2013........

,Christmas and the year are almost finished and it's time to think it all over....
It all started off, as usual - in January! It started off well, much better than one year before, with new medicaments really adapted to my problems, and correct treatment in the Neurological department of the Hospital. Of course it had all taken time and much effort, some suffering but finally I was able to come home and stay home for a long period, right up to date, in fact, with few adverse effects.
I continued to bring you update on my various Weblog Sites (you can go into 'Archives' here on this page as well) and I invested in a  'Google Chrome' notebook (finally available in Europe) which turned out to be a very good thing later on in the year.

Gloria Marzocca

I was in touch, with Tina and via 'Google Video Chat', with her mother in the USA, and she seemed to be fine, if tired, so it was with concern that we heard she had been diagnosed with a cancer. 
I suggested to Tina that she went to see her, but she wanted me to accompagny her, and I had need of time to re-arrange hospital appointments and all the rest - make arrangements for all the medicaments I needed for the envisaged 3 month stay arrange finances so we would have enough to live in New York without having the pocket full of $$$$$$$ - dangerous!
My Doctor was very good, and arranged a 3 month supply (with the exception of blood tests that I had to have once a month in the USA) which took up one of my suitcases (!) even writing a letter to the Pharmacy so I could have them free of charge as usual!
Then we had to arrange the flights, the parking of the car at the airport here in Montpellier, our bags (I didn't have a lot of room left anyway) and all the other things it appears one needs.
We finally got away, via Paris, heading for the John F Kennedy Airport at New York., and we were off.
We were over the Atlantic Ocean when, as we found out on our arrival, Tina's mother slipped quietly and peacefully, away. On our arrival, I felt that Steve (Tina's brother) was uneasy, so I asked him.
Of course, this was a shock for Tina, whose Weblog Site you can read here:http://amarzoccaseurope.blogspot.fr/ where there is a touching article about her mother.
I do not propose going into the details further, that is a family thing, but we did have the problem now of filling in 3 months, after the funeral  proceedings and the other things.
Various invitations to us, by Tina's direct family and friends were agreeable distractions, and I could see a little of the area, called 'Floral Park'.........The 'family' home was put on the market, a sad moment for those who had lived over 35 years in it, but then 'la grande bouffe' (the big feast) started...here are some photos......

Joanne,Skip, Tina

Joanne, Skip

   

The hot dogs I liked, and the Diners....in fact, with the 'doggy  bags' they were cheaper and easier than shopping and cooking, so we went to quite a few!

We were fortunate enough to be invited by Steve to 'the races'(a place I'd never been) where We DIDN'T win  but spent an agreeable afternoon watching our horses come in last.

We went a couple of times to Steve and Linda's home, but I didn't have my camera, and we spent a long weekend at Skip and Joanne's place on the end of Long Island. We enjoyed both of these occasions, all mixed up with the well known KFC......

 which I found very tasty....!

I even made it to the famous 'ica crema man' - a coupla timesa....!  

On the same occasion, I received a call from an unexpected source, very welcome - one of my nieces who lives (and was born) in the USA, North Carolina, and who I hadn't seen for at least 20 years. Francesca and I arranged to meet up with her and her friend, me and Tina and we fixed Baltimore as the place, roughly half way between our respective places. Just a weekend, but it was etremely nice....didn't know the 'Mitchell's' had such beautiful offspring!   

  ......We chose a hotel from New York in Baltimore, and I was pleased to be able to talk to the head chef because he was French! I think we got a bit of 'extra'.....

..

The time went past quickly - too quickly, and we were back to New York......

THE SECOND PART - Our return journey - will be coming up shortly!
************
Yes.... our return journey....catastrophic...unbeleivable.....long.....boring......
Starting in JFK where we were greeted with 'there is a technical problem with your flight'....'go do your duty free shopping'........etc......
Well - that's what we did, paid for it by Bank Card, didn't get the goods, they only give you them when you're on, or getting on the plane, and if you're not getting on a plane....hard luck!
10 hours after arriving early, as requested, we noticed we were getting fewer and fewer in the Departure 'lounge', so finally I went to ask 'what's goin' on'- to be told the flight had been cancelled!
'Great' said I,'Don't you think you could/should have told us?'
Answer - 'Oh - didn't we?'

not advised......!

So - we had to go and try to get our luggage back, not easy with British Air, and anyway with the health problems I have, what are we going to do with it until the following day?
Finally, at around 3am, they kindly told us we had a room reserved in some hotel we had to somehow get to, with luggage! We refused, so our luggage stayed in some little dark hole of British Airways until we had fought our way through a hundred Italians in the same situation, all flying to Paris, like us....At least we hoped!
A whole 2 hours of trying to sleep, and then back to the Airport, try to find our luggage then be told we were transferred to Air France from British Air, that we were reserved but had to go and book in to the flight....so - always obedient - off we went!
The whole thing was just getting so ridiculous that we had to laugh, which meant the Air France employees probably didn't take us seriously.......but I was finally so, so glad to finally leave JFK behind us  and fly off into the setting (or was it rising) sun......We had spent, from handing our hired car in, to taking off, around 24 hours, and I am in no hurry to do it again!
We finally landed, not at Paris Orly (as stated) but at Charles de Gaulle Paris at around 10am to be told we were not on the flight list to Montpellier, our baggage wasn't either....! So we spent from 10am to around 6pm in the airport at Paris and had the right to a coupon, giving us the right to a curled up sandwich, almost empty from yesterday......(this in the country of baguettes, fresh and crusty....!) and a luke warm coffee.....Gee Thanks....
We finally took off for Montpellier around 6pm, arrived 7pm after a very scary landing, and we were just so happy to get the hell out of Airport buildings, even if it were without our Duty Free stuff (they finally repaid me about 3 weeks late onto my bank account - this made us lose an awful lot of money of course!)
We passed down to the 'long term parking' area, hoping that after 3 months our car would still be there and would start........SUCCESS.......stopping to pay the paltry sum of 160 euros (around $200) we said goodbye to the airports, for myself, I hope FOR GOOD!
At least the weather was nice, even at 7-8pm balmy and blue sky.....poops to A/C in the airports - even the air smelt better!

Ian-Homme de Provence (Photo credit: iwmpop)