It has been some time since my last pair of glasses gave up the ghost. I’m not sure if the final straw was when my son accidentally dropped them in the toilet or if it was the dog sooking off the elastoplast that held the glasses’ legs on that finally did it but finally, sadly, I bade my beloved old specs goodbye and resolved to get a new pair in the following few days.

Well, one thing after another and days turned into weeks and weeks into months. I think the world has a certain special charm when seen through a constant fuzzy haze and who cares about littering and graffiti when they are perceived only as pretty colours anyway? No doubt I have offended or confused more than one person as I sailed past them in the street totally oblivious to anything that is going on outside of about a five-foot radius.

I am dreadfully short-sighted but it doesn’t bother me too much. After all, I work at home all day in front of a computer. I only need to see far enough to recognise the keyboard. I suppose I could have gone on quite happily in my soft-focus bubble had I not taken a trip to Carrefour with my nearest and dearest.

After my mother and I had wittered round the shops for a while and hubby had stamped off to the car, my mother decided she needed to visit the loo. There was a bit of confusion between her going in and me coming out, and before you know it I was stranded alone at the door to the carpark. There was a vast sea of cars in front of me and not a nearest or a dearest in sight.

Okay, so there was nothing for it but to plunge off into the murk and trust my sense of direction. Some time later I was rescued from spending the night wandering about the Carrefour carpark by my mother and husband who had been watching me from afar (probably giggling hysterically and taking bets on how long it would take for me to get arrested).

After that experiences glasses were placed firmly back on my To Do list but first they had to fit on my Can Afford list. I was horrified at the quote I got in the first opticians I tried – €500! Jeez I need a pair of specs not the Hubble Telescope!

Next stop was a shop in San Eugenio which had Rebajas signs plastered all over its window. The sales woman talked down to me and stalked my husband round the shop like a hungry lion. The ‘great deal’ at this shop included not charging for an eye test if you end up buying specs from them and a 10% discount on frames. Big deal! Specs from here would cost about €360. My husband was quite happy for us to go ahead and order them but the sales lady had put me off and I would have rather gnawed off my own leg than throw any of my hard-earned cash in her direction.

And then inspiration struck. Hubby looked up a shop he knew from Paris called Afflelou on the internet. Yes! There are two in Santa Cruz. Had I but been able to see it in the first place, Afflelou, is right there in front of the food checkouts in the same Carrefour that kicked off my latest quest for specs and they have a great offer on right now. Buy one set and get a second for €1!

Brilliant. But even better is that the first pair have a standard price. It is about €79 for under 16 (it is some time since I could claim to be under 16 so I didn’t pay to much attention to that offer), €129 for those over €16 and €329 for bi-focals. Imagine that, two pairs of bi-focals for €330!

In my case, I wanted a pair of ordinary glasses and a pair of sunglasses both medicated for my short sight. I had to pay an extra €50 for the sunnies but in the end, I have now got two fab pairs of specs for a total of €180!

So happy as I am at the outcome of my tale, I have two bits of advice to share. The first one is, if you need specs get yourself over to the Afflelou store in Carrefour Santa Cruz before 28 February at which time this fab deal will expire. And the second is to Mr. Alain Afflelou himself. If you are kind enough to offer such a fabulous deal to the optically-challenged and cash-strapped, I suggest you make the posters advertising it at least ten feet tall so people like me can actually see it when we are shopping in the supermarket right in front of your store.

Credit to Dimitris Kritsotakis for the great picture!

The death of a three year old girl in the Costa Del Silencio, of suspected child abuse, has left the community in shock. Admitted to Mahon on Wednesday in cardiac arrest, the child’s body was found to have marks of a suspicious nature and the police were called in.

The 25 year old boyfriend of the child’s mother is being detained and questioned by police. He denies any wrong-doing, claiming that burns on the child’s body were due to overheated bath water and the bruises because she fell down so much.

Aitana died in the early hours of Friday morning. Her school held a minute’s silence for her on Friday, as did several government offices.

The tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004 killed 230,000 people. The enormity of the loss of life is hard to digest.  It is hard to believe that that many people lost their lives in one cataclysmic event. But is it any easier to imagine the 260,000 men who will die in Western Europe this year from cancer? Or the 277,000 women in Central & Eastern Europe who will succumb to the same disease?

In fact, altogether across Europe over a million people will die this year from cancer. Worldwide, the figure is somewhere near 8 million.

According to the UK CancerStats site more than 1 in 3 people develop some form of cancer in their lifetime. The good news is that the average ten-year cancer survival rate has doubled over the last 30 years and more than seven out of ten children with cancer are now successfully treated compared with fewer than 3 in 10 in the 1960s.

Also according to the CancerStats site, cancer is the number one fear amongst Brits, topping that of heart disease or terrorism. How much scarier then must it be to contract the disease while living in a foreign country, with minimal medical insurance and perhaps not much in the way of family support?

The annual Walk For Life in Tenerife raises money in support of the Spanish cancer charities AECC and Amate. In a sea of pink solidarity, men, women and children walk the 3.5 km from the Mediterranean Palace to the Sal Y Tien plaza. As it says on the Carrera por la Vida website “Once a year, to walk is to support!”

As an expat in Tenerife, you might wonder if these charities are available to you should you fall ill with cancer. For the answer you should read the moving account of one British pensioner in Tenerife Magazine who received such support from AECC that she says they made a terrible time bearable.

Whether you are in town as an expat or a tourist, all you need to do is show up – in a pink t-shirt if you have one – at 10.30 on Sunday 13th December and join the walk.  Sponsorships and donations are passed on to the relevant charities under the guidance of a Notary and with full transparency so you know every penny is going to the aid of somebody who needs it.

You might also announce your participation on the Tenerife Magazine Walk for Life participants page on Facebook.

As part of the overall preparation plan should there be widespread infection with the H1N1 virus the government are considering an action plan which would involve moving non-infectious and elderly patients to non-clinical facilities like hotels, gymnasiums and schools to free up hospital beds for the victims of the pandemic.

However overly dramatic this may seem given that WHO are still emphasizing the relative mildness of the disease in the greater majority of patients it does point out how aware the government is in the woefully inadequate number of hospital beds and specialist public health care available – especially in the South.

Pandemic or not, I wish they’d get it sorted so that an appointment at Mahon can be expected within the same month that  it was asked for.

Hotels and Colleges Plan for H1n1

A young Tenerfeño girl is currently hospitalised in a Paris clinic in a chronic condition after showing symptoms similar to those caused by H1N1. She is one of 30 Canarian kids who are visiting France on a language course organised by the Tenerife Cabildo. They have been in the French capital for 5 days.

14 other Canarian kids of the group (all boys)  and one facilitator are under observation in a segregated residence. 21 other Spanish and foreign children are also being kept under observation and quarantine at the same language school.

A member of the Ministry of Education and the hospitalised girl’s parents flew to Paris yesterday.

The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) which replaced the E111 in 2006  can be used to cover any necessary medical treatment due to either an accident or illness while on holiday in Tenerife (or elsewhere within the European Economic Area and Switzerland).

Not all  services you would expect within the UK will be covered and you may have to make a contribution towards the care you receive.

There is no information on the EHIC website specific to its use for the treatment of swine flu but it might be the only cover you have unless you have read the fine print of your travel insurer or called them to confirm that they do offer pandemic cover.

The EHIC can only cover you if you show it upon arrival at the hospital. To be on the safe side, carry it with you at all times.

The Ministry of Health for the Canary Islands reported that as of today there are now 31 cases of H1N1 in the islands.

The province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife has seen 18 of these cases most of which have fully recovered and only four which were admitted to hospital. Of these one has already been released and the others are all doing well.

PREPARATIONS BEFORE THE PANDEMIC

The Ministry of Health went on to state that the health authorites are keeping an ever closer eye on the situation and focussing efforts on the mitigation of the effects on influenza in patients before going on to add that the health system in Spain and therefore the Canary Islands are ready to handle this phase of the pandemic.

The Ministry of Health committed to supply an update on the development of the pandemic and government policies every Monday or more often should that become necessary.