I headed ashore after taking care of the boat and baking breakfast bread and walked to the Econocar rental lot in order to get a car for the day. On the long walk there I decided that I’d better take a car for 2 days, considering how bad the traffic is and how bad I am at shopping. Despite creating shopping lists, I always find myself remembering items after it is too late and I’m back aboard or have already returned the rental car. I was in luck, the lot was not only open but the operator was in the office and we quickly concluded the transaction (he didn’t have to explain the car’s operation or alarm system again) and I was off and heading towards the Dutch side.
My first, and most onerous, task was visiting the doctor for my check-up and to get my Tetanus booster shot. I put my name on the waiting list in the office and then had to drive out to the pharmacy on the other side of the Dutch bridge in order to pick up the refrigerated Tetanus shot. This went pretty quickly and I was soon back in the waiting room and had barely opened my e-book when I was called in to the Doctor’s office. He has two offices where he rotates patients so I had a bit of a wait in there, but that wait was over soon as well. He checked me out and confirmed that the infection had been effectively reduced to a manageable and reasonable level by the antibiotics and that I should continue using the topical cream to further reduce the haematoma. The area of skin where I have numbness is getting smaller as well so there’s a good chance of regaining sensation everywhere, given time. I got my Tetanus booster shot as well and was soon off on my way towards the pharmacy to fill the prescription.
Then the real work began and I started working on the items on my list. The first stop was the dive shop where, much to my surprise, I found out that I didn’t have to replace the whole high-pressure hose assembly to the pressure/depth gauges, but just the housing and I got an extensible pole for the GoPro camera and a little compass so that I don’t get completely lost underwater. Plus I got a spare filter for the dive compressor. So my total bill was about what I’d expected, just the items making up that (impressively high) price ended up being different. After that was a set of small speakers for the notebook so that, when I do decide to watch a movie, the volume would be louder than a small anaemic mouse whispering. Then I hit Electec for the electrical stuff and now have a small RJ11/RJ45 crimper, some male plugs, 6 strand wire and some DB9 connectors so that I can attempt to debug my refrigerator plus pickling solution for the watermaker (since I used up my supplies last year and I think it is better to stock up when one can). Then trips to Island Waterworld and Budget Marine interspersed with a visit to Lagoonies for lunch and to connect to the internet. There I met Bernd and Carmen from Mau as well as Mark from Sea Life. After the late sandwich I went back on my shopping spree but the credit card had a bit of time to cool down since the items remaining on the list were getting harder and harder to find. But my big list had already been whittled down to a small list and I was quite pleased.
As the stores started closing after 17:00 I headed back to Lagoonies for a sundowner drink and to download the files that I wanted from the internet. There was a solo entertainer starting up his happy-hour act in a corner of the bar area and I remained longer than I expected, listening to the music and catching up on internet until late, but at least I missed the heavy rush-hour traffic between the Dutch and French sides. It really is surprising how bad traffic on this small island is – but everyone seems to have at least one car and there is really just one circular road going around the whole island and it is not much more than a residential street in many places but has to deal with everything from big container-carrying rigs to lots of buzzing 2-stroke mopeds and everything in between.
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