What's New? A Knee and more!

The new home of  exercise and occasional agony!

December started with a couple of weeks of serious recuperation for Ruth after the operation, centred on two sessions of physiotherapy per week at the newly re-located Brisamar. "Not before time!"some might say as the old place had been crowded, dingy and seriously compromised by the works going on around it to knock down an old apartment complex, set of locales and bar, and construct a hotel in the Barcelo group. It is now opposite the Campanario Shopping Centre, and a more expensive taxi-ride away from home, but worth it! Treatment is now in the hands of Maria-Jose, who raves about the progress, but in the third week started a manipulation of total agony which meant afternoons of complete rest and a lot of analgesia! Just before Christmas a session morphed into a "fiesta" with goodies the punters had brought in.

Notwithstanding the lack of mobility Greyrocks felt driven to organise a slightly delayed party for Bob - along the lines of that held in April as an early one! Jules and Clare at The Blue Rock were given the buffet budget, Eileen produced a decorated cake and Dave and Pete played all afternoon. Apparently a few stray Italians got a share of the spoils also, but it was a huge success and - as before - Facebook users can see more of the pics on the Blue Rock page.

The weather was glorious, and it remained so for a few days more, but we are now in the midst of some strange easterly and very forceful wind which will be with us for several more days. It gave the coldest Christmas Day in the 25 that Greyrocks has now experienced on the island.

As the festive season loomed Greyrocks took delivery of a new dishwasher to replace the original which had been dying for several years and now leaked. Every effort was made to ensure it would fit the tight space, but it was 1 cm too tall and thus it sat for a week in the middle of the kitchen like an over-staying guest until clever adjustments were made by our janitor the day before Chloë  would arrive.

Both  she and  fiancé  Jack were with us for about a week , and were pretty disappointed with the weather, but pleased to be with us. Jack's decision to come was last-minute and involved landing after 7 pm on Christmas Eve, getting the economy shuttle bus and turning up for our feast around 9 pm. The crab, prawns. goose, duck, multiple veg., cheese and profiteroles went down very well. Next morning with our Bucks Fizz and smoked salmon we played Cards Against Humanity - a new one on Greyrocks - and then used the wheelchair to go to the Rock as ever! On the way back later that afternoon a wheel was caught in drain cover and Ruth fell to the ground - onto both titanium knees!  A bit of a setback in the recovery process!

The youngsters stayed with us until today and don't seem to have minded the minimal seasonality of a Greyrocks Yule (cuisine excepted).