The weather had turned nasty so we had to delete any bush camp sites from our plans for the day.
We drove through the rain all day and endured the horrendous traffic on Ring Road 7 round Sydney, arriving at Narrabeen just before five o'clock. We settled in to the caravan park for a week. By coincidence, the young people camped next to us in a whiz-bang were from Bodmin in Cornwall only a few miles from Colin and Norma's home.
I did a great heap of laundry. The weather had cleared up a bit but not enough to hang out the wet clothes so I had to feed much money into the electric dryers.
I went to see the doctor to get a referral to the dermatologist. I also asked her what I could do about my tendonitis and she sent me for an x-ray and ultrasound exam to confirm what was wrong with the prospect of having cortisone treatment. Her advice was to avoid surgery if possible.
I took the cameras in for repair because both seem to have developed defective on-off switches. Jean's Canon film camera would probably cost about $200 to repair and my Kodak digital camera would probably cost $300 or $400 and take several months to repair. In both cases replacing the cameras would be a cheaper option so I bought a Nikon Coolpix E2100 which has 3x optical zoom, a 3.2 megapixel CCD, uses Compactflash cards so I can use the 128Mb card I bought for the old camera, and only cost $300. Jean decided that she didn't want to replace the film camera and when she saw the print of a photo taken with the Nikon, she agreed to use it. I'll keep the 8MB memory card for her work so she can have them processed into hard copy while I'll use the 128 Mb card for my work. The only problem is that the camera is so small that it might easily get lost!.
When all this was done, we decided to lunch by the beach at Dee Why and I took the opportunity to catch up with John Ziegler, a very old and dear friend from AWA days.
I went to the dermatologist for my annual routine preventative maintenance and we both went to the dentist. Jean has to go back for some fillings and I, having had a loose molar removed, have to go back for a clean and polish. We were both sent off for OPG x-rays of all the teeth and jaws.
In the afternoon I fronted up for an x-ray and ultrasound examination of my thumb which still shows the symptoms of tendonitis despite nearly a year wearing a splint most of the time. The radiologist reckoned that the tendons look OK but the thumb joint nearest the wrist showed considerable degeneration in the ultrasound images. He reserved his formal findings until he had examined the x-rays as well.
I arranged to take the Motley to Viking Diesel & Electric in Mona Vale to have the generator checked out because the fuel consumption has risen from 1.5 litres/hour when it was new to 2.0 litres/hour for the last few months.
I also arranged to buy new electric steps to replace the original ones which, over the years have suffered severe damage after hitting a boulder whiles still extended, replacement of the operating crank which failed due to overloading, and, during this last journey, intermittent failure of the controller (last Friday the steps alarm sounded while we were driving up the Hume Highway at 90 kph because the controller decided that the steps should be extended even though the door was shut and the engine was switched on!).
I took the Motley to Mona Vale while Jean went to Warriewood Square. The generator was given a complete service not, it seems, before time. They were surprised to hear that it was still running well after 500 hours. Meanwhile Jean had her credit card swallowed up by an ATM because it didn't agree with her version of the PIN. It was fortuitous that we were in Sydney and not out in the sticks as we were able to go to the credit union office in Dee Why to order a replacement.
We visited Mighty Media, chatted with Duncan and with his parents who were visiting from England, and took Iain out for lunch at Bookacino in Avalon. The food was pretty nice and we had a good chat with Iain who seemed in good spirits.
We went to Dundas to pick the replacement electric steps and, on the way back, stopped in at West Pymble shops for a cup of coffee. The place hasn't changed much in the thirty years since we left. The trees have grown considerably and the car park was nearly full but there are the same number of shops and some of them are still used by the same business. We returned to Narrabeen in time for lunch. The new steps were not a drop in replacement for the old ones. They are bigger with different mounting holes, have a different connector, and have a different door sensor arrangement so everything had to be modified. I got the wiring done and the new mountings secured but the rest of the job will have to wait for tomorrow.
In the evening we had a very pleasant visit from Hazel Young. She invited Jean to join the old Avon crew for dinner and chats at the Dee Why RSL on the morrow.
I finished the installation of the steps and tidied up one or two other outstanding things. Jean had a visit from Jeanette and went to the ex-Avon girls night out.
Having not seen sight nor sound of the mail, I rang Sarah to ask how she had addressed it and discovered that she had guessed the postcode and had put 2102 instead of 2101 so the mail might well have gone to Warriewood. As we still have doctors, dentists, and people to see, we'll stay on here into next week.
I checked the poste restante in Warriewood without finding the mail. On Monday I'll try at Narrabeen again and, perhaps, Dee Why! Jean thinks we should try Narromine!.
I had lunch with Col Smith who hasn't changed at all. His present enemy is Centrelink who made qualifying for the pension a positive obstacle course worthy of the SAS.
We had dinner with Ron and Mary Hastings at Rampais Thai Kitchen which has moved from Dee Why to Belrose. We had a wonderful meal, a good long chat, and a very pleasant evening.
We had a veg out day. The weather was fine but not sunny and we just sat around, read, ate, drank tea and considered how lucky we are to have this lifestyle.
We finally picked up the mail.
Having decided to go to Brisbane this week, we cancelled the appointments at the dentist. Jean was able to get a cancellation in the afternoon to have her fillings done. I will see a dentist in Brisbane.
I went back to the doctor to get the formal results of the examination of my hand. The radiologist had indicated that the tendons were OK and that the joint was arthritic. He recommended an ultrasound guided injection of local anaesthetic and cortisone into the joint. If the pain persisted after the injection the joint couldn't be the cause of the pain. If the pain went away while the local was in effect, the cause of the pain could be identified as arising in the joint. If there is longer term improvement, the cortisone treatment would be shown to be effective. We hurried back to Dee Why to attend a rapidly set up appointment. I had the injection and all the pain disappeared for about an hour and then returned much as before. Clearly arthritis in the joint is the seat of the problem. We'll have to wait and see if the cortisone has had the desired effect.
We celebrated our last night in Sydney with a delicious meal of fillet steak, tandoori yam scollops and fried cabbage followed by fresh fruit - yum!!!.