Pissed in Paradise

It is a beautiful day outside.  It must be rocking mid 20’s C in the middle of winter, blue skies, a real picture of paradise.  And I am very pissed off.

See?  Paradise!

Let me rewind a little….

As our regular readers know, our car accident a few years ago left me with a pretty smashed up nose, which has been giving me general grief for years (leaking, sinus headaches etc), and specific problems since a bout of sinusitis last year ruined our plan to climb Mt Kinabalu and threatened to scupper our dive trip of a lifetime (see this blog post).

What I haven’t told folks is that in December when I went to have the nose looked at it turned out that I also have a benign bone tumour in my left cheek.  It is something that will likely keep growing for the rest of my life, and which I will have to have shaved back periodically to prevent it putting pressure on my left eye.  In a way, the car accident which led us to re-evaluate our lives has also led to the discovery of this growth.

You can see the tumour - that white patch on the right

In December I went on the waiting list to have the sinuses drained and the cheek bone biopsied (to confirm the nature of the growth), and in March, I got the call up.  The only problem was that Cor and I were in Tasmania working with some wonderful people and looking for our new home.  So I gave up my March appointment on the understanding that they would reschedule me for when we returned to North Queensland in June.

And now I am pissed off.  It transpires that they did not actually reschedule me (apparently the people who told me that weren’t the people who make the ENT appointments), and now I won’t get seen by the doctor for at least 1-2 months.

So here we are.  In North Queensland, in paradise as it were, pissed off.  There are a few things we can do, sure.  We are spending some time with family, doing a spot of fishing, sorting out a few things to take with us, organising Cor’s Australian drivers licence (she has to do the test!), and doing some prepatory reading for our new life as farmers.  But would we much rather be in Tasmania, enjoying the cold days out working in the paddocks, the nights in front of a fire, and looking for our new property?  Absolutely.

I know I don't look pissed.... but it is hard to be angry when you are fishing.

So the plan for now is for Cor to do her driver’s test in the third week of July, and shortly thereafter head back down to Tassie via Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, seeing some good friends, picking up some of the stuff that has been stored for 12 years or more on the way.  When I get the call for the operation I can leave Cor with the truck and fly back north to get it all sorted.

It all sounds good, but for now I am still pissed in paradise.

Cor is certainly making the best of it.