Tuesday 28 January 2014

Time does fly...

Time does fly..... when you are doing nothing, in my case.

I last wrote to you properly on Christmas Day, which speaks volumes about my festivities.  

The LEG (as it has now become) carried on being a pain - no pun intended.  The next lot of antibiotics gave me an incredible rash all over (literally!)  As someone said I looked as though I'd been pebble-dashed.  It did do me a favour though as this time I got to see someone who was appalled by all the antibiotics and said they needed to find out the underlying cause of the problem - so off for an MRI.  Unlike in the UK, even though this is a walk-in clinic it all gets done same day - admittedly we spent six hours there but I was done and dusted and an appointment booked with a surgeon before I left.

A week later we were off to see the surgeon.  He basically said surgery was an option but it might not speedup the healing process all that much.  He tactfully said I was old and healing takes time.  He left the choice to me- have it done which then gives you the residual initial problem plus a gash (his word not mine) in the leg which also needs to heal or I could leave well alone and let it takes the months (!) it needs to get better.  I put it back to him and said I'd go with his best judgement - quote:  if it was me I wouldn't have it done.

The plus side is we are not bankrupted by paying up front for any more medical stuff until the insurance coughs up.  $1,487.74 so far.  When you pay something like $125 for one lot of antibiotics it racks up pretty quickly.  The down side the LEG remains a LEG.

December bucked up immediately after Christmas with a visit from my daughter and her chap.   We all had a lovely time together and had fun showing Naples to a first-timer.  Whenever we have visitors we never seem to cover all we have planned.  They will insist that holidays are for R & R, whereas in my tender care there is a huge checklist to be got through.  They were kind enough to co-operate and let me tick off things like.......... 

Swift visit to the beach - they had some mixed weather - look at the breakers!

We did the concert in the park, some art on Fifth, a boat trip, a zillion eateries including a diner and a New Year's Eve dinner on 5th, endless ice cream, shopping and 



A trip to a 'neighborhood' where they do their Christmas lights in a big way.

They had a mini break in the middle of their stay and hired an open top to bomb down to a luxury resort on the Keys.  Back to the old folk and we finished with a lovely meal in one of our favourite spots - Bonefish restaurant and soaked up a Florida sunset. (before getting the 'last' ice cream from Regina's)


In a blink of an eye they were gone and we were back to ourselves for company.

On the weekend of 18th/19th January Ken and I were in Sarasota for what is fast becoming our regular Molly Cromwell doll's house show.  This is my third year of going to Sarasota and it is just as much fun.  As with all things mini related you need to chase up that weekend in my other blogs if you are interested.

Since then I have been trying to do writing and resting (the LEG) in an attempt to get ahead of the game before our next visitors arrive.  We have friends staying for February so much to do ..... can't sit here doing this ...............





Thursday 16 January 2014

Bit of Miniatures sneaking in

I make no apologies for letting a bit of my mini madness sneak into the Clavering Blog.  I defy you not to like these wonderful window displays at Tiffany's here in Naples this year.

Click on each photo to get a look at just how lovely they are.





There were several more, but you get the idea.  Simply beautiful.  They look to be 1/12th scale so even sweeter.  Imagine one of those in your own window at Christmas - how utterly gorgeous.

I thought I might get an article out of it so I tried to get to speak to someone about how they are made, what happens to them after Christmas etc etc but got the usual - write to head office - they suggested write to local store - write to local store - they suggested I write to head office - all of them VERY Tiffany nice (Remember how kind they were to Audrey Hepburn!) but not fussed enough to pursue it.

Meanwhile just enjoy.