The day improves as it goes. Starts with dental appointments as we each have a filling in need of repair. There are half a dozen old National Geographics in the waiting room which we're slowly working our way through in the years we've been going to Xenia. J has a bridge covering a break of some kind, so we're sent off to get a panoramic x-ray - at a lab around the corner. Done on the spot for 45 euros ($60, £39). Oddly, the receptionist says "Fifty euros - you pay forty-five."Not sure whether this price reduction is for cash or because they don't have to bill. Presumably not the Thailand custom of "special price for you" on everything.
After coffee and a stop at the bakery for rye bread we walk into the Sunflower just as Maggi is about to leave and are invited to her flat for lunch - "we'll see what's in the fridge." What's in the fridge proves delicious, including a vegetable mix of kohlrabi and a wild green gathered by the next door neighbours and tasting a little like asparagus. All with a bottle of Merlot. So lovely leisurely all-afternoon lunch on the west balcony more than makes up for beginning the day at the dentist.
Spend most of the evening (successfully) getting rid of a bit of malware that had lodged itself on the netbook. After which a visit to Facebook shows the photos Klaus has taken of our house and truck under heaps of snow. Not time to go home yet. And is it time to go to London? Late night radio brings telephone interviews with people who are stuck in their cars on the motorway between London and Brighton and have been for the last seven hours, unable even to sleep as every once in a while there's a tiny bit of movement, as snow covers the south of England.
After coffee and a stop at the bakery for rye bread we walk into the Sunflower just as Maggi is about to leave and are invited to her flat for lunch - "we'll see what's in the fridge." What's in the fridge proves delicious, including a vegetable mix of kohlrabi and a wild green gathered by the next door neighbours and tasting a little like asparagus. All with a bottle of Merlot. So lovely leisurely all-afternoon lunch on the west balcony more than makes up for beginning the day at the dentist.
Spend most of the evening (successfully) getting rid of a bit of malware that had lodged itself on the netbook. After which a visit to Facebook shows the photos Klaus has taken of our house and truck under heaps of snow. Not time to go home yet. And is it time to go to London? Late night radio brings telephone interviews with people who are stuck in their cars on the motorway between London and Brighton and have been for the last seven hours, unable even to sleep as every once in a while there's a tiny bit of movement, as snow covers the south of England.