A reasonably busy day today, in a way.
This morning I got up to take the motorhome up to Levin to have the roof washed - if I'd thought about it, I could probably have organised it better by doing it after I got the CoF on Wednesday seeing as the two places were about 2kms apart. But hindsight is a wonderful thing - I hadn't checked the state of the roof before I went CoFing. Next time I will think...
When I came back I had breakfast and then a bit of a fraught meeting that should have been 1/2 an hour but took over 1.5 hours and wrung me out a bit.
Then checking out signage at the gym here, then home for a brief time and off to serve behind the bar at Happy Hour. That is a task I really enjoy, so I am happy to take on additional turns when others cannot do it.
Accordingly I am on the bar next week and a fortnight later. I'll be catching up with the number of times Julia is on bar duty in Kibworth soon!
David has been getting the motorhome ready today as we are going away overnight tomorrow. We have a funeral to attend in Hunterville in the afternoon. Our friend Phil died Thursday last week and we need to go to say goodbye.
Way back before 2000 I used to stay at Phil and Oriel's place when I was working in Marton. They ran a lovely B&B which cost me (my work) $81 for dinner, bed and breakfast. On my first ever night there, Oriel served me G&Ts (note the plural) before dinner, then a 3 course meal with wine. Wonderful but aaarrrggghhh!!!
So in the morning - full breakfast of course - I told Oriel that I could not cope. The most that was required was wine before and during a two course meal. And it was dessert not a starter. Oriel makes the most delicious pavlova roll.
We had many lovely meals and great conversations where I did my best to educate Phil on the evils of National governments - fat chance that I would succeed because he was a farmer and conservative, through and through.
Regardless of his politics he was an extremely kind man and a lot of fun. At one point, I had South African clients of the firm I worked for coming out to visit the firm. Mostly they used to be put up at fancy hotels, and wined and dined when overseas, but Marton doesn't have such facilities. Instead, I took them to stay the weekend at Phil and Oriel's farm. Lovely food, down to earth hospitality, and a lot of fun.
A highlight was Phil attaching a flatbed trailer to the big tractor, placing form seats in the trailer and driving us around the farm. Such laughter. Not a H&S consideration in sight - apart from the fact that Phil didn't venture off the farm tracks...
I (work) had hired a van for the weekend and I drove them to the Feilding A&P Show. So instead of sterile could-be-anywhere hotels, they had an authentic NZ experience, thanks to Phil and Oriel. Who, by the way, moved out of their bedroom into their old caravan so all the guests could fit in the house!
David and I would occasionally go and stay with Phil and Oriel and take other overseas visitors for the experience of an NZ farm. They refused to let us pay because they said that as a paying guest while working in Marton, I had greatly increased their B&B earnings. Very kind and generous people.
And one of the first film conversion jobs that David ever did was of Phil and Oriel's wedding - they were so beautiful and so young!
The last time we saw Phil was a few months ago. He and Oriel retired off the farm several years ago now (even though for a long time Phil still went and helped their son Justin) and they were living in Feilding. Phil finally had to move into a rest home through ill health and severe lack of mobility, and David and I went to visit. I noticed that while he was still mentally up to the minute, his voice had diminished. So I suggested he move his arms up and down as much as he could manage, so he used his chest muscles and stretched his lungs. And voila - his voice became louder.
So at my very next Aquamove session I introduced a lot of arm exercises and told the team why. And then at my session on Tuesday, I told them that Phil had died.
I reckon he will always be in my thoughts when we are waving our arms about and doing the I must I must increase my bust movements, and the moving through the water using arms only when lying on the noodles or riding the noodle like a horse... Also lung capacity and voice strength were on my mind when I introduced blowing water through the pool noodle, so Phil has been an inspiration to the people at my Aquamove sessions even though they didn't know him.
No comments:
Post a Comment