New Zealand Sabbatical

We are at 80 degrees this Christmas Eve afternoon a few hours before “Midnight Mass”. Last year’s sermon by the old Irish priest was most unusual so we are interested to hear his comments this year. We sing carols prior and some of their lyrics border on the macabre.

There have been a few nice sunsets such as this one seen out our dining room window. The winds on the Canterbury plains move them in and out quickly some days.

The next picure shows our clinic “quiz team” at a pub call Thirsty Acres in the town 8km up the road. The trivia contests are quite a production distributed by a New Zealand company to 350 drinking establishments weekly with 8 rounds of 10 questions. Dianne and I can supply some American-based answers but are lost when the subjects of rugby or cricket come up.

This particular night I did the Heimlich Maneuver on a young adult male at the next table. His grandmother had tried to do it a couple of times before I gave it a STRONG try. Our efforts were successful such that the victim never lost consciousness and stayed for the next 2 hours to help his quiz team. That was my first time doing it and my advice would be to put some real muscle in it should you ever need to do it. Dr. Bunker has commented that I “saved their Christmas” which may be true, I guess. Merry Christmas to all of you and chew your food well:)