Thursday ; Overcast, intermittent light rain, +6° C.
Day 3 of a cold. Not doing well ! Slept late. Started slow. Remained slow throughout the day.
At 1 PM we left for an appointment to view a one bedroom suite at Robin Hood Inn, a motel with suites, in the Gorge / Tillicum area of Victoria, not downtown but relatively easy to get to downtown from. They have winter long term stay rates, and I wanted to check them out for comparison. Despite an inferior location to where we are now, they have nice suites at an attractive price. Well … relatively speaking. All of Victoria’s all suites hotels (and motels) are an expensive proposition.
We arrived at Robin Hood Inn early, so we drove around the neighbourhood checking it out. We stopped at the nearest small shopping centre to buy a few items at Dollarama, buy me some more cold medications at Shoppers Drug Mart, and refill our water jug at Fairway Market before our tour at Robin Hood Inn.
After viewing the suite we drove back to downtown and parked in the Bay Centre’s indoor parkade. We walked through the Bay Centre, then a block to where I wanted to have a very late lunch. Good Ovening is a Korean Chicken restaurant. Chicken was great, service was poor, they closed for their “afternoon break” at 3 PM, about twenty minutes after our arrival, and about five minutes after our food arrived at our table. At 3 PM Junwoo locked the entrance door, turned off the “open” sign on the door, then stood at her hostess station with her arms folded across her chest, looking annoyed that we were still there. We each ate a bit of chicken … it was excellent … then took the rest with us in a “to go” container. No tip for Junwoo !
< 9:30 PM ; coughing … expelling phlegm> … OW … that hurt !
Friday ; Overcast, rain the morning, +6° C.
Day 4 of a cold. Worst day so far ! Hope I’ve reached bottom and things begin to improve soon.
I keep thinking that getting outside will be helpful to my health, so I joined Joanne and Apollo on the noon walk and the supper time walk. <sigh> I was wrong ! Both times going out for a walk just made me feel more sick.
Using that same convoluted and delusional wishful thinking I pushed forward with our plans to attend a public tour of B.C.’s Parliament Building this afternoon at 3 PM. The tour lasted about 45 minutes, and while it was very interesting, I was feeling really ill by the end of it !
This afternoon Joanne did more planning of outings that interest her. And … she changed her mind about what she wants as a birthday gift. Almost a year ago she told me that for her birthday this year she wants to experience High Tea at The Empress, a classic Victoria tourist experience for over a century. I experienced High Tea at The Empress on a business trip to Victoria circa 1982.
She now wants to visit Butchart Gardens in March, shortly before we leave Vancouver Island to return to Manitoba, and she wants that visit to include High Tea at the Butchart Gardens. <shrug> OK by me ! Whatever my princess wants, she can have ! HA HA HA ! Tomorrow I’ll cancel our High Tea at The Empress reservations that I made last spring.
Saturday ; Dark overcast, raining all morning, intermittently in the afternoon, +8° C.
We left our suite this morning at 11:30 AM heading to a noon appointment at Oak Bay Shoe & Custom Orthotics in the very tony neighbourhood of Oak Bay. Average home price about 1.2 million dollars ! This specialty business is owned and operated by an elderly Asian husband and wife. He is a true craftsman, with over 40 years of experience solving people’s feet problems with specialty shoes and custom orthotics that he fabricates / manufactures. His wife stands behind the counter and scowls, and accepts payments. HA HA HA ! “PAY THE LADY !”
He carefully and thoroughly examined Joanne’s feet, particularly the one with Achilles tendonitis. He carefully and thoroughly assessed the “over the counter” orthotic insoles she currently uses, paying special attention to the wear imprinting on them. He assessed her gait visually as she walked barefoot around his shop. He recommended hand made custom orthotics for her. He guarantees that his orthotics will solve his customers’ foot problems, or money refunded. He is the only custom orthotics maker in Canada offering that money back guarantee, valid for six months after purchase.
SOLD ! <choke> HOW MUCH ? ? ? ! ! ! <blink blink> YIKES ! ! !
He took a “cast” of Joanne’s feet, in some kind of foam. He took measurements of her feet. The hand made, custom orthotic insoles will be ready in two weeks. At that time Joanne and he will further discuss shoe selections.
In the slightly oddly laid out (read that as “snooty”) shopping area that his shop is located in there was also a Fairway Market supermarket, so we went in and bought a few advertised grocery items. Joanne wanted to go to a sushi restaurant nearby for lunch but ; 1. She doesn’t like sushi, she wanted to go there for my benefit and 2. I was feeling really ill by then. I just wanted to go home and have soup.
On the way home we took a detour to view Beacon Hill Park, a surprisingly large nature park on the edge of downtown, sort of between James Bay and Oak Bay. We stopped there to take Apollo for his late morning / early afternoon walk. It was a slow and slightly short walk because ; 1. I was ill and 2. it began to rain again.
After a large bowl of cream of celery soup … some of which I spilled into my lap, eating it while sitting on the sofa, watching TV … I had a long nap with Apollo. That didn’t really have the desired effect of making me feel healthier. <sigh> <shrug>
After our late walk at 6 PM … I think NOW I’ve reached bottom. My intestines exploded ! And I felt REALLY sick for a couple of hours. That’s not uncommon for me. I have inflammatory bowel disease / ulcerative colitis. I take a lot of medications every day for ulcerative colitis, and coronary artery disease. Add in five days of a lot of cold medications, and eventually my digestive system can’t cope any more / metabolize all those drugs through and out of my system. For the next few days I will have to cease all medications except those that are absolutely essential. That’s likely going to mean a reduced amount of cold medications for awhile, and none of my “regular” medications for a few days. Wish me luck ! Hope my heart doesn’t explode !
In the evening I streamed / we watched the movie Vagrant on CBC Gem. Well … shit … didn’t see that coming !
<blink blink> Did I just read that right (at 11 PM) ? ! ? Dugald, Manitoba is currently -29° C with a wind chill of -38° C ? ! ?
Keep the +8° C and occasional light drizzle coming, Victoria. I can take it ! ! ! HA HA HA !
Sunday ; Overcast, +8° C.
Well … I don’t think that I would classify how I am healthwise as “better”, but … perhaps marginally less sick. I have discontinued all medications temporarily, and tried to have a very slow, lazy day today to help me recuperate.
I walked the dog upon awakening this morning. We both walked him again around noon. He and I slept this afternoon while Joanne walked to James Bay Thrifty Foods to buy some groceries. I puttered around with year end financial records keeping and analysis.
Monday ; Sunny, chilly wind in the morning, +8° C.
Day 7 of my cold. Yes, yes … I am feeling quite a bit better !
While we were still in the planning stages of this trip, back home in Dugald, Joanne became interested in having lunch in the Parliamentary Dining Room at the BC Legislature. Today was the day ! We left our suite at 1:15 PM and were at the Parliamentary Dining Room security entrance at 1:20 PM, for our 1:30 PM lunch reservation. After clearing security we followed the green line on the walls of the “tunnels” of the Legislature Building to the Parliamentary Dining Room. Upon entering, the first person we saw, sitting alone having lunch, reading a document, was Keith Baldry, a well known local political journalist.
A hostess guided us to one of the smaller rooms of the dining room, with only three small tables in it, windows high on the wall looking out to our hotel, much historical art on the walls, linen tablecloths and napkins on the tables … very elegant. Service was superb, food was even better than that ! A truly world class dining experience, better than most of the finest restaurants in Canada, the United States, and around the world that we have dined at. And … <sputter> … at quite modest prices. HMPH … must be BC taxpayer subsidized. HA HA HA HA HA !
As we were finishing our lovely and substantial meal, our server brought a large wooden tray with today’s dessert choices arranged to the table adjacent to us where two women were seated, one treating the other on her birthday. I stared at the tray of exquisite desserts as the server explained them to the two women, blinking and salivating, trying to stop my trembling hand from reaching out and grabbing one off the wooden tray. HA HA HA ! As the server was leaving with the tray I had to restrain myself from tackling her from behind ! HA HA HA <SNORT> HA HA !
Yes, yes … despite how filling our meals were, I ordered the key lime pie. Joanne told the server we would share it. Yeah … NO … not ****ing likely ! Keep your hands off my key lime pie, b****h ! ! ! HA HA HA … she had a piece of the chocolate torte all to herself !
Joanne was aghast that I nibbled away at the mint leaf garnishing my key lime pie with each bite of the pie. What ? ! ? You thought it was there just for decoration ? ? ? <ROFLMAO>
We arrived back at our suite at 3 PM just as workmen were entering our wing of the hotel to test the fire alarms and check the fire extinguishers in each suite. Good timing. We were there just in time to take Apollo out of our suite while they did their jobs.
As the day wore on, Joanne seemed to “inherit” my cold.
Tuesday ; Cloudy, no wind, +6° C.
GOOD NEWS ; On Day 8 of my cold I am feeling much better !
BAD NEWS ; Today seems to be day 2 of a cold for Joanne. <sigh> Sorry, dear.
And this cold virus is on top of her already chronic mystery respiratory ailment. She thinks it’s long covid. I think it’s COPD. It started about 10 months ago in Mexico. And she has been seeing doctors and undergoing tests from last April upon our return from Mexico until our departure for here last November. It remains undiagnosed. And therefore untreated ! The doctor visits and tests will continue immediately upon our return home in April.
So … today was another very lazy day, mostly to accommodate Joanne being ill.
I walked Apollo upon awakening. We both walked him around noon. The outing I had planned for today was postponed. I walked Apollo again by myself at 6 PM. Joanne napped a lot. Didn’t seem to help much. HMPH … been there, done that !
In the evening we started watching the movie Shakespeare In Love. We gave up watching it after about ten minutes. Plan B was American Pie, a movie we had not seen before. <shrug> We selected it because we’re fans of Eugene Levy.
When I took Apollo for his last walk of the day at 10:30 PM it was raining heavily. DARN ! Should have noticed that before we got outside !
Wednesday ; Cloudy, no wind, +6° C.
<sigh> Today was another long day of doing a lot of nothing, due to Joanne being very ill.
DSK
No comments:
Post a Comment