May

Boy’s Day Out

Hi all!

It’s been a really quiet week as I recovered from Tuesday’s surgery. We decided to put my social schedule on hold, as well as postpone any non-essential medical treatments. Mom and I settled in to spend some good quality time with each other; unfortunately Mommy was starting to feel a little ill mid-week, and by Thursday she had to go she our GP, Doc Ant (Doctor Anthony; Doc Ant for short, as his kids got him personalised plates for his car that read Doc Ant). She couldn’t move owing to pain and feeling ill. Dad rushed home from work on Thursday afternoon and took me into his charge so Mommy could see the GP. Upon her return it turned out she had tonsillitis and pharyngitis. As a result she was confined to the house as it is contagious, and she spent the rest of the week wearing surgical face masks.

Granny came to look after me on Friday, which was really fun, while Mom rested and stayed in bed. Dad was on a training programme, so he arrived home a little earlier than usual and took over from Granny. Saturday we all chilled around the house, with Mom spending much of the time resting. Bev and Claire popped by very briefly to give Mom a “survivor pack” of herbal tea, chocolates, gorgeous socks and reading material. I benefited from the pack as well, in that I had some of Mom’s Lindt chocolate – yum!

Sunday’s excitement, however, made up for the lack of social life of the past few days. After my regular morning snooze Dad frantically rushed around the house gathering up the usual paraphernalia that makes up my baby bag. I curiously watched these interesting going-ons, and then remember that Dad had promised to take me to the air show at Rand Airport. I now started getting really excited!!!

Soon the boys (Dad and I) were on the road with an air of excitement swamping the interior of the car; as we whooshed along the highway Dad and I sang to the songs on his iPod. Our excitement was suddenly dampened, however, as we reached our off-ramp – there was a queue of traffic at least 100 cars deep. Who would have thought that air shows were so popular? It took us the better part of an hour to eventually find parking and trek to the apron of the runways where the stalls and stands were set up. It was not an uneventful trek though, as overhead we saw a myriad of planes swooping over the audience. I was astounded at how loud these planes were and my neck hurt as I snapped my head skyward to get a glance of these gravity defying craft.

Alongside the runways we walked amongst fixed-wing planes and helicopters of all shapes, sizes and colours. In between inspecting the planes we stood back to watch the show over head. Unfortunately, because of the delay in getting to the air show we only saw some of the aerobatics and majestic aerial beasts that showed off their mettle. While we waited for another overhead show Dad popped me onto the wing of one of the planes (while security was not watching), and snapped a few pictures of me. As I sat on the wing of the aircraft I could hardly contain my excitement at feeling the thin skin of its body around me. I was in awe of the technology that must have gone into the heavier-than-air craft which simply defied gravity. It seemed indescribable that such thin materials could be arranged so brilliantly as to provide the strength to fly.

After sitting on the wing to pose for some photos, Dad took me to the front of the plane where I ran my fingers along the blades of the propeller. As I looked into the front of the cockpit I wondered what type of plane this was. Sadly my Dad was clueless about the ins and outs of aviation, and I really wished my God-Daddy Marc was here with me, as being a pilot I’m sure he could have given me lots more information about all the planes that surrounded us and flew overhead.

We took a break from watching the planes fly by to have some lunch. Dad found a spot for us in an aircraft hangar where he fed me my lunch. As I munched through the meal I suddenly realised that this situation was another first for me for that day – I’d never had lunch in an aircraft hangar before, surrounded by aircraft. My other first for the day was sitting on and touching a plane.

More time was spent watching aircraft whizzing by and all too soon the show was over and we trundled back to our car. Overhead a few stragglers were still doing manoeuvres to bring their craft in to land. I figured that there must be lots of logistics and planning that goes into having so many aircraft congesting one space; although this was probably a cinch for the Rand Airport Control Tower, as apparently it’s the busiest airport on the African continent.

Well, that’s it for tonight. Enjoy your week; I’m planning to still take it easy, and with Mommy still feeling ill I’m not planning to spend much time out and about.

Love you all,

Jarrod