Driving Mr. Dave

I'm happy to announce that we're back in Tirana. We got up at 3 a.m. Friday morning and went out to Heathrow to catch our six o'clock flight. I was on standby for the Vienna to Tirana flight, but fortunately I made it. Otherwise I would have had to spend an extra 12 hours in the Vienna airport.

I had an appointment scheduled for Friday morning with my doctor, but since Cindy had a return flight Friday morning we changed it to Thursday. The doctor was very helpful about it. He didn't see patients that day since he had a meeting at the deanery (I'm not sure what that is, but he is also a professor so I'm assuming it is something educational in nature) at eleven, so he saw me at nine. I'm to be seen again in four to six weeks, and the only question now is where. It is up to the medical staff here and Vienna and London to agree on an ophthalmologist. It would be nice if there was one here in Tirana that would be okay. They seem to have had some "issues" in Vienna. I'll have to pay to get to wherever they decide on, so I'm hoping somewhere closer. I suggested Rome; there is a direct flight there.

Cindy and I had a good time in London, a city which has now moved into first place in the "Most Expensive City In the World" category. When you see a hamburger on a pub menu for 12.98 pounds, and using a quick two-to-one exchange rate, that's a $26 hamburger. I didn't have one. I meant to go into a McDonald's to see what a BigMac was, but never could force myself through the doors. There was a small chain of burger places in London when we were there in the early '70s. I don't know if they are still around. Their name was Wimpy Burgers, and if that is not the source of the derogatory term, it should be, because their burgers more than met the description. They were sort of a downscale Krystal, and no doubt explains the popularity of McDonald's here.

It is warm here. I just got back from grocery shopping. I was picked up and taken there by Adnand, my new driver. Cindy thinks because I can't see well and have no right-side peripheral vision I shouldn't be doing my own driving in Tirana. I thought that since there were apparently no rules of the road here, that whatever I did would be okay. Needless to say, I lost the discussion. I don't think Adnand thought walking around the Conad looking over the grocery items was a manly-man sort of thing to do. He was ready to go, and declined to see what other shops might be in the building. I think he was afraid he might see somebody he knew.

We're still waiting for our cargo to dock at Thessaloniki. There's a dock strike at the moment, so we're waiting. You might say we're still waiting for our ship to come in.

Cindy has a meeting in Budapest the third week of June, so we're all going there. The day after we return Taylor goes to Mississippi for the summer.