SEPTEMBER      HAPPENINGS – SOME CHEERFUL, SOME NOT…

A few days after our return from NSW, the Practice Nurse pronounced my leg ulcers all healed up! I could even resume water aerobics in a couple of weeks. Travel had been good for me.

Springtime at home

Friend M had continued her adventuring in WA, after the Kimberley cruise. Whilst waiting for the second lot of repairs to the Troopy, in Kununurra, she met up with friends travelling up that way. One lady with a 4WD motorhome had room for an extra on their trip along the Gibb River Road, so M joined her. They managed to drown the Mercedes in a creek crossing that was deeper than it looked, while exploring a station track, so travelled to Derby with the retrieval truck. I wondered if she was a vehicle jinx on this trip! Fortunately, the damage was not too  great and they returned to Kununurra, where M picked up the Troopy again. She then spent some months travelling in WA with those friends.

In early September an email from M told me that she’d had an incident at Morgan. They had stopped for a meal break at the pleasant riverside park, where we’d often stopped on our travels. She slipped walking down the grassy slope from the toilet block and sat down heavily – on her foot, which went crack and crunch. In much pain by the time they reached there for the night, the Mildura hospital decided it wasn’t broken, and despite discomfort she did, after a day’s rest, manage to drive home. Subsequent checks revealed a couple of hairline fractures to the ankle bone and two badly torn ligaments/tendons. I finally found someone who is worse than me on crutches! She was very happy when she eventually graduated to a moon boot, just in time to embark on a cruise to places like New Caledonia, with one of the ladies she sometimes travels with. On the second day out, they contracted the norovirus that was sweeping the ship and spent most of the rest of the cruise locked in a cabin, being fed bananas and boiled rice. Don’t think this was one of her better years.

John, who had been showing increasing interest in the idea of a cruise, decided then and there that he wasn’t paying good money just to get sick – it seemed that this virus was affecting a lot of the cruise ships operating in Australia this year. I wasn’t particularly interested in cruising – except for the Kimberley coast – so was quite happy that he dropped the idea.

Woodworking with grandson

A toothache that had been occasional whilst we were away gradually became more of a regular event. I parted company with a molar – not too many of those left, now…

John had yet another round of surgery to remove skin cancers on leg and a hand. The latter became infected and prevented him from bowling for several weeks. The man was not happy.