2geonomads

To follow on from yesterday’s long- overdue blog I can say a bit more about the state of play, just over 4 months after my arteries were converted from something resembling the Irrawaddy Delta to a blood flow more akin to Niagara Falls!
All the vital signs in this old codger’s body are seemingly reverting to normal and as weeks goes by I am able to tick off the normality boxes, including walks in the range of 8-12 kms, golf twice or even 3 times a week, regular ironing and dish washing , very light garden work and operating the tv remote control with no apparent ill-effects.
Gail and I have made one visit to the gym and that was a real reality check, especially for me. I had accepted that I couldn’t go straight back into the routine pre-op but even a very much watered-down programme brought home to me that the recovery is still a long road. However, the local doc and others have told me that I am we’ll ahead of the usual timetable and will remain so if I obey the rehab rules. I have no intention of doing otherwise as a return to the cardiac table is NOT on my agenda.
Moving on to more important matters the medics have given me the all-clear to fly from Brisbane to LA tomorrow and then on to Chicago. There I will meet up with friends,Mick, Doug and Fred to drive across the USA on the original Route 66.
Prior to the flight from Perth to Brisbane today I thought it would be a great idea for Gail, Craig, Gail’s sister Lyn and husband Bert to have dinner together, mainly to bring yours truly up to speed on all matters technological.
By way of explanation Craig is the family tech guru and Gail is not far behind. I don’t read from the same page on this and in fact I am still trying to locate the book! Although I had had experience travelling overseas on my own with my work that was in the pre-tech era when one had to go to a local post office overseas and be called to a little booth when the phone hook-up was ready. I Pads were what I wore when I was batting and a mouse was what had my Mum jumping up onto the kitchen table.
Imagine the situation, therefore, when Craig was confronted with the Herculean task of giving his old Dad a quick teach-in to make me reasonably self- sufficient on my trip without Gail to look after such duties.
I thought he might relish the prospect of working with an uncut gem but it quickly became obvious that he was dealing with someone who made Paul Keating’s famous “feral abacus” to describe John Hewson look positively hi-tech.
After long discussions and forlorn attempts to get past the mystified looks on Dad’ s face he decided, very sensibly, to resort to writing things in my notebook which I could present to a salesman in a Telco shop in the USA to obtain a local SIM card.
The note reads as follows verbatim:
” I have an unlocked I Phone 5 bought from Apple ( GSM version). 1 Gb data, 1 hour talk time ( optional ) 3 weeks pre- paid.
AT & T, T Mobile. ( not Verizon or Sprint )”
At first this reminded me of a suicide bomber who is showing his possible victims that he is indeed carrying enough bombs to blow the whole area to smithereens but ,in fact , I was about to be reduced a deaf mute who wants help to cross a busy road!
Just to show that cruelty runs in the family Mrs I wrote in my book:
” Get them to put card in ( may need paper clip to release ) ( Your phone should be unblocked )”
Ideally all of this should be written in block capitals and well- spaced out to avoid any misunderstanding on what is required.
I am now lying on a bed in my Brisbane motel room and for the rest of the day will spend time trying to rebuild my shattered self-esteem before I fly off to LA in the morning.
I won’t bore you with similar details on the huge difficulties which I will apparently encounter with TomTom , sending emails etc, etc.
The good news is that Craig has seemingly fixed the problems with my blog and you should be able to enjoy the musings of this writer who has survived both Dr Sharma and some drawn-out and brutal psychological warfare over the family dining table yesterday evening.
Next stop USA.

Cheers
The Obese Ferret