Best laid plans

Tsunami and Quake damage

This afternoon and evening certainly didn't proceed according to plan.

Flashback twenty seven hours and my plan for Friday afternoon and evening is to do my week's laundry and then settle down for a slothful evening catching up on television programs I have recorded but not yet seen. A quiet afternoon and evening at home alone.

Flashback twenty six hours and the phone rings. It is Ae ringing from the Emergency Department at Prince of Wales Hospital. She has a heart problem and her Golden Retriever is home, unfed and no one can get in to tend to her because Ae has only just had her home locks changed that afternoon and there are no spares of the new keys yet. 'I'm on my way'.

At the hospital I find that Ae has tripped at home and dislocated her collar bone. The locksmith who changed her locks has driven her to the hospital where her collar bone has been put back into place but the doctor has discovered that Ae's heart is racing. Ae wants to be discharged but two medicos are arguing strongly that she should remain overnight for observation and treatment. The medicos prevail over a reluctant and somewhat uncooperative Ae.

I take Ae's new keys and drive over to Je's place to hand them over. Je will mind the retriever (and Ae's house) until Ae is home again.

Flash forward twenty hours. I telephone Ae at home expecting her to have been discharged but there is no answer. I call Je to find that Ae is remaining at hospital for another night. Bummer. I was about to settle into my laundry etc but I better visit Ae. I drive across to POW Hospital but it is around 3.30pm and there are four schools en route all of which are traffic blocked with Eastern Suburbs mothers in their four wheel drives queued to collect their little ones. Never, never, never, ever drive between Centennial Park and Randwick at around 3.30pm on a school day. Never, never, never, again.

Finally I arrive at POW and drive around...and around...their massive...packed...car park. Ten minutes of my first 30 minutes at $3.40 per 30 minutes is spent finding a car space. The next 10 minutes of my first 30 minutes at $3.40 per 30 minutes is spent trying to navigate the corridors and inadequate signage of the Public Hospital to find the ward to which Ae has been moved following last night's admission to Emergency.

At last I find Bed 18 in Ward 3N. The bed is empty! I'm told Ae has just been taken for a TOE test and will not be back for two hours or so. Two hours! And I'm clocking up $3.40 per 30 minutes with no patient to comfort and a return trip past four schools to come. No, no, I will not wait. I take a note of the number to ring and will call from home later.

I return to my car and wonder of wonders depart just before the clock is about to tick over to the next block of $3.40 per 30 minutes. My first break. My second break is that Eastern Suburbs mothers have miraculously disappeared with their little ones and the return trip after 4pm is far smoother and faster although I do hit afternoon peak traffic again as I get to Woollahra and Edgecliff.

Once home it is laundry time. I grill a few sausages for my politically incorrect evening meal and settle down to watch my recorded programs. Just as I switch the television on I catch breaking news of an earthquake in Japan. I better catch that news first and start to watch. Next thing I am channel hopping between ABC 24 News, BBC World Service, SKY News, CNN and (heaven forbid, even) FOX News and I am mesmerised and horrified by the images and my realisation of the unfolding tragedy.

I break for ten minutes to call Ae to check on her progress and report on my day before returning to my channel hopping. I never do get to watch any of my recorded programs.

My sympathies and condolences to those affected by the quake and tsunami.