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Romania - Clive's House and Excursions

Shayne said:
Sad news Clive what can i say about Aurel .

for the benefit of those who might never get to meet him , disregarding all his history and achievements which of course can only be celebrated the charisma of the man when i met him was something to behold . Whenever he was in company i regretted the language barrier but suffice to say had i met him as a complete stranger at a bus stop i'm sure he would have earned my respect anyway .

Perhaps dementia is a blessing in disguise for such a man because it lets him live out his days in lucid moments when he is who he always was so take heart when he rages at you because such a powerful character will do that .
We all fall in the end and the only way to win is to go down fighting , thats why he is walking again , and we all know Owra is the only mafia ruling you .
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He certainly has presence Shayne, even now! He certainly seems to have left his mark on you lot when you met him.
But it was sad to see in his face the realization that he no longer has the strength or ability to care for himself.
He was always proud of that.
 
Shayne said:
Sad news Clive what can i say about Aurel .

for the benefit of those who might never get to meet him , disregarding all his history and achievements which of course can only be celebrated the charisma of the man when i met him was something to behold . Whenever he was in company i regretted the language barrier but suffice to say had i met him as a complete stranger at a bus stop i'm sure he would have earned my respect anyway .

Perhaps dementia is a blessing in disguise for such a man because it lets him live out his days in lucid moments when he is who he always was so take heart when he rages at you because such a powerful character will do that .
We all fall in the end and the only way to win is to go down fighting , thats why he is walking again , and we all know Owra is the only mafia ruling you .
Click to expand...

He certainly has presence Shayne, even now! He evidently seems to have left his mark on you lot when you met him.
But it was sad to see in his face the realization that he no longer has the strength or ability to care for himself.
He was always proud of that.
 
Thanks everyone for your kind words, much appreciated...
 
I'm going through the same thing, I've seen my grandmother and now my mother go down the same path.
Like I've always said to my wife (we have a history of vascular dementia in the family) soon as I've been diagnosed. I'm going to sit in the garage with the car on. I've seen what happens at the end and I'm not putting my wife through it.
My thoughts are with you and your family and he sounds like an amazing man, just wish I could have met him.
 
Sad to see him like that Clive. His body may be weakened but you can see the determination on his face. He has presence, in spades, and I will never forget meeting him. I hope he makes 100 without too much trouble. At 99, I cannot imagine he wouldn’t want to reach such a milestone.

I can’t think of much more to say that Shayne hasn’t already said and I echo.

I’ll always remember the talk on the Transfagarasan, though more for Aura’s frustration with him not giving her time to translate adequately.

I have been wondering how he was doing of late.

I feel privileged to have met him.
 
Just watched the video. Amazing as ever! From being unable to walk to that has taken some determination but he’s got bags of that.

Bravo indeed. I wish my mum could do the same but she’s not responding to physiotherapy any more and cannot stand or stand up on her own, let alone walk. The home have tried but she hasn’t the determination. I wonder if Aurel could spare some of his?
 
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StarCruiser said:
Just watched the video. Amazing as ever! From being unable to walk to that has taken some determination but he’s got bags of that.

Bravo indeed. I wish my mum could do the same but she’s not responding to physiotherapy any more and cannot stand or stand up on her own, let alone walk. The home have tried but she hasn’t the determination. I wonder if Aurel could spare some of his?
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Probably not Rich, much as we love and admire him, he’s not particularly well known for his generosity, a duck’s ass comes to mind... :lol:
 
Sorry to hear that about your mum BTW, I was hoping she might overcome her difficulties...
 
clivehorridge said:
Sorry to hear that about your mum BTW, I was hoping she might overcome her difficulties...
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So was I but hey, she is helped at every stage and still doesn’t remember much. She’s in the best place we could find and the nurses are all lovely.
 
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I’ve got hardly any signal here Clive as I’m with my Mum back in hospital. I’m amazed (with a bit of a lump in my throat to be honest) just looking at the thumbnails as I know what’s coming. Give him our best wishes. I’m not surprised at all just amazed as usual.
 
StarCruiser said:
I’ve got hardly any signal here Clive as I’m with my Mum back in hospital. I’m amazed (with a bit of a lump in my throat to be honest) just looking at the thumbnails as I know what’s coming. Give him our best wishes. I’m not surprised at all just amazed as usual.
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Sorry to here your mum’s back in hospital Rich, we hope it’s a short stay...

Yep, the true grit of the man does raise emotions, his last quote of note was “I’ll be leaving this place if I can manage to walk out of here”...
 
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Sorry to hear this Clive and Aura, doesn't seem like 2 mins since he was swanning off to his sun lounger in his pants! Hope he keeps up the determination, inspiration to us all
 
Looks
clivehorridge said:
Sunday, 25 October 2015

To kick this thread off, it was a beautiful sunny morning, no rain, we had friends visiting for the weekend, Cris and Mara, and it was his birthday. We'd also gained an hour with the clocks going back and I'd completely forgotten, so we also had a bonus extra hour.

So we went out. Those on the forum that visited us (Romania 2015 thread) may remember going to a monastery in a cave. Cris had tried to get there in his very nicely restored MK 1 VW Golf, but with all of 50mm ground clearance, it just wasn't going to happen :icon-rolleyes:.

Im not going to bore you with the monastery photos, they can be found on the Romania 2015 thread, but I did want to show some pics of the area in autumn and some shots from the Dichiu, that's the road that was in low cloud and we couldn't even see the front edge of our bonnets, let alone the lovely views I'd promised, before you guys brought the rain from the UK :crazy::eusa-whistle:

So, views from the Dichiu in autumn...

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The road climbs above the tree-line which is at about 1,400m above Black Sea level...

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You can see the road ahead, winding its way around the contour of the mountain (Sinaia)

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After 10 km or so, there's a left fork, which takes you down towards the monastery, but before then there's another 5 km to the reservoir and beyond the reservoir is the gorge and stream feeding the reservoir.

For those who remember the gorge, I recall someone asking how big the cave was that we saw. I didn't have a clue, so this time we stopped and went inside. It's a man made tunnel, goodness knows why, that runs horizontally into the solid rock. We followed it for what must have been 150m, and it kept on going after that. We went no further, there were some timber props where we stopped, but one day I'll venture further in.

Here's Cris and Mara emerging... (Looking a bit blurred)

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We also went further along the road beyond the monastery. It "ends" at the mountain rescue centre, but there was nothing stopping us continuing... :eusa-whistle:

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Not really a track, more of a footpath, but what the heck...

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Then in it dwindled out and we found ourselves just driving on the mountain. That's where this and a few other shots were taken (Rogues Gallery) and least said about them the better.

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Coming back down I tried to take some video with the iPad. Very shaky and generally not good at all. The rattling noise is my bunch of keys in the ignition :icon-rolleyes: I hope these links work...

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Then it was back along the roadway in the valley for some 18 km or so and back onto the Dichiu and then the journey home....

Various autumn snaps on the way to close...

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Looks like awesome trip
 
Thanks Josh!

Yes, sorry you had to experience that, not a pretty sight indeed!

He’s fine just now TBH, he’s come to realize he’s in the best place, in the circumstances, which takes the pressure off a bit. We felt bad when he was constantly insisting on going home, which was out of the question.

Being away at the beach this week, we haven’t seen him for 8 days, so as today we travel back to Bucharest, we’ll call in and pay him a visit.

I’d give anything to be able to have him up at the house for a weekend, but I don’t think that’s possible in his condition. We live in hope anyway.
 
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