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Still Blooming...
A beautiful blue agapanthus stunned us with its resilience and longevity. Since the boys left about a month ago, we have been a bit sluggish...we miss them so much, and are working our way back home...less than two months.
While our social calendar had been relatively sparse except for other locums personnel, in the last couple of weeks, we have become social butterflies...well maybe social penguins...we have been to the homes of a number of Kiwis, and hosted a number in our wee house. We now find ourselves wanting to have a number of people over, but not able to fit all of them in...
Anyway, I have some photos of the last two weekends. April 25th is ANZAC day, the Kiwi/Aussie equivalent of Memorial Day. A solemn occasion to honor those that made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. We went to the dawn ceremonies at the War Memorial next to the hospital, and then walked downtown. As it was not only a holiday but also a Saturday, we had a hard time finding a place to go to brecky, but did find one. Thereafter, we went to the RSA for their ceremonies. The president of the local post, David, gave a brief speech, and at the end paid
Bob Fitzsimmons...
Former resident of Timaru was the Heavyweight Champion of the World. tribute to Ronald Regan. After the ceremony, we went inside briefly, and ended up talking to the VP of the post who had taken a two month tour of the US a couple years ago (he seemingly saw more of the US than I have in my lifetime). We ended our conversation and began walking out of the parking lot. I decided to go back and ask the VP to thank David Wood for his kind words about my friend Ron, but couldn't find him. The politician lady pointed me to David himself. We were invited to sit at the table with David and his wife. All four of us connected magically, and they invited us out to their house in the country for tea (that means lunch here...if they ask you to bring a plate, that means bring a dish to share...they didn't, but David and I went to the grocery store on the way home). We had a brilliant time. We had to return home to host some guests at our house that evening. The next day we went to church, had someone over afterwards (one of the house surgeons), then went to dinner at a colleague's home.
Last weekend we were slow in rousing. We intended to go to downtown Timaru to go to the fish shop on the wharf (closes at 12) and to have brecky at Sopheez (until 11), but didn't get out of the house until after 12. We decided to drive to the knitwear factory outlet in Waimate (where I bought 3 sweaters and Nahid put two on hold), and had lunch at a local caf. It was such a brilliant day that we decided to drive up the Waitaki River Gorge to Omarama, Lake Pakaki and Lake Tekapo, have supper there, and go to the Mt John Observatory at night...there was a benefit for a local school for $15 NZ each, normally 45 or so). At the restaurant we stumbled on, we ran into a group of twenty folk 10-15 years our seniors (I know, hard to believe there are that many people here that old) who had been friends for 45-50 years, and met weekly in Christchurch. They were on their annual adventure together, and were going to Mt. John as well. We rode the bus up with them, and wandered around in the dark looking through telescopes and learning
Boxing Day?
Statue of Bob "Ruby" Fitzsimmons in downtown T-town. about the heavens...including how to use the Southern Cross to find which direction is south. It is not intuitively obvious. Loads of fun. Slept in on Sunday, went to church at 5 PM, to the home of friends after for apple/rhubarb/berry crumble and ice cream, then home to prepare for the coming week.
I have arranged my schedule for this month, in particular, to be working about half time...I do have a weekend call in a couple weekends, but we will be on the road most of the others. While I am on call, Nahid is shifting to Aussie to visit her uncle. We will attend the Christian Medical Fellowship National Conference in Christchurch this next weekend, a Balint Conference, again in Christchurch, later in May, than John arrives on the Queen's Birthday for a second visit, and we have a five day stretch in mid-June before we pack up and head home on 30 June. Time flies. We will miss Timaru, the solitude, our garden, our ocean and beaches, and our friends and the theatre staff at the hospital. But I am, after all, an American boy...GBA.
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