On April 1st Janet and Johnny came to visit
us for a week. It was good to have them with us. We did not plan on going
anywhere, and they were content to sit around.
However we did have one excursion.
The day after they arrived, while Janet & Johnny were out for their
run, a fast-talking Samoan came to the
house to see about cutting some branches off the horse-chestnut and silver
birch trees. This was his own idea. He explained how the branches were dangerous,
or would be dangerous if they fell during a high wind. He had called in before
when “the boss” was not home, so I had refused to commit yea or nay. I had subsequently forgotten about him.
$1800, he said, guaranteed no damage, and all detritus removed. I was astonished that Ray even heard him out,
let alone agreed to the job, which was to begin immediately.
Ray walked up town to get cash from the bank. It was that kind of
deal. The man fetched “his boys” and they began work. Janet & Johnny returned and were
astonished at what Ray had done. Johnny
said he would have done the job for less!
J & J were having brunch when Ray came back with a young man,
saying, “Look what I have captured!” We thought at first he was one of the tree
“boys” and wondered why he had been captured.
Then we learned he was a hitch-hiker.
Then I saw his huge pack in the sitting room, and I was amazed at its
size. (It was a neat upright pack, and
looked not overly laden when I later saw it on his back.) The poor young man must have been sore
amazed, brought in through the tree-cutting confusion outside, to our very
small dining room which would have seemed crowded at first glance. We all stood up to greet him, which would
have made things more intimidating.
Furthermore, the tallest of us was a bald tattooed man of unknown
nationality!
At first he did not want anything to eat, but later – perhaps a
couple of hours later – I came in from catching up on some Indexing to find
Janet feeding him toast, peanut butter and jam, which she and Johnny were also
eating. The young man was Peer van
Duppen. Where in Holland he came from I
was not there to hear. He was really
talkative, and of course so was Johnny, with Ray bringing out the map and telling
of his experiences in Holland “a hundred and fifty years ago”. Janet told me
afterwards that Peer was a medical student, aged 22, going back to do a
doctorate after his long OE. Several
months he was travelling, not just in New Zealand.
Peer was heading for Waitomo, where he had booked a tour for the
morrow, caving, black-water rafting and abseiling. He had come from Rotorua, and had been
dropped in Putaruru by a rather dubious character who had at first promised to
take him to Te Kuiti, then changed his mind and dumped him in Putaruru, on our
street, from where, so the man had said, he could easily get a ride to Te
Kuiti. This was not true. The Waitomo tour buses go past our house, but
I guess not one in thousand private cars would be going to Waitomo and very few
to Te Kuiti. Ray volunteered to take him
to Waitomo, but of course it would be in Janet's rental car, with Johnny
driving! We could not immediately get at
either car, Janet's in front of the garage, or ours inside the garage, while
the fellers' truck was in the driveway.
In any case, Ray would never leave the men at work.
When the tree cutters had left, we got moving and drove to
Waitomo. Having got Peer booked into
Juno Hall Backpackers, we all returned to the highway and drove to Te Kuiti. We
walked the length of the main street.
Janet was not impressed. We
walked over towards a redwood grove, which did not seem to be a public park,
but looked enticing, even though dark and a bit grim. Adjacent to it were two rows of housing for
the elderly – next to a Kingdom Hall!
Within walking distance of the shops, seedy though they might be, and
surely at a pinch walkable to the LDS chapel, surrounded by hills, I thought it
might not be a bad place to end my days.
There could be flooding, in the basin of the hills, and Te Kuiti is
reputedly a cold place in winter. Then we drove back to Juno Hall and said quite
fond farewells to Peer. Our relative
ages were interesting. Peer's mother is 51, which is Johnny's age. Janet
remarked that she could be his mother.
Peer reminded me of William in many ways, his face, his voice – though
not his accent – so could be taken for a son of Janet's.
The week after Janet and Johnny left, which was bad timing, Ray and
I each had a medical experience in Hamilton.
We could have used a driver that week!
I had an appointment at Waikato Hospital to have a thing removed from my
leg. There was nothing alarming about
that, but Ray hates driving into Hamilton and particularly hates finding a
place to park near the hospital, so we did not look forward to it. In desperation to find a place to park, Ray
even brought himself to use the hospital carpark building, something which is
against his principles, but it was full, so he had to drive out again and
eventually found a place way down a side street. Because the regular pedestrian path to main
entrance was closed for repairs, we walked through a jungle of alleys and steps
to get there. In fact we wondered
whether we would ever get there!
Fortunately coming out was okay, because Ray was instructed to drive
right up to the doors where I was waiting in a wheelchair.
It is the next part that gets interesting. Ray had long since been referred to the Eye
Clinic in Hamilton, but had postponed the appointment. Now he thought as we were in Hamilton he
should check it out. He subsequently had
second thoughts but I quashed them, so we ventured to find our way with me in
the back seat with my feet up, trying to give him directions. I do not know quite how we got there, but we
did, to the Bridgewater building, on Grantham Street. We actually found a place to park too. Ray went in and soon returned with the news
that he could have his cataract operation the very next day!
So back we went the next day.
Ray had his examination in the morning, and his operation was scheduled
for the afternoon. There was no way I
was going to let Ray drive home, so we found a motel, The Albert Court, across
the river on Grey St. The owner, David
Gillingham, was just the most helpful person.
He drove us to the Clinic for operation, and told us to phone him to
fetch us back afterwards. He was
solicitous for me too, offering to squeeze an armchair into our small
unit. I declined, as it was more
comfortable anyway to sit on the bed with my legs up.
The cataract operation took ages.
It was a good thing it was the last scheduled for the day. The waiting room, where I had a Lazy Boy
chair to sit in, was quite empty before Ray was wheeled in. The nurse was most pleasant. She came and told me not to worry, the
operation was taking so long because it was a difficult one, but it was being
successfully accomplished. She tried to
explain a few things in answer to my questions, and even went and got a
print-out to explain something. Whether
the cataract was a thick one because it had been left so long, or whether it
just happened that way, we do not know.
It seems there were complicating factors also. Which meant a few fragments were left in the
eye, and the eye had to have a stitch put in.
The next morning Ray had to go back to have the eye-patch
removed. David drove us in. Ray was disappointed that when the patch was
removed he could not see at all well, not even as well as before the
operation. He was given a regimen of
eye-drops, to be administered at different intervals throughout the day, and a
prescription for tablets to be taken three times a day with meals. I had to make a chart to make it easy to
remember what to administer when! We
stayed another night at the motel. Then
Ray drove home, with me literally a back street navigator.
When Ray had to go back for check-ups, he asked Keith Silva to
drive him to Hamilton. I did not want
any more the lame guiding the blind type of driving! So far he has been back twice, the first time
to have the stitch taken out. Even that
was not successful. Ray can boast he has a stitch somewhere in his
eyeball! The second time the surgeon was
pleased with the progress of the eye, and changed the medication to another
set, but now we only put drops in four times a day, three different kinds! Ray's sight is improving, we are glad to be
able to report.
After all that, it is not surprising that we have nothing else to
report! And probably will have nothing
at all to report for May. At least, we
hope nothing much to report. Ray has at
least one more appointment at the Eye Clinic, to which Keith will take him.
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