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.
