I said that Rhoda had a bright new shiny titanium pin running the length of her humerus. How shiny is that?
I thought I would share with you a few of the humorous (in hindsight) side stories that took place on the day.
Rhoda always carries a list of all her meds in her purse with her but for the first time ever, she had left that purse at home. We certainly didn't want the hospital taking any drastic action without knowing what her meds were and we were.
When they were getting Rhoda ready to put her into the ambulance for the transfer to the chopper, I asked if I could go with her (to the hospital) and the ambo said yes.
So we decided that once the Ambulance left, Sonia would pedal off to the house to pick up Rhoda's list of meds and then drive back to the helicopter with the list for the medics to take to the hospital. If she was not at the chopper in time, she would continue on to the hospital and I would meet her there. In the meantime, John and the boys would return Rhoda's, and my, bikes to the bike hire shop and then they would pedal back to the house.
In due course, Rhoda was loaded into the ambulance and I climbed in with her and off we went for the very short drive to the field where the chopper would land.
They unloaded Rhoda and started to take her to the chopper and I followed when I was told that I wasn't able to go with her. Ambulance OK, chopper No. No worries I thought, a simple misunderstanding and I faded into the background.
However, as I was standing there watching the medics go about their business, it suddenly occurred to me that if Sonia did not get to the chopper in time, I had no way of getting back to the house, I had no idea where the house was and I didn't even know the address. All I knew was that it was Minau something or other. We had only been on the island 4 hours and Rhoda had done the navigating on the way in. All of a sudden, I became just as interested in Sonia's arrival as I was on Rhoda's departure.
I grabbed a few quick shots of the chopper leaving all the time looking out for Sonia, the ambos departed and the cops and the fireies were still standing around and having come to the conclusion, Sonia was not going to show up, I went over to the group and managed to get the message across that I need a lift home.
No worries said the cops (at least I think that is what they said). Come with us.
So the 3 cops and myself piled into the cop car. "Where to?" (I presume) one of them asked. "No bloody idea" (or words to that effect) I replied.
I then had several attempts at saying Minau??? during which time I thought they were going to lock me up for being on drugs or something and that perhaps they should have sent me off in the chopper after all.
Now what is the first thing you do when someone doesn't understand what you are trying to say? You spell the word. So off I went "M I n a u " then a shrug of the shoulders to say there were other letters. I did this a couple of times by which time they all started to get out their charge books.
Then the light bulb came on that the letters M I n etc would sound totally different in French and I was just making things worse by spelling so I went back to trying to pronounce it.
Eventually one of the cops exclaims "Aahh L'Emeraude". “Oui oui. L'Emeraude” the others nodded. Looks like we had a plan. So on goes the siren, "Neee Norrr Neee Norrr (bloody hell!!) and off we went. A few more blasts of the siren to scare off errant cyclists and wandering pedestrians and soon we arrived at the Hotel L'Emeraude where they tried to kick me out.
"Non Non" I say. "Not here" although right then I could think of worse places to be than a pub.
Then one of the cops produces a map (why did that take so long?) and I try to find the street but no luck. However, on the other side of the map is an index and there in the index is "Rue de Minaude". "Voila" I say. "Ahh oui" they reply. Only problem then was none of them knew where that street was (no wonder they couldn’t understand what I was trying to say) so a lengthy discussion ensured before a route was agreed.
On went the siren again (woohoo!!) and off we went. . A couple more blasts and a few more cyclists in the ditch before we finally reached Sonia and John's house.
Thanked the cops profusely, mercy mercy and opened the gate to find Sonia performing some very interesting manoeuvres with her car in the front yard. But that's another story. See
https://365project.org/terryliv/directors-cut-2/2018-07-23
