36. 49’ 05N  28.18’32E

Finally back in Turkey and getting ready to set sail but first a quick look at life over the Winter.

We Skyped Jane at the first opportunity and she ‘examined’ Mike’s shoulder via a wobbly video camera picture. ‘Come home’ and ‘surgery’ were mentioned so we did both.  Once again friends and acquaintances rallied round and within a few days we had set up appointments for Mike, arranged for someone to take care of Tashi Delek and do some work over the Winter, had somewhere to park the truck in Oxford and everything in place.  There are so many people to thank that the blog would turn into a long list of names which is best avoided but we are very grateful for everything that was done to help us and really appreciate that we were, and are, extremely fortunate to have such friends.

Very briefly, Mike was operated on in Oxford where we stayed for a couple of months, meaning that Mike’s physio was closely supervised by Jane which meant that, for the first time ever, Mike did exactly as he was told rather than far too much as he usually does.  He really put in the time and effort for a long time after that and consequently made a superb recovery which means he can do everything he needs to on the boat.  Phew.

Once life settled down the inactivity drove Carol a little crazy and the only answer was a job.  Again, with the help of friends, she quickly found one working with former Nuffield colleagues in their new healthcare business based in Harley Street.  Slightly surprised to be heading for London we lived in the truck, alternating between the caravan sites at Crystal Palace and Abbey Wood (lovely sites, not so sure about the locations!) with time in between at Chelsea Royal Hospital staying with Laura and Bill, (lovely everything including location). 

At the beginning of all this we kept telling ourselves that there had to be a silver lining and we found it.  Carol was very happy working with a small, talented and enterprising team having spent her working life up to that point in large institutions and we both enjoyed living in London for a while.  Mike was probably happiest alone and unsupervised with the credit card at the Boat Show for three days.

Enough text here are a few pictures.......

Nearly back at Marmaris and not sure what will happen next.

 Note the cunningly adapted sling using a piece of torn blue sheet.

A tad apprehensive before the first physio session after surgery.

An unexpected bonus of staying in Oxford was gathering old friends

 together.  We all started our nurse training together over thirty years

 ago and have stayed in contact ever since.

Another silver lining was the chance to visit Will, Annie and the boys in Ottowa

and meet Isla for the first time.  Due to the extreme cold this was all that could

ever be seen of her unless we were indoors.

And another that we were able to go to the South of France for a

week to see Ben and Suzy, Jemma and Kevin.  Grandchildren happy

to give Mike the opportunity to attend to his duties as a trampoline.

All for now.  Still a lot to do before we set sail but will try to send another dispatch while we have the marina wifi connection.