Year: 2006

Neurologist say on the MRI scan

We took Maxim to the neurologist (Dr.Rumyana). She checked the results of the MRI scan and confirmed that everything looks OK and there are no pressure points on Maxim’s facial nerve or anywhere near. Good news.

Chances are, she said, that we won’t need any operations. All we have to do is massage his face about three times a day and ask Dr.Simos for some vitamins.

She also noticed that there were some improvements since our last visit to her about three month ago. She said that now Maxim’s eyes are the same – before you could see that one of his eyes was opened wider than the other. Not anymore though. And she also said that his face is getting better.

Olga can’t see the difference. I can, but only when I compare his current pictures to his older pictures. Hopefully, soon the only thing where it will be obvious will be the pictures.

Maxim’s reflexes were checked and we answered a whole lot of questions about his development and growth and Dr.Rumyana confirmed that he is doing very well in all other departments.

Next time we’ll see her some time in May to see if Maxim’s speech will be affected in any way. I hope not.

Back to the Future Part II

The television is getting better. Apparently they decided to show the complete trilogy – one part every day. Today they showed the second part – “Back to the Future Part II“.

Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Thomas F. Wilson, Elisabeth Shue, James Tolkan, Jeffrey Weissman, Casey Siemaszko, Billy Zane, J.J. Cohen, Charles Fleischer, E. Casanova Evans, Jay Koch, Charles Gherardi, Ricky Dean Logan
IMDB raintg: 7.0
My rating: 4 out of 5

This part is somewhat weaker than the first film, but it’s worth seeing anyway. Some of the ideas for the future were really cool – others sucked completely. 15 years later it’s easy to say though.

The atmosphere of the film follows the first part very closely and that’s what counts, isn’t it?

Strongly recommended too.

Back to the Future

With Martin’s DVD club closed, I have nothing better to do than enjoy the wonders of television. Of course, I don’t watch all the crap that they broadcast around. But I couldn’t miss the classic – “Back to the Future“.

Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi
Cast: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, Thomas F. Wilson, Claudia Wells, Marc McClure, Wendie Jo Sperber, George DiCenzo, Frances Lee McCain, James Tolkan, J.J. Cohen, Casey Siemaszko, Billy Zane, Harry Waters Jr.
IMDB raintg: 8.1
My rating: 5 out of 5

Of course, I’ve seen all three parts of “Back to the future” and I’ve seen them several times. But it was some time now since I did so for the last time. I was wondering if my attitude towards this film would change at all.

It didn’t. The film is as good today as it was back in 1985. It’s innovative, funny, and entertaining. Excellent ideas, excellent special effects, good acting, and fast pace – perfect recipe for a movie. No ads during the whole film – was also a nice touch by local TV station.

Highly recommended.

Fish shop

It turned out that there is an excellent fish shop in the same building with Dr.Simos’ office. I don’t know if this is a coincidence or what. Anyway…

Olga and I went in to check it out. The smell was rather strong – as always, but the shop looked clean and even somewhat decorated with plastic fish in the net on the wall and pictures explaining different types of fish. The fish itself also looked pretty fresh and clean.

We did some finger pointing and got explanations of what was what. We bought some tsipura and parabuli. And I was looking at shrimps too, but we decided to leave them until next time.

Just when we were imagining the horrible pictures of cleaning the fish (the skin thingies and the guts too), we noticed that both shop owners were busy doing something. Jez! We couldn’t believe our eyes. They were actually cleaning the fish for us! They had this giant metal table with water tabs and everything needed and they were cleaning our fish. We fell in love with this shop at that instant.

All we had to do was wait for a couple of minutes and pay the money for the fish only. No labour or water charges. Everything was packed into a plastic bags and we were wished a Happy New Year and a bon appetit or something along those lines.

That was pretty cool, considering the service in so many small shops around. I am sure that if we will ever buy fish again (and we will have to anyway) we will buy it in that shop. Too bad I didn’t catch the name of it though.

One more routine pediatrician check

We took Maxim for his regular monthly check-up with Dr.Simos today.

First, he was measured – 75 cm length, 9.82 kg weight, 46 cm head. Everything appears normal and slightly above average. Good boy.

Secondly, he was vaccinated against the flu (influenza?). This one will have to be repeated in about two month. Originally we didn’t want to vaccinate against the flu, but we were convinced that we should be extra careful because of Maxim’s kidney. And it was dirt cheap anyway.

Thirdly, Dr.Simos we discussed the diet. It’s time for Maxim to get yet another type of food into his system – fish. I guess both Olga and I will have to eat much more food than none we used to.

That’s about it.