Norfolk Island Holiday June 2023 Part 1

 I have just spent a week in Norfolk Island with the Tuesday Girls- my two friends I used to work with. We meet up each Tuesday and go for a walk, we have had a couple of three day trips a way but this time ventured to Norfolk Island for a week, it was just wonderful. Norfolk Island is a 2 and a 1/2 hour flight from Sydney in the Pacific Ocean. it is on a similar latitude to Byron Bay, is 5km by 8km so not very big and has a population of around 2200 people. Coming from a Canberra winter it was balmy for us around 14 degrees at night up to 20 degrees during the day.

We caught the train up to Sydney on Thursday afternoon, stayed in the city and got to wander and see the Vivid Lights which was wonderful.

Here we are on the train ready to go!

Vivid lights were very impressive

Leaving Sydney

 View of Phillip Island and Nepean Island just of the coast of Norfolk Island

Coming in to land

 

The view from just around the corner of our home for the week- lots of majestic Norfolk Pines

Our house and car for the week- Whalers Watch

Sunrise from our balcony the first morning

Prinke became our favourite place for a turmeric latte and other treats

We checked out the local farmers market Saturday morning- very popular with the locals so we didn't rush in. Fruit and veggies can be a bit scare on the islan.

 

Part of our package was an Introductory Tour of the island which gave us a good overview of what to do and see.

One of the views from the Queen Elizabeth Lookout

  A convict built house from the Second Settlement

The cemetery

Beautiful Emily Bay and the Lone Pine

Kentia Palms- these are grown over the island, the seeds harvested and then sent all over the world

The inside of St Barnabas Church

And the outside!

The cows roamed the roads of Norfolk Island- they had right of way and did all the mowing. Speed limit 50kmh on the open road and 40 kmh in the town centre

The Tuesday Girls at the end of our road

A view from our road

 The view from the end of our road

New Bathroom Finally Done

 

Bathroom is finally done- very happy with the result- here if the before

And the afters!

Bathroom Renovation Part 1

 Bit the bullet and finally got around to starting the process of getting our bathrooms rennovated. We have started with the ensuite bathroom and it began on the 8th May. So far all has gone to plan and hopefully will be finished next week.

Here is the before shot- our bathrooms are around 30 years old, so if this one lasts 30 years shouldn't be our problem to replace it!

The first day was a long, noisy day where they removed the old stuff, jack hammered up the tiles and took off the plaster board. Lots of dust around the place!

Then it was putting in the structure for the new bathroom, including a niche for the shower, sheeting went in.

 A bit of plastering over the joins and then it was time for Brad the Tiler to come in and do the wet seal. This was the smelly part!

Then the tiles started to go in, first the grey tiles for the floor

Then the white wavy tiles for the walls

Then the grouting and the cornices 

Then it was time for Brendan the Painter to come in. I will have to ask Ben the Plumber and Bathroom guy if he only uses people with names beginning with B! 

It is not far off now, it has gone very smoothly, the workers have turned up when they said they would, can't fault it so far. Couple of full on days at the beginning but have had days where they have only been in for an hour or two then left us in peace while things dry.

May Murmurings

 About time I caught up on my blog! The weather has turned a little chilly, we have had minus 3 and 4's but turning into sunny days, if a little cool. I caught this rainbow one morning on my ride back home.

The cygnets are growing bigger and have become very happy to see Bill with his cornflakes.

We had Lachlan and Abby over for a Mother's Day dinner and Bindi and Charlie joined us. We had a lovely time, Charlie made dessert- a Charlie Chocolate Cake- it was very good!

Lucy is such an adorable dog, here she is finding a comfortable place to hang out!

Had my annual skin check and now have to torture myself- have to use a cream on my nose to help get rid of any pre cancerous or cancerous cells on my nose. You have to put the cream on your nose for three weeks, twice a day. Your nose gets redder and redder and then scaly and horrible and hopefully the yucky skin with the skin cancer bits falls off! In the meantime you have to look terrible! Nearly at the three week mark!

At the start.

Stay tuned it is getting worse!

I am not sure if you noticed it but the pupil in my right eye ( on the left side as you look at the screen) is larger that the left one. That is a saga in itself.

I was sitting talking to Bill and Amy when Amy noticed that my right pupil was very dilated. She insisted that I go to the Walk In Clinic to get it checked. I was feeling absolutely fine but only went to stop Amy being anxious. Off I went, got seen by the nurse, asked me all sorts of questions, did some testing of my eyes, thought everything was okay but rang TCH and they wanted me to go to the Emergency Department. Off I went, had to wait about 15 minutes to be seen by the triage nurse, who made me a category 2 and then they took me into the eye room- no waiting, a doctor came and saw me, asked me a couple of questions, and said it wasn’t an emergency and that a doctor would come a see me. I had to wait 2 hours but that was okay, I was in a room by myself and had my book.

The doctor came and saw me, asked me lots of questions, did some more tests. Didn’t think there was anything to worry about but wanted to rule things out- so I had to have a CT Scan. The results came back- I did have a brain, which Amy was worried they wouldn’t find it- cheeky girl. They did find a very small 2.5mm aneurysm in my left carotid artery- opposite side to my right eye so didn’t think there was a connection. He said I should check in with my GP next week and it would probably be worth getting it scanned once a year to keep an eye on it. The Doctor then rang the Ophthalmologist registrar who got him to put one eye drop in that eye, we waited 20 minutes, and it made the pupil go smaller, so I was allowed to go home, but had to go to the eye clinic the next day. Got home around 11pm, Bill and Amy cam an picked me up as they didn’t want to drive home in case I had blurry vision, I would have been fine but better to be safe and sorry.  

Next day I went to the Eye Clinic at the Canberra Hospital

I saw the ophthalmologist who asks me lots of questions, does some tests, talks to the doctor, does some more tests, talks to the doctor then I see the eye doctor who does more looking, tests etc. He thinks everything is okay, they have done their due diligence, I can go home, they don’t need to see me  again but want me to go see my GP next week and see an optometrist in a month or so for a check-up and if any concerns they can contact them, but in the meanwhile if I have double vision, a bad headache, blurry vision or a droopy eye to go to the ED department immediately. So busy times! The hospital staff were great, I was just tired the next day from the late night, Amy wants to be given the title of Honorary Doctor for diagnosing me with an aneurysm. 

I saw my GP the following week, he was quite intrigued, was going to do some reading up on it, they will monitor me- but looks like I am a little weird!