^ An old photo/postcard of Launceston circa 1881 (link).
So, I am in beautiful Launceston. It is my third day here and so far I've been to the museum, wandered around the town a little, enjoyed the beautiful weather, though most notably, I have spent much of my time taking in the wonderful sights and sounds of Launceston General Hospital and had a minor operation.
We caught the train to Sydney from Newcastle on Sunday night, stayed with some of C's friends and in the morning caught the Jetbus to the airport, just made the flight, and due to my very swollen, sore tail bone the flight was pretty tear inducing, teamed with feeling like I was being repeatedly stabbed in the face on the descent due to my bad sinuses readjusting to the pressure. We arrived in very fresh 11˚C Launceston and not long after driving back to C's parents house and dumping our things, the pain was too bad and I was taken up to the local hospital where I waited in emergency for three hours. Of course, I forgot that being really pleasant to the desk staff and downplaying your intense pain doesn't mean you get in sooner. The characters in the waiting room were kind of amusing, most notably a slightly white trash family with a whole bunch of kids and a daughter named Shakira. Eventually I got in, after much wailing and shaking in the waiting room, and got put into a tiny little stall. A doctor with a delicious American accent came in and I showed him the damage. An hour or so of lying with my butt in the air, he operated, but my pain medication came only a few minutes before the procedure was to begin, so I basically was cut up with a scalpel on my very swollen tail bone with NO PAINKILLERS for about forty minutes. I definitely feel as though I've well extended my pain threshold now. Sadly I can't remember the doctor's name (the pain and the drugs), but I have basically been referring to him just as "my dreamy American doctor". He did have glasses, was in his mid thirties and was slightly balding but I loved him. He apologised each of the 15 times he made an incision into the flesh around my tail bone. Haha. I basically just murdered the pillow that was under me by grabbing it and pulling on it each time he made a cut and screamed and cried loudly and bit the pillow. Today when I came back in to have my bandage changed the woman at the desk said "Oh were you the girl who was yelping on Monday night?". Yes, yes I was.
Anyway, all very painful and unpleasant. My medication makes me tired and queasy, sitting, lying and walking are still painful, but I'm not going to complain about it any more because it's all on the mend :) The rest of our stay, although slightly marred by my sore butt, will be spent doing fun things! Tomorrow we are going to a chocolate factory, a honey factory and a cheese factory, and they all offer tastings :P
Last night we all went out to the movies. C and his parents went into one cinema to see Van Diemens Land and I went to see New Moon (yes, I read the books, yes I saw the first movie, no I absolutely don't think it's any good). Launceston has five candy shops and the one across from the movies is very strategically placed. I got a huge mixed bag. C's parents have been lovely and I've been taking their little camera around with us wherever we go, so I have some photos to update you with! Hoorah;
My first photo in Launceston, after just getting back from surgery, obviously I'm having an awesome time so far. And me with a big red train they had at the museum.
My lollies from the movies, the photo doesn't do the never ending bag justice.
C's mum stuck in a room in the museum, it was amusing. All of the dust from the museum got in my eyes (see below) and I couldn't stop rubbing them. I swear I am just illness prone.
C was taking photos outside the museum while we waited for his parents to come back with the car and I sat with my head in C's jumper to stop myself from scratching my eyes. A man walked by us and saw C taking photos of me looking like I was crying and asked C what he was doing and if I was alright. Aw, nice Launceston folk looking out for me.
Here's me posting some posty goodness this morning. Also, if you've never seen an Australia Post box before, there you go :)
Then I had to go back to the hospital to get my wound checked up on. Sadly the dreamy American doctor wasn't there :'(. I did get a sweet female med student and another American doctor, but he wasn't as hunky. Here is me having a heaps good time;
This is me leaving the hospital, and waiting for the bus. I did spend a lot of time here, so C thought it was necessary to take a photo of the hospital as "one of the main places we went on our holiday";
C told me there were monkeys in town park, but I didn't believe him. Turns out there is just a random monkey enclosure in the middle of the park. How cool is that? Little school boys were throwing things at them, it made me angry;
And here is me with an old fashioned post box that is still in use. I LOVE IT! I'm going to post all of my letters here (even though there are like three post offices way closer);
And I thought, just to show you that I am still working on my mail and writing letters down here (though I haven't actually written any yet), I'd take a photo of the 'mail kit' I brought with me. It's full of supplies for making mail (pens, glue, etc), some stationery, letters to respond to and envelopes needing letters put in them. I spread it out on the little table in the backyard. C's dad came out and looked shocked. I love that it was still so lovely and bright out at that time of night. It was about 8pm when I took these pictures;
Anyway, that has been my 'holiday' so far. I will try to update a few more times while I'm down here :) I hope you enjoyed my really fascinating, awesome holiday snaps.
