White Rabbits

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DAY 114

I was awake since 2.00am, my back was aching so much and I just could not get comfortable, when Caroline awoke she said I had kept her up most of the night so it was time I did something about it.

Today was the 1st of March so obviously a good day to go to the doctors, well Caroline has been in the last couple of days so fairs fair I have to keep up.

I asked the bloke on the camp site if he knew of the nearest doctors surgery where I could go and he said he would find out, and about half an hour later came back with an address saying they may not take me and if they do go to Launceston A&E.

We got washed and changed and jumped in the truck, I was annoyed it was going to eat in to our day but just had to do something about it. I don’t suffer with a bad back, the ailments I have are far more life threatening, but the pain was like broken ribs, which I have experienced first hand, and was all the way around my middle like a corset.

We found the surgery and went in, I explained I was a British Citizen but had a Medicare card, “that will do nicely in sir” in an American Express type of way, the young girl on reception said that she would ask the doctor if she would be prepared to see me, and would I like to wait in the chairs, until she had the answer.

I was just reading a good article in the National Geographic about Mars and then the receptionist called my name.

I went in to see the doctor, a lady, who was very pleasant, I told her of my predicament and she gave me a good going over, and was fascinated about my Tetrology of Fallots, “my hole in the heart”. After all the singing and dancing, blood pressure, lah, lah, lah she could not find anything wrong with me and thought it was possibly only muscular and I should go home and stop being such a big girls blouse, oh, and to take some Ibruprofen an anti inflammatory,

With all that done, drugs in pocket, we drove down to the Cataract Gorge, but there were so many people with kids around that we decided we would go tomorrow on the way out when everyone was either at work or at school so it would be quieter.

We drove to the Golden Arches, as we were days behind with the blog and their internet connection was just a pain in the arse, so we went back to the site and purchased 24 Hours of internet usage and sat around catching up on e-mails and the blog.

We rustled up bangers and mash for tea, and thought being a Great British dish it still did not make me home sick. It takes Caroline ages to eat her dinner, last night I served up corn on the cob without realising that she would not be able to eat it, but necessity is the mother of all invention, Caroline took the knife and sliced her way down the cob to get all the corn off, problem solved.

I managed to call my mother on Skype, which was nice, but when Caroline tried her folks the line was rubbish so we had to cut it short. Skype is excellent when you have a good internet service, but if it is poor the line will just keep dropping and makes conversation perfectly useless.

All in all it was not a productive day, but a day where silly things, like washing clothes, had to be done to allow us to move forwards.

There was a couple of grey nomads on the campsite also, I noticed a little sign in the window saying that she does haircuts and considering it is a while since we were in Forbes when I had my $10 haircut I thought I should have it done again, this time properly. Interestingly the woman said that she thinks he did not cut it the way I asked as he took a chunk out and left the rest of it longer so that it hid the missing chunk.

These people are originally from Yorkshire and drive a 34 ft Winnebago, towing a 20 ft trailer with a Jeep on it, we called it Thunderbird 2. This Winnebago was specially brought over from the states and it came as a left hand drive, as a chassis only then converted to right hand drive and had the body built on it, it had a little flap that has an external stereo system on it, for eating outside, and this lady said it was only the 4th in Australia when they brought it, at a guess I would reckon it would be close to nearly a million dollars for it, “but money doesn’t maketh the man.”

We have been discussing staying on Tasmania for a little while longer, we Originally had 16 days booked but don’t think it is going to be enough, we sketched out a rough program of things we want to get done and will speak to the Ferry company tomorrow and discuss how and if we can change our sailing.

Just as we were sitting doing our computer work the heavens opened and we had to dash out and role up all the tarps that we needed to stay dry, as we were packing up and leaving in the morning. The window shutters needed closing so that our bedding did not get wet either.

We slide off to bed later than usual, I do hope I am going to sleep tonight.

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