Monday in NZ

We had our first sick call I guess you could call it. The guy next door to me is sick…has it coming out of both ends. He’s been traveling here on literally a world tour with the C-130s…his last stop was in Africa so no telling what he has! We don’t have drugs here in Christchurch so this guy has to go “downtown” for care. Military Tricare has an agreement with a local Doctor. The Chief, Doc, myself and the Chaplain took him in. I’m sure the guy just loved the fact that the whole crew came along…after the fact we thought the poor guy probably was wondering why we brought the Chaplain along! The Doctor’s office is in a residential area…in an old home converted into a clinic. It was interesting to see people paying cash as they were leaving. I’ve been dealing with military medicine for so long, I don’t really know if people in the U.S. do this (pay as they leave). I think they probably don’t. Anyway, the guy was taken care of and now as I write this, I believe he is due to leave the country tomorrow a healthy man. For those of you who are reading this that will follow me on this mission. The “Chief” is great! Her name is Connie, I’m sorry I don’t recall her last name. Right now (at the beginning on the season) she is acting as Persco, the Chief and the First Shirt so she’s in a bit of overload. She’s out of Hawaii, activated ANG and is very helpful and pleasant to be around. While I’m talking about people…the Chaplain “Jonathan” is great!! This guy is like most military Chaplains, easy to get along with…easy to talk to. I get along with him great and most of the time forget he’s a Chaplain. He’s out of the Pittsburgh ANG and this is his second year to the ice. I believe he will be on the ice until December so Mila and Leslie will get a chance to meet him. He’ll take care of you…I’ll make sure of it! Since we (the Chaplain, the Doc and I) will be the first military on the ice this year there has been a bit of controversy on getting the keys. The keys are our lifeline the way I see it. The keys get us into “the closet”. The closet contains items and luxuries that only the military get. Computers, humidifiers, TV’s etc, etc. The controversy is this…apparently ONLY the advon team Officer In Charge (OIC) is allowed to bring the keys to the ice. This OIC is responsible for all the items in the closet, thus the rule and no one wants to give up the keys. The Chaplain has been using his Chaplain charm to encourage the keeper of the keys to allow us to take them down before the OIC arrives. This is a pretty important mission as far as I’m concerned because the OIC isn’t due to arrive to Antarctica until mid-October!!! To me…it’s a no brainer. If you can’t trust the Chaplain, the Doc and the Nurse with the keys…who CAN you trust?? But, apparently there has to be a lot of thought put into this…we’ll see…hopefully we’ll get the keys. We’ve got the Chaplain praying for the keys. As I mentioned above, we will be the first on the ice this year. Just the four of us (Chaplain, Doc, Nurse and Tech). It will be a nice time…the only 4 military on the ice. Casual Friday may be a real hit! I hear Friday comes around on a daily basis when you are down at the bottom of the world. Doc and Chaplain took me to the “CDC” today…nope not the Center for Disease Control. Here in New Zealand (NZ) that is the place where you get your extreme cold weather (ECW) gear issued. The CDC is the “Clothing Distribution Center” here. I had to make an appointment, so I’ll return tomorrow for that. The post office is right down the sidewalk and is a Military Postal Service U.S. Postal Service office. There is one active duty guy down here running the USPS Office. He’s on a 3 year tour and I think I might want to cross train! My thoughts are fairly random so bare with me here. I’d like to bring up the weather here. I really like it, it’s cool and crisp like a nice Fall morning in Missouri. Sweater weather if you will. I’m not freezing by any means…I like it. What I DON’T like about it is this…it’s DRY DRY DRY! I never thought I’d miss the humidity of Okinawa. Well…I’d give anything for a bit of humidity. My skin is crawling, my hair is going straight again, my eyes are so dry I have to pry them open every time I blink and my lips are begging for a dose of Burt’s Bees every 15 minutes. I brought some lotion with me but I went to the grocery store today and bought some thick Nivea lotion and have been lathering it on thick. I’ll probably have to resupply my eye drop supply before I go to the ice. Apparently, I haven’t seen anything yet…it gets worse. Went to dinner at Benjarong Thai for lunch. It’s behind the Westfield Mall on Riccarton Rd. I have always been a big fan of Thai food…love the Thai restaurant in Okinawa but this place has topped the list for outstanding Thai cuisine. I had Mussaman Curry and it was probably some of the best curry I’ve ever had. Also at this Thai restaurant was an artist. This woman carved pumpkins, soaps, vegetables you name it. Amazing carvings! I've attached a picture or two. I’ll jump now to “Ken”. Ken is the Commodore Hotel’s resident cat. Ken is old, a Siamese and has the life of a King. Ken’s meow is not a very attractive sound. I think he’s just old. He wears a sensor on his collar that opens the front doors when he gets near and he seriously has free reign of the entire hotel. Tonight was my first meeting with Ken. I called him and he came to visit me on the chair in the lobby. Greg came down and Ken jumped up on his lap and the next thing we knew he was sitting on his shoulder’s quite content and ready to wherever Greg was going. Greg brought him up to his room and Ken slept in Greg’s room tonight. Jaime is the receptionist at the front desk. She is one of many and each and everyone one of these ladies and gentleman are fantastic. They each know your name and make it their business to anticipate your needs and take care of you. Michael is the hotel owner’s son. A very attentive man but almost too attentive and for American standards is a bit over the top. For NZ though, I think it’s OK and Michael and his father have certainly built an empire here at the Commodore. Dinner tonight was at The Flying Burrito Brothers in the city centre. I’ve had a reoccurring theme here with the food…outstanding! Excellent! Amazing! Well…The Flying Burrito Brothers…NOT so good! If Margarita’s are what you want…then YES…go to The Flying Burrito Brothers. If good Mexican cuisine is what you want…STOP…turn around and don’t eat there!! It was just OK…the problem was there was no spice. The three of us literally used an entire bottle of Jalapeno Sauce to make it worth our while and I’m serious! The bus ride home was great. Every night we get on the same bus (#29) that brings us back to the hotel from Christchurch Centre. Tonight our trip was a bit different. Our first issue was that the bus driver suddenly stopped, sat in the road for a minute then opened the door, got out and walked around the bus. All of us (being the good military trained folks we are) got suspicious and a bit creeped out. This was a bit odd. Well…the bus driver came back and said, “I turned down a one way street”. Hmmm, we said…odd, interesting. Great! So here goes the bus, backing up into a major 4 way intersection to get back on the main road. Once we got on the main road, things just didn’t look right. We were not on the same path we had taken over and over. The scenery although dark, was not the same. The bus driver basically told us he was lost and wondered if we knew how to get back on track! Greg happened to have a map so Greg saved the day and got us all home safely. I think we’ll write an OPR bullet for him. My final story today is the art. We’ve ran into some interesting art. The other day, as we were walking around the city centre we seemed to have “crossed the tracks” because all the stores changed from souvenir shops to lingerie/sex shops. A statue in a window caught my eye and of course I had to take a photo. It was a woman’s back side from the neck to about the knees. Her underwear dropped and a hand upon her bottom and she was holding the hand that was on her bottom. Very difficult to explain…but we’ll just say it was an intriguing position. The next statue was in the botanical gardens. It was entitled “Wrestling”. One person was laying down on his/her back the other was on top and they were definitely “wrestling”…naked. Well…I downloaded these pictures on my MySpace page to share with my friends. Today…I received a message from MySpace. My photos of ART was REMOVED due to the graphic nature and it’s inappriateness for those who use MySpace! The nerve! This is ART!! OK…I know I’m behind on my blog. Tomorrow is another day of adventure…I will write about Tuesday then.