Needless to say, I slept like a log last night. I knew nothing after hitting the pillow. It has to be one of the best sleeps ever. It’ll be worth catching the planes back just for the night of sleep immediately afterwards.
One thing I did notice was the fact that mum & dad have actually bought a bed for me. The last time I stayed, it was on a slowly deflating blow up mattress. I was rather dreading spending so much time on it. It was a lovely surprise to find the real bed.
We went shopping this morning (it’s been two years since I last went to Sunland and it hasn’t changed a bit) and I bought two pairs of shorts which I fully intend to live in. Mum and I also had an ice cream from Wendy’s…like we did two years ago. Mum thought it rather odd that I had a scoop of rum and raisin and a scoop of bubblegum. Seriously, mum, you have to push the boat out sometimes.
Today I went for a couple of walks with my camera. Mostly so Mirinda can see where I am but also because I like taking photographs so I don’t forget. My first walk was to the shops just around the corner. And I mean that literally. It is brilliant! A big set of shops, just around the corner.
Apart from the bottle shop, IGA, butcher, greengrocer and newsagent (who isn’t very nice so mum refuses to buy her paper there any more), there’s a post office. Which is where I went first. I dragged all the calendars across the globe with me and posted three today. I feel so terribly organised as usually, people are lucky if they receive them by March.
Anyway, I posted calendars then wandered through the alley and, voila! I was on Bulcock Street.
After the desolation of Kawana Island, this is absolutely brilliant. Especially for someone who doesn’t agree with the world’s dependency on motor vehicles. I can reach everywhere on foot. It also means mum can get anywhere she needs without using the car.
The weather was very hot and the sweat was pouring out of me when dad suddenly announced that he had to go up to Caloundra Hospital. And up we went. It wasn’t anything life threatening just a routine procedure that didn’t feel like waiting the proper month. While it’s not life threatening, it is very painful so we went straight up.
The hospital (which I’d never visited before) is high up on a hill and gets the loveliest of breezes. It also has a brand new A&E section with the weirdest procedure for checking in.
First up you have to report to the Triage Nurse who ascertains the level of your medical requirements. This would be fine if there were a few of them but there’s only one. So, if someone else is already there, you have to wait. I guess this encourages the use of ambulances.
You then get passed on to one of the receptionists, to whom you have to explain everything all over again. This receptionist then finds your file (if, like dad, you have a thick, doorstep of a file) and tells you to wait to be called.
We weren’t waiting very long before a doctor came out and took dad away but the system surely allows for longer waiting times given you have to see the Triage Nurse first. Still, we were lucky there wasn’t more people in the waiting room and were away reasonably quickly.
Late in the day, after a pathetic fall of rain that dried before it hit the ground and the temperature had dropped slightly below a million degrees, I went for a walk down to King’s Beach and up to the headland. It’s a lovely walk, with fantastic views out to sea and the waves crashing way below the path.
I stood and watched a massive tanker, that I thought was a liner, approach the shore from way out on the horizon. It was coming right at me. Just when I thought it was going to wind up ploughing onto the beach, it made a sharp right and headed north up the coast.
By the time I started back to the house, the sun had set and I had a frantic text from mum, worried that something had happened to me. I texted back saying I was just fine and would be home shortly. I mean, really!
Don’t blame that on me it was your father who said you had better text him. I see my home town nearly every day but you don’t see the beauty of it till it is in picture’s looks lovely.
love mum