A terrible wound

Aiden managed to fall out of a tree, and land on some rocks.  I cant explain how in doing this he managed to make a hole this size in his upper thigh - but he did - and it's been quite an experience.  He was at a mate's house, who promptly called the domestic worker (good thinking) who promptly called an ambulance (good thinking too).  So Aiden got to ride in an ambulance to the hospital, where they x-rayed him, cleaned him up and sewed him up (not without some serious discomfort, I might add). 

The next day we took him to our doc who took the bandages off and found this blend of stitches and steri-strips holding him together below - bleeding quite a bit still too - so she said there are not enough stitches here - and added another 4 to stop the bleeding.  That whole process took an hour and a bit - more wailing and discomfort.  Infection is the big risk, so we have to change the dressing every day - which means that all the pussy scabs get pulled off each time - the whole palava takes an hour - because the poor little oke is endlessly begging for a break, a rest, basically any respite.  I've tried to explain to him that there is no value in a delay - it just draws out the inevitable - but perhaps that is something that he's still got to learn from this whole thing.

Any way - I'm hopeful that the whole thing has really taught him something - and that would be to consider what you are doing (rather than not do things).  I dont have a good track record of this in my life - and have crashed in various ways as a consequence, bicycles, motor-bikes etc - so perhaps I'm naieve, and the whole thing is that you can't really anticipate everything.  I did, in an attempt to explain what I meant, ask him if he'd climb a tree over a pond full of hungry crocodiles.  He said not.  But that's the thing - we all might just - it's such a rush looking down at all those big lizards, after all.

I'm going to be spending a fair bit of time with this leg, so I'll whizz you a couple of updates as we go along - particularly since I've recently built a new flash system - more about that to follow.  Hope the quizzes wrapped themselves up in a helpful way - will give you a ring later to find out how.

The evening

 

The day

 

 

The dunes

Sean's children

My lovely friend Sean and Elize's children

Time flashes by

I wanted a blurred background, attached the camera to a tripod and spun around on the patio - occurred to me how badly you could waste your camera while doing this (whack it on a wall; get giddy and fall down; have it fly off the mount...etc) so I stopped without it really turning out as I'd hoped.  I was thinking about you today in particular - will give you a call later (post exams at 11am on a Sunday sounds like maybe still sleeping) - wondering how the quizzes went, thinking about how you might be feeling considering the date tomorrow; I hope OK.

Portrait of Aiden - June 2012 High Junk Peak

The woods and the saddle after rain

Every now and then I take a photo that I really like, and it's not an accident at some level; one of those ones where you think of the place, you convince the kid, you lug the kit, you set it up and it comes out as you imagined it.  I think maybe if you are a good photographer you do this all the time - if you want to become a good photographer, you try and try and very occasionally you surprise yourself.  So that's what happened today.  It's been raining terrifically.  In a gap in it all I convinced Aiden, to walk through the woods and up to the saddle, from where you can look down on the city.   Ev's got a bug, so was listless; Ange kindly stayed with him.  When you get to the saddle
there are some groovy patterned trees in a little clearing, and I thought I could take a nice portrait there.  But it's not the one above (which is very similar, but slightly overcooked on the flash, and I still really like - its the one in the post above). 



Cool having a radio-trigger again - hang the flash in a tree and photoambush the walkers with light - creates weird and surreal pics; in this one Pieter and Robyn in front of Aiden.

Anyway, it was GREAT out and about, water everywhere, mud and mulch, squelch squelch.  We'd taken the shots and I was packing up when Pieter and Robyn and Lara and Jordan arrived.  I watched the rugby at Pieter and Robyn's the night before.  A very lekker klap for the English :-).  They brought their two dogs and Jordan brought Daisy - who Aiden and Evan are in love with.  We walked a bit with them, the dogs were jolling in the mud and the bushes.  I took some more pics (ah that was it, this was all with my new radio trigger - which is the same as the old one which died so heroically next to the pool - just it has some extra switches (which the old one really lacked, and it has a much better range - and of course costs 170 (whereas the old one cost 80 - that's inflation polite for you - outrageous increase for 3 years, but add some stuff and call it an upgrade and everyone is smiling.  It was a lovely outing.



Daisy going wild with Jordan and Aiden wishing they could have a dip in that particular little stream (steamy hot, so just dripping with sweat and jungle water).  Daisy very different with a haircut and wet legs - very cool dog.

Aiden, Lara and Jordan having got to the top of the saddle, over the other side the city lurks - Tseng Kwan O in the background, and far in the distance the skyscrapers in Central.