Holidays and .. more plumbers

 Hi there

above:  the morning after I'd swam at the above beach, the above notice was on the sand.  The undertow had been pretty bad.

above:  Pilot Bay where I swam mostly.

above: a beautiful mural on a wall in the township of Mt Maunganui

I've returned from 9 nights at Mount Maunganui.  Because of the beginning of Omicron here in NZ, I was cautious about going to cafes or the mall, so I mainly walked the beaches and went for swims.  Until the last day, when I did go into four shops and a cafe.  I so craved shopping...

On my first day at The Mount - and before noon - I had walked 40 minutes along one beach, had a swim, and walked another 40 minutes around The Mount.  I thought I'd packed water, a jacket, sunblock and a sunhat but I hadn't.  Because it had taken forever to find a parking space, and it was a cloudy day (even though the temp was 28c) I decided to walk around The Mount as is where is.  

And I came down with dehydration!  That night and the following day wasn't very good.  My whole body was floppy and it felt like jelly.  There was no way I could walk to the other side of the room, let alone reach my car and travel home to Wellington.  I had a temp, couldnt pee, and a headache.  It all lasted till the following day, after I'd drank what seemed like gallons and gallons of water.  

Every day during the holiday I kept telling myself, because of creeping Omicron around the country I would leave The Mount the following day.  Every day I decided to hold out one more day.

And ... when I got home, there was a flood in my driveway.  Ooooh, nooooo....

And the plumber is here right now, as I type this.  It's going to cost $1000 to repair.  Have I already cried out "Ooooh, noooo"?  Well, I'm repeating it now.  100 times.

Plumbers ...plus public holidays

 Hi there

I guess you're wondering if plumbers and public holidays are a good match?  Aw, go on, you were wondering that, weren't you?

Well, I can enlighten you.

No.  They're not a good match.

On the day after New Year's Day, a public holiday here in New Zealand, I ran the bath water.  Ah, yes, after an exhaustive power walk, there's nothing as wonderful - ahhh, yessss bliss - as a deep warm bubble bath.  

But ... The handle of the tap came off in my hand as I turned it on.  Boiling hot water gushed into the bath from the neck of the tap.    What-?!!!

I couldn't fit the handle back into place.  I pulled out the bath plug, and rushed to call a plumber.

I tried seven plumbers, each one -  in screaming letters in The Yellow Pages - promised to fix my problem "24 hours a day, seven days a week" .

All seven plumbers were on holiday.  The wild hot waterfall of a hot  tap was still running....

Thank goodness for a neighbour with a wrench.

Well, I've had my booster jab

 Hi there

Last week I was down at The Hub in Kilbirnie for my booster jab.  I was there on the first day they opened after the holidays.  I had booked and was let in after waiting outside for about five minutes.  But those who hadn't booked had an hour and a half wait.  The jab people hadn't counted on such a crowd. 

Once inside I was told to wait in one of the dozen or so black chairs.  I found the last vacant chair.  

A lady came along, looking for a chair.  There were none.  One of the assistants approached her.  "Are you looking for help?" she asked the lady.

"I'm just deciding whose lap to sit on..."

*****

photo above:  the white chairs were for the people who'd had their jabs and were waiting the required 15 minutes.

Hataitai Beach

 Hi there

Jellyfish at Hataitai Beach.  The transparent ones of various sizes, up to saucer-size.  They're harmless floaters, and I noticed, today, that kids were throwing them about. 

One second I 'm happily swiimming and next I'm stealth-attacked by a slimey-something.  I yelp like crazy.

Also, there have been three sightings of stingrays over past week.  Two close to shore, one out by the white boat.

Such heat..

 Hi there

I was at the beach today in terrible 28c heat, with no famous Wellington wind, and lots and lots of swimmers, sun-bathers, paddle-boarders, boogie-boarders, and kayakers (guess what many families got for Christmas?). It was sooooo hot.  I shouldn't really have been there between 11am and 1 pm.

I was reading the back of my Sun-block and saw that it wasn't effective if the temperature got to over 25c.  What?  How about hot  countries like Greece and Italy?  Or Las Vegas when it hit 40c over a couple of days I was there?  

Today I was swaddled up in coverings.  I looked like a mummy.   I got my back and shoulders quite burnt last week (Curse you, stupid sun!).  First time I've had such sunburn since I was a child.

It all reminded me of that old Noel Coward song from the 1930s - Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun 

🌞🌞🌞