Ron Cairns was a soldier with the 42 Highland Regiment – The Black Watch. He spent time in Malta and Cyprus. As a piper he traveled much of the world with the Pipe Band. In 1963 the band were touring the USA and Canada when they were invited to play on the White House Lawns where they met JFK and the Kennedy family. The President jokingly remarked that he was glad this was a friendly visit because the last time the Black Watch were here they burned the place down. Three weeks later whilst the band was performing in Kentucky, came news of the Assassination of the President. Mrs. Kennedy asked that nine pipers from the regiment play at her husbands funeral in Washington. Ron was one of the men who were chosen. There is, as far as we know, only one of the nine pipers remaining.
So, I have had a fun end to what has been a stressful week. Telephone call this morning at 8am to ask me who is doing the fundraiser for the RFDS. I had forgotten about this and I spent the early morning organizing and making telephone calls – getting people out of bed (popularity- zilch!!) To make matters worse, I was actually down for this one. Emmm – I have a wedding this morning at 11:30 – but I spent from 8:30 to 10:15 running around getting things and people organized. My son is always good value and stepped in to take my place. No excuses, this was my responsibility and I didn’t get on top of it when I should have. Anyway, I left the wedding fairly early, came home, got changed and lay down for a while. I was just so tired. On Friday we were given three more medical appointments- one on Monday two on Tuesday and we ended up with three on Tuesday because she was called back to the surgery late in the afternoon. Her doctor had been in touch with the Kidney Specialist in Adelaide and they are giving her new medication. However, it can have a lot of side effects so she she has to be carefully monitored for the next few days, at least until the medication settles in — My Job! However, they are now certain that the problem is not the kidney but the blood vessels leading into the kidney which causes a whole range of issues. However, once the new medication settles in she should start to feel a great deal better ( Plan A)
I have not been out with the dogs these last few days and very little work had been done outside. The Man is very strange – at times he cries and falls down and at other times he runs around the place like a mad thing. He is still eating well enough although sometimes I have to lift him and place him down next to his food and I hand feed him his stick in the morning by breaking it in small pieces and letting him eat it out of my hand. It’s also sort of sneaky because I slip his medication into one of the pieces.
Since starting this I have been back down to Adelaide and the remainder of the week out of town. I did manage to get the dogs out for a walk before I left and The Man is walking – not well and very slow – but walking. He still sleeps a lot and he is still eating well enough.. Subsequently I have not used the stroller much. Odd thing happened when I was in Adelaide. I was in Rundle Plaza (shopping mall) and a lady stumbled and dropped her bag. Several of us went over to help her and pick up the things that fell out of her bag. I picked up a large, glass enclosed candle, which I did see come from her bag – and handed it to her. She wanted to know why I was handing her this thing because, she claimed, it was not hers and she refused to take it from me. I said it did come from her bag, but she just turned and walked away leaving me holding this glass enclosed candle. No one seemed interested and I spoke to the security people who just shrugged and handed it back to me – so, I brought it home with me. Herself thinks that she had been shoplfting and the candle was part of her haul. Very strange, but I got a Jasmine scented glass enclosed candle out of it all :o) But it just seems very odd – who steals a candle and why? and it did come from her bag.
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