Here We Go Again - Chapter 63 - Darwin Day 3

Big town means TV coverage and just at the moment the Olympics are all over the airwaves. They are the only thing that seems to be able to keep Covid down. Everyone seems glued to a TV set, especially when medals are up for grabs.

This is the day we have set down for our first jabs. Silver Leader is already fully immunised. I could have been in risk categories, but wanting to wait for Robyn and get them done concurrently means we don’t get out of sync and lose track. Rose too, is booked in but at a slightly later time.

Off we go, in search of the clinic. The GPS does not know of the address (one of my very few bugbears of the vehicle) but puts us in the general place. Here there are sporting fields and a sporting club and thankfully signs. The signs seem to point out the sporting club as our final destination but it is not overly clear.

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We are early enough that some investigation of the facilities without haste can occur. Looking down a path between buildings we see people and glean that is the correct entry. With that information safely locked away and 30 minutes before our appointed time, there is a cricket game to watch. Yes its August, but we are in the tropics and the thought of playing football, any code, in this heat, seems somewhat abhorrent. So cricket it is.

Its a junior game, but from the standard and the uniforms, it may be a representative game. The bowling is slick and the batting commanding. Deliveries I think are reasonable are dispatched to and over the boundary, then a wayward delivery is allowed to pass or given undue respect in my opinion.

A few overs down and its our time. Time to be jabbed. Here they are dispensing the Astra Zeneca vaccine. There has been much in the media about side effects etc but we are open minded. Firstly we are seated, filling out the obligatory forms. Them completed we are ushered to a row of seats. Each time someone inside the clinic is finalised we all move one seat closer. Given the reasons we are here and the safety efforts of those we have dealt with so far this seems a little less social than appropriate.

Inside the clinic there are more chairs, this time numbered for us to sit and play the same “musical chairs” game we had outside. There are three stations and the wait is not long but we do all eventually sit in all the same chairs. Perhaps they believe no one with the virus would be silly enough to turn up for the vaccine. There is certainly no cleaning between sitting movements of these chairs.

Through the questions and the jab, it is time to sit through the waiting period for side effects – 15 minutes. We know when we can leave as we have had a time written on an adhesive tab stuck to our shirts. The ticking over of time on the clock on the wall, 15 minutes, takes an eternity.

Robyn having been in the seat behind me will be another 5 minutes after I can leave. I wait for her and we leave together. Rose is still with the technician, long after we had been jabbed and passed our waiting time. Evidently they want her to visit a GP for further testing before administering the vaccine. 

They have even made her an appointment at a local medical centre. She will now need to go and sit in that waiting room and see a doctor, return, thankfully not have to run the gauntlet of the introduction forms etc, then get jabbed at the front of the queue.

We leave them to their medical diversion and head back towards the van.

Darwin Show weekend and we muse with the thought of wandering amongst the exhibits and see what the locals have to offer. One look at the entrance and the car park puts paid to that idea. Just like the Thursday night markets, there is no attention to anything like social distancing. We have some scripts to fill and a little shopping to get, so we move on our way.

A tackle shop needs to be found in order that I replace the reel destroyed in the Barramundi charter. The reel that was destroyed was not overly expensive and I do not wish to spend lots on the predicament but this is the topics and fish here are bigger than at home and of much nastier disposition. It will need to be a reasonable quality.

Its quite some time before Silver Leader and Rose return to the park. We certainly didn’t hurry and he did wash his car.

In the interim I made Robyn a crab salad for lunch. There is still an awful lot of crab in the fridge. I offer a whole one to the next door vanners. They accept it with glee. Having pigged out on crab ourselves, the only real option is the afternoon “nanna nap”.

Waking in time for happy hour, I seek to lock down the details for the next fishing trip in two days time. This, a much less formal trip, will be with the son of a friend of Silver Leader. A local who on the last trip up here was quite taken aback when we did not call. Silver Leader had suggested to him he was working, it was mid week, we didn’t want to put him out. His answer to that was that he worked for Telstra and their flexible work time meant fishing could take precedence.

That aside, making sure I had the right gear for the job in the boat is of prime importance. The new reel needs to be threaded with line. Decisions on which of the “big gear” we might want for trolling for mackerel and tuna as well as the bottom bashing for coral trout and cod are all considerations. I take three rods from the storage at the front of the van. I rig them as much as possible as tomorrow will bring its own share of possibilities.

For now its time to imbibe in the happy hour. Finding a seat is difficult. Apparently there is a function on in the pool area adjacent to the bar and catering area. Most of the tables are either occupied or reserved. This means the queues for both food and drink are also long. We wont be here long. Not with crab and Barramundi fillets, fresh caught, to be eaten back at the van.

We are feeling very few if any side effects of the “jab”, save my ankles swelling in the heat a little more than usual. That said they are uncomfortably large and require ice packs and elevation for a time before dinner. Laying on the bed with feet up watching the human strive for perfection at an Olympic games is not that hard to take.

Silver (Manu) Leader attends to the cooking of the fillets. We rustle up some salad to go with them. 

Life is hard. And if it was about to get a little harder, I set the alarm for 3.00am for the  morning’s festivities on the water