Going through this stuff has resulted in frequent thoughts of the olds….
We referred to my mum (who died a couple of years ago) as ‘the Holy Roller’ because she was always praying for someone. I should mention though, that on occasions, she would be praying for an outcome and the total opposite would happen, which to be fair, and as it would turn out, the opposite appeared to actually be the optimal outcome!!?? Yes well, me being an attitudinous arsehole of the highest order, when she offered to pray for me, I would generally comment to the effect of “no thanks, I want this to happen!” Fortunately she never listened and now I get the feeling she is working overtime. As for the old fella (who died 13 yrs ago), he managed to experience a few ailments in his time starting in the mid-70’s when he was paralysed from the neck-down for 8 weeks after a swimming accident in rough surf at Tairua. After he came right (he was about 50 at the time and never regained full strength and agility) he explained that he could feel the brush of a feather on his leg, but not the prick of a pin (hence my recollection when I got the pin test). He also said he could feel the water, hopping into a bath, but not whether it was hot or cold. In later years he had heart stuff, prostate stuff, the odd bit of gout and died of a massive stoke …and I guess I thought it would have been really nice and enlightening to have another chat ….or perhaps read his blog if he’d had one …and hence my decision to document this wee episode. Exercise wise…. This week has been pretty average with no particular highlights or lowlights. Saturday I was able to hop on the pushbike and ride to J’ville and back. The purpose of that was to check out pumps at the bike shop there, both one for the pushbike because the current one I have doesn’t take the car type Schroder valves, plus a standup type hand-pump that I can use on the motorbike as well, for topping up the pressures at home prior to riding. This time I was getting the hang of it, was more stable and I was more adept with the gear changes and gear selection. Sunday we has a casual 3-4Km walk along Oriental Parade, then more solo higher rate walks on Monday to Wednesday, with the Tuesday walk being about 5Km in 50 minutes, but Thursday & Friday were pissing down so I had to settle for 20 & 25 minutes on the spin bike with some minor weights. As mentioned previously, I don’t like to attack these things with religious fervour, but the push-up count is now up to 16. Food & Weight wise…. I’ve stuck to the plan with little sugar, minimal carbs, plenty of fruit and veg, minimal chicken and some fish ….until Friday night and an old Air Force mate was in town, so we dined at Whitbys in the James Cook …..I was good though!! ….Honest!! ……well compared to last time anyway. Now look, I can categorically state that I did not fill that bowl with ice cream! I settled for a small serving of pumpkin soup (that tasted like it had pumpkin in it), a moderate plate of steamed and baked veges. A piece of baked fish, a small piece of baked chicken, a little delicious lean beef ….and a really fatty piece of pork belly!! OK, I did finish with a small desert of fresh fruit …and the tiniest piece of cheese cake ….OK, and three scoops of ice cream ….but one of them was sorbet so that doesn’t count! …..and there were at least eight flavours on offer and I only had two ….and one was sorbet!!! ….I tried to be good ….and it was a special occasion because I havn’t seen the Hamster for 20 years!! Sheesh….get over it!! I had a follow-up call from the hospital this week, received my booking in July for an ECG and yet to be advised when I get the 24hr heart monitor. …so not much happening there. Work wise I’ve been doing around 6hr days and topped-up with a day’s leave. That’s been quite good as the brain seems to have had enough by then and next week I have the whole week off to take some of our surrogate moko’s to Rotorua. That should be relaxing….???!! The weight hit 91Kg last week, but bounced back to 91.7 and has been a real dog to get back down. It has been trending down all week but only in very small increments to 91.1Kg on Friday morning. This has led me to the conclusion that I need more exercise and particularly more weights. The problem is not driving, so if I pushbike to the gym, by the time I get there I have to ride home, so a workout is pointless (or rather would be overdoing it)…so I have a conundrum. Also the weather hasn’t been very friendly and I’ve been told not to get the heart rate too high, so I need to exercise for longer time at a lower rate. So that’s all a work in progress ….but!! ….this morning I had real WTF moment ….. Usual routine, get up, purge the system, weigh myself (expecting 92 or maybe 92+) …..and I was 90.6Kg. FFS, it must have been the pork belly, or perhaps the steamed broccoli?? Go figure!! So I upped the session on the spin bike to 30 minutes. Now that’s not optimal because one can’t adjust the pressure on this thing so it’s a bit like pushing a really high gear on the flat and even though we replaced the display, it doesn’t work so I can’t monitor the heart rate and I’m pretty sure it would have getting into the 120-135 bpm area. Ok, so I cool down, go upstairs and strip off for a shower, then weigh myself again ….oh, and I removed the hair-tie so I could wash my hair ….and so it wouldn’t corrupt the reading and halleluah ….I was 89.9Kg Maybe it’s because I forgot to take my statin pill last night??
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Week two started (even though week one wasn’t a full week, but my undiagnosed OCD tendencies require me to operate on a Monday to Sunday format) …anyway, week two started and I was quite concerned because, already, my weight was indicating that I had started dipping into my reserves of stored energy …and who knows when you might need those? On the other hand, I was also quite elated because my weight showed that I had started dipping into my reserves of stored energy because I had slipped under 92Kg for the first time in many months and all it had taken to achieve that was:
The Monday morning walk was 50 minute doozey, taking a circuitous route to Khandallah Village then back over the mountain that is Satara Rd again, which actually took me from a pleasant glow to the point of producing the slightest dribble from my temples and when I got home I did a few press-ups. I suppose I should mention here that during lockdown, I witnessed some wallys doing press-ups on fb and I thought, “Shit, when was the last time I did one of those? Bugger me you fat bastard, you probably can’t even do one!?” ….so I tried. Yep, yep, yep, yep yep ….naahh, Do you realise how hard it is do a press-up when one is too busy laughing at oneself, but anyway, I could do one…..and shit it was an effort, so I decided that I better start doing some press-ups and increase the count by one each time. Now I try NOT to attack these things with religious fervour, so today I was up to 10. That was followed by a visit from my business partners and now I have to give James a hug when I see him because he brought flowers! He reckoned they were for Ann for putting up with me, ….but he brought me flowers! Tuesday and it was off to the hospital to see the neuro people. We arrived just after 0730, parked up and went in to wait as the appointment wasn’t until 0830. We got seen by one of the experts, plus agreed for a final year student to sit-in and that was the start of the next stage in the saga…. It turns out that this was my third stroke and this one had happened within the two weeks up to that time, but the others most likely sometime in the past one to two years!! Tests started with lights off and checking pupil dilation and the back of my eyes, then the stethoscope came out to check how the ticker and flow was sounding, next some tapping to test reflexes, followed by resistance checks to prevent-movement and cause-movement in limbs, hands, feet, fingers and toes. That was followed by eye peripheral vision and eye-tracking, then off the bed to test balance & co-ordination by walking toe to heel, then on toes, then on heels. I was caught off guard a little on this one and Ann picked-up that I had to focus to keep my balance, so I suppose they did too. Finally the pin came out to check the nerve sensitivity. Next came an ECG, then bloods, then ultra-sound of the carotids and finally another chat with the doc …sounds like all was good and I could hear the flow rate on the ultrasound, identifying that the pulse rate at rest is still pretty slow. The chat included a prescription of Statins to reduce the cholesterol, the fact that I’d be wired up with a monitor in a few weeks so they could get more data for a better idea of what was happening and that was hard case because afterwards I mention to Ann, “You know what ran through my mind when she mentioned about wiring me up with the monitor,?” … “No, what?” …. “That I should get on the bike and go for a 1000 miler and see what that does!!” …..Hehe, the response to that was something along the lines of “Friggin idiot!” ….OK, OK, she actually said, “That won’t be happening!!” (gosh some people are narrow minded.) We left with a better understanding at about 1245, but also, not really any better off, because it would seem that we are all individuals and different. Therefore there’s no set criteria or guidelines as to what is needed get through this. I mentioned that I’ll take antibiotics etc, but generally I’m loathe to even take a painkiller, so what’s the target weight and position for taking the statins. That led to discussing BMI and a target of 25 ….which equates to about 81Kg!!! OK, not to far off my 85Kg target but the fat headed, fat bastard is now on statins for the next month!! Great start to Wednesday at 91.0Kg on the scales, had some muesli, went to the salon with Ann and had a 30 minute stroll around the waterfront and town, then we went to Porirua to look at desks, chairs and monitors to set the office up properly at home, had another 20 minute stroll and came home to do a bit of work. (Ann was just doing the one client as a favour for the day). Rest of the week was pretty uneventful because I was basically on sick-leave, but doing little bits from home. On Thursday though, I needed to get the pushbike sorted and tested. Yes well!! The fat bastard put a backpack on, wheeled the bike out, gingerly and wobbily hopped on it ….then got about 15mtrs and remembered he should have a helmet on (to be expected though I suppose ….the poor bastard has had a stroke!!) I turned around and decided the tyres needed more air as well. What a bloody saga that was! Started pumping with a dodgy stand-up type hand-pump but that seemed to be letting air out faster than in. *Sigh* ….I knew I had an old bike pump somewhere but couldn’t find it so in the end, used the compressor off the bike. Put the lid on, hopped on the bike ….and forgot to take the backpack!!! First stop the bike shop down the road to check out pumps….they were closed! Next stop Mitre 10 to check out what they had ….nothing but the cheap-shit crap that fails after a few uses (I know because I’ve destroyed several) ……next stop ….I might as well go to the office to sort some printing and get the feel of the bike! It’s a pretty flat ride from Ngaio to Khandallah …..in the car! The bloody pushbike was a different story. It felt unstable (I don’t know why because my recollection is that I’m a competent rider) and the gears didn’t know which was was up….or down. No worries though, I don’t think I got out of 2nd, got to the office and collapsed in a heap!! Shit it’s funny being a fat old bastard! I spent a couple of hours there then took a circuitous, but relatively flat and generally slightly downhill route home. That was good because I got the hang of those gear changing thingys, which is a bit of a waste of time because a day later and I’ve forgotten which way is up again, but the bike will let me know next time I get on it! Ann’s working over the weekend so I guess that’ll be more quiet time at home with some exercise thrown in. Will he be a Johnnie Walker? ….or will he be a Rider on the Storm? I got a bit of unwelcome news yesterday!
Last week (Friday) I got to work and had difficulty distinguishing the numbers in my spreadsheet and I guess the only way I can describe it would be to say it was a bit like having a migraine. Now I’ve never known the pain of a migraine, but I experienced my first ‘No-Pain Migraine’ in my mid-teens when I was on the rugby field ….playing at the time I might add! It was the most weird experience as, all of a sudden it was looking down a tube where I couldn’t really focus properly on the centre of my visual field and all around that was these swirling strips of light. Every now an then I get these things, they last 5 or 10 minutes and that’s it ….but in this case I didn’t have the swirly bits and it didn’t go away. I went back into work on Saturday to paint one of rooms as we were converting it to be the new boardroom, but before I started, I logged in and dropped the banking, only to find I was still having the problems with my vision and that prompted one of those WTF responses. Also, I guess you could say I had a gay old time trying to cut-in on the painting around the covings, skirtings and windows!! Come Tuesday, things felt a little better with the vision but I had made up my mind to contact the optician to get it checked, she had a slot available at 1030, so I took that, tested OK except for a minor black spot ….and she referred me to the Eye Clinic at the Hospital, where they had a slot available at 1500. Bloody marvelous, I said I’d take it. I ended up spending 1430 to 1930 at the hospital doing some of the same tests and some different ones, then saw one of the ophthalmologists, she said vision was OK, rang her boss, then rang the neuro team and said I was good to go. I must say though that at the time, I was thinking, “what the hell are you ringing the neuro team for because I already know I’m a psycho!!” I went back to work and on Thursday morning I got a call from the nice Asian Doctor (but I can’t even remember her name), and she advised that the Neuro Team would like me to have an MRI and there was a slot free at 1500, so I took that, called Ann and she came with me. …Friggin’ noisy things those MRI machines, but I’m pretty sure I managed a couple of wee naps during the half hour I was in the thing! Anyway, the week went in a flash and on Friday at about 1700 (yes I was still at work), Asian Doctor Lady rings again, she asked if I was OK to talk and dropped a clanger! “You’ve had a bit of a stroke!” she said! Bugger Me! I sat there and a few moments later it hit me! My Great-Aunt Dolly was a stroke victim who was cared for by my Grandmother and I only remember her as requiring a stick and had difficulty talking. …and my dad died of a massive stroke at 83 in 2007!! That resulted in a couple of quiet tears, I packed up and gapped it to pick-up Ann. As I drove from Khandallah into town to get Ann I went through a flood of thoughts and emotions….Poor Me, an effing stroke! ….Lucky Me, a minor effing stroke and I’m OK …serves you right you fat bastard! ….an effing stroke!! …poor me, tears ….lucky me ….more tears and by the time I got to Capital Gateway I was somewhere between numb and a mess. (PS. I think the tears were because I knew I wouldn’t be allowed to ride!!!) (Also, I should mention that I’ve been driving all week with no problems because I was blissfully unaware there was one!!) Ann hopped in, I blurted it out, we swapped seats, went home, had a feed, I checked out a couple of things online, settled down, had a good night’s sleep and now, like always, I thank my lucky stars, my guardian angels (because I know there has always needed to be a team of them), my ancestors (although they’re the bastards that passed on the dodgy genes) for looking after me and letting me off with a wake-up call. Blood pressure is good but I need to lose at least 7Kgs …ok, maybe 10 or more but 7 is about a stone and with that, the cholesterol should drop a notch or two and I should be OK? I suppose I’ll know in a week or a month or a few months ….but in the meantime, feel free to call me Johnnie Walker!! …and depending on what stage of the cycle you catch me ….and how long I’ve been off the bike, I might laugh ….or I might punch you!! 24 hours and I’m already sick of this place….
It was only 30° yesterday and even cooler today The Indian buffet for dinner last night was too big and I couldn’t make much of a dent. Same at breakfast …I could only eat the muesli with yoghurt, pears & pawpaw, then barely half of the other stuff, settling for beans on toast, bacon, sausage and an omelette, then finishing with marmalade on toast with a coffee. I had tried to work up an appetite by going for a 25 minute walk around the resort, then a 20 minute kayak and 10 minutes on a cross trainer …but I think that only helped work off dinner! We hired a car for the afternoon and tomorrow morning to check out resorts in the area for Mu’s wedding next year. The plan there was to head back to Shangri-La (the wedding venue) then see what alternative accommodations are like as the Shangri-La is quite expensive. On the way there though, the plan changed to just check-out the venue, then look at the Outrigger. The Shangri-La is huge, utilising about half of the 200 acres it is set on (Naviti is a reasonable size and only 21 acres). It has a large conference centre and the marquee that can be used as an inclement weather alternative can cater for up to 800 guests …like I said, it’s huge and pretty damned tidy ….just a pity about the price. We were able to have a good chat and look around with the wedding-planner man and that was all good. We had tried to get into the Outrigger for this trip, but there were no vacancies and that’s pretty damned big and about 20 minutes up the road compared to the 40plus minutes to naviti. So that was that, we returned to the resort, had snack, had a read, went for a latish dinner, which was a seafood buffet, but it didn’t look that appealing or have tht many options that I’d be into ….plus not being very hungry from the snack, I just had a burger and Ann had tomato soup. Finished off the day reading ….It’ll be tough but I will survive! Day 2 The tedium continues, but this morning I had a plan!! I ate too much yesterday so this morning I decided to drop the toast & marmalade and the sausage. Scoffed the muesli but with yoghurt, peaches and pawpaw, then slipped the toast in prior to going for eggs. (a change in strategy here as there's a wait for eggs to be cooked and the other stuff cooled yesterday so I had a fix). Bread did it's first run through the machine, but I hate raw toast, so in it goes for the second of three runs and at that point I happen to notice the length of the egg queue!! (Thinks Oh FFS). I put raw toast in for third run. Then continue a scan of the dining area (sort of like scanning the road ahead, as a good biker does) and notice a cute wee boy licking a spoon ....nah...it was a damned big ladle stuffed stuffed down his gob!! ....and then he put it back in the peach bowl!! (Double FFS) (I knew it was the peach bowl because he started scoffing them by hand as he headed back to his table). I go back to the table to scoff the toast (with marmalade) and second coffee as I come up with a new plan. By this time Ann had finished her muesli etc and was heading for eggs, offered to get some for me and I was all, ‘nah she’ll be right, I’ll just give it a miss and have the other stuff (also thinking there was no way I needed eggs!) So off she goes and I’m sitting there thinking she’ll be getting scrambled eggs …that’s good because I don’t need or want a full omelette ….or maybe I should go for a cheese omelette?? ….nah, scrambled will be good. Then as she gets to about forth in the queue, I go up and make the toast ….then she gives me my full omelette!! Bugger, I think, Oh well, can’t waste it so I get the bacon and beans and a third coffee!! Came out of that a little fuller than I should have been and we head for the car to go for a wee drive towards Suva, but Ann suggests, “Why don’t we go all the way?” so that’s what we did! I was thinking it’s only about 80 Km, so should only take about an hour or so …yeah right. Max Speed Limit all over Fiji is 80kph, the roads are narrowish and potholed. The drivers drive at 80kph and brake for most / many of the corners. They don’t have yellow or double-yellow lines as in NZ, they just stick with white paint ….but mostly it’s a double-white. The towns / villages can be 60 or 50 kph ….but most tend to have a proliferation of humps (definitely at each end but often a few in the middle as well) and any faster than 20kph could do damage to the undercarriage. I mean, I say humps, but one gets the impression that they were cast using a forty gallon drum cut in half! ….and more on the potholes! Sometimes they been fixed and the road surface is a little rough, other times they are just potholes, but every now and then, you can’t see the bottom!!! I mean, you see a pothole up ahead, you swing one way or other to avoid it, then you find yourself heading for a series of ever-enlargening, bloody great gaping holes and wishing the car was a rubber-tracked vehicle! ….and back to the drivers! I mentioned they are brakers, but they are also tailgaters, double-yellow (or white in this case) passers and generally totally spatially-unaware. ie. They sit in the right lane on passing lanes ….and don’t pass; they pull out, take off, then slow down; even if they don’t want to pass, they still tail-gate to prevent others from passing ….and there aren’t slow bays or much room for trucks to[J1] make room ….but I suspect they wouldn’t anyway and it’s nothing to have a truck with a queue of twenty odd vehicles following …at 50-60 kph in 80 zones!!! So we went for a drive to Suva ....and I won't be doing that again!! We got back, went for a swim in the pool …..ok, we hopped in the pool and chilled out, then later Ann went to the gym while I went kayaking for 45 minutes and tonight went to the Chinese Restaurant rather than overindulge in the lovo evening meal …..and I’ll finish the night with a read. (Mark Twains – A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court ....since I saw the Bing Crosby movie as a kid and don't recall much of it) A few weeks ago I got a nudge on fb that some of my old mates from the ‘70’s were gathering at Ohakea/Bulls for ANZAC day. The Air Force is/was a classic place for nicknames, to the point that one often didn’t know the real name of close friends and on more than one occasion, I recall turning up at home with mates and saying, “Hi mum, this is …..??...... TK!!” So I get this message, “Greek, there’s a bit of a Ohakea get together this coming ANZAC day in Bulls. It would be a good ride from where you are. Just saying.....” and that led on to, “Yep it’s Punjab !!! There’s about 20 or more of us gathering in Bulls for ANZAC day this year. I can give you some names, Pedro, Bob and Nuts, Cookie, Gerrie, Snow, Lee Parts, Taiters,” …and so on. “We will be settling in the day before then off to the Dawn parade next day, most of us are there for a day or two more. (Probably recovering) There is rumour of a tour on base and maybe a couple of quiet ones at the Sgts Mess It would be nice if you can turn up but no pressure. It’s a bit of an Ohakea reunion.” I looked at the names and thought, “Bloody hell, could be dangerous, ….. I’m a bit busy but how could I not.” I did 20 years service, ended up in Wellington, exited in 1993 and stayed here. Shelly Bay closed down a couple of years later and from that point I had very little contact with any of the old mates. In fact, I’ve only been back on two bases since then to attend an Avionics Reunion in Auckland about 20 years ago, then for the Ohakea Air Show in April 2012. I mean, I have caught up with mates from time to time, but just not that often. So I figured I really should make the effort. A week ago I dropped the bike in for a service and was planning to take that, possibly even leaving early enough (0430’ish) to make the Dawn Parade, but as it transpired, I needed a new rear tyre (mumble f…. after only 6500km ….although that did include two fairly spirited 1600km rides). Anyway, Easter delayed the order, then shonky couriers that took three days to provide an overnight delivery meant that I didn’t have the bike and had to take the Merc. The other problem I had was that I’d left the mobile on the counter at the bike shop and told them to put it in the top box (expecting to get it back the next day) so I never had it. Punjab had given me her number so I could contact her to find out where I needed to go once I got there and I wrote her number down on an old envelope (as you do) …..and I forgot to grab it with my stuff, so I get to Bulls about 0800, go to the RSA and find nobody there, go back to the car to get Ann’s mobile and the number ….and find out what an idiot I am!! After a bit of faffing around (because I couldn’t ring Ann since I had her phone) I eventually get the number and get hold of the group to find they have just gone on base, so I make my way there. I finally catch up with them and as I’m walking up to the group I comment, “Bloody hell, I came to meet up with my old mates, but all I see is their grandparents!!” to which a dry response comes back, “Go look in the mirror.” The rest of the day was great. We watched a couple of relics and a few trainers take-off, went for a wee drive around base, had a couple of photo-ops, then settled down in the Sgts Mess to reminisce.
I’d run into Pedro on a TT2000 about 8-10 years ago, Fish when I was on a Uly ride about 13 years ago, Dawn around the time I got out (25 yrs) but the rest I hadn’t seen since before my eldest son was born, so that’s over 40 years. That’s a bit scary really. The other very Kiwi thing is how small the country is. I asked Gerry where she was living and she said, Nelson and that she’d been working at the Alliance Works. I said, “One of my boys had been working there.” And quick as flash she replied, “Lance is your boy? I thought he looked a bit like you. …wait till I see him” she says. Then talking to Taiters, who has been living in Taumarunui and I mentioned how we had been stopping there to visit a couple of young boys with Muscular Dystrophy on our Uly MDA run. Turned out that she was good mates with their mum and that both boys were now deceased. Bloody sad to hear, but it’s so 2 degrees to be Kiwi. I didn’t drink at all because I figured if I had one, who knows how I’d end up and I had to drive back to Wellington, so we finished the day (or at least my part) with a visit to the scrub under the Bulls Bridge, where, back in the day, we used to go for ‘bridge parties’, then headed back to their motel. Bridge parties used to involve drinking until closing at the ‘Baggies bar’ then cruising down to the river and lighting a bonfire under the bridge to continue partying until breakfast. On occasion, the fire has been known to get so big that the tar in the seal on the bridge was melting!! It wasn’t exactly approved behavior at the time but wouldn’t be PC nowadays and no doubt some minority group or other dickhead would be up in arms, but such was life in the ‘70’s! …but it wasn’t any worse than a group of officers at the time, dragging a piano down from their mess and throwing it off the bridge! …probably because it was out of tune. I think they called that high-spirits. After chilling (literally) at the motel for a bit, I headed off at about 1730. Many thanks for the nudge Eileen! ….sorry, …Punjab! What a great catchup. As usual with a family bereavement, it was really great to catch up with the whanau and see cousies, nephews and nieces that I hadn’t seen for ages, but with mum’s passing I lost a few days at work and found myself in the precarious position of running out of time to get renewals done at a time when it is near impossible to see clients. Fortunately we had no plans though as Ann’s new salon is a 7 day affair so she had to work through the holiday period and the same happened in my office. We ended up having a very pleasant Christmas though with family and our resident migrants meaning we set for 12, then we just chugged on with no riding on the radar. I say ‘chugged’ but there was a bit of huff & puff in there as well because on Friday 12th January, we were off and I had to ensure I was up to date by then …and I only just made it! Ann’s salons use predominantly Joico hair products and as well as that, the good folks at Joico also provide us with in-salon training for our staff on a regular basis. This training is a major part of our salon’s culture and has resulted in a very good relationship with our major supplier, so over a year ago (when we only had one salon), we were invited to attend the Biennial Joico Destination Education. At that time Ann approached the staff and made the really tough decision to close the salon for a week and a bit to take the staff to Punta Cana, which is in the Dominican Republic! So on Friday morning 12/01/18 we settled down in the Wellington Koru Club lounge before embarking on one of those really crappy two day scenarios of planes and airports. Yep, 23-24 hours in the air and about the same in layovers! Starting with Wgtn-Auckland via Air New Zealand, then a 3 hour stint from Auckland to Nadi on Fiji Airways for a 4 hour pause there. I’ve written a couple of blogs about Virgin (here: https://longjohnbiker.weebly.com/old-blog/virgin-sux-again ) and I have to say this experience wasn’t a lot better, although to be fair, apart from the lack of legroom, Fiji Airways were pretty good, but transiting via Nadi was a joke!! Normally, one can fly into an airport on an international flight and walk from the arrival gate to the departure gate and depending on the airport, taking in whatever food or other entertainment that is available. eg At Changi Airport in Singapore, one can take a monorail between international terminals, check into a hotel, have a workout in the gym or swim at the pool or just shower up, go shopping, watch a movie, have a few beers and a feed, or just lie down and have a sleep on the carpeted floor at the gate …but Changi is a bit nicer than most!! At Nadi we hopped off the airplane, then found we had to pass through a security check on a single machine that seemed to keep stalling and that also meant that we had to dump the water and any food we had bought in the Auckland departure area?? Well that wasn’t too bad, but when Julia, who was travelling with us had to dump the duty free Moet she had purchased at Auckland, I was gob-smacked. What a bloody joke!!! 11 hours later we were alighting in LA for a 13 stopover, so we had arranged a couple of rooms close by for that one, then checked in on United Airlines for a 3 hour hop to Houston, another 4 hour layover, then our final 3 hours to Punta Cana, arriving at about 1600 on Saturday 13th, at which time it was 0900 on Sunday 14th in Wellington. Punta Cana is a very under-developed airport, but Melia Caribe, the Club Med resort where the event was held was something else. There we over 1,000 people from 28 countries attending the event and we didn’t go near filling the venue, not to mention the more family oriented resort attached ….and then there was just resort after resort stretching over a Km along the beach! In Kiwi terms the scale was just off the charts. The big trouble with this event was that being a club med, we had paid for all the food, booze and sailing before we got there and we tried about 8 of the dozen or more restaurants …I did try very hard not to make a pig of myself! It was very much a Yank type scenario where they existed in the sheltered environment without leaving the resort, but we managed to organise a trip to Santo Domingo to check out how the locals were living and that was a culture shock in itself, especially when strolling through the local market and a decision was made not to eat local. After a week of absolute luxury we were winging our way back to Houston, on to LA for another lengthy layover, then on to a week in Hawaii, where are currently doing our time. So far, that has involved a bus tour around Oahu on Tuesday and a doors-off helicopter ride Wednesday, and by the end of the week we will have toured Pearl Harbour and done the museum thing.
I am sort of keen to get home and have entered the TT2000 in February so I just hope I can manage to get away for that. *Sigh* ….another big gap in my wee blogosphere! …so I will try to fill in the gaps. I’ll start with my mum. She was the third of four sisters plus a half-brother and sister, all orphaned when mum was three and that landed them into an orphanage in Upper Hutt. The reason I mention that is to explain that a lack of good nutrition, in particular milk, led to osteoporosis in later life. That in itself also isn’t of much consequence because the old girl just accepted it, took any shitty outcomes without complaint and still got on with life and that probably pretty much describes much of that generation, born in the 1920’s & 1930’s. A great example of this was that in November, they were having a bit of a fling in the retirement home where mum was staying, which of course involved a bit of dancing and twirling, which I might add, the old girl was into, however on this occasion, the twirling resulted in a very painful string of minor fractures opening up in her spine …..Bugger! She ended up in Masterton Hospital for a few weeks. She healed up pretty well and was probably within a week or two of being released when a dose of Noro Virus went through the hospital and resulted in a lock-down. At 91¾ Mum survived that but didn’t recover and passed away on 11th December. She was amazing, just taking it all in her stride, no complaints, no regrets and no doubt, now that she doesn’t need sleep, she will be doing double time on the prayers that all her kids need. That buggered up December a bit, but did result in a few rides over the hill when I was visiting her ….and riding the Rimutaka Hill never gets tiresome. I must say though, the multiple trips did reveal a full compliment of Kiwi Drivers! I encountered people who were very spatially aware, would see the bike coming well before I was there and couldn’t wait to slide across as soon as possible, with one chap even slowing significantly on a passing lane to let me catch and get by. Then there were the ones that would realise they had a bike up their date after a corner or two and would pull over when they could….. And then there was a smattering of idiots, incompetents and absolute-and-utter-arseholes!! Let me elaborate. I encountered twats that thought their suped-up cars could go toe-to-toe with a 1300cc motorbike in both power-to-weight and handling!! ….pfft!! (In some ways it was sort of amusing) Then there were the spaced-out junkies or whatever that had no idea of what was on the road except for anything up to 25mtrs ahead of them. The ST is a relatively big bike with a bit of presence and twin headlights, which positioning the bike can place them in the car’s mirrors and passes on the message to make room, but these saps are oblivious to anything behind them. …and they have no idea about the existence or purpose of a slow-bay, although why pull over if you aren’t aware there’s anything behind …and then there’s the arseholes! After a hundred thousand Km or two on a bike, one gets quite good at reading the body language of vehicles, so it’s generally quite easy to identify who’s on their phone, who is going to turnoff or change lanes and although it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between the incompetents and the arseholes with things like slow-bays, there are generally a few indicators. …Like easing to the right when most drivers would slide across to the left, staying in the right lane on passing areas, but not overtaking anything, sitting up the date of the car in front in order to make an overtaking manouvre just that bit harder ….and I came across a couple of these guys!! Fortunately though, those sort of drivers are very much the minority. And so it was that Christmas came and I was totally unprepared and up to my eyeballs in work! |
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This blog is pretty much just about motorcycling ...but every now and then I might rant or dribble on about other things. Categories
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