MONDAY APRIL 27    TRIP PREPARATIONS

When grandson had been staying here earlier, John had the idea of taking him away for a couple of weeks, up to Lightning Ridge. Unfortunately it turned out that he had an important information night about next year’s secondary school, right in the time we would be away. Medical appointments limited our capacity to be flexible about the timing. But the idea had been sown…

The friend that John was occasionally bus driving for was a very interesting man, who had done a lot of varied occupations in his life. He had mined opal and run tours of opal fields, amongst other things. He still had a claim and camp at Lightning Ridge, and it was this that had given John the impetus for us to go visit there again.

The lovely Practice Nurse said that she was not doing anything for my leg that I couldn’t manage myself, for a while. God knows, after the past year or more, I could probably pass a qualifying exam in wound management. I  stocked up on supplies needed for the regular wound cleaning and dressing I would be doing, and obtained some precautionary anti-biotics, hoping like hell I wouldn’t need to take same. My leg “stuff” filled a small suitcase!

John didn’t have the next appointment to do with skin cancer until June.

It could happen….

John wanted another chance to see his grandsons in Canberra, so lined up to visit. There was one positive to the leg problem – John accepted that long days of travel are not good for me (or him, for that matter), so I hoped we would be travelling in more sedate stages than previously. In that spirit, he agreed we could take three days to get to Canberra, rather than the usual one or two.

The day was spent packing, and preparing Bus for travel. Our forays between house and Bus were watched with interest by some of a flock of corellas that had recently taken up residence in the area. Although they were a nuisance, damaging some of the trees, they were also really funny to watch – the clowns of the bird world.

Corellas watching us work…and showing off

John found he needed a special gauge to measure Bus tyre pressures, because of the dual wheels on back, so went off and bought one of those. The Coaster is still a discovery in progress.

M texted from Wyndham that sandflies really liked C. He hadn’t ever encountered them before.

I’d come down with a nasty head cold a couple of days ago, but was determined not to let that change our plans, even if it meant that I had to sleep sitting up!