Ro Finds His Calling

Sunday

Working all weekend and still sick as a dog, Mark took a risk and stayed up last night to watch the Tri-Nations rugby match, and it was worth it. Down 12-3 at halftime, the All Blacks came back to beat the Wallabies in dramatic fashion 19-18 at Olympic Stadium in Sydney in front of a crowd of 80,000. Their victory ensured their retention of the Bledisloe Cup for a sixth consecutive year. After both the All Blacks and Wallabies were manhandled by the reigning world-champion South Africans in recent weeks, it was good to see NZ get back on track. Even our local Bay of Plenty Steamers won yesterday, and sit atop the standings in the Air New Zealand Cup.

See links: http://www.scrum.com/trinations/rugby/story/101540.html

http://www.scrum.com/newzealandclub/rugby/story/101471.html

The house officers at the hospital change over tomorrow, so today was Mark's last shift with a lot of his experienced juniors, who are moving on to other places. He was able to get one of them to write him a Rx for pseudoephedrine - you can't get it over the counter here due to the meth problem.

Mauao as seen from Tauranga Hospital

While Mark was working, Sherry tried to keep Ro entertained on a rainy Sunday afternoon. She's still a little under the weather herself, but Ro is back to his usual form, with the exception of an occasional cough. Sherry is also doing a week-long fast/cleansing, which Mark doesn't quite understand; as he put it, "Does whoever dies with the cleanest colon win?"

Fortunately, Sherry remembered that there is a rock-climbing gym on the other side of Blake Park, which Ro took to like a fish to water. They have a kid's wall there, but Ro soon conquered that, and proceeded to climb 4 of the 6 adult beginner walls while Sherry belayed him. He could have easily climbed the others if he were a few inches taller. If we ever build a house, we'll have to put a bouldering room in it, as we'd always know where to find Ro. Even the staff members and other parents remarked to Sherry at Ro's enthusiasm, "He's a natural! It's nice when they find their sport, isn't it?" After climbing for 3 solid hours, both Ro and Sherry's necks were starting to ache from looking up so much! Although, Ro didn't want to leave, Sherry saw an opportunity to ride home between rain squalls and took it.

See link: http://www.therockhouse.co.nz/welcome.htm

Ro having fun at The Rock House

Enjoying the view from up high

Just hanging around...from a "rock" no bigger than Sherry's fist

After stopping at the chemist to pick up his treasured pseudoephedrine, Mark came home to Sherry cooking him a rack of lamb, steamed broccoli, and baked kumara (with brown sugar). Mark felt a twinge of guilt sucking the tender meat off the bones while Sherry's dinner was nothing but beef broth, but that soon passed. One good thing about Sherry's fast - Mark got to eat the last of the Tim Tams! We've long since finished the Girl Scout cookies Brittany (Ro's baby sitter) shipped us from the States. Props to you, Britt! We put Ro to bed (he was tired from climbing all day), then settled on the couch with our runny noses and Kleenex to watch Mission Impossible 2, which Sherry had never seen. It was cool to see the spots in Sydney we'd been to in the film. Sherry retired after the movie, but Mark was wired on pseudo and stayed up to fiddle around on the laptop and watch the 4th day of the 5th Ashes Test match (Test cricket takes a while). The TV crew kept cutting to shots of Daniel Radcliffe and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) sitting in the front row of the stands, downing their beers and prompting the commentator to ask, "What mystery potions do we have there? 'Harry Potter and the Mystery of the Disappearing Lager.'" It all seemed to be an excuse for the camera to linger on Tom's girlfriend Jade Olivia, herself a tabloid favorite in the UK. England ended up beating Australia by 197 runs to claim the deciding match of the series. Not a good sporting weekend for the Ozzies.

See links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashes

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12172_5462303,00.html