Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the atahualpa domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home3/aboarddi/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114
South Pacific « Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Categories

Archives

A sample text widget

Etiam pulvinar consectetur dolor sed malesuada. Ut convallis euismod dolor nec pretium. Nunc ut tristique massa.

Nam sodales mi vitae dolor ullamcorper et vulputate enim accumsan. Morbi orci magna, tincidunt vitae molestie nec, molestie at mi. Nulla nulla lorem, suscipit in posuere in, interdum non magna.

Back (again) to Brisbane

by steve, on December 9th, 2012 (Attitude, Australia)

Friday evening we had a nice BBQ with the family. The weather ended up perfect for an evening outside. Special moments.

On Saturday we embarked upon our 6th trip to Brisbane. We made it to the airport in very good time checking in just a few minutes after our flight opened. This meant we managed to get emergency exit seats allocated which come with some responsibility and, more importantly, lot’s of leg room. We found a power socket in the corner of the lounge and sat down to wait for the plane. For the first time in our lives we found our names being called over the tannoy. Turned out we completely lost track of time and everyone else was already on the plane. Oops.

Upon landing in Brisbane we had another oops moment. Helen needed a pit stop so I took one too. Upon exiting Helen found me ‘missing’ and figured I’d gone off in a brain haze. I ended up waiting a long time outside wondering if a horse was being passed before sending in a lady to scout for Helen. We did manage to find each other eventually and fortunately our ride was ok with the delay. We learned a lesson. It’s not about what telling each other what we’re doing, it’s all about agreeing where we’ll meet.

Back at the marina we first greeted Niel and Kathy from Attitude who are now tied up alongside us. We had a chat and agreed to meet later as Helen and I needed a rest. In the evening we all went out for a Thai meal in town and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I’m still having taste anomalies but in the scheme of things, this barely affected the evening.

Today will be mostly restful. Niel has offered to help out putting the dinghy motor on so we can test it. I can’t do that on my own so that’s a big help. I’m also going to check out the rigging as we plan to go sailing Monday / Tuesday to test out the new rig and sails. Sam is planning to visit this afternoon. That’ll be nice.

Category: Attitude, Australia | Here is my comment

Bloody Hell. It’s nearly 6.

by steve, on December 7th, 2012 (Australia, Trim)

Where has the day gone?

Rewind to yesterday. I did get some sleep eventually. I even slept through the end of my chemo and most of my blood test only being woken to press the plaster at the end. We’d agreed Helen should get some rest and come in after the rush hour so she appeared later than normal for her hospital visit. Having learned about the free parking around the hospital she left every now and then to move the car. It may seem a bit pedantic but it broke the day up for her and she used the trips to do other things too. Including bringing me lunch from the public food area in the hospital. Nice.

The blood test came out fine so we were discharged late afternoon and back with the family by dinner time. Helen and I were both pretty wiped out so we bade an early goodnight and headed back to the flat.

The rest since then has simply been back to stuff. I won’t do a big long list as going has been a bit slower due to tiredness and chemical wooziness and I’m sure there’s only so many lists one can take. A few highlights though :

  • We’ve connected with our cruising friends Ken and Lori from Trim who happen to be working a couple of miles from here.  We’ve arranged to meet up upon our return from Brisbane.  A lot to talk about from Palmerstone to Melbourne.
  • Sorted out another visit to our friends Brian and Janine in January – perhaps just as we leave the country.
  • I have ordered a Nexus 4 which may get to us before the end of the year – ahead of what the google play store seems capable of.  If it’s not delivered I can cancel and get my money back.

I feel like I’ve responded pretty well from the latest blast of chemo.  I’ve been a little confused/distracted from time to time but that seems to be fading.  Had an afternoon nap which seems to have freshened me up a bit.  A heatwave hit late afternoon so we’re now ‘enjoying that’.

Category: Australia, Trim | Here is my comment

Back in Hospital

by steve, on December 5th, 2012 (Australia)

I woke up this morning feeling a lot better than yesterday. My throat pains have reduced significantly over night and I feel totally ready for whatever they throw at me next (except the hospital food. Chemo yes. Hospital food no).

I’m now back in Monash Hospital receiving my penultimate round of chemo. It feels a bit like business as usual although my mental faculties are miles above where they were when I was here previously which somehow changes how I’m seeing everything. We recognized all the staff and they recognized us. They all thought my hair (lack of it) looked good and commented on how different and well I was behaving (read it right – all of you). Each round, this time, comprises two intravenous dispensations of Cytarabine with a cocktail of drugs to smooth the way. Including my old favourite, Dextamethasone. Now that I’m pretty much on the ball mentally I can feel the battle going on. The chemo drug is knocking me down and the dex is picking me up. I may get some sleep tonight but there’s a nutter in the ward screaming every few seconds. At least I have a room to myself again but the walls aren’t thick enough. With a bit of luck we’ll be home tomorrow.

Helen stayed most of the day with me. She went out from time to time buying food. The hospital food is truly disgusting. It shows how sick I was that I actually liked it for the first three and a half chemos. Now with my continued tongue funniness there is nothing funny about the food. She also went to visit a couple we’ve come to know. Ken is the patient and his wife is always with him. We first met them here in this hospital and last met them at the Peter Mac while I was having RT and he was waiting to see a haematologist at the Monash Moorabbin clinic. Sadly his health has taken a nose dive and is getting worse each day. It’s now just a matter of time as he’s being moved to palliative care.

Helen and I spent some time chatting but I spent most of the day doing stuff on the laptop and Helen doing stuff on hers, reading and resting. Since the last blog yesterday evening here’s a taste of the things we accomplished, in no particular order:

  • Commented on tripadvisor.com on a few places we stayed at/visited on our Great Ocean Road trip.
  • Started inquiries in the UK as to the state of IT education and future direction (gathering thoughts for what Helen might do in the future)
  • Started our bucket list
  • Localized the laptop to UK from US – dates are now the right way around everywhere.
  • Talked to brokers to get dates for boat viewings in December
  • Decided we’re going back to Brisbane before Xmas and booked flights.
  • Confirmed appointment with Prof MacManus at PeterMac.
  • Merged all my TODO lists into one TODO list thus eliminating another TODO item off my main TODO list.
  • Sorted out all my OneNote notes cleaving off all current stuff into a few sections and putting old stuff out of sight
  • Kicked some financial planning in US and UK into a higher gear. Already managed to determine worst case scenarios are not going to happen and things are looking optimistic. Some actions already taken, more now planned.
  • Paid off some UK bills
  • Kicked off getting Tax Filing Number here in Australia to avoid further punitive 46.5% withholding rate on interest.
  • Chased a loose end with a recent property sale in the UK
  • Frequently checked for Nexus 4 availability in Australia. No luck. Hope dwindling of getting one before we leave.
  • Clarified and chased additional work to Dignity from two of our suppliers.
  • Paid the gas fitter.
  • Paid the gas inspector.
  • More follow up and knowledge gathering re boat electrics here in Australia.

Somehow at the end of all this my TODO list is now longer than when it started. Like working on the boat, whenever you start doing one project, another three spring up – mostly ideas of something else to do. This seems no different.

 

The nutter is still screaming and other patients have been yelling at him. Joy.

 

PS. I do realize the word ‘nutter’ is a poor word choice and may be seen as bad taste, for someone so ill, but it is important for one’s own sanity to distance oneself sometimes. Dark humour is one way of doing this.

Category: Australia | Here is my comment

Catching Up

by steve, on December 5th, 2012 (Anthem, Australia, Boree, True Companions)

Phew. A lot has happened over the last few days. Unfortunately it all coincided with the peak of my side effects from RT which has left me feeling pretty wiped out a lot of the time. So a combination of lack of time and lack of energy has delayed me blogging. Good news is I am feeling on the upswing and on a roll.

So a quick recap of what’s happened since last time.

Every day on the boat was filled with more work. Minor fixes, cleaning the boat/cupboards/surfaces/anything, head in bilges cleaning pump valves (to prevent water backfilling bilges), packing the last of our stuff to take to the UK, etc. Helen did far more than I as the Queensland heat and RT side effects would knock me out and I’d have to rest for a while. While not active I was often still busy setting up new brokers and the endless follow up on all the stuff going on in our lives right now. One of the things now behind us is the sale of the NJ rental property that all started just before we set sail in 2008. The whole thing has been a bit of a disaster financially but we’ve had some astounding help. If anyone is looking for a first class property manager in the Cranford area, contact us.

We did have some fun times too.

On Saturday we met up with Steve and Vickie from True Companions and Bert and Ingi from Boree. Steve and Vickie were interested in our lessons learned selling a boat here in Australia. Bert and Ingi have graciously agreed to keep an eye on Dignity while we’re out of Brisbane as they’re staying in the bay for some time. We all ended up going out for a Chinese meal together in the evening.

On Sunday Sam came over to pick up some of his stuff. We took him to his digs in Brisbane and then went out to watch the latest Bond movie. Afterwards we ate dinner together then sat chatting in the park by the South Bank. It all seemed familiar in a way to us and we wondered if it was the site of Expo ’88 which we visited when we were last in Australia nearly 25 years ago. Later research showed it was.

Monday was a bit frantic as we mistook our flight departure time for our leave the boat time. We realized this when waking up but had to cram a lot into the morning with 2-3 hours less than we’d planned for. In amongst all this we had the gas inspector round to certify our appliances. We are now fully certified – Yay.

Jack and Jan came over from Anthem to say goodbye. We were all quite sweaty as we were all working in the heat but it didn’t stop the hugs goodbye.

We returned our hire car and made it to the airport in good time arriving in Melbourne without delay. With good traffic we were back around 7pm local time in time to celebrate Russ’s birthday with their first BBQ of the summer.

Dignity, in a lot of ways, is now no longer our home. We still have a couple of options to return to her and take her out for a final sail. We haven’t done so, so far, due to lack of time mostly, but it would be nice to take the old girl out for a final spin sometime. We’ll see.

Back here in Melbourne life goes on. Yesterday I had a blood test to make sure I’m ok for the next chemo beating which starts midday today. The next two (and final two) sessions should be chemo lite. I imagine the treatment as rubbing down the gelcoat. We’re now on the final fine grained sandpaper hopefully leaving a nice smooth finish. Final MRI is now booked as our our final meetings with consultants from Monash and Peter Mac. The end, no sorry, the beginning of the rest of our lives is in sight.

Category: Anthem, Australia, Boree, True Companions | One reader has left a comment, here is mine

PS

by steve, on November 30th, 2012 (South Pacific, Troutbridge)

Peter on Troutbridge has arrived safe and well.

Category: South Pacific, Troutbridge | Here is my comment
← Retrace Wake «  
  » Voyage Onwards →