More Madeira

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Being on this island for three months, means that you have to find a rythm. You can't be on holiday all that time, quite apart from the fact that our budget doesn't stretch to 3-months' vacantioning.
We both brought our mini laptops and Paul is doing his bourse thing every day, making us some nice spending money for restaurant and trips. Besides keeping him happy.
Even though I'm not a fan of routine, some discipline is needed to keep me from just wandering through life and in the end doing nothing at all. That's very easy to get used to, but there's too much in this life that must be done, even if most of it is usually not pleasant. Like paying bills, filling in forms, talking to civil servants, to name a few.


Or see a doctor. When you get to a certain age, it is hard not to have to visit a doctor in three months. A couple of weeks ago, Paul all of a sudden saw more spiderwebs and "mouches volantes" in his left eye than he usually does, and light flashes added to the spiderwebs. Very disturbing when you read on the internet that it could be a sign of retinal detachment.
On the way to the fitness centre I'd seen an ophtalmologists' office sign. We stopped by and they could have Paul later in the afternoon. Of course, once there, it all took quite a while. Many patients ahead of Paul. But while waiting for the doctor, his eyes were tested. Everything okay, including eye pressure.
Then the doctor saw Paul, just to put some eyedrops in his eye and we had to wait again for about twenty minutes, until the pupil was sufficiently dilated to look through right into the back of Paul's head.
And looking in there the doctor saw nothing! Well, at least nothing disturbing, apparently.

The doctor's English wasn't great but he had a lot of English literature and with the help of his books, gestures and our understanding, we got along fine. Paul is apparently just suffering from something called PVD, posterior vitreous detachment. Which is something related to age. It could be like that for ever, but it could also deteriorate and then you need to see a doctor again. So we'll keep an eye on it:-)

Then I decided it was high time for me to get some attention, and my right foot obediently swelled. Due to all the walking we're doing here, my left hip/leg/knee was hurting a little more than usual, so I must have put more or different pressure on the right one, and as a result my foot started to hurt. After a week it was still much the same and I thought it might be better to see a doctor. I asked Adriana, our landlady, where best to go. She advised me to visit the Madeira Medical Center. This is behind the market, about five minutes walk from the apartment.
A very up to date, contemporary medical centre, with all kinds of facilities, including an ER. The very friendly people there registered me and asked me to wait. Paul had foreseen this. He brought his laptop and was happily doing his stockmarket thingie. Even in this place there's free wifi, as practically everywhere in downtown Funchal, along the seaside, on all the terraces etc. Great place to be!

The dotor was a very tall Czech, whose Czech and Portuguese was better than his English. But my Czech and Portuguese are a bit rusty, so we stuck to English.
He frowned when he looked at my foot, touched it, flexed it, asked some questions. Then he wrote a note and walked me to the ER receptionist. The receptionist put me in a wheel chair and wheeled me to the X-ray section of the centre. Had to wait for them to squeeze me in, but in the end I had my X-rays and was wheeled back to dr. Czech. He did some more head scratching, as nothing out of the ordinary was visible on the X-rays.

His diagnosis was that it was probably stress fracture, which can be a hairline fracture or an incomplete/almost fracture due to excessive use.
But he was also thinking of necrosis, which can happen as a result of insufficient blood flowing to the foot, which makes the foot swell initially, before the tissue breaks down and dies. But this he thought unlikely, as he could feel the blood rushing through my veins.

He gave me a recipe for anti-inflammaotory pills and also a spray, which I had to use for two weeks. If the foot is still the same after these two weeks, I'd have to come back. This is tomorrow and the foot is still a bit swollen and sore.

In the meantime, we've gone on living and at times doing the tourist thing.
Like when we went out to sea with a catamaran, looking for dolphins. A three-hour trip from Fnchal harbour. That was just lovely. On a big catamaran with a crew of 4 we sailed out on to the ocean in search of these wonderful creatures. One sailor was on the roof scanning the seas with binoculars and of course all the tourists on board were scanning with him.
Paul gets green very easily at sea, but a two hulled boat like a catamaran is so much more stable and when he pick a good spot to sit in the middle of the boat, he's okay. Even with the big swell that we had once outside the harbour.
Finally, after about an hour and a half some dolphins were spotted and soon they were all around the catamaran. All of a sudden everyone was silent, intent on spotting, and filming the animals. Then everyone seemed to be starting to talk all at once, excitedly pointing out the flippers to each other. Funny creatures, people.

But it was a wonderful experience, I would love to repeat this in summer, and then swim with them, that must be really exceptional, so I've heard.

Suddenly the dolphins left us, probably on to another engagement.
Just in time, because we had to turn back anyway. Sailing back home to Funchal, we passed by the fishing village of Câmara de Lobos, and sailed underneath the Cabo Girao, a 580 m high cliff just outside that village. The highest in Europe, one of the crew members claimed. I never take anything like that for granted, so I had a look on the internet, and it seems that Cape Enniberg on one of the Faeroer islands (Danish) takes credit for being the highest of Europe with 754 m.
Oh well, who cares. It's impressive enough, this Cabo Girao when you look up and see two small white dots high up on the wall of the cliff. These are the little cable cars that go from the top to the bottom of the cliff (and back!), where some farmers have their vegetable gardens, and this is the only way to get there.
Another thing on my want list. Paul isn't so keen, I think.
Anyway, this will have to wait for next time. Still got some other stuff on the list for the time being. And only two and a half more weeks here:-(

At the end of the afternoon, we often take a walk, around the block, so to speak. This nearly takes us to the seaside promenade, where lots of people stretch their legs around that time.
Las week, when we went on the pier, there was a guy sitting there behind a folding table with some books on it. The books were titled: No Fixed Address, and it was about the adventures of a boat called the Nuthin Wong.
http://nuthin-wong.blogspot.com/p/about-us.html
The captain/owner is Clive Hamman and he was the one sitting behind the table and selling the book. He's been travelling around the world in that boat since 1991. Now he's on his way back to Canada, where he started out from originally. Before crossing the Atlantic to Cuba, they are restocking here in Madeira and resting themselves.
I asked how much the book was, and Clive said: whatever it's worth to you. So for 15 euros we now have one more book to take home with us.
Besides two other books that will come into my possession shortly. Though I hope these will be sent straight home instead of to our address here. What's that all about? Well, I won the Readers' Competition of The Brit of this month! Finishing a poem. Incredible, as I do not like poems at all, with one or two exceptions.

The assignement was for the readers to complete this:
An ode to February
I know her so well

My version was:
I love the days getting longer
The sun ever stronger
And my spring feelings swell
(my foot inspired that!)

I was very surprised to get an email yesterday, telling me I had won the competition. Mine must have been the only entry...
Anyway, I won two books. The first is The Leeds Quiz Book: 1000 questions covering the club's history. About Leeds United... pfffff
And the second: The Mercury Man: Freddy Mercury in my life. About a woman that meets the spirit that once was Freddy Mercury. Well, I don't know, none of those books would have been my first (or last) choice. Maybe I can make a present of them to someone. Not one of the readers of this blog, obviously:-)

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Photos

flipper
finally swimming along with us

cabo girao
click to enlarge and look for the little white dots of the cable cars going up and down

promenade fountain
towards nightfall

captain clive
signing his book for us on funchal pier

nuthin wong
clive's boat

funchal by evening
the lanterns have just been switched on