What a weekend! Most of our weekends come and go with nothing much happening but last weekend was not one of those. My 28-year-old granddaughter, Zoe, recently became engaged to Jason and Jason’s parents arranged to have an engagement party for the happy pair at their home on Sunday. This is about an hour’s drive from here.
One of my sons and his partner, Vivienne, were going to pick us up on the way as the old man doesn’t like to drive far these days. Capable of doing so but not as confident as he would like to be, hence the offer of a lift being gratefully accepted.
Unfortunately on the Saturday, while playing a game of beach cricket, Vivienne broke her ankle, was on crutches and in severe pain, and so they had to opt out of going to the party. That was just the start of things to come.
So to plan 2. Another son picked us up and when we arrived at the venue it was to find a lot of guests there but no Zoe, and her dad (my oldest son, Brenton) on crutches with leg swathed heavily in a stretch bandage.
Apparently during the morning a pig was being cooked on a spit on the BBQ but this wasn’t working properly, the flame had gone out for some reason. So after things were checked and everything seemed fine Zoe bent down and flicked the switch again – unfortunately no one had realised that the gas had been flowing through all the time and so when the spark was lit there was a huge bang and a big flame flew out and went right up Zoe’s arm, burning it, and into her hair, singeing it.
Her tee shirt was melting against her skin and she quickly discarded it. Her dad automatically jumped back and tore a ligament in his calf – hence the crutches and bandage.
Zoe had been to the local hospital that morning and had the burn on her arm attended to, a hairdresser friend had been to fix her hair as best as it could be, cutting off the singed bits, and so she could be forgiven for arriving a little bit late to her party. Being the trouper that she is she put on a brave face and carried on as if nothing had happened but must have been in pain.
We had been a bit worried as to the weather which was expected to reach 37 degrees C but there was a lot of cloud, plenty of shade, tables with umbrellas, etc., and as it turned out the weather was the least of the worries.
Have to say though that after all that the party was a great success and everyone enjoyed themselves.
The outcome of it all is that Vivienne is to have an operation this afternoon on her ankle. Brenton is having an ultrasound on his calf today. Due to return to work on Thursday which he won’t be able to do, has exhausted his sick pay and holiday pay so will be on leave without pay….
..and as for Zoe, the saga continues. She was admitted to the Burns Unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital on Monday for an operation to have some special dressing put on the burn. Fasting for the operation she told them that she is a Type 1 Diabetic (has been on insulin injections since she was 12) so they checked her sugar level, said it was too low and gave her a cookie! Remember, she was fasting! Outcome was that the operation had to be delayed for a day. That is when they discovered it was the machine that was faulty not Zoe.
Took her temperature, though she insisted she was fine, and the thermometer showed 40. It was then they realised that (again!) it was the equipment that was at fault and her temperature was normal (not sure about her temper by that stage, good job she is a placid sort of person).
A comedy of errors - but not funny!
So she is still in hospital, waiting for them to tell her she can go home – that is if the special dressing has worked.
So, as I said, there are drama-free weekends and then there are the other sort, last weekend was definitely the latter and Zoe and Jason will certainly remember their engagement party.
One of my sons and his partner, Vivienne, were going to pick us up on the way as the old man doesn’t like to drive far these days. Capable of doing so but not as confident as he would like to be, hence the offer of a lift being gratefully accepted.
Unfortunately on the Saturday, while playing a game of beach cricket, Vivienne broke her ankle, was on crutches and in severe pain, and so they had to opt out of going to the party. That was just the start of things to come.
So to plan 2. Another son picked us up and when we arrived at the venue it was to find a lot of guests there but no Zoe, and her dad (my oldest son, Brenton) on crutches with leg swathed heavily in a stretch bandage.
Apparently during the morning a pig was being cooked on a spit on the BBQ but this wasn’t working properly, the flame had gone out for some reason. So after things were checked and everything seemed fine Zoe bent down and flicked the switch again – unfortunately no one had realised that the gas had been flowing through all the time and so when the spark was lit there was a huge bang and a big flame flew out and went right up Zoe’s arm, burning it, and into her hair, singeing it.
Her tee shirt was melting against her skin and she quickly discarded it. Her dad automatically jumped back and tore a ligament in his calf – hence the crutches and bandage.
Zoe had been to the local hospital that morning and had the burn on her arm attended to, a hairdresser friend had been to fix her hair as best as it could be, cutting off the singed bits, and so she could be forgiven for arriving a little bit late to her party. Being the trouper that she is she put on a brave face and carried on as if nothing had happened but must have been in pain.
We had been a bit worried as to the weather which was expected to reach 37 degrees C but there was a lot of cloud, plenty of shade, tables with umbrellas, etc., and as it turned out the weather was the least of the worries.
Have to say though that after all that the party was a great success and everyone enjoyed themselves.
The outcome of it all is that Vivienne is to have an operation this afternoon on her ankle. Brenton is having an ultrasound on his calf today. Due to return to work on Thursday which he won’t be able to do, has exhausted his sick pay and holiday pay so will be on leave without pay….
..and as for Zoe, the saga continues. She was admitted to the Burns Unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital on Monday for an operation to have some special dressing put on the burn. Fasting for the operation she told them that she is a Type 1 Diabetic (has been on insulin injections since she was 12) so they checked her sugar level, said it was too low and gave her a cookie! Remember, she was fasting! Outcome was that the operation had to be delayed for a day. That is when they discovered it was the machine that was faulty not Zoe.
Took her temperature, though she insisted she was fine, and the thermometer showed 40. It was then they realised that (again!) it was the equipment that was at fault and her temperature was normal (not sure about her temper by that stage, good job she is a placid sort of person).
A comedy of errors - but not funny!
So she is still in hospital, waiting for them to tell her she can go home – that is if the special dressing has worked.
So, as I said, there are drama-free weekends and then there are the other sort, last weekend was definitely the latter and Zoe and Jason will certainly remember their engagement party.
