Zoonie
Sun 9 Jul 2017 01:40

Hello again,

I’ve just got back from visiting Rob who had a good night’s sleep even to the point of sleeping through the nurse on night watch connecting his drips. His foot is very swollen and painful so the cellulitis is taking a while to clear up.

He is in a room with three others. ‘Cuthbert’ has been moved out but still can be heard ranting from the last cubicle at the end of the corridor. On Rob’s first night there they were all disturbed when Cuthbert started reciting the bible at full volume. Well when he got to Psalm 23 you can imagine Rob got to the end of his tether and called the nurse who pacified the old feller until the morning.

Apparently this comatose chappy, who used to stand on street corners preaching to bemused passers-by, heard what we were saying at visiting time and complained to the nurse about our chatter. Should have kicked his bed ‘accidentally’ as I left.

Opposite Rob is Dave who is nearly ready for discharging back to the wet and windy west coast and with whom Rob has found a friend to chat with and in the far corner a guy who has brilliant blue eyes, permanently raised bushy eyebrows and a mischievous _expression_. He laughs when we laugh without having heard the joke, bless him.

Gail and Tony came visiting last night and Gail and I watched as the air ambulance lowered itself very carefully onto a narrow roof. We then went off to the 50th Wedding Anniversary party of some fellow cruising friends who are living on their 16 metre yacht in the shed next to Zoonie. The party was held at Sharron of Whangarei Marina’s home in the road right next to the hospital, so handy. I discovered that they are both GPs from the Netherlands, so its nice to know their skills are not far away if needs be.

I also met the Commodore of the Island Cruising Club who told me she is determined to get the America’s Cup to Whangarei for a short period on its tour so folk can view it. The last time I saw it for real was in New York in 1976.

We excused ourselves early from the party so we could go and watch the Rugby Final at our regular table in Dickens Bar. What a match, atmosphere and result. I know the teams were disappointed they didn’t get a win but then it would have been wrong for anyone to lose in such a brilliant game.

I stayed with Gail and Tony on Cetacea last night so we could wind down together after the evening. Rob and Dave tried to find the match on Dave’s phone but couldn’t locate it and fell asleep while attempting. Hopefully we will be able to find it again maybe on UTube.

The hospital is about 3 km from Zoonie and Vicky has been so useful getting me around on the various errands that keep arising. She is not exactly legal at the moment and of course the police know this after they stopped us on the way back from Auckland for speeding. With the help of a local garage who found the parts we needed from our first failed WOF, Vicky then failed her second WOF for a different reason, the headlight reflectors are misdirecting the beam and there is a hole in one of the lenses presumably caused when someone backed into her.

So the same garage that sorted her before and failed to tell us until we went back to them that the hole occurred when she was parked on their premises, is searching for two replacements headlights. I must chase them tomorrow.

Well I think that’s about all for now. I’m off back to see Rob in a couple of hours then its an evening with cruising friends again. We have been meeting for a weekly BBQ on Sunday evenings for a while and tonight we may go off to a restaurant as its cold and rainy here at present. Also we have to say goodbye to Christina and Werner who have sold their catamaran and are flying home to South Africa on Thursday. Maybe we will see them again when we get there, who knows, the best laid plans of mice and men………..

Take care,

Barb xx