One Lion

During the course of the night discovered that my lethargy and generally feeling below par was yet again a bout of kidney stones. Seems that my body isn't even bothering to send me the normal signals anymore. Have to say I have been physically less active on the things (chainsaw, tractor driving, strimming, veg plot digging) that shake me up and keep matters in order. So time to get rattling & rolling a bit more and spend less time sitting in front of the notebook and ranting on Blip and Facebook.

Did I hear a "Thank goodness"?

Just a moment - I consider it my duty as a retired, no-good-reputation-to-lose, nor-anything-else-to-lose type and so I can express my opinion for the things I believe are right and fair. Very many are not in the position to do so in these days of extreme commentating and lack of ability to debate openly. Nuff said.

Early morning walk with Luna while Angie sorted out matters and ran errands before we set off to visit her father after lunch. After yesterday's depressing visit, she was not looking forward to it.

We started by dropping off at his house deliberately unannounced and proclaiming to hs wife that we were "borrowing" their car. Neither drive anymore. Had we announced the visit and said we would take her with us to the hospital, she would have got worked up, hence the lack of warning. And that worked perfectly and we left in two cars for the hospital.

Arriving at his bedside, we found him yet again on top form! Better than ever! There followed lots of banter and joking. After over an hour or more, Angie took her step mother home and also collected a portion of gulash which Sepp's daughter-in-law had prepared and on returning she helped Sepp to eat a little which he thoroughly enjoyed even if chewing and swallowing remains a little difficult.

We had the luck that the senior doc (under the leading consultant) mad a visit and we were able to get a full update with the latest results. To cut things short he has a chronic form of leukaemia known as CMML connected to the bone marrow.  He is in the "1" or first stage. No beating about the bush and we still need a bit more competent advice but there is no cure at his age, however good chances of a recovery for a relatively normal but limited time, life - on average 20 months.

Kind of relieved at finally getting a diagnosis, we left after over 3 hours and returned home but in two cars so had no opportunity to discuss it. Later Angie talked it through with her other sister and half-brother decided to cancel the planned ultrasound (with injected contrast medium) of his liver which has an irregular growth on it that the docs want to look at more closely but without "opening" him up. Angie is one of the two appointed "guardians" was asked to sign the OK for the examination and thus was informed of all the risks. The family decision is to wait a while until Sepp is at least on a normal ward and all the still present side effects (incl. continued heartbeat irregularities) are sorted.

I drove the new car home. It isn't as I thought a Mercedes A class but a Peugeot 207 "Urban way". I haven't yet bothered trying to find out what motor, age etc. It drove well and is more than suitable for what we need. A bit thirsty but has the great advantage of being petrol rather than diesel as our cars are, and thus we can at least drive in the inner cities (Munich) that are introducing total diesel bans but for the very newest models.

So Angie will for the moment be driving with an "FFB" numberplate. For those interested, German plates almost always have three blocks:
1st block is of one to three letters denoting city/county car is registered in.
2nd block is one or two random letters
3rd block is a number between 1 and 9999.

The two "round" plaques between block 1 and 2 show at the top in colour the date when the MOT (every 2-year TÜV safety Inspection) runs out and below the German State (16) flag with the city/county name.

So in this case, if you see FFB and want to know more you can look at the flag plaque and see it means "Fürstenfeldbruck". Germans living outside the county will tell you FFB means "Fahrer fährt blöd" or Driver drives badly! The locals though say it means Fürsten, Freiherren und Baronen or  Princes, Barons and Barons (Freiherr and Baron are two different words for the same title)

My Blip friend Nogbad will possibly see this entry and if so will with 100% certainty comment on the plates for cars registered in the Bavarian county of Ebersberg. Here is a list of some of the alternative names of German plates - I have in my time had FFB, OAL (nasty one) and now MN for which nobody has yet entered one. Suggestions on a postcard.

I have described it before and will probably do so again but in short German plates are not permanent for a vehicle and are more directed at the owner. While the law is being relaxed, if we bought the Peugeot, we would get a new number and if we wanted a "wish" one. The city/council block is fixed but if available you can choose the rest and it costs about €20 more. Many choose their initials and birth year in my case it would then be something like MN-GG-1954 or MN-GO-54. Currently, we have five sets of registered plates MN-GO and then 10-14. "GO" is used by Porsche on its works cars eg "S-GO-1234". We are all allowed to dream!