Omdat het niet druk was hadden we tijd genoeg om andere dingen te doen. Rob heeft onze verhoogde groentebedden in de tuin klaar gemaakt en een stuk van de tuin omgespit waar hij fruitstruiken wil planten. Ik heb me bezig gehouden met werkjes waarbij ik schoon bleef en zo weg kon gaan. Dat betekent wassen, boodschappen doen en feijoa chutney maken. Ik ben er ’s morgens mee begonnen en uiteindelijk is het ’s avonds klaar gekomen. Vanmorgen heb ik alles in potjes gedaan en die staan nu trots op een rij. Wie had dat verwacht dat ik ooit chutney zou maken… ik zeker niet.
Vandaag hadden we vrij en was het gisteren heerlijk weer, vandaag viel de regen bij bakken neer. Dus onze loopkleren uiteindelijk maar weer uitgetrokken en in de auto naar Nelson gestapt, waar de dichtst bij zijnde woon- en lampenwinkels zijn. En we hadden geluk. Al in de eerste winkel vonden we de staande lampen die we zochten en met 40 % korting. Nu hebben we zowel bij de bank als in de tv kamer weer een beetje gezellig licht. Verder hebben we bakvormen en groenteplantjes gekocht zodat we straks eigen bloemkool, broccoli, rode kool, sla en spinazie hebben. Sommige van de groentes die hier in de winter groeien. De groenten staan inmiddels op hun plaats en in de eerste bakvorm is ingewijd en zit nog grotendeels vol met een erg lekkere appel-feijoa-taart. Wat een mens al niet doet om van al die vruchten af te komen. Ze zitten inmiddels in de diepvries, de chutney, de baksels van vorige week en deze week. Verder verdwijnen ze iedere dag in de muesli en heb ik een grote zak mee naar de praktijk genomen. Maar bijna iedereen heeft zelf ook feijoa boompjes dus echt kwijt raken lukt niet. Wel zijn ze allemaal gek op mijn baksels dus probeer ik ze op die manier te slijten.
Inmiddels hebben we contact op genomen met de lokale bridge en de lokale tramping (wildernis wandelen) club. Dat betekent dat we maandagavond mogen komen bridgen en volgend weekend een dag mee mogen wandelen. Er is ook een 2 daagse tocht maar nieuwelingen moeten eerst hun fitheid bewijzen. Ik kon ook niet zeggen dat we ervaring hadden want veel wildernis kennen we in Europa niet. Ik ben benieuwd. Maar daarover meer de volgende keer.
English version:
We start to get used in our new situation. Yesterday we were for the first time on call. Although it is mend for one person we have split the shift, me taking care of it from 7:00am until 7:00pm and Rob from then to the next morning. We had heard that it had been very busy last Saturday’s and were well prepared by reading the PRIME-book from New Zealand about emergency care and looking what is available in the emergency case. But busy? I saw during the day 9 patients in the office between 10:00am and 2:00pm, and some stitching and a home-consultation from an old lady short of breath. Rob made 2 home consultations in the evening and agreed that the call-center in Auckland sent an ambulance to a patient with chest pain in the night. The most difficult was the mobile phone we had to use. Most contacts were made through text messages and with another phone we had to look how to answer them. Besides that we did not know that at a call with ‘code red’ (life threatening) we had to call first instead of going right away to the given address. That meant that the paramedics received Rob since the call-center called the ambulance when we did not called back as they expected. Another difficulty is finding the addresses far away in areas were hardly any people live and in the dark. People don’t expect however that you to arrive always within 15 minutes. Even more it is a challenge to find the address anyhow without detailed maps! Fortunately everything was going OK.
Since the duty was quiet, we did have enough time to deal with other matters. Rob finished the elevated vegetable beds in the garden and dig a piece to plant fruit bushes. I was doing the jobs that kept you clean, so I could go every moment. That meant washing, shopping and making feijoa chutney. I started the last in the morning and finished it eventually in the evening. This morning I put it all in pots that are standing in a row now, proudly. Who was ever thinking me to make chutney…. Now I wasn’t!
Today we had the day off. Was the weather very nice yesterday, today it was raining hard. So we took our running gear out again and took the car to Nelson, where the nearest furniture and illumination shops are. We were lucky. In the first store we found the lamps we were looking for and with 40% discount. We have in the living room and in the TV-room cozy light now. Furthermore we bought bake ware and little vegetable plants. We will have cauliflower, red cabbage, broccoli, salad and spinach, vegetables that grow here in wintertime. The vegetable plants are in the ground and the first pastry is made, it is a very good tasting apple-fejioa cake. What people have to do to get rid of their fruits! The feijoa’s are in the freezer, the chutney, the pastry of last week and this week and they go every day in the muesli and yoghurt. I even took a big bag to the practice, but almost everyone has his or her own feijoa trees, so that does not work. However they like my pastry, so I have to do as such.
We also contacted the local bridge club and the tramping (i.e. hiking in the wilderness) club. So we can come and play bridge next Monday and are invited to join the one-day hike next weekend. They are going on a two-day trip, but newbie’s have to proof their fitness first! I could not say that we had much experience, because we don’t have any in Europe. I am curious, and will keep that for the next time.