DAY 37 FROM SOUTH TO NORTH - TOP END (NORTHERN TERRITORY) TRIP

31 May 2010


DARWIN

If things were not already bad the day kept bringing sad news or bad news as it progressed.
- a friend had died last night,
- there are delays in getting the gear box,
- someone backed into us whilst we were parked,
- our house in Canberra was broken into,
- within 24 hours both 2 year old grandsons in hospital – one in Canberra one in Comma, one bit through his lip whilst the other burnt himself with deep tissue damage to his arm.
You wouldn’t believe it if anyone told you that all this could happen to someone in one day.

In the morning I checked our emails and found out that a member of my friendship group had passed away on Sunday. Before I left Canberra I knew she was ill but it still came as a jolt. The passing of a life always has a sobering affect on one especially as they were still in the prime of their life.    Prue will be missed greatly by many especially her family. My thoughts go out to her husband and daughters.

In the morning we went out to Palmerston to lodge our application for permits to Cobourg Peninsula. After returning to the car we were checking out where we were heading next. As our car can only travel up to 40 km per hour we try to keep off the busy roads at peak times and try to find alternate routes at other times. As we sat in the car we felt an almighty big jolt. Something had hit it. I jumped out and there was a car driving away from us. A passerby indicated that the car had hit our car. So I flagged it down. She tried to tell me that she had not hit us. Her brand new peugot had a mighty dent in the top of her boot.  The passerby gave us her name as a witness and strongly recommended we go to to the police station at the end of the car park and notify them of the accident which we did.   Our Oka does not even have a scratch. So we were very lucky.

We decided to hire a car for three days so we could get out more and see some of the places. So we caught a bus into town and had a good look around before going to pick the car up when I get a call from our housesitter. Our house had been burgled – every thing had been turned upside down in the bedrooms. What do we do – we are here – the house is a mess and who can work out what has been taken. What a shock! I rang the insurance company organised for notification of what was stolen to be lodged when we came back.

I then rang our son to see if he could go over and see what could be done. He tells me that last night they had taken their 2 year old son to hospital as he had fallen and cut right through his lip. It should be stitched but they couldn’t do it as the local anaesthetic wouldn’t take. So they had to take him back again today.  Because of where he cut the lip they have to try and get both sides of the lip to align themselves or he could look disfigured in the future as he grows and his face changes.

Then a little later in the evening my daughter rings to tell me that her 2 year old son has just burnt hmself and has been taken to the hospital and has 3rd degree burns on his arm.

It was not our day today.