It's Tuesday morning and I've been back in New Zealand for the past two weeks. A bit of a pisspoor effort not to write an entry the whole time I was in Australia, but there you go. There was always something more important to do I guess. I'm just going to write a bunch of short notes for the last month or so.
I flew in Thursday the 29th June. Dad picked me up from Hobart Airport about 9:30pm
Friday Dad and I had a quiet day, getting ready for the Hospital. He was on a fasting diet, so we couldn't even go out and get a burger or some dinner etc. I cooked myself a steak Friday night. Oh and I tried to sneak in to see Chris and Simone, I missed Simone but caught up with Chris for a little while.
Saturday I drove Dad to Hospital and checked him in, we went to the wrong floor first of all (due to the instructions of the staff) and Dad got crabby when we had to go down to a different floor! Eventually he found his bed, they prepped him for everything with his tags and gowns. Then I said goodbye to him and drove his car home. His new car with less than 2000km on it.
Parked the car up and went for a walk around town, found a place that sold me a Optus SIM card ($2 a day for data) and a National Pie.
I caught the Salamanca bus back to Dad's place. Kept ringing the Hospital and they kept saying he's still in theatre. Eventually about 5pm I found out he was out and I could go in and see him, so I went in. He was very sleepy/tired as you'd expect, heaps of tubes etc coming out of him. But still with us!
Saturday night went to Dinner with Rob, Denny, Julian D, Laree, Duncan and and a bunch of other people. Had a great night, tried to make it a surprise for Rob that I was there but ~2 minutes before Denny was about to pick me up my stupid phone bum-dialled Denny and Rob saw it flash up on the screen. Doh! Sunday morning I went to visit Dad to see how he was, then Rob came to get me to go to his 40th Birthday bash at the Sailing Club. Had a great morning there catching up with lots of people I hadn't seen in ages. Julian D, Rob's parents, Denny's parents, The Graneys. Was a real blast from the past. The party over we went over to the Kingston Pub for a couple of hours before Denny very kindly drove me and Julian D home.
Monday -> Friday basically consisted of me going in to see Dad in the morning, freezing cold as it was every day, then doing some work from his place, then heading in to see him again. His prognosis during the week seemed to go up and down. I was also getting ~10 phonecalls/texts a day from people wanting to know how he was doing etc, talking to me. I spoke to the surgeon a few times to see his thoughts, Dad's bowels really didn't want to work so it was a long week of Dad not feeling well, being sick, not being allowed food, having a nose tube put in to drain his stomach contents. There was concern that his bowels weren't working, that maybe his kidney wasn't stitched up properly etc. Thursday morning he seemed especially sick and I was quiet worried, but then Thursday night he seemed much better.
While I was there I also walked over the Tasman bridge, there and back. Something I've always wanted to do, something I think I might have done once year and years ago but don't recall. Anyway I definitely did it this time! I didn't really enjoy it very much, quite scary for a wusschook like me.
I also caught up with Tim Fleming, meeting his new baby Ethan and checking out his lovely (massive!) house. Also caught up with Travers, and Beatty even came down with Charlie and we caught up. Bit of a bad night though as I was working later than night to ensure a bunch of network stuff was going to stand up properly. Still always good to see old friends, brief though it was. Oh yes and I can't forget that I also zipped back down to the Kitchen Beach Pub the second Sunday for lunch to catchup with Phill Groom. Was great to see him again, Phill was the bloke who basically talked me into coming to NZ for a job, so I kinda owe him really.
The second Sunday night I went down to Rob and Denny's for dinner, which was lovely as always. Looked at their new house extension which I'd seen when I was there for Adrian's wedding but this was the first time I'd seen it live-in-able. Rob of course had done lots of little tricks and built some amazing extra storage areas etc, all very well thought out. Their boys are so grown up and such nice guys too, very chatty and friendly. Had a great night.
The second week Dad finally started to make some good progress, his bowels started working, they took out the nose tube that he hated so much (I can't say that I blame him, it would be so annoying) and drain tubes etc finally started to come out too. That's when I started to feel a lot happier about how everything was going anyway, Dad still seemed a bit down in the dumps and crabby about it all, but I would be the same after having spent 2 weeks in Hospital. Wednesday (5th) Jeremy arrived at lunchtime, so I zoomed Dad's super car down there to pick him up. Great to see Jeremy again, we had a good catchup and chat on the couch. Wednesday night Jeremy and I went out with Roger (Dad's neighbour from next door) and had a good night out. Thursday I caught up with Rob Fleming quickly for coffee, did a few last minute little errands etc. Thursday night went in to see Dad and it was perfect timing for the last visit really because they were wheeling him out of the critical care unit and into a general ward, the perfect sign that he was properly on the mend. Though we already knew he was from all the pooping.
Jeremy and I went out for Dinner, Jeremy Ubered us around which was very flash. Hobart has Uber, quite a few too. Still no sign of it here in Napier anywhere.
Friday morning at stupid early o'clock Jeremy drove me down to the Airport and dropped me off. And I spent the rest of the day on planes or in airports getting home. Our flight out of Melbourne was delayed, which meant I got a visit from a flight attendant halfway between Australia and New Zealand to tell me my flight to Napier had been bumped to the 2 hours later one. I was so sad, I'd been so looking forward to seeing Beth and Theo at the airport. When I got to Auckland I grabbed my bags and RAN to the Domestic terminal to see if they could move me back to the earlier flight but I was ~4 minutes too late, it'd closed. I was so sad. And sweaty. So I finally landed in Napier at 7:30pm instead of 5:30pm. Beth was still there to see me though which was night, but I had to wait until Saturday morning to see Theo. And that's for the next story anyway, Theo's second birthday!
It was lovely to see so many people, meet a few new people too. Thanks Auntie Liz for cooking a few muffins etc for me and Jeremy, thanks everyone who called/texted Dad. I felt like my job sometimes was just to let everyone else know what was going on, lots of people kept checking in. It was great to catchup with Roger, Dad's neighbor properly and have a few beers with him. Great to see Jeremy again too, of course, we were trying to figure out when was the last time we'd both been in Tasmania together and it was probably when Dad had his Prostate Cancer and associated removal. Quite a long time ago, back when I still was wearing my "Smoke Crack and Worship Satan" T-Shirt.
It's so great how good video calling has become now - most nights I would sit at Dad's dinner table with my laptop and talk to Beth/Theo while they had their dinner, then Beth would "carry me" (i.e. the phone) to the bathroom and I could talk to them both while they had their bath, playing the Toothbrush song for them over the connection. It was so good to still be able to be a part of their evening routine, even though I was in another country. It was also incredibly frustrating when they were playing up and the only tool at my disposal was to shout at them, Sarah still had to do all the physical stuff and listen to their whinging! But it was great, Beth especially loved it. And it kept me cheered up to be able to see them and talk to them about their day.
Tim
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