Adelaide, Home -and settle down

News continues to come in  about the major fires and the searing heat in Europe as well as  the temperatures across much of the United States. The UK and Scotland in particular,  are quite the opposite from South Australia – our houses were designed and built to withstand the heat, and are shockingly cold in  the winter.  Houses in the UK and in particular Scotland, were  built for the cold and  people suffer badly when there is  high heat, with little or no way of cooling houses down and to either heat up or cool down –  the costs are prohibitive . Our government and  the the weather people have  suggested that all of this is coming our way in about three months or so- only we will also have further flooding to cope with as well as the excessive heat.  I have complained about the cold this last week or so and it has been very cold, because the skies are clear so any heat that  is generated during the day is not being held in and thus  vanishes in the night and early mornings.

We have have looked after Dougal from time to time. Ina, Dougal’s mom ( who has the  P.S.P.) has been moved into a nursing home. This is sad but  Sam is over 80 and not really able to look after her as she needs. She will get all the help  in Copperhouse Court and Sam can visit her every day if needs be – Copperhouse Court is here.

Flinders have been in contact with us and confirmed our appointment for 2nd August, but no admittance time yet. So, everything is going pretty much ahead and we will head off to Adelaide on Monday 1st August. I would like to get away fairly early because there are some places I want to go to before we settle in the Lodge for the  rest of the day. ( This never happened!)  At the moment the hospital are going to call us on Tuesday to discuss the final arrangements and times.  In the interviening time I had to make a quick trip to Adelaide so  that meant getting home on the Friday and driving to Adelaide again on the Monday.

The drive down with Annaberll was  quiet with no drama. Much of the road works are starting ti wind down, so not many delays. Annabell was tired so once we had settled in and I unloaded  the car . Instead of me cooking in the guest  kitchen we decided just to order meals from the  main kitchen. Anyway, the`Good  Old   “Fish and Chips” were on the menue so we settled for that. We were upstairs again so I was able to  pop outside the door and feed the Cockatoos, but only on the Monday night. Tuesday and  Wednesday were raining so no birds. On the Monday, however, I had the  Cockatoos perched on my shoulder which was quite exciting. Sadly – no photograph..

I took Annabell to the hospital on Tuesday and stayed with her until the nurse collected her. I was told to come back in about 4 hours. I walked up to the train station and took the train back in to the city. I didn’t do a lot but I did have a good wander thriough town and bought  the things I wanted to set up my Filofax for  next year. Now that this is done, I can put it aside and leave it there until mid-December.  Wednesday, being a “rest day” Annabell felt she had rested enough so we went into town and took the train to the Elizabeth Centre. We had a slow wander from point A to point A ( Elizabeth Centre is a  large square)  She managed to get some things as did I We had lunch at the Elizaberth Centre which was not as good as we had  expected it to be – Annabell didn’t finish hers. Back at the lodge she settled down while I went to the guest kitchen and cooked dinner for us.  Annabell settled down whilst I packed the car and oput away as much as I could.  We were upo early Thursday morning, finished packing

the car and clearing up,  locked the room, leaving the keys inside. By 6am we were on our way home. I like to leave that early because where we are means crossing one of the bussiest roads in Adelaide, and I need to cut across it. At 6am it’s  reasonable and I am able to get over without too much trouble, then head  through the City Centre and oput to  Port Wakefield Road and head north to Port Wakefield. Having made a few stops we were home by 11:50. Benji was very glad to see his peepel home again.

It was a good three days and we are delighted to say that the treatment seems to be working and the cancer has decreased. We have to go back in  six weeks for an update and a consult