OK, I KNOW I SAID I NEEDED A BREAK BUT.......

.......oh and a heartfelt plea......please email about any old shit so I don't go mad with boredom......I will reply with my usual wit and waggishness, and as always, more than a touch of grace and dignity......

.....emailed this to Steve S the other night (as you can tell, he arranged my insurance for me, bless him!!!!)

Hello there, thats better......I likes to be bold....well, anyway, remember that insurance policy, well I just might have some work for it!! No, not a tennis elbowing accident neither.
Tuesday I fell over on slimey pavement after much rain and avoiding of road lagoons as I call them and busted my thin leg bone above the ankle....I'm now wearing one of Shorns boots....i asked for another but they would only give me one.....foreigners. No idea about style. Can't even spell an English word like chic.
I guess insurance-wise it is connected to the diabetes as I was nipping out to buy bread, but beyond that not! Day before I walked 6 km's in pissing rain on main road amidst similar stuff and worse....just an unlucky or misjudged moment I guess.
Any road up, I'm being looked after amazingly......hospital had me x-rayed, and plastered in 60 minutes from arrival.....free hospital in 3rd world country....amazing....then Maria my host thought I should see orthopedic surgeon so went to private clinic....he x-rayed again with joint under pressure.....ouch.....said normally it would take surgery, but as ligament still attached and break still aligned, and also due to problems healing with diabetes, he would put me in Das Boot and see how I get on. Back to see him again Monday. As long as I keep weight off it (what weight), should heal ok.
Maria does me with boot off with anti-inflam. spray and ice pack 3 times a day plus other meds. She and Fabino spent whole day sorting me in hosp and clinic and shit then moved me into bigger house next door where it'll be easier to cope on one leggyweg. Bless them ...no really!
Oh the fun!!!! Didn't think my holiday photos would be x-rays!!
Costs so far are minimal.....hospital free if a bit basic! Clinic about 60 quid, not sure if that includes follow up ornot, and of course there might be further treatment. Meds about 20 quid so far. I have or will ahve reciepts. If covered super, if not....almost super.
........Not in any urgency at all for the cash if any....still barely managed to spend anything here. When I checked a few days ago I was running at 50 quid a week over accomodation costs. And thats trying to be extravagant.....chipping in for restaurants and getting pissed and buying cds and shopping for prawns and steak and whole cheeses and slabsof beer and all sorts. It's just so cheap here! They have amazing por kilo restaurants where you help yourself to a massive buffet including a live barbecue, then they weigh your plate and you pay por kilo.......usually about £1 to £1.50 for about half a kilo.......yumyum. Most of it in this area is quite recognizable.....from individual veg pots/rice/ beans/pasta to meats and fish to lasagne and canneloni, getting hungry now. (Just eaten)

..........On more interesting fronts, I think tennis club deal is ok.....the guy is coming over tomorrow and with Maria's help this time, we will progress the deal, but with the price to be negotiated by Uli later on. It's possible I can get the two bits for 5 or 10 grand (local currency!!) less than the 80 it was originally offered as one lump for ..........the remains of the courts and the building were offered together for 80,000 reais, thats UK 20 grand.....then the owner sold off the courts to a mate, so now I have to do two transactions to get the whole thing....unfortunately my previous completely unprepared for negotiation consisted of me trying to establish that I didn't intend to pay more than 80 for the two, but unfortunately I thought I was talking to the courts owner and I wasn't, it was the house owner, who had permission to negotiate for both bits, aaaaargh confused, you will be....this is in a foreign language I don't speak, with 3 minutes notice, and the two people who are doing the deal for me, Uli and Maria, away in Uruguay!!!!!
Considering which I did quite well......managed to get someone Brazilian to represent me and set a ceiling to the price negotiation.....Not bad in three minutes. However trying to get it cheaper would have been better. Oh, well, next time I buy a tennis club, I'll know the ropes

........BTW my comms may be a little sporadic as I can't get to the main house to send, but can send laptop to have stuff sent....possible may have internet connection here in my little house......very nice pad with full kitchen, living room/ diner, 2 bedrooms, kitchen porch and varanda with rockers....gonna ask for a hammock too......at the moment I use a plastic chair as a zimmer to get about, although got caught on hands and knees this morning!!! At least I still have my dignity.

hot off the press.....just had visit while writing from Leonardo, Doctor I met at lunch tother day, now my doctor I think!....things are simple here....gave me loads of advice and checked what the clinic had said and done and gave me a wheelchair, advised me on my fat legs I'd been getting lately, even while I was at Toby's, which it appears is due to the drug i've been taking for 6 years having bad reaction to hot weather .......( my doctors in Bath have been feeding me this crap thats been superceded about 3 times!)....when I thanked him he just said "any friend of Uli's" etc.

Hope all is well there ......let me know whats happnin..........
. ................lots of love to youse all, from Nashypernaquebrada (Nashybrokenleg)XXXXXX