Wednesday
Adelaide, Kangaroos and walkin’ the dog!
On Tuesday morning I set off for Adelaide. I was not too far from Adelaide (less than 90klms) when my son contacted me and said that there had been a change of plans and that they were both arriving in Adelaide on Tuesday night and heading home on Wednesday morning, so I didn’t need to come down after all. I told him where I was and how impressed I was but I hope I shall be able to cancel the second room at short notice. This is the hotel I use when Presbytery is in North Adelaide. I took a run out to the shopping center at Tea Tree Plaza and did some shopping for Annabell. I like TTP and am generally quite comfortable there. For some reason I don’t like Marion Shopping Center. Can’t think why but I just don’t like it. It doesn’t seem to have a lot of character and I find it quite antiseptic. Later on in the afternoon I was at a place that has an overload of character – The Central Market. It’s one place I really enjoy wandering around. Anyway, I went to the hotel and booked in, explaining why I no longer need two rooms and why I need to cancel one. No problem. They were very understanding. Once I booked in and put my case in the room, I took the bus into town. I had some things I wanted for myself at Kikki.k and David Jones
For more years than I care to remember I have used a Filofax but in recent years it has become ridiculously expensive to get inserts. I think I said before that I can, of course, get inserts from the
UK and the USA but the cost of shipping/postage is greater than the cost of the inserts. Yes I can download but my printer cannot not cope with the size and I am not about to buy a printer that can so I can use it once a year. Anyway, there are several printing shops in Adelaide so at the last meeting of the year ( late November early December) I can download, save to a USB and have the inserts printed off for less than $10. For years it was so simple and there were two Filofax outlets in Rundle Mall, Adelaide – Borders and David Jones. Borders has gone and David Jones don’t really stock much now.
It’s been ages since Benji and I were down at the wetlands. It’s really been too hot and sadly there is only a limited amount of shade there. This whole week the temperature will be around the mid 30c mark and still too hot to take him onto the concrete paths at the wetlands for any length of time. Interestingly, there is no shade at the Wetlands Kiosk. Not long after it opened I took Benji for a walk then stopped off for a coffee for me and a small Ice Cream for Benji. The cost was over what I anticipated which I thought was a bit much. I have not been back since. I also notice that it is closed for a number of days during the week, so perhaps it is not doing as well as was expected. Personally, I think the lack of shade might have something to do with that. The forecast for next week is for cooler temperatures, so perhaps we can get back down to afternoons at the lighthouse and the wetlands.
This morning on my walk with Benji, the place was covered in Kangaroos – they were everywhere. Not just the odd one or two as normal, but mobs of them. Why no photographs – it’s 6am and it’s dark. In the early evening, I go around the park/ play area: I no longer go through it. There are quite a few Kangaroos there in the evening and I find that even although Benji is under control and does not offer a threat – he doesn’t even bark at them – they still take off when they see the dog, and that’s my problem. There is bushland across from the park and that’s where they make for, but it means crossing a road and they would just take off without any concern for traffic. Hitting a Kangaroo is not good – it kills the Kangaroo, but the car would be a write off and depending on the angle of the hit – the driver could be too. So, I go around the park and leave them be – it’s safer that way
Wednesday
Wednesday
Injections, Storms Wildlife and Sunsets
Saturday 2nd March:
Today we went to see the diabetics educator and learned how to do injections. For me it was very simple. Why? Well the new insulin injection system is very similar to the operation of an EpiPen., so I didn’t find it difficult. As part of the Red Cross First Aid Course, the use of EpiPens were included. Actually Annabell found it quite easy to use and she was able to administer the insulin without a problem. All in we were about an hour and a quarter with the nurse. On Friday there was a telephone call from the insurance company to let me know that they have received the photographs and the report from the repair garage but they would like their own assessor to come and have a look and make the final decision. Once that is completed I should hope that things will be settled fairly quickly. I have had a look and there are a couple of cars that caught my eye. We’ll see what happens after Tuesday.
Annabell has another infection so I have had her up at the hospital. She is now on another course of antibiotics and I will make an appointment for her with our own doctor in the morning and see what he has to say. She is not having a good run of things at the moment. The assessor should be here sometime tomorrow (Tuesday) They did say that they will try and get here in the morning.
I remember we did a course some years ago that suggested that once we set our minds to something we start to see representations of what we have set our minds on in many places. For example, if we buy a red car, in order to justify our decision in our subconscious mind, we start to see red cars around us – something we have never really noticed before. It proves to us that red cars are very popular thus we made the right decision. It used to be called the “Baader – Meinhof Phenomenon although these days it is called “frequency illusion” I mention this because I have been looking at a replacement car and the one I was giving thought to was coloured blue. Thus I am seeing a frequency of blue cars. I am amused by this and I was going to put LOL, but I am informed that LOL is now out of fashion so I don’t know what to put anymore..
We had a bit of a storm last night – lightening for four minutes – couple of peals of thunder – rain for about three minutes – been the scariest five minutes this entire week. This morning (Tuesday)
the Insurance Assessor came and took photographs and examined the car. He will write it off, but I can keep the car. However, it cannot repaired and I will have to arrange for the wreckers to come and take it away – or not, but once the registration expires next week, I can no longer register it, so, between that and the massive storm, it’s been a really interesting week.
The army with their tanks, artillery and armoured vehicles are here in Cultana for “live fire” exercises. I think they are only here for a couple of weeks, so we probably wont see much of them.
However, I did see army trucks with tanks on the back on the way north as I was travelling to Adelaide on Thursday. The two boys ( John & Andrew) are off to some music festival in Melbourne. Andrew is staying in Melbourne for a few days but John is heading back. He has asked me to go down to Adelaide, pick him up and bring him back home. I said I would. Couple of things I need at David Jones, so it works in well. That’s why I was not too bothered about doing any shopping this trip and just came directly home.
We are still having Kangaroos and Emus wandering around this top end of town. The City Council and the Wildlife people have asked us not to feed the Emus nor the Kangaroos, because it
will get them used to being fed and watered and they will come to rely on it and be aggressive if they don’t get what they expect. Also if they are supplied with food and water, they will start to mate and that could cause problems farther down the line. Well, you try to do the right thing and it’s wrong, but no matter, I will still leave out the water. I know, I’m an environmental vandal, what more can I say.
Wednesday
Thursday Update
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.
Wednesday
The week ends – with a bang, not a whimper..
Sunday 24th February
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.
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)
Kangaroos and Living Plants
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
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.
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
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