Birvidik

Marmaris Yat Marine - excellent place. Everything a yottie could wish for - Swimming pool, bar, restaurant, sauna, shop, artisans, chandlers.

And a gym.

This last brought out a rash of good intentions regarding improvements in general fitness. We vowed to work out 4 times a week. Bob entered into the spirit of things wholeheartedly and gave all the apparatus a good seeing to. 45 minutes on the runner were followed by a further 45 minutes humping heavy weights about and pulling and pushing an assortment of bars and levers.

Just the stretches and abs to do then. Oooh look - an inclined bench. Must give that some wellie; do some sit-ups on it. No sense in doing things by half measures. Lets do them with a couple of 5 kg weights on the chest. On the 5th sit up the sequence described in the title occurred and a couple of fetching little bulges popped up in his groin.

He is now the proud owner of a bilateral direct inguinal hernia. How does he get on and off the boat we hear you ask. Very carefully is the answer. He tried the usual male trick of doing nothing for a while and seeing if it went away. After about 10 days it became apparent even to Bob that it wasn't going to do the decent thing and clear off of its own accord. A visit to the local private hospital and £65 later the diagnosis was confirmed.

All that was required now was to assess the options. The surgeon said that they could do it there, laparoscopically, at a date and time of our convenience. "How much?" we asked? He sloped off for a clinical conference with his cardiologist, anaesthetist and financial advisor. He returned with a scrap of paper with some scribbles on it. Just as he was about to hand it over he paused, pulled it back sharply, and said "You are insured, aren't you." "No" we replied succinctly.

He went off into a further huddle with the aforementioned specialists and returned with a fresh set of scribbles. 4 000 quid. God knows how much it would have been had we been insured.

The problem is that there is no easy way to assess the quality of the surgery and care over here. We're now looking into going back to Jersey to get it done. It will still have to be private but at least we have inside information on the care there.

Once we have all the information we'll make a decision. So to all those in Jersey who thought they might get a year off from us, start worrying.

Further developments will appear in the next, unedifying, installment; along with the tale of the exploding boat. Not ours fortunately.

It's been an interesting few weeks.

Have fun.