Sunday, March 3, 2013

Centenarian

Dave came down with a bout of flu so the Orongorongo tramp was unfortunately called off. I had a longish walk yesterday morning - 12 or 13 km around the waterfront to Hataitai and back - to make up for that. If I'm trying to do two jobs, it's vital that I maintain a decent level of physical fitness. I don't know if or when the tramp will happen now, which is a shame.

I saw Julie last night at the rest home in Berhampore. She's not happy there. It's a long time since she's been happy anywhere, but how could you be happy in a place like that? All the screaming and shouting and incontinence and staff who are paid next to nothing and are too busy to help you. Julie introduced me to a 102-year-old man and we shook hands. I'd never (knowingly) met anyone much over 90 before; seeing someone - especially a bloke - living and breathing in his second century blew me away. Remarkably he lived at home until a year ago. I struggled to make myself heard with the TV going in the background but he was still in possession of his marbles as far as I could tell.

The guy from the autism group came round again today. After a while I was wishing he would leave. I hope I didn't make that too obvious. His IT knowledge makes him a handy man to have around though. He looked at my setup, clearly thought I was living in the dark ages, and had a lot of fun installing or uninstalling this or that.

Back to work tomorrow. My desk is close to the toilets and canteen so I get a lot of foot traffic. This didn't bother me until the end of last week when for some reason it started to do my head in.

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