Saturday 5 February 2011

Frightful Friday: Almost The End

Well I think that the name for this post might have been an inspired choice.  We were on the lawns and under way by 0800.  Play finished 12 hours later.  The heat on the lawns this afternoon was incredible.  Officially Tauranga on the coast 40 minutes away got to 27℃ with 100% humidity but on the croquet lawns the temperature must have soared into the 30s and it was almost unbearable for many.  Even heat-loving me found it hot.

The croquet?  Well that was another matter.  I played as well as I have ever done but was totally outclassed by the world-class players I was up against.  I was not alone!  Some of the best players I normally meet at tournaments fared no better than I fared.   

When we got back to the motel Zoe and her boyfriend had cooked dinner for the gang.  We had just started eating when one of our number collapsed.  I phoned for an ambulance within 30 seconds of it happening and within 4 minutes or so the paramedics with the ambulance were here.  Given that we are in rural NZ that was pretty impressive.  So now at getting on for midnight I am sitting in the motel having been up since 0515 waiting for a call from the hospital 40 minutes drive away to go and collect either the patient and the person who accompanied her or just the latter and bring them back.  It could be a very long night.

The lawns at 0800 look unlikely from where I am at the moment.

Update:
I never managed to post that last night.  All's well this morning.  More soon (I hope!).

5 comments:

  1. GB, that is terrible news. So glad you added that all is well now.
    It really is too hot to be walking around in the mid-day sun. Leave that to the young bucks at the rugby sevens!!
    Take care of you, OK?

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  2. Agreeing with Pauline - glad you added that all is well now. Or was when you posted. (Just now I'm getting a bit time confused again.) It really sounds too much to be playing all day in the sun in that kind of heat. At least be sure to keep your hat on, will you ;)

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  3. Glad all is well.......was it the heat, the food or the drink. Quite a common occurrence nose diving ones dinner at least with the reprobates I get invited out with. We even had a name for it 'A sufficiency of incohol'. Hic!

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  4. Thanks all. J was back on the lawns the next day. As luck would have it none of us had had any alcohol to speak of (both J and I had both had a very weak G & T and I hadn't even started my glass of wine) otherwise I'd have been unable to drive to Tauranga after midnight to get everyone).

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