A Flower and Another Phone Call

There I was sitting in Costa Coffee at Holy Corner, drinking my coffee, minding my business and reading J.M. Coetzee's Diary of a Bad Year, not an easy read but worth the effort, slowly of course, its impossible to read him quickly, when Gisela came over and handed me a flower, a lily, and a get well card.

I was so pleased, not to say surprised, to receive that flower, especially as it was the day I'd seen the surgeon and he'd hit me with all his plans for my upkeep. I put it in a vase and it survived for a week, till yesterday in fact.

I've got to know Gisela a little bit over the past few months. She is one of the servers working in the cafe. She is Portuguese, from the Algarve, where her father has a small inshore fishing boat which keeps the family going in these hard times in Portugal. I don't know what he fishes for, must remember to ask her. He has one crew man, his son in law. Must be a nice life being a fisherman in the Algarve.

Gisela has been here for a few months now and lives with her four cousins who have also had to leave Portugal to find work. Thank goodness for Europe I hear you say, we can look after each other, which is so much better than fighting each other. And you're right of course.

So thank you Gisela for helping me forget myself for a bit. You are very kind and thoughtful, Portugal should be proud of you, even though I do say so myself.  You brought a tear to my eye.

I've just had a phone call from my nurse at the hospital. Apparently I've to go in on Monday, for an operation to get me ready for radiotherapy and she gave me date for MRI scan of 3rd July. Doesn't seem to me as all that urgent, so she's going to check to see if it can be brought forward. So happy days...