Well we've reached the end of a difficult four month stay at Puntas DC and its time to relocate a bit further north at friends' Casa Rudo
Quite hard really to leave as its 'our kind of place' but will return later in the year hopefully to pick up from where we got cut short
With room to spare as we negotiate Rudy's front entrance Tasca sets up shop for the next three months, front and well almost, centre...
More room than we thought actually
Our Chums are fussy and soon G & Ts spring forth
Our first of sure to be many meals cooked for us by the talented Dorine
Don't be fooled, the pool temp is still only 19 degs but rising slowly
The local quiet streets become Nina's training ground and we organise local private physiotherapy after another visit to the hospital in Cartagena
Nina has a go at 'Kaiserschmarm'
A group meal midweek sees Dorine in full hostess flow
My personal favourite, sausage paella..
Pierre & Liesbeth come one day and Liesbeth gives us both a very nice massage, this followed by a Tapas meal given for the six of us
Nina progresses at long last to doing 100m stints on crutches followed by some rapid wheelchair pushing by me which sees us visiting nearby La Hoya three times a week at lunchtime
Tostada y tomate y queso (and the best we've had so far)
A quiet little Panaderia tucked down a side street but we found it!
'The Grill House' gets a visit by the four of us one evening and of course those T bones get sampled by the boys
A very pleasant weekend was spent in the company of old friend Simon and his partner Mandy
Really nice to hook up with these guys and have a Tapa/Paella day at the RV (me as chef) and then an afternoon spent strolling the promenades at Santa Pola and taking in a Menu Del Dia
Local markets are what these girls do but the proviso is the boys get to sit down with a beverage half way to ease the pain of shopping
A Brit cafe that you may perhaps avoid in the local Urbanisation as there's so many of them tbh turns out to be first class with friendly staff and super breakfasts
We are in to twice weekly physio visits now usually later in the day at Elche so what better way to start the day than take the hire car here in the morning
We take to parking about a half hour's walk away out of the city and stroll in via the palm park on physio days taking in the green glades and making use of available shadow now as temps are rising fast
A small detour on the route back sees us finding a watering hole that serves Leffe Brune on draught...Bingo! (Take note Pat)
Raul, our 'handsome' physio, has all manner of tekky stuff to bring Nina's leg back to life including electric needles...
Loud buzzing electro thingies that make her leg jump about and..
sheer charm and encouragement (he was bending her leg back at the time and she was in pain apparently)
Oh look, more pain relief
I bet if roles were reversed 'Helga' wouldn't be making me smile
Lets call it fringe benefits Nina
You deserve them for sure!
At time of posting Nina is progressing well and in the two weeks we've been visiting the clinic Raul has seen her very hard scar tissue soften up considerably after his work
Twice daily I give her knee and scars a good massage with different oils which helps and we are actually seeing progress we think
Her leg is more supple and looks more healthy too
A visit to the surgeon again on 23 May is eagerly anticipated as we want her to advise putting more weight on her leg
This will give Raul more room to work with and hopefully a 'step' nearer walking
