The damage is mainly at the bottom of the door on the inside.
The car was taken to the repair shop for examination and the results are worse than I imagined. The damage is to the front panel, the bonnet, the front door, the rear door and the rear panel. Just looking at at it, it seems like cosmetic repairs – not so. As I said there was a big tow bar on the car that hit me and that is where the problem is. The towbar has gone through the bottom of the passenger door and damaged the frame. With the frame compromised the car has to be written off. The insurance Co. will pay the book price of the car. Now, I have had this car for a long time, it is a Ford Falcon Futura Classic, regularly service, well looked after and well cared for. but all that counts for nothing and what I will get paid out is only fraction of what the car is really worth. Oh well, welcome to the real world. At the moment I can drive the car but that will end as soon as the report by the Repair Garage is accepted by the Insurance Co. and the car has to be handed over and the registration plates removed ——-and the cheque is in the bank. Once that is completed – hopefully soon – I will head off to Adelaide and look for another car. And yes, I could get one here, but Adelaide will be cheaper – larger volume of car sales so cheaper prices.
It has been a very hectic week with all sorts of things happening, up to and including a funeral. However, we decided to have an exciting ending to this hectic week – tie it all up, so to speak. This morning, after church we had a Management meeting. After the meeting we closed up and I took Annabell to the shopping center. She felt the item that she particularly wanted was cheaper at the smaller chopping center on the way home, so after leaving the main shopping center we headed there. She got what she wanted and we got back in the car and started to drive off. Just at that moment a vehicle decided to back out without paying attention and crashed into me. On an American car this would be the driver side, here it’s the passenger side. She backed out at a fair trot so there was extensive damage to the car, however, much more serious was the fact that Annabell was trapped in the car since the door had been pushed in and could not be opened. The police , fire brigade ( I’ll explain that) and an ambulance were called. There was a delay before the Fire Brigade arrived but the Medics tried to assess Annabell but could not until we got the door open and her out.
After Annabell was out.
Anyway they got her out and she was placed on a gurney and taken into the Ambulance. Once she had been assessed they called their supervisor in Adelaide and outlined the situation. Her suggestion was that she should be taken to the hospital for examination – just to be safe.. The police took all the details then both the other driver and myself were tested for alcohol and then drugs. The damage also included damage to the rear tyre, so that had to be attended to in order to make the vehicle safe
Once all the legal details were attended to I spoke to the attending officers and they told me that I could drive the car home – but no further, so, I have no car. Fire Brigade. What you see is the normal fire engine that would attend a fire, however, out of the picture is the Big Emergency Unit with all the major and heavy equipment. This was a Shopping Center car crash and there is always the possibility of leaking fuel, a possible fire and so on. So in the case of an incident in a car park the Emergency Unit comes to assess the situation. The other car had a big towbar and most of the damage was done with the towbar. In essence, the whole side of the car will have to be replaced. Somehow I have the feeling that this could take a while to get sorted out.
Just asked Annabell if she had a good day? She said yes – it was interesting and she met some really nice paramedics. “How About you? “Yes I too had a good day, chatted to some friendly police officers and a couple of Firemen. So yes, it was an interesting day”. Well, no point in fretting about things you can’t change :o)
As far as we understand, the funeral will take place at the Church on Tuesday at 11am. That’s what we organised, however, her son, breezed in from London and would have preferred the funeral to have been on Thursday past so he could catch the weekend flight back to London. Although I have done all the work – the Order of Service just needs the nod and I can start printing, collating and have it ready for Tuesday, I am advised that there may well be changes and not to print just yet. There is a meeting with the son on Sunday and if he decided to change things to
The small park around the corner
what he wants, it doesn’t leave me a lot of time to get everything organized, printed, collated and out. No pressure, yesterday will be fine. :o)
Ina is back in hospital and we had a phone call to ask if we would look after Dougal for a few weeks, I was out but Annabell said that it would be fine. The daughter has been staying for a bit but we will get Dougal when she goes home sometime next week. Don’t mind really, Dougal is no trouble at all. He and Benji get on fairly well and Benji doesn’t seem to mind Dougal sharing his toys. The only thing Benji gets cranky about is the sleeping arrangements. Dougal occupied the place next to me and Benji got cranky about that and made certain Dougal understands who sleeps where in future.
We spent most of Monday afternoon at the church getting the place ready for the funeral. I printed, collated 120 copies and passed each pile over to Annabell for folding. She can’t do a lot but she was sitting down and could do that for me – I mean, she couldn’t help with moving furniture and re-arranging pews, but she could do the folding, a total of 120 x 2 double sided copies, so she was a great help in doing what she did
The funeral went well as well as funerals are and our little church was full with close to 110 people – which is our maximum.l She joined the church in 1987 and was a Member of the Board of Management, Board Treasurer and Leader of the Sunday School. The children loved her and it was so very pleasing to see many of the former Sunday School (grown up and married of course) there to say farewell. It was one of the former Sunday School members who read the lesson. The service lasted over one hour mainly because the “in-thing”in Australia at the moment is to have a Power Point and that took up time. The committal at the Cemetery was relatively short and we returned to the church hall for lunch, which all the ladies of the church provided.
It still lives
I have been outside since the heatwave mourning dead plants, clearing up the mess and cleaning out the plant pots. In doing so I discovered that the age of miracles hasn’t passed as the photograph will show. This was, to all accounts a dead plant and in among the dead and brown leaves was a hint of green, which I have worked with. It’s encouraging as we draw towards the last weekend of summer. The mess is not caused by dead plants but rather the piles of boxes, bags of clothes and unwanted furniture that my niece decided she didn’t want to take back to Adelaide. Some has gone and Lifeline will come and collect the remainder of the furniture on Monday. I’ll spend part of the weekend sorting through the boxes and the bags. In a couple of weeks the boys are heading over to Melbourne for some concert. Andrew is staying in Melbourne for a few days but John is coming back to Adelaide. I said I would go down and pick him up. It’s only an overnight stay and gives me the opportunity to do some shopping for Annabell at Tea Tree Plaza or the Elizabeth Center. I have been thinking about a new camera and this might be an opportunity to have a look around.
Still no word about the specialist and the insulin stuff as yet and the earliest we can get to see the eye specialist is May
Left home Friday morning – a bit later than usual – and headed off to Adelaide. I made sure that everything was set up for Annabell before I left. The drive down was uneventful until just outside Port Wakefield where a serious crash had blocked part of the highway. My lane was clear – but slow and the other lane was backed up from the intersection to Port Wakefield itself. This is where the Copper Coast Highway joins the Interstate Highway 1. It’s a bad junction and has been the site of many accidents over the years. Governments have thrown money at the place in at attempt to contain the flow of traffic but it’s still a problem and on holiday weekend is the site of a major bottleneck. The present government has proposed a solution and is willing to fork out $90million to sort the problem. Most people believe that this also will not work until governments do what needs to be done – build a new road that bypasses Port Wakefield altogether. But they wont do that. Despite being a bottleneck, Port Wakefield heavily relies on the traffic for its survival. Because everything has to go through PW, there are more food outlets and service stations, bakery, repair shops than anywhere else and all the coaches coming from and going to the North, stop at PW ( BP Service Station) for refreshments and a break. Therefore, despite all its problems, PW is a major supply and service center and a bypass road that takes the traffic away would cause irreparable damage to the local economy and, to a lesser extent, the State Economy.
The remainder of the drive to Adelaide was quiet until Adelaide and city traffic. I managed to get most of the things Annabell wanted and did
The entrance to the hospital
some shopping for myself – mainly things from Officeworks for my diary – which – by the way is getting harder and harder to find. I think I said before that ordering things from the UK and the USA is getting too expensive because of the postage charges. Some time ago there were two outlets in Adelaide, but they have closed down.
The hot weather is coming back again for a bit but I don’t mind, it’s already done all the damage it can do and my plants are all dead. I did have a hope for a little while that it was only the outside leaves that had been burned by the sun and the plant and roots were still alive. I kept watering all the plants – even if they looked dead. Well, I now realize they are dead and no amount of water will change that. So, the hot weather kills the plants and the wind assaults us with 87,000 leaves.
RFDS Patient Transfer Whyalla
This has been a slightly frantic week with three fundraisers to organise, two unplanned medical appointments and a funeral to get ready for. Well, the hopes that my last two months as Secretary of the Whyalla RFDS would be quite and trouble free, were always wishful thinking. The specialist in Adelaide has been unable to recommend any suitable medication for Annabell. There is another drug that she could take which would fit the bill, but the problem is that that has to be taken with a partner drug and the second drug is toxic for her. So, we both may have to go to Adelaide to visit a specialist who will teach us both how to administer insulin injections unless there is one visiting here. No idea when that will be. I may be an apology for the next church conference because Annabell has an appointment to see the eye specialist and that’s when his next visit is.
Why “Going Nowhere”as the title? Simply because Neil Sedaka’s song has been running through my head these last few weeks and that’s how I have been feeling sometimes – sort of running around in circles going nowhere. Well, I suppose it’s preferable to standing still and stagnating :o)
On the news this afternoon there was a major accident at the Highway 1 and the Copper Coast intersection this morning. Sadly two people were killed and a third one flown by ambulance helicopter to Adelaide. Honestly this intersection really needs sorted out – soon..
Thankfully, the weather has calmed down from its hissy-fit last week. A warm week this week but temperatures will be no more than mid 30s. The Hay Convoy of 50 B Double Trucks went through on Friday and I did get a lot of photographs and a video that had been sent to me. It really was something to behold and I am sorry that I missed it but watching the video was incredible. Perhaps next time they go through I will be able to see for myself. They always go through that way but this is the first time we have ever had notification of the time they were going through. Actually, they have to go through where they did – there is no other way. – Well, there is, but it would add about 1100 klms on to the journey and not really achieve anything. Saturday was Australia Day, which started out fine – a bit cool, but fine. By 6:30, the temperature had fallen and the rain came down. It wasn’t really all that heavy but it was constant and the latter part of the Australia Day Celebrations were canceled – although the fireworks did go ahead. John Jnr and I spent Saturday at my niece’s place moving furniture. She was only here for seven months and she is now heading back to Adelaide. Some things she didn’t want to take back with her, so they went onto my trailer and into the garage and the church may dispose of them.
Back to the doctor with Annabell this morning. This was a planned visit, but not a good one. Generally her blood sugar level has been controlled by diet, but that is no longer working. Doctor wants to put her on diabetes medication but can’t. He has to contact a specialist in Adelaide, explain the situation to them and they will decide what medication is suitable for her, given her health concerns and her current medications. So we just have to wait.
I had a telephone call this afternoon from one of the major Hardware firms and they wanted to give us (RFDS) the space to run a fundraising event at the store. I said I would see what I could do and try and get a team together. I will call them first thing in the morning and accept since I have a team available for them. Ten days and I head off to Adelaide for conference. We plan these days away and both of the boys either telephone her or just come over and see she is ok, The Weather people lived down to their reputation yet again. Fine weather, they said – temperature in the mid to high 30s, they said. What they didn’t say was 43c today. It be a wee bit warm. Ah, look on the bright side – We survived 48.9, we can survive 43c. The danger period will come in about two hours when people start getting home from work and cranking on air-conditioners, which could overload the system. Might even blow a fuse again.
As it happened a cool change swept in and brought temperatures down quite a bit. Temps came down, wind came up and we had dust problems which I could see in the distance when I was walking with Benji. Come the weekend and we are looking at high 30s again, but that’s fine. I think one of the things that has made people grumpy is that many Australians have been unable to do what they would normally do in summer. Generally, in the backyard with friends and family – barbecue and a few beers, a glass of wine – backyard cricket with the children, and so on – in the park or down the beach. Not so much since it’s been blowing every day for weeks, then the heatwaves came along and all of this has disrupted the Australian lifestyle. I don’t do any of this but I like to go walking with the dog or dogs and I can take them out despite the wind, but the heat causes problems for dog paws, so it’s after 9pm when the sun has gone down and it’s starting to get dark. From time to time Benji will dig his front paws into the ground, lock them and refuse to move. I have no idea why he does this but after a minute or so he will start walking again as normal. I think he does this because he wants to see if my arm can actually come away from my shoulder since he does this without any warning. The heat is not only causing problems for us uprights and our companions, it is also causing problems for our wildlife. This is mainly exacerbated by the drought and just the general lack of moisture in the bush. It is really pleasing to see that more people are filling buckets of water the leaving them in their gardens. .
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