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Published: October 31st 2010
Blog day 724
Hi there, as you had seen we had had a guest writer for the last blog when I went to Woodstock, the weekend before last and as usual had a fantastic time but surely, you have all read that in the last blog. (I do hope so)
It was back to work on the Monday and it was busy as usual, Caroline had arrived safely in the UK and she had survived her girly surprise weekend and I believe went swimmingly well so I was happy she was safe and sound.
We will not do the entire work thing, but I go to Tuesday and found out late Tuesday afternoon that I was needed at the North Sydney office on Wednesday, so had to get my flight arrangement made for my trip up early Wednesday morning and flight back at teatime on Wednesday night.
As usual, I was up nice and early, got my self to the airport in good time, got my self sorted and waited for my flight.
Soon enough I was boarding the dash 8, buckling my self in and settled down for 50 minutes of piece and quite
Woodstock
A truly beautiful morning at Woodstockwatching the world go by, literally.
In the blink of an eye, we were touching down and taxiing to the arrival gate, whilst the Qantas flight crew was welcoming us and thanking us blar blar blar.
I cannot remember if, but I thought I had written this in my last blog, but for the Non Australians amongst you, Qantas, stands for Queensland and Northern Territories Air service.
Anyway, I got but little carry bag out of the overhead locker and disembarked the aircraft, and headed straight for the cab rank, where I was to get a taxi to my destination.
About 2.30 in the afternoon, my boss said to me, I need you in on a tele conference at 5.30, so you will have to cancel your flight, No worries I said, but in side I said to myself, shit, I have only got the cloths on my back, no Tooth brush, toothpaste etc, nothing.
I got our company travel agent to re alter my flight to the afternoon of the following day and book me a hotel in Sydney, which was the same one, Caroline had stayed in only a couple of weeks ago
Good Job Done
Dosen't this lawn look fantastic when she was up here on business.
It was only a short walk from our North Sydney Office, to the Hotel and I got back about 7.45 I was famished, so threw my bag on the bed and went straight down to the restaurant, for dinner.
With all that nonsense out of the way, I walked over to reception and asked them if they had any spare toothbrush and toothpaste kits, which they did, so at least I would not have dog breath in the morning, when I went to my next meeting at 10.00am.
Just a caveat, sorry to all our doggie friends at Woodstock I am not suggesting you have bad breath, it is just a euphemism.
It had been a long day and I was bushed so was in bed at about 9.00pm, watched about 5 minutes of TV then fell asleep.
Oh one thing, the view out of my window of the harbour bridge was fantastic at night; I could see the Seibel Pier, (G & K Happy memories)
The daylight flooded my hotel room, in the morning I don’t usually draw the curtains, for this very reason and looked
out through morning eyes as Sydney Harbour bridge came in to view, and as I stared I could see the constant stream of people all walking up and over the top of the bridge, as we had done in 2006.
I actually had a lie in as my meeting was at 10.00am and I was having it in this hotel, so it was going to be a leaisurly morning, which I was looking forwards to.
After a quick shower, (no shave, as I did not have any tools to do that), I went and had breakfast then can back up to my room, undressed got back in to bed and watched some TV.
About 9.40 the guy who I was to meet phoned me and said he was about 15 minutes way so, I got re dressed and went down to meet him.
I was back in the Canberra office at about 2.00pm, another quick flight back, pick the truck up and so on and it was all back to normal.
I had been receiving text messages from Caroline and I had called her a couple of times so I new she was OK and
The Other lawn
Tis is the back of Woodstock having good fun, so I was settled.
Friday came and went, then Saturday I was looking forwards to spending some time, just pottering around and I had every intention of washing the Patrol, vacuuming it out and generally making it tidy, as I have hardly seen it for nearly 3 months and believe me, Caroline just doesn’t do those jobs.
One thing I was looking forwards to most of all was going in to ARB in Fyshwick the off road store, and having a mooch.
The loose idea is not to spend too much money on the Patrol, yet as we do not know if we are going to keep it, Caroline likes it and would have another GU Wagon, and they stop the GU in 2011 for the new model, which looks similar to the 200 series landcruiser.
I defiantly would not go around Australia in the new Nissan; it would be more suited to chauffeuring rich Arab around Park Lane, In London, than the dusty tracks of Borroloola, in the Northern Territories.
Don’t get me wrong it is a beautiful vehicle, but so technologically advanced as they all are, when it goes wrong, it
will do so in a big way, an I bet you won’t get a technician anywhere near sailor creek in far Northern Queensland.
If we went for another Patrol we will go for another GU wagon just the same, and swop the roof rack and so on over etc.
ARB is the Rolls Royce of off road equipment, it doesn’t matter what you want they have it, from Stihl Chain saws to diff lockers, and they have go the lot.
Caroline and I have been talking about getting a roof awning for ages, so I decided to go in and buy one.
The roof awing fits on the outside of the roof rack and is telescopic, when you stop somewhere for lunch its to hot to sit in the truck to eat your lunch so we can pull the awing out and sit having our sanger in the shade, cool.
I got it home, but the crappy weather was not going to let me fit it on Saturday afternoon, nor let me wash the truck for that matter, so I stayed in side and iron my shirts for the forth coming week
Sunday was
How Cool is that
Having a lane named after you bright and cheerful so I was out early taking the truck down to the high-pressure wash to clean the truck, vac it out and clean the fabric seats, all done to my usual fussy standard.
When, all the cleaning was done, I got down to fitting the Roof awning and soon it was all functioning really well.
In essence we just don’t know when we travel again, we will, that is for sure, but our short term plan was to set off for possibly a couple of years doing it all again, possibly in March 20100, but as we have both got pretty goods jobs it would be just stupid to chuck them in just because we want to travel again, so we will keep stashing our salary away for when we are ready.
It was Monday again and as I always say, in the blink of an eye it was Thursday, I was leaving early to day to go to Woodstock as tomorrow, I had my pre Hospital appoint for my operation on Monday 7th November at the Wagga Base hospital, and as usual the very generous Helen and Robert Sheridan said it would be no
problems if I stayed with them on the Thursday evening, then I only had a short journey on Friday morning.
I left the office at 4.10, jumped in to the Patrol and headed for Woodstock, about 200 K’s away, it was the most lovely afternoon and I pulled up just at 6.15, parked the truck and went on in to the house.
As usual Helen was her most cordial self,and it was great to see her, Bob and Marg, Roberts Cousin was staying with them, as they were heading home from their trip to Kangaroo Island, back to Canberra.
It was great to be back at Woodstock, Helen Looked well and I could not believe how long the grass had grown, since I last cut it only less than 2 weeks ago.
Helen and Marg were setting the cheese and Biccies up, so I decided to get on the mover and give it a quick going over, I never need an excuse to mow the lawn, on the tractor mower.
About ¾ of an hour later, the front, back and side lawns had had just that, a front back and sides.
Robert was still
The new roof awning
Caroline in the Sun on Sunday afternoon 31/10/2010 out grafting, getting the silage done before the rains were due, Bob came back earlier, and Helen dished out the dinner but said Robert would keep going as long as he could to get the task in hand done.
Our beautiful dinner was finished when Robert came in Just after 9.00 pm, he really does put in more than a full days works.
We all sat around and chatted for a while, and then as usual I needed my bed.
I got strait in and slipped off to sleep with no effort at all.
I woke, to the Rooster crowing and the dogs barking, it was wonderful, I rolled around the bed for half an hour until it was light them got up.
Helen and Robert were both up, Helen was busily putting together lunches for the boys who were working today, Josh Weims (Loves Young Dream) was helping them out but had shot home last night, back to their farm in Tarcutta to help with the family calves and would be back today, and I saw Helen putting about 6 pieces of cake in to a Tupperware container, I carefully watched her count the pieces as she put them in, and I said some lucky boy is destined for a lot of cake today.
It’s for Josh! he won’t eat fruit that I put in for him, so I put him in extra cake.
I know Helen religiously reads our bloke and I do not want to embarrass her, but this is the level of kindness you always get from Helen and Robert, they always go the extra mile for everyone, and I hope they feel it in return.
Honestly, Helen you have a big fan club from where we are sitting.
The Woodstock morning, was just amazing, the sun shone over the acre’s of greenery, it looked truly wonderful, I am so thankful that the area is officially out of drought, which they have been in for 10 years.
I remember something Robert said to us, last year, he said it would rain, its cyclical, Roberts prediction of the exact date may have been a year out, but he was spot on, I guess this is what experience brings you.
Before I left, I took each one of the dogs a treat, only one, a quick pat, and I was heading away from Woodstock down the lane, being anally retentive about being late, I had about 45 K’s to the Hospital and didn’t want to be late.
I filled up with Diesel in Wagga, as I had 15 minutes to spare, parked the truck and walked in and found where I needed to go.
When I got to the correct department, I was greeted with a very polite good morning and as I responded, the nurse said, oh, you must be Andrew, I can tell by the accent.
The nurse, Carolyn, ushered me straight in to a consulting room, after doing my height and weight, and explained to me the purpose of today, firstly, I would have an induction with her, because it was flagged up that, being someone with heart history, they need to cover all the bases.
My next stop was with the Anaethnatist, then with someone else, who was the person who was going to explain, the procedure, convalescing time etc, then finally with an intern. And by the time I got to the intern it was about 11.45,
This young guy, Dan, seemed to be not excited, but very interested in my past medical history and was fascinated by the fact I had, had a teratology of Fallots, when I was young.
Dan inquisitively looked at my scar and kept asking me loads of question about the history of it I explained my surgery had been done by a guy at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital called Keith Robert who had not that long ago passed away, and it was 40 years ago, how lucky am I.
He then said, mate, I am going to dine out on you today, all the other medical student would just love to see you, but they are all busy doing something else, I can’t wait to tell them.
This intern said he had only seen two others with a Tetrology of Fallots, a baby, who I think he said was in Dubbo and his present girl friends Dog, his girl friend also being a medical student.
Horatio Middledorp was a Sussex spaniel, and he had a blue Tongue and this is found out he had a heart problem.
Horatio Middledorp’s, doggy play pal was Boso Dorrington, another Sussex Spaniel, Dan went on to tell me that when the family found out Horatio was sick, they were mortified, a heart surgeon from Sydney offered to carry out the complex surgery at no charge as I guess it was good practise.
Sadly Horatio’s heart operation was not that successful as he only lasted another 6 months, before he passed away, I ‘m glad I am not going in to Sydney Hospital for a Fallots repair.
Anyway, I was all done, Boxes ticked, instructions read. I was clear to go.
I got back to Canberra about 3.00pm, put some washing in the machine, and then went around to see Keith and Jan who were back from their recent adventure.
It was nice to see them and they both looked well, gosh, it has been over three moths I think since I had seen them.
We get to the weekend, the weather report forecasts rain, Caroline is due back in on Sunday morning, so I am getting prepared for that, I think I have seen her for 2 ½ days in the last 3 months.
Therefore, that is my round up bring us to the end of October.
My best to you all.
Andy
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Anne
non-member comment
How is Andy?
I've been following your blog since you arrived in Australia and I am wondering how Andy's surgery went. Best wishes to him for a speedy recovery . I hope you will both blog again soon and keep us posted.