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Published: September 13th 2010
Golden Bossun
She looks so content in her nest, of builders rubble and plasticHere we are again, for another blog from one half of Kangaroojack on Christmas island, which half could it be, the good looking half, nope, the smarter half, nope, well, just say one half for the sake of clarity.
Firstly the weather on the Island has been some what un settled we have certainly had our fair share of rain, fortunately a lot of it at night, and it really does make its presence known whilst bouncing on the roof sheeting above my head.
The days generally have been hot, and sunny though even when it got cloudy and overcast it has still been nice and warm, so still shorts and T shirt weather.
When we went to the open air pictures last week, I was starting to feel unwell, but I soldiered on through Sunday, which whilst sitting here can not remember a single thing about last Sunday, oh yes I went in to work, how exciting.
Anyway, Monday morning arrived and I was on the beast at 5.15 am heading once again in to the office, for another week, still the two guys I work with are really good blokes and I do enjoy working
Settlement
Saturday morning in the Sun with them.
One of my colleagues, a truly nice bloke, an ex “Copper” (Policeman) for 16 years and he is huge, 6 ft tall 5 ft wide, he did 3 years in Iraq and has the coolest photo’s when he was deployed with his squad, armed up to the eyeballs.
Wayne, born in Australia, lived here until he was 23, then spent the rest of his life living in Kent, in the UK where he owns his House, his Girl Sam and his special Boy, Bailey, who is an American Bulldog and such a sweetie.
Wayne uses my Skype account to speak to Sam, apparently Bailey is always looking out of their front window, I asked Wayne why doesn’t he come towards your voice and Wayne said, that his job used to take him away 4 days at a time, as bailey can hear my voice he thinks he will wait for me for 4 days and I will be home, so he looks out of the window waiting for me to arrive, boy that dog must get disappointed.
So the beast again took me in, what was apparent, is with the amount of rain we
have had, large holes had appeared in the phosphate road, which was proving an even greater hazard than the Robber Crabs.
My route again was marked with disappointment as there were another 2 casualties dead on the road, so the death count for the Robbers Crabs is 602 so far.
Something that I forgot to tell you all, last week was I received my emergency red cross parcel from Caroline in Canberra, containing important items, Tipex (liquid Correction fluid,) another pair of shorts, the same as the pair I brought over with me, Nivea after shave balm, Chai latte, Jelly Snakes and Chocolate Jelly Frogs and some sachets of Porridge see I told you they were important things.
We aren’t allowed Tipex for some reason, obviously a corporate decision, may be someone got high from it once and the company band it I don’t know, but I have two bottles of it, if anyone wants a sniff.
Monday blended in and soon it was Wednesday, I was feeling dog rough but had an 8.00 am, meeting that I wanted to attend, my colleagues said "go home if you're sick we don’t want you here", so I
said I would do the meeting then go home, as there is no doctor on the Island, Wayne said I will take you directly to the hospital.
At last the meeting was over and I was on my way home, I just could not get home fast enough and once there, slipped out of my work cloths and in to bed where I stayed for 24 hours, and slept virtually solidly.
Mid morning on Thursday, I dragged my sorry arse with the aide of the scooter to the hospital, and asked if I could see a doctor, a non sympathetic no was the answer, Great !! anyone else available, cleaner !! I asked. Well if you want to wait, you can see a nurse, excellent, Nurse trumps cleaner in the medical Hierarchy so I’ll wait, I thought it a bit too melodramatic to tell her that I felt like I was just about to die, so sat there clinging to the last breath of life my shallow lungs would hold.
Just before I went out, I thought I better shower, as I imagined that I must have smelled like a Baboon, Just as I was getting dressed
I looked out of my window and saw about 8 or so people all gathered on the other side of the road, on the edge of the building site, looking in to a pretty small hollow made of rubble and covered with a piece of polythene.
Caroline and Myself learnt a long time ago that people, with camera’s looking inquisitively at something always means, something interesting so I made a mental note in my cotton wool filled head, to have a look when I got back.
People came and went, I think I waited about an hour, until a pretty nurse came and called my name, Hi I’m “Steve” then we sat down and did the whole symptoms thing, Chest Rattle, Sweating, aching, you know the whole man flu gig, they listen to my chest and commented what an excellent scar I wore so well down the front of my chest, so diligently told him about my Fallots Tetrology and PFO closure, such very dull subjects.
The nurses diagnosis was go back to bed, take Paracetamol and let it take its course. Paracetamol, I feel like absolute shit, and all he can conjure up is Paracetamol, OK
I don’t expect to be Medivac’d off the island but come on, I certainly warrant a decent antibiotic.
Just as he asked me if my chest was productive, I spontaneously break in to a coughing fit and bring up something that could have stuck down that piece of wall paper, that had started to curl.
He hands me my Paracetamol and tells me if I am not feeling any better, or have chest pains then I should come back tomorrow, I ask him if I can go back to work tomorrow and he tells me, only I can answer that one.
I am back on the beast heading towards home, I can hear my bed calling so don’t want to keep it waiting.
When I pulled up at home, I put the bike on its stand, put my helmet under the seat, grabbed my camera and went over to the pile of rubble that eight people earlier had been peering in to.
I looked inside and was surprised to see a bird who had made her nest in here, it was a Golden Bossun
I stay in my sick bed until 5.00pm the next
morning, when my alarm goes off, I look out of my window and its absolutely hammering down with rain, bloody typical really, just when I want a gentle ride in to work with no drama’s is raining.
At 6.00 pm I text Paul and ask him for a lift, no worries he replies, I will pick you up at 7.00am.
I sit and have a cup of coffee and wait for my lift and watch the morning news, about 6.20 I look out of the window and see the rain has stopped, Boots on, Fleece on, back pack and Helmet on, and a quick text to Paul, I am going in on the beast, and I am off.
I am actually at my desk at about 6.55, just over an hour later than planned, but I have done my best to brave the elements and deal with feeling like a sack of shit, but deep down I am happy to be here as one of the team.
Wayne arrives just after 7.00 am followed by Paul at about 7.30, and lots of ribbing on their behalf flows at my expense, God its great to be back.
I think my chest is worse than ever, as its just more productive, I attend a meeting at 10.00am and people welcome me back, strangely enough, nobody want to sit with me, but I do get the opportunity to look around the room and see if there are any more pieces of wall paper that may need sticking down., I am smiling inside.
I get home at about 6.45, have a slice of toast and go straight to bed, as part of my “Looking After Myself."
Saturday arrives, feeling slightly better and I have been told that “There is a boat in today” I check that it is OK for me to go down and observe and they say that it is.
I jump on the Bike at 6.30 and whizz off to the jetty at Settlement. Nothing is happening expect it is a beautiful morning so I do a few shots for this blog.
I then ride the scooter in the Opposite direction towards work where I noticed on Friday that they had started to put the Crab fences up ready for the Red Crab Migration and a lot of Red crabs had started
to gather.
I think the huge amount of rain we have had has confused these creatures and they are starting the gather “Before Time” its to early for them.
I drove down to the car park by the Territory park where there is a 1 Kilometer nature walk, I slip the camera in my pockets and set off down the steps.
After about 5 minutes I have tuned in to my surroundings. Its so quite and you and hear the crabs eating the vegetation around me.
They are every where absolutely 1000’s of them, all over the place, the jungle/forest was quite thick and I had thought about turning back but I am glad I didn’t what an amazing experience it was, at a guess I bet there were 10,000 crabs all over the place and you can see the crabs in abundance from the photo’s, I don’t know what it will be like when they will soon be in there millions.
My little walk was thoroughly enjoyable and I am glad I did it.
I get home again just before the rain, and settle down to do some chores and some work on my laptop.
Last night I started to feel rough again, so going out and sitting on the wet grass was not going to be an option, so it was dinner on my lap then off to bed early..
Sunday morning, I went in to work plenty to do and I enjoy the quite on a Sunday when I can get on with things, I don’t get the chance to do on a weekday..
Wayne had popped in, in fact it was 8.00am and he had only got in after a big night on the beer only an hour ago, god he looked bright eyed and bushy tailed.
Again it started to rain and it rained like I have never seen, more by luck than judgment I managed to get a lift home or else I would have been soaked.
I got out on the scooter this afternoon and drove down to South Point which was an awesome experience, I took my camera from under the seat and realized that I had not put my camera battery back in, believe me there were some swear words I managed to muster.
Still that’s is it more my week
I hope you enjoyed it with me.
Andy
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Willemien
non-member comment
Tipp-Ex
Hi Andy hope you feeling a bit better, has your company not heard of Tipp-Ex Pocket Mouse, no liquid involved. It also is dry so no waiting! We are well, chris got some work, i got myself a bicycle new hobby. Our Sue is engaged, getting married in 2012, she is very happy. Look after yourself, lots of love Willy and Chris xx