My healthy heart is in Greece
(Thanks to lack of grease in my diet.)

Today’s ramble concerns the info on my recent cardio check-up in Rhodes, but first: Symi is starting to see more day-trippers, more business are ready or open, more boats are coming in and the temperature is waking up nicely. We’re now getting to the stage where we might have to come home from the shops via a circuitous route so as to avoid being called in for a free drink at the bar, or being invited to sit down with returning home owners, visitors and friends, more and more of whom are appearing on the island. Here comes summer.

But, back to the engaging story of my recent health holiday in Rhodes. On the Tuesday, my insurance company had arranged an appointment with a cardiologist as part of my annual MOT. The cardiologist in this case was situated opposite the Plaza Hotel so was easy to find and I went on my own five minutes early. The place was busy with local folk but the receptionist saw me hanging around at the door and invited me in, took my name, was expecting me, and showed me to the waiting room. There were three leather sofas, mainly occupied, but with a free space right next to the open window. I was grateful for that as I’d been for a walk around the headland to kill time and was a bit hot. One of my fellow patients leaped up as I sat down and closed the window, complaining of the cold and within a minute I was swimming around on the leather sofa, trying not to slide off it, hoping that the doctor would understand why I was so wet.

As the place was so busy/popular I expected to wait a while and turned my attention to watching the daytime TV show where I was taught how to make a lampshade out of a balloon and old string. Thankfully the receptionist cut that mind-numbing-number short by sitting with me a while and filling out a form with me. Strange looks from the others; why was this chap being seen to? A few minutes later she popped back and a few others got to their feet expecting to be the next in line. It soon became apparent that there was actually no queue as such, and I was invited to go in next. I believe a few knives were drawn, but then that’s the advantage of having an appointment booked rather than turning up on spec. Anyway, I was thoroughly checked over, heart-wise and the doctor and I had a quick chat. All was fine but a follow up, 24 hour, trace would be a good idea as the insurance company would cover it. I will pay 10% of the fee (€10.00) when I return next week for the day to be wired up like Frankenstein’s monster. I have to go back to collect the new glasses anyway, so that’s not an issue.

After this exam I was free from medical extravagance for the rest of the day, so did some more walking around. Neil (who had returned from his own appointment with his allergy doctor who declared his breathing to be the best she had seen from him in the last year) and I settled on lunch at George’s giros pace in the old fish market. They’d made fresh lasagne so a slice of that sufficed. More walking and then, as it was quiet and siesta time, we called into the Cosmote building to check out our often failing internet service. The very helpful guy there asked for our phone number, looked us up and declared that we could now get a 12Mb connection for €10.00 less than we were currently paying for our 2Mb one and here’s a new router; plug and play, Kominos, the OTE man on Symi will come and fix the phone line outside the house and then we just return the old outer. So, another good saving and you shouldn’t hear me complaining about our connection again. (It does still drop out occasionally but not to nothing, only down to five or six Mbs, which is still twice what we were getting.)

So, all good news there. In the evening we met a friend from Rhodes and dined at Kontiki, the floating restaurant in Mandraki. A great end to a good trip where we were treated like lords thanks to our health insurance with AXA.

And tomorrow, back to the more regular blogging about… well, something. I’ve not decided yet.

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The Thirteenth – the film based on The Judas Inheritance

Today, I was going to tell you about my riveting visit to the cardiologist in Rhodes last week, but that can wait a day – there’s nothing to worry about, so that’s fine. Instead I will share the news that Kickstarter backers, who put money into the film, should already know. That the post-production team are hopeful that the final cut should be finished by Friday this week. This is the film based on the book The Judas Inheritance which I wrote a couple of years ago now. It’s inspired by the ruins and village on Symi, though Symi is not actually mentioned in either as the location, as the story is fictitious (though the history of the island is explored, in context, in the novel). You can find a copy of the book at Amazon, The Judas Inheritance, where there is also a Kindle version. You can also search for it on Amazon.com.

The thing is that there are, appropriately, 13 backers who are eligible to have their photos shown in the end credits who have not yet sent in suitable images. I’ll put the text from the studio below in a moment. You may have received an email or update and replied to it and had an ‘okay’ back; your spam folders on your emails may have spammed the email for some reason and you’ve missed it, or you may not want to have your photo put up – in that case, just let them know. If you’re not sure then you can contact them through the Kickstarter update you should have received yesterday. And if you are really not sure, email me or contact me and I will let you know if your name is on the list.

The next thing is that if they don’t get a suitable image (which must be high resolution so it can appear on a large screen without you looking like a Picasso) by Friday, then your image will not appear. Once the end credits are done, then it will be too late to change them. So, check your spam if you know you are one of those (who put in over a certain amount) and send an image if you’ve not already done so, and if you’re unsure if the one you sent was good enough, contact them through that update to check.

The pertinent parts of the most recent update are: “We are currently in the process of putting in the photos of backers as part of the end credits. You will recall that last year we asked you all to send in your head and shoulders photos for this, and many of you did.

We have had to get back in touch with a number of people as our post-production people said they needed higher resolution copies of certain of these photos. You have to bear in mind that when projected on a full sized screen these photos could be as large as an A3 sheet of paper.

We have heard back from most of those we emailed but there are still 13 outstanding. We suspect it is possible the emails may have gone to junk folders and not been seen.

So we have today re-sent emails to those 13, using a different address. Hopefully this will reach them.

But if you have sent in a photo and you haven’t heard from us recently that it is okay please get in touch with us to check. And if you have not yet sent in a photo at all, but would now like to do so, please send it now. This is absolutely the very last chance.

Just to re-iterate: we need something like a passport head and shoulders photo (it can also be a couple together if preferred, but basically the same kind of close cropping of a passport photo). This photo needs to be at least 1 MB (megabyte) in file size. Larger is even better. If you don’t understand what this means, please get in touch. If you are scanning a hard copy photo, then please scan at 300 dpi (pixels) resolution or higher. Please contact Nigel on nigeledwards@1066productions.com with any questions about the photos, or to send in photos.”

Thank you, and more about our Rhodes trip, Symi updates and other matters tomorrow.

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New glasses Greek style
Jack, the Alarm Cat, enjoyed his birthday yesterday. He spent the day shouting at doors, sleeping in inconvenient places, staring us into submission each time he wanted to visit his bowl, filling his dirt tray before throwing all the litter out of it and, finally, curling up on us and shedding hair. So, just like every other day.

He was actually 13 yesterday, being born in 2003, but I was doing that thing where you count the number of birthdays including his actual birth day, so he’s now in his 14^th year, though has only had 13 birthday anniversaries, plus one actual birth day. So, that’s that cleared that up.

And talking of clearing things up, I will soon be able to see clearly now the rain has gone… Well, there was some rain yesterday, but not much. But hopefully next week, I shall be wearing my new glasses. While we were in Rhodes, last Monday actually and before lunch at Indigo, I had a moment of spontaneity that’s been brewing for about three years. It’s been six years since I had new glasses and so I decided to call into Optical House and get an eye test. €20.00 for the eye test and please come back in one hour. Which I did.

I saw the ophthalmologist took me up to his surgery which was fitted out with all kinds of machines and charts, and we had a good chat about my eyes. He’d taken my old prescription from my glasses somehow and, after some tests, declared that my sight has not changed much in the last six years, so that’s good news. We then discussed vertigo and I asked if eyesight can have a bearing on losing your bearings, and indeed it can. He then ran some more tests that I have never had before to see what could be done to stabilise my eye-to-brain coordination, one of the things that could cause the loss of balance when I turn around. Something to do with the messages from each eye not reaching the brain at the same time. One hour later, and still for only €20.00, we went back to the shop to see about frames and lenses.

This is where the fun starts and you are not to fall off your seat. I checked out various frames: Harry Potter style? No ta. Sporty-style, Lord no! Thick rimmed and currently ‘fashionable’? (Whoever thought thick rimmed glasses look good on anyone’s face clearly needed to see my ophthalmologist.) How about some that look more or less the same as what you are wearing? Oh yes, that’s more like it. Except they are bigger as they are vary focal and I need more glass, fair enough. So, designer frames (from Mr Ray Ban, whoever he is) and fairy vocal lenses which I know are not cheap to produce. But also we should incorporate a prism type thing to help keep me stable, yes, quite agree with that. I was just about to ask how much a second pair would be, as I wanted prescription sunglasses, when he suggested I have phototronic lenses. No, sorry, it’s photochromic, and Transitions Optical ones at that, and with a two year scratch free guarantee. So, let’s tot all that up…

Bear in mind all these additions, frames, fairy vocals, near, mid and far distant, react to sunlight, UV protection, crystalline prism to keep me afloat when the ballast shifts, and frames made specially for me by Mr Ban. I won’t tell you the price here, but it’s somewhere between €880 and €885. However, what I am buying are four pars in one (near, mid, far and sunglasses when in the sun) and also I’ve not bought a pair for six years, and the current old ones are fine for spares. I was expecting to pay about double what I am paying, so that’s fine. And after all that, the eye test was free, so it didn’t even cost me €20.00.

I hope to pick these up next week or else the week after and then, as long as it’s stopped raining, I should see clearly now.

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Health Holiday, Greek style
Hello! We’re back. I’ve enjoyed me week off and we’ve done loads during it: coursework, furniture removal, health checks, lots of eating, walking, boat trips… But where to start catching up? Let’s go through in order…

Sunday, we took the Dodekanisos afternoon boat across to Rhodes. It was fairly busy with a football team coming down from Kalymnos, or Kos, to Rhodes, and day-trippers from Rhodes to Symi, but there were, as always, seats and the journey was quick and comfortable. A short walk from Kolonoa harbour took us to the Lydia Hotel where we were given a decent room. Room 312 in this case, it’s one at the end of a corridor, so you only have one other room next door and not one on either side, and it also has a larger bathroom than many as the shower area extends across the corridor. Er, behind a wall of course; it’s not that kind of a hotel. The price is reasonable and the staff are friendly, the breakfast is a good mix of everything from healthy stuff to cakes, with a hot buffet and a cold one, and it’s very handy for the local shops and things.

On Monday we had to meet our private health insurance agent at 8.15 at Euromedica. This is out of town near Koskinou and you can take a bus, but we didn’t fancy it at that time of day so we called a taxi. It was a beautiful sunny day on Rhodes and our agent, Tsambika, met us dead on the appointed time. We had to be early as my blood tests were to be done in Faliraki so our agent drove us there and we caught up on news and gossip en route. She did all the talking at the medical places we visited and, though I’ve done these things many times before, I didn’t have to worry about a thing: sit there, do that, hold this, thank you and goodbye. And we were whisked back to Euromedica so Neil could have his various check-ups done.

We walked in to the health centre at nine and were out by nine forty-five, again with Tsambika doing all the paperwork negotiations (there were very few) and taking us to the various places. I only had the chance to read half a chapter of The Return of The Native while I waited. Tsambika had set up appointments so Neil was whisked straight in for blood test, cardio and chest and we were on the road to Kanada Street for my next appointment 90 minutes early. But that wasn’t an issue either and, again, Tsambika asked if they could see me early, they could, and 15 minutes later (not even the chance of a paragraph of Thomas Hardy) and I was out in the sunshine with a picture of my perfect chest (internal) in my hand.

The rest of the day was ours and so we opted to walk back to town. Our agent would have driven us, but there was no need, so we said goodbye and agreed I would call her the next day after my cardio appointment. So, after some wandering back through the Old Town where I had a coffee and Neil a very dodgy frappe, we did some shopping and found ourselves completely free from the to-do list by one. So, we headed to Indigo in the Old Fish Market at Mandraki. Now then, here’s a place to go and eat! It’s Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking, each chair or seat has the name of a Greek island painted on it (I sat on Kalymnos, Neil on Tilos), the lampshades are made out of hats, each table has its own quirky teapot for flowers and the food is to die for. Neil had a beef stew with the best risotto either of us had ever tasted, and I had a gorgeous chicken dish. We were treated, by the owners, to a starter of bread and homemade dips, and a sweet of chocolate fridge cake and cream. I can’t find a web page for the bistro but there is a Facebook page.

So, that takes us up to Monday afternoon. There is more catch-up to come and I will set about that tomorrow. The one thing I didn’t do was take photos. Neil might have taken a few but we felt that we were having a whole week off from photographing and writing and so you will have to make do with some images, from Symi, taken in recent days, rather than our ‘holiday snaps.’ Oh, and I just realised, it’s Jack Cat’s birthday today: He’s made it to 14 years old! Will try and get some snaps for you.

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