the ground to link the aquaduct across the valley.....pretty amazing.
Jason’s flu and ear infection, combined with the cold weather and poor immune system took a turn for the worse here. He woke in the morning with the right side of his face paralysed! A quick trip to the doctor indicated that he may have contracted a shingles virus in his ear which had inflamed his cranial nerve and caused a paralysis (a condition we learnt was called Ramsay Hunt syndrome). He had difficulty eating and had now adopted a very asymmetrical smile. We dosed him up with steriods and anti-virals before heading towards Manchester
to get more medical help and find work.
Our initial dealings with the NHS with Jason’s health was marred with red tape and stupid rules that meant we didn’t get to see an actual doctor until about three days later. From this point on the care has been much better and Jason has seen several consultants, but it seems that it is near impossible to see a doctor outside the hospital setting if you are not registered with a practice in the area…different systems in a different country getting us down a little.
Four weeks later we’re now living and working in Manchester. Jason had to take the first two weeks off work while he continued his recovery. He was unable to start until he had regained more function and most importantly he could blink a little better to help protect his eye (eyes are kind of important when you're a sonographer!).
We are living in staff accommodation at the moment but are considering moving out. Jason is working across the road (lucky bastard) at the hospital while Kirstyn is working in two different clinics a whole ten minutes walk away! We are enjoying living so close
to work and having a little extra sleep-in in the mornings. Looking forward to exploring the surrounding national parks and some serious saving for our next adventures around Europe.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.32s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 21; qc: 103; dbt: 0.0964s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb