This Past Weekend - Part 2, Saturday...

As we were only going into the hospital at around 10h30, I woke up early to see if I could do a bit of fishing (of course I took my rods down, just in case I got some time), but the wind was up earlier than I was, blowing from the North East and not good for throwing flies. Instead, Mum and I pottered about around the house, had a cup of tea and a slice of toast to keep us going until after we'd been to see Dad, when we'd go and have a decent lunch somewhere. Around 10h30, we got the car out of the garage and headed into Port Shepstone hospital. Dad was propped up in bed, a pillow supporting him, with all sorts of sticky pads stuck to various parts of his chest and shoulders and a couple of them leading cables to a digital machine above the bed. He was in surprisingly good spirits and I know this cos he crapped all over me for driving down to be there. We chatted about how he felt (okay, considering), what sort of a night he'd had (noisy nurses in the ward), and what the prognosis from the doctor was. As I mentioned previously, the doctor has told him he is never to smoke again, or he will die. I can tell by his tone of voice that he will now give it up for good though. Dad is not usually scared by medical problems and they are usually seen as an inconvenience, but this time is different. He is not scared, but is angry at himself for getting to be in this state. What was that about hindsight? Dad has always been of the opinion that, when he goes, it will be sudden. This episode, however, has given him new food for thought. He's also had enough time alone in the hospital, so far, to think. He's stated that he has now given up smoking (even said he wasn't craving one after two days of not having had one), is going to change his diet (we joked about going out shopping and top of our list is carrots - Dad hates carrots) and is going to try and get some exercise, even if it just means walks on the beach (something that hasn't been done in a while since Pandora couldn't manage it). I hope, for all our sakes but especially for his and Mum's, that he keeps to his word. Anyway, at about noon, the nurse told us in a roundabout way that we had to leave and we went and had lunch, followed by grocery shopping. That afternoon was spent in fron of the TV, watching the Currie Cup rugby semi-finals where both the teams I wanted to win (Sharks especially) lost. The final is going to be a humdinger though, going by the semi's performances. That evening, we had "Stovies" for dinner (years since Mum made them - for those who don't know, it's a Scottish dish of boiled potatos with ham and veg on the side) and sat down to watch a series drama called "The Commander". It's an English police drama and is quite good. During the commercial break, I switched to the TV guide and noticed that Scotland was playing France in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. "Oh, shit", I told myself, not expecting a favourable result. Much to my surprise, when I switched over with about three minutes left on the football clock, I saw that Scotland had gone one up...ya fuckin' dancer!! We happily watched the end of the game (Mum is as staunch a Scotland supporter as I am) and then watched the end of the drama. With not much else on the box for the rest of the night, Mum ended up dozing off on the couch and then went to bed around 9:30pm. I sat up for a while longer, watching the final qualifying round for the Japanese F1 Grand Prix, then went off to bed around 11:30pm...