Suddenly, Nothing happened.

OK. I would have to admit that had I not actually been there to witness it, I could be forgiven for thinking yesterday did not actually happen at all. I vaguely remember eating some cornflakes, perhaps watching some Internet TV.. but other than that I think the pair of us slept our way through a wet and cold Sunday with very little to show for it other than perhaps the stubble on my chin and the feeling of being a day older than I was on Saturday.
It certainly didn't warrant a posting, and I almost feel that it didn't deserve the paragraph I've written in order to explain it. But it's done now. You now know that suddenly, from out of no-where, nothing happened!

Today however is a different story. I'll skip the cornflakes to save time... Oh.. but wait, there were no cornflakes this morning so I need to share...
We arrived downstairs at the restaurant to find no one there and just a smattering of bread and cheese was laid out for the guests. No crunchy Muesli, no serving bowl of cornflakes, no milk, no juice. I returned to my seat and waited with my arms crossed and a pout a three year would be proud of. Sarah returned with her usual plate of cheeses, breads and cold meats and sat down. "I'm sure they will come soon" said Sarah, in a tone meant to re-assure. "I can't wait to return to the Klinik so I can get some decent food" I said sulkily. We both immediately burst into laughter at the irony of the statement. They say you can get used to anything given enough time. But why does it have to be me that proves that to be true!?

Our laughing attracted the attention of Alexander's mother in the kitchen and she came out to greet us at our table. She explained that she was looking after the breakfast this morning and that she had not put all the usual items out as there were not many guests on a Monday morning. After a little Genglish was exchanged, I managed to secure an even tinier bowl of cornflakes than was the usual fare, but cornflakes they were, and I was happy to have them. :)

Once back in our room we were startled by the sudden ringing of my cellphone. (Only the third time in four weeks) It was Christine from the Klinik, she spoke, then I replied.. then she repeated what she said, and then I repeated what I said, then she said it was Christine from the Klinik all over again. Separated by a distance of just 400 meters, our conversation was being bounced around the world via satellite and the delay was such that we were unable hold a conversation without one person cutting the other off. Comical to say the least.
Finally one of us stopped talking long enough for the other to be heard, and she asked that I drop into the Klinik today for another blood test.

We had planned to drop by the klinik today anyway as we needed to book a taxi to the airport tomorrow afternoon for Sarah. Would you believe that a cab to Munich Airport is 130Euro!! That's about 1/5th of the cost of flying home to New Zealand! No wonder the cabbies all drive Mercedes!! ;)
Upon arrival at the klinik we were greeted by Dr Drasynski, back from his three week holiday. This is a good thing because he speaks English a lot better than Dr K.
Nurse Natalie led us into the room where the tests are done. Sarah and I both took seats in the special blood test chairs. There is a pair of them and they are placed on a raised section of floor, maybe a foot higher than the rest of the room. Natalie once again found a vein, with some difficulty I might add, and extracted yet another vial of my blood. From there she placed it into the machine situated on a counter next to us.

This machine really is quite something special. I call it the Espresso machine, it makes all the same sounds as an espresso coffee machine and doesn't look all that different either. She places the vials in a holder and the machine does all the rest. It whirs, it gurgles, it hisses and belches and when it's done it spits out a printout. All this takes about a minute. In that time it has analysed my blood, counted a few million platelets, red cells, white cells and whatever else it chooses before giving it's verdict. What an amazing piece of machinery! The lucky lotto numbers for today are.. WBC 4.7 and platelets 66. Up over Friday's numbers but maybe not good enough for chemo. We need to see some significant gains in the platelets before Saturday if we are going to be on schedule. Maybe tomorrow I will get that Neumega..

I've been told I need to stay tomorrow night at the klinik just in case I develop a fever from the bird virus. I really don't want to stay. I shall do my best to get out of it. Personally I'd be a lot happier if I was miserable in a $90 a night room than a $2500 one. (Hey, if anyone can find happiness within misery, it would have to be me!)

While the Espresso machine was doing it's thing, Sarah and I sat in the blood test chairs nattering away to each other like school children on a field trip. Christine came into the room and engaged Natalie in conversation, distracting her attention away from us. We both sat there above them with our arms positioned on the rotating armrests, looking like we were ready for launch. I said to Sarah that we looked like a pair of "Joe 90's" and we had a wee chuckle at that as we went through the antics of pretending to operate our imaginary controls.. Christine who is English and would have known who we were talking about, looked up at us and smirked, shaking her head slightly. We giggled some more. You find your fun where you can, is what I say :)

We have not decided what we shall do for dinner tonight. We want to do something special since it's our last night together before Sarah flys out tomorrow evening. On Saturday we had dinner at an Italian restaurant, not far from here. The story of how we managed to find it probably warrants a blog all by itself.. Suffice to say that we had to do a grid search of all the surrounding streets before finally locating it at the end of an alleyway a stones throw from here. Once at the Italian restaurant, for some totally inexplicable reason, we both ordered Bavarian meals, schnitzel for me and stuffed turkey breast for Sarah. I tell you, my theory about them putting something in the food is starting to gain credibility. Maybe tonight we shall go there again and try to resist.. perhaps if we rush in and just blurt out "Rigatoni and Pizza please" as we get to the door, we shall have more success.

Day passes into evening: We went to 'Il Tegamino' for dinner. I had the Tegamino Pizza and Sarah had 'Sphagetti wit Skampi'. We are getting really good at reading menus now. Most ingredients you can easily work out what the english versions are. ie Spinat is spinach and rocola is rocket. However some are not so obvious. Ham for instance is called 'Schinken' which obviously sounds a lot like Chicken, however a chicken is actually called a 'huhn' which sounds a bit like ham, but when you think about it is actually closer to 'Hen'. I have yet to see any chicken on any menu, they just don't seem to eat it. Instead preferring Turkey. It was a nice evening out, followed up by a long soak in the bath.. I'd better finish up.. We have just enough time for a movie before hitting the hay.