Accident & Emergency

On Friday afternoon, Lou and I bought a laptop so that we can get internet in the house and not take out of the way and costly trips to the internet cafe. Hopefully this will mean that I can now start and make daily updates to this blog and keep you all up to date with the goings on in Christchurch.

The main note of interest that has occured recently included our 5 year anniversary on 26 January. We celebrated with dinner at a place called Le Bon Bolli, a French bistro restaurant in town. We had an enjoyable meal more so from the conversation than the food. Lou's main course was delicious and mine was average, then my dessert was delicious and Lou's was abysmal. It was only on the following Monday in work I discovered that although I had phoned to reserve a table a week in advance, we were seated in the downstairs cafe bistro as opposed to the more elegant and expensive upstairs which I would have preferred had I been asked on the phone which I had not. So not only did the restaurant lose out on what would have been money in seating us upstairs, but from repeat dinings in future.

The rest of the evening was spent at Warner's Hotel bar where I tested their Guinness before having a pint of my new favourite beer - Mac's Great White. It looks and tastes exactly like Hoegarden minus the expense. On a related and cheerful note, our Munich style beer that we are brewing is of very much the same look and taste so I'm very excited about getting stuck into that and letting our reserved section mature for 3, 6 and 9 months respectively for an even better taste!

We have also been enjoying the mid-summer weather and on the days when Lou can meet me for lunch, we have taken a picnic on a bench by the river Avon overlooking punts, kayaks and ducks passing by and the latter clacking at our feet looking for scraps. It's great to have this on our doorstep and we investigated Hagley Park on Saturday to explore it and the Botanical Gardens.

Our journey took us through town winding our way through the city square and over a bridge to where a little carnival was taking place. It was mostly for children with rides and candy floss highlighted by a very strange and, admittedly, offensive inflated slide designed to look like one half of the Titanic sinking into the ocean. One wonders if other designs by the company include the Hindenburg and Twin Towers and a Ghost House with an Auscwitch gas chamber theme.

We cycled on past the golf course which strangely has no safety fence - only a sign warning you to keep your eyes peeled for flying golf balls although by the time someone has a chance to shout 4 it would already have hit you, especially dangerous for any children in the park. We took a rest on a park bench overlooking a huge man made pond before making our way to the other side and our route back home again.

Unfortunately our return journey was edged with danger and disaster and a trip to Accident & Emergency.

Part of Christchurch's charm lies in a tram system that loops in a circle to take visitors and interested parties through the streets taking in the scenery and awe of buildings a mere 200 years and less old. As such the road is covered in tram tracks making it a bear trap for bicycle wheels. Part Lou and her natural aura of accident-prone-ness and the rest unfortunate circumstances, her wheel lodged between a tram line and sent her catapulting over the handlebars and into a heap on the road.

I raced back to help her where she was already being assisted by several people who were just behind us. One woman led her to a low wall to sit down where I crouched beside her and examined her injuries while another person cleared the bike from the road. She had a huge nasty graze on her arm, a few superficial grazes on her knee and face and a particularly nasty gouge in her hand. One of the by-standers, whom we mistook to have some sort of medical background assessed that the cut was right through to the bone and suggested a trip to a chemist. Another had a first aid kit on her bike and she stuck a plaster on it. I noticed she also had antiseptic cream and other more usual wraps but did not want to harass her for them if she was not forthcoming as I was more concerned with the face that Lou was very pale and obviously concussed and naturally scared.

I had no intention of going to the chemist for such serious injuries as they would certainly have not provided the care required and helped Lou get to the Accident & Emergency which by that stage I was glad to note that her concussion had subsided although she was still in need of having her cuts and grazes cleaned out with the necessary lotions, salves and bandages. Although we had a first aid kit at home, I wanted the best treatment possible and was also wary of the concussion.

After registering with a nurse and obtaining some painkillers, we waited for around an hour where we were taking through and a nurse examined her. She told us that a doctor would not be needed, which we had surmised ourselves by this point, and provided us with an abundant bag of wraps and bandages to apply once the cuts were washed out.

We managed to cycle home again and my hours of watching ER paid off as I adeptly applied gauzes and suchlike on Lou's injuries which made her look more seriously injured than she was but I was glad to have bothered with the hospital rather than the chemist and be rewarded with free appendages.

I am feeling slightly nervous now as I seem to be the only person in the house not affected by jetboat or bike crash and that I might be next. With any luck, these things come in 3 and I wont be targeted next!