November [week 4]
Laura & Mark - 22nd November 1999
Laura got up early this morning in time for a 9.00 driving lesson. It went reasonably well and she was advancing slowly, although she couldn't even begin to imagine driving without Paul there to push on his break pedal when it was needed. Paul however seemed somewhat more confident of her skills and the lesson went quickly.
Laura was soon back at the flat again, where she had to get ready for work quickly. She caught the bus into town with Mark and we stopped in at Worksmiths on the way again (no news). Laura went to work while Mark caught the bus on up to the charity office to hand over the money he'd collected the week before.
They were soon reunited however as both Laura and Mark's work passed quickly and it was time for dinner: Shephards pie and peas and carrots. We watched the last in the series of Good News Week (the Have I got news for you style program). We didn't do much else, besides playing some cards and trying to rest from all the working.
And get ANOTHER early night.
Laura & Mark - 23rd November 1999
Finally it had reached Tuesday again, it seemed like an eternity since we'd been to the cinema, at least to see a satisfying film (after last weeks "Election"). Tonight we decided to see "The Bone Collector", but not before first going to work, coming home from work, cooking dinner, eating dinner, and maybe even washing up.
Laura got home from work to find dinner almost ready. The potatoes were already peeled and chopped and in a saucepan, French beans had received roughly the same treatment (not peeled of course) and the snitzels were labelled as "eat me today" by Mark. All Laura had to do, while watching Neighbours with her other eye, was cook the whole lot and call it dinner.
She did this and we ate it without much thrill. Nothing seemed to have much flavour to it today, whether that was the food itself or rather our mood that caused it we didn't know and were too tired to have any more speculation on the matter. We went off to the bus stop, hoping that at least the film would not disappoint us today. Laura had bought some chocolate biscuits and Jelly Beans at work, so maybe the flavour of them would block out the memory of the foods.
"The Bone Collector" was a very good film with a very disappointing ending. When we found out who had done it, we didn't think to ourselves "ah, of course, that's very clever" like we should have. Instead we thought "What? Who is he then?". A little disappointing, but in general a $7 each well spent.
Laura & Mark - 24th November 1999
When Laura woke up this morning it was not her finger that was bothering her, this time it was her tummy. She felt well and truly ill. As she showered and got dressed the sick feeling didn't go away and in fact got a little worse. But she brushed away thoughts of staying in bead, had a quick glass of orange juice (a mistake she was as yet unaware of), and went off to catch the bus. She caught the usual bus to work, but had to get off early as her stomach couldn't handle the bumps. It was then that she was made aware of the orange juice mistake. Feeling a little better with a slightly emptier tummy, she walked the rest of the way to work, arriving surprisingly only a few minutes late. She apologised for her tardiness and quickly got to what she was meant to be doing.
The morning passed alright for Laura, as long as she didn't eat any more. Mark came in on his way back from picking up his pay to find out when Laura had a lunch break. He said he would come back then as we had planned to go and see Gail together at the Information SA office. Laura felt a little brighter as she carried on hanging up toys on the toy wall of the shop. When lunchtime came she met Mark and together they visited Gail, who was very cheery, and told Mark not to worry too much about the work, and Laura not to work too much.
We had to leave in a hurry though as Laura had to be back at work and Mark wanted to walk her back. He then caught a bus home to do some little things around the apartment before going to work.
Laura was on the register this afternoon as it wasn't going too well. She had to leave twice in a hurry as she felt very sick and faint and ran up to the staffroom. On the second trip, her manager, Ellie, was up there sticking up some photos on the wall. Seeing how unwell Laura was, she suggested that she go home and get some rest. Laura agreed and made her way slowly to the bus stop.
Laura just managed to catch the 2.05pm bus to Glenelg, but had to get off halfway as she was feeling sick again. She called Mark and told him she was coming home and he promised to wait for her before he went to work. She caught the next bus on towards Glenelg, and walked the last bit, the fresh air making her feel a little less giddy.
When she got home Mark was waiting as promised and she went straight to bed. Mark washed up while Laura tried to go to sleep, and when she was looking settled, he went off to do his collecting.
Laura woke up at 6.30pm and lay quietly while she watched Neighbours and waited for Mark to get home. When he did we played a few games of cards, and then a few more, and finally Mark decided to make some dinner. Laura agreed to eat a little as she was feeling a little better and quite hungry. We passed the evening just relaxing and playing cards and Yatzee. Then we went to sleep early.
Laura & Mark - 25th November 1999
Laura woke up this morning, planning to go into work again as she couldn't really afford to miss time at work, and she had been feeling much better the night before. She got up and had a shower, but after a few minutes she could hardly stand up straight any more as her stomach hurt so much. It kept cramping up really badly while she was moving around and she had to sit down for a while before it went away again. After attempting several times to get up and walk around for a while she decided that it was futile and that she couldn't go to work in this condition. She gave Ellie a call while Mark looked up doctors in the Yellow Pages. Ellie wished Laura a quick recovery and Laura promised to call when she had news form the doctor.
Mark then went downstairs to ask the motel owners if they could recommend a doctor and whether an appointment was necessary. When he returned, he told Laura that she would be seen by doctor Andrew George at 13.20. So she went back to sleep for a while.
We woke up again in time to play a few games of cards before going to the doctors. It took a long time to walk the short distance to the doctor as Laura had to double up from the pain every few metres and so the progress was slowed. When we got to the doctors, the wait was short, and Doctor George led us into his consulting room. He asked all sorts of nasty questions (it's not very nice going to the doctor with a tummy problem), and examined Laura as best he could. He decided eventually that he didn't know what it was and suggested that she go to the hospital for further tests. The only thing he could think of would be appendicitis. Which sounded very bad. So Laura agreed to try to find her way to Flinders Hospital. We thanked the doctor and then paid the secretary for the consultation, before slowly making our way back to the flat. The pain had not eased at all in the meantime and seemed to Laura to be getting worse, not better. The lady from the motel agreed to drive us to the hospital and on the way she told us that her husband had had appendicitis. Not very confidence building but never mind. We got to the hospital and found our way to the emergency department where we sat and waited. We watched a little TV, and read the sign which said: "This is an emergency department. All those without life or limb threatening emergencies can expect long delays." This sign also didn't help Laura feel better and the pain was lingering. Eventually (= 2 and a half hours later) we were finally lead by a nurse into the emergency ward. Laura was asked to leave a small urine sample in a cup in the toilet before changing into a very non-flattering open-backed dress thingy. She was put into one of the curtained off partitions and told to lie on the bed and wait for the doctor. When the doctor arrived, he was very friendly and very Australian. He did the same sorts of things the previous doctor had done (besides one test that Laura was glad he did not repeat), and decided to take her blood. This hurt as much as he said it would: not much. But Laura nearly fainted when she could feel a drop of blood that had leaked flow down her arm. She then tried very hard not to faint when they hooked up a drip to her arm and hung it above her head. It was all terrifying, but so far at least everyone had been friendly. The nurse came back to regulate the drip, and Laura was told she'd have to wait about an hour for the blood test results. Then a different nurse came to add some anti-nausea stuff to the drip, and later on a 2nd year medical student stuck her head round the curtain too. She asked if Laura would mind if she asked a few questions, and Laura, who really thought she'd met enough people for one day, said OK. Laura thought of her own medical school buddy Charlotte as the girl racked her brains to try to ask all the right questions.
After she too had left, and we had waited a little longer, the doctor came back with the news that it wasn't appendicitis and he didn't know what it was: "would Laura mind if another doctor came and had a look?" Well, no, that was fine. So a few minutes later, an even friendlier doctor came to have a push and feel at Laura's poor exhausted tummy. He decided it was just some virus, and that Laura should rest for another 24 hours and drink plenty of water. So finally Laura was allowed to go home! We went out and after having had a look to see if we could catch a bus, we opted for a taxi instead.
Once back at home, Laura called Ellie, and told her what the doctors (plural) had said and that she wouldn't be into work tomorrow. Then, completely ignoring the doctors' advice, she had a little pizza, which had far too much fat and meat for the doctors' liking, but which Laura's craving required.
She did feel better having had 1 litre of fluid dripped into her, so she went to bed after a few more games of cards and slept soundly. Mark too, tired after the excitement and worry, found he was tired and needed sleep.
Laura & Mark - 26th November 1999
Today was spent recovering from the previous two days. We played hundreds of games of cards, and loads of games of Yatzee, and generally lazed around. Mark went off to do some shopping and buy some "sick food" like crumpets and other such things. We had a little food, Mark more than Laura, and enjoyed relaxing together with no-where to go for a change. Laura called Kaye to see if she had to work on the Saturday to catch up for the days off sick. Kaye said it would be good if Laura could come in, and Laura said she'd be there at 10.00 after her driving lesson.
We were very glad that things were going better and that it hadn't been anything serious, not only because of missing work, but because Laura had booked two tickets to a play that evening as a surprise for Mark. She actually told him what we were going to do, as we had to decide together whether it was a good idea to go. We decided to try to go, but to relax completely until then. We then also decided not to cook dinner, and just to go past the MacDonalds on the way there. The other reason for this was because MacDonalds had Snoopys of the world that you could buy for $1 with any burger and today was Hawaiian Snoopy, definitely worth having. Unfortunately by the time we got to the MacDonalds all the snoopys had been sold out, but we got some food anyway and sat to enjoy it. Laura hadn't got her appetite back, so she had a happy meal (and got a free Christmas decoration, which would look good with the lights and tinsel she'd already bought from work). We were then about to leave to got to the theatre, when a man suddenly said "spreken jullie nederlands?" which was a bit of a shock as we'd actually been speaking English (we worked out later that Mark had said one thing in Dutch and he must have picked up on that). He then told us his life story and how his kids go to three different schools, one in Holland, one in France and one in Australia, and how he makes loads of money, and only sees his kids every few weeks. He seemed convinced that it was a good system and very pleased with himself, but why then would you approach strangers at a MacDonalds for a chat? Is he really not lonely? We think not!
Well, eventually able to break away from the conversation we went to the Optima Playhouse, part of Adelaide's Festival Theatre ( a group of theatres down by the river). This was where we would see "The Cripple of Inishmaan", a comedy that had apparently had success in both London and Broadway. It was very good, although we will not recount the story now, you will just have to go and see it, but we laughed a lot!
After the play, we went to catch a tram home, and utterly exhausted, went to bed.
Laura & Mark - 27th November 1999
This morning Laura got up feeling a little less dizzy and sick, in time to do a driving lesson at 8.00am. Needless to say, it didn't go all that well, but it wasn't all that bad either (no actual accidents), so she was reasonably pleased as she walked into work at 10.00. It had only been a couple of days, but already in her absence half of the shop had been moved and much of the set-up changed. But that is what a job at Cheap as Chips is all about and why employees must be constantly on their toes in order to guide customers correctly.
Laura felt happy to be back and they were quite happy to have her. She spent much of the day assisting Alisha, Sarah and Ben in putting stock out. And within that they spent much of the time laughing. Sometimes at Ben (who had now developed the nick-name Barbie-Ben, why, we cannot recall). Alisha, who Laura hadn't met properly before, as she only works weekends was thrilled to hear stories of Laura's not very interesting life which she found fascinating. Just the "What nationality is Laura really?" debate was a real thrill to her, and they happily exchanged tales.
During this fun-filled day Laura managed to introduce the idea of having a friendly basketball match after work one day with those who were interested, and it was arranged. Ben did in fact play basketball and Sarah and Alisha both played netball so it would be a lot of fun. Laura left work with a deeply satisfied feeling, and to think, she was getting paid for it too!
In the meantime, Mark had done a little collecting, cleaning and shopping. Sunday was looming quickly and another day of work for us both, so after a little relaxing with a few games of cards, we decided to get another early night, just to be sure we'd beaten Laura's bug.
Laura & Mark - 28th November 1999
Today was another day at work for us both and Laura went off to catch a tram into work at 10.00 (a nice late start for once). She had a much less fun, interesting or exciting day at work and was glad when 5.00 came and the shop was put to bed for the night.
Meanwhile, Mark had discovered that there would be no point in working today as it was Glenelg's turn to host a Christmas pageant, and the world had turned out to see it. Instead he enjoyed watching it (and filming it so that Laura could see it later) before catching a tram to Adelaide himself later in the afternoon to meet Laura from work.
Together we went to the internet place in town to catch up on our correspondence and the diary, and Laura logged on to the chatroom to chat to her family. We returned home tired and hungry and made ourselves lots of bolognese sauce and pasta. A huge dinner fully digested, we went to bed.
Laura & Mark - 29th November 1999
The beginning of a new week and it was HOT in Adelaide. The bad news being that it was only going to be getting hotter the next few days.
Laura didn't have to worry much about the heat, thanks to the shop's air-conditioning, but Mark did not take to it too well. While he was out doing a little collecting, he began to feel more and more unwell. By the time he met Laura on the bus to Marion, he had a headache which we diagnosed ourselves as sun-stroke.
We went to the cinema never-the-less, and gobbled down the left-overs of last night's dinner before going in. We'd decided on the new James Bond film: The World in Not Enough for tonight's viewing. It was, well, just another Bond film really, nothing too spectacular, but we were not terribly disappointed either. Once the film was over and we were out of the cinema, Mark was feeling much improved , thanks to the cool cinema air-conditioning. We played one or two games of pinball and caught the bus home.
Laura & Mark - 30th November 1999
Today was another long day for Laura, she worked from 9.00am until 5.30pm before having a driving lesson for 100 minutes too. The driving actually went better this time, and Paul had some good news for Laura: he'd found a Dutch shop. While he'd been out at the weekend, he had accidentally happened upon a Dutch shop, a shop between Marion and Glenelg that sold all sorts of Dutch things: food, souvenirs..... So he told Laura to point the car in that direction and they drove past it. The distraction of all the chatting was helping Laura lots, as her concentration was no longer entirely on her feet. She actually felt as though she may conquer the driving difficulties after all when she got home to Mark that evening.
Mark had worked from 5.00 until 7.30 that evening and had done alright with his collecting. Together we cooked teriyaki chicken and gobbled it down. All this activity was certainly making us hungry, and tired.
Goodnight.