Nicholas Quirke was frustrated that his enjoyment of being in a new continent was proving to be so difficult. He felt disconnected from everything and everyone due to his health and adjusting to new technological challenges. On starting his day on the 30th December, added to the fact there was no WiFi,  he discovered that nothing had charged so he was going to struggle to document the day visually. After a breakfast of fruit he set of on a solo mission to yet another medical establishment for his chest X-Ray. The walk through the park was beautiful and he stopped to photograph the Fairy tree for Dee along with the strange little Tudor village which Kim had thought was peopled by real miniature people when she was girl. He stopped at St Patrick’s Cathedral and dropped off some Business cards for brother. At St Vincent’s it was a very swift process and he got back to Kim’s in good time. They went to breakfast in Charlie Cox which was very relaxing and he was starting to feel less constricted and sick. Annoyingly he had bought his laptop with him in the hope that he could write up the events of the past couple of days but he was being denied access and once again his plans were thwarted.  Before they left Nicholas need to visit the lavatory. To his horror, he somehow managed to piss all over his trousers. This was not just a trickle but a full sodden mess down the front and leg. He was immobilised for a moment wondering just how he was going to walk through a busy restaurant in this state. He braved it and moved swiftly and discretely back to the table. Once seated he started to shake with laughter and could barely tell Kim what had happened. Hysteria set in at the catalogue of misfortune he had managed to bring with him and inflict on her ordered and calm life. Home, change and Laundry and echoing their days in the flat on the Finchly Road, ‘They laughed until they stopped’. Kim took Nicholas on a tour of the city and they went to some shops, organised his technology, found adaptors and he was happy that he finally could get back to updating where he was on his odyssey. They walked through the city centre to the Botanical gardens where that afternoon the Pop up Globe were staging  ‘Much Ado about Nothing’. in which an ex-student of Kim’s college, Roy Barker, was appearing as Leonato.  Nicholas was astonished by the replica globe that had been built and is moved from city to city. A New Zealand company brought a Maori flavour to this classic comedy and it was performed with complete conviction and energy by the company. Nicholas was particularly impressed with the farcical physical performance of Conrad. At the end of the show the applause was stopped and an actor announced that a special guest wanted to say something.  guy then got up and proposed to his girlfriend. She accepted . They saw the couple as they were walking home.  “That was risky!” Nicholas commented. He was very tired and his foot felt sore so they took a tram to their dining location, Tiamo in Lygon street where they enjoyed an entertaining dinner with Deirdre, with whom he felt an immediate affinity and the humorous and dry witted Greg. On the way home they stopped at a Gelato where Nicholas had a mixed Japanese fruit sorbet. He now had the tools he needed and set to work as Kim went to bed.

DCIM100GOPROGOPR0786.JPG

DCIM100GOPROG0060835.JPG

DCIM100GOPROGOPR0793.JPG