I (really, really, really) hope normal service will be resumed soon
... The plan for this week, commencing sept 10th, was a trip to Cordoba about 500 miles from Buenos Aires, where the flatlands end and more interesting terrain emerges. As the lovely F has exams looming, she would forego the pleasure of my company to stop home and revise, while Prawn and I head for the twisties for a couple or three days
etc.
... Triffic idea, thought I'd get an earlyish start on Monday and hit the road at the crack of ... ooh ... about 0930.
... Everything was going absolutely swimmingly until about 0545 on Monday morning when I was woken with a pain in my chest like I'd been trodden on by a baby elephant and my arms were aching and lacking even enough strength to lift a morning cuppa
... Normally calm morning demeanour considerably ruffled, morning glory considerably less glorious than normal, and after a considerable
by 0600 I'd managed (with much assistance from F) to get into a pair of jeans, get a T-shirt on and get into a taxi ... destination Hospital Aleman. (It's quicker, cheaper and more reliable than getting an ambulance, which will eventually take you to a hospital of their choice, rather than yours, for a commission. Also only having about 20pesos in cash I knew Hosp Aleman would take Amex and I know it to be well equipped following April's deafening kiss incident.)
... First question - "Are you having a heart attack?"
... Smart answer - "No I'd be dead by now!"
... Smarter question - "How would you know that then?"
... Tetchy answer - "Shuduppayaface!"
... Anyway to cut to the chase, I have just been discharged (not a term I use lightly in a medical context!) from the aforementioned teutonic health spa after a three day all inclusive RnR mini-break. The lovely F captured the scene for posterity, on day two, on her camera-phone.
... For those with a medical bent I was in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, they had just removed the nitro-glycerine drip (WTF they needed to pipe that into me for I have no idea, but sure as hell I wasn't arguing ... or smoking!), leaving me on plain dextrose solution complete with heart monitor, breathing monitor, blood pressure monitor, a machine that goes 'ping' and a box full of drugs that even Keith Richards would have to double-take at.
... Bottom-line, scarring (fibrosis) in the heart had caused me a major Angina incident and I've most certainly had a few previous incidents in the past which I will have passed off as wind, indigestion, exceptionally wicked skunk etc. Next stage is the full blown heart attack
(Apparently this is like being trodden on by a full grown adult African elephant, rather than a mere babe!)
... I can only express gratitude for the
as the quacks have informed me I was getting far too close to
for comfort and the usual Bede resistance to anything conventionally prescribed was not helpful in the interests of my long term survival
... They wanted to move me to a 'normal' Cardiac ward today and keep me in until Saturday. I declined on the basis that I wasn't getting any sleep, was finding the food inedible and hence not eating. Besides I reckon I'll be happier and healthier watching the Rugby in the p&q of the apartment. I have to swallow my pride and follow a prescribed course of drug treatment
.
... Obviously promises have been made to return PDQ to the ICU at the merest hint of a twinge. I have a check-up scheduled for next week and I'm banned from the Prawn for 48 hours until I know the drug course won't leave me wobbly or otherwise incapacitated (not that you'd notice given local driving standards!)
... Such is life and I'm stuck with this for the rest of mine. But, believe it or not, I'm not desperately unhappy. On Wednesday evening they bought a lad called Felipe into the ICU, ashen grey, all the pipes and cables attached, several machines all going 'ping' and an oxygen mask. According to my nurse (the luscious Lilli) he's only got a few weeks if he doesn't find a new heart and the cash to have it installed - 22 years old!
... Enjoy it while you can people!
... Normal service will be resumed ASAP.
)
It's so flat makes the Fens, or even the flatter bits of Holland seem interesting 
. At least with the Fens, or Holland, you're through them quicker than you can shake the last drip off yer ol' chap, however the 'pampas' that surround BsAs are pan flat for about 500Kms in all landward directions.
