The next morning I felt dreadful but happy. It was a weird sensation. I’d had such a good time at the party I was glad I went. I considered all the guys, their partners & Charlie my best friends now. It had been a long time since I’d drunk that much alcohol. I guess because I was so exhausted and enjoying myself, it had affected me far more than I thought. No time for feeling sorry for my sore head. I had to head off up to the hospital. Thankfully Doris would be released in a day or two and the journey to visit wouldn’t be so bad. A thought popped into my head – How on earth was I going to fetch Doris home with no car? I’d have to see if one of the guys or Charlie would be able to give me a lift.
I jumped in the shower, got dressed and headed up to the hospital. Today’s blog would have to wait. I knew I should have been dedicating more of my time to my real job but the way I saw it Doris needed me more. I was finding it difficult to find a happy balance between the two.
After morning visiting was over I dashed home, grabbed a quick bowl of soup and grabbed my laptop. I woke up a couple of hours later. Nothing was on the screen. I looked at the clock
“Oh no” I shouted out loud. It was 4:30, visiting finished at 7pm and I had to get there. Doris would worry if I wasn’t. I dashed around the apartment. Frantically trying to tidy myself and rub the sleep lines from my face where I’d leant on the sofa cushion.
“Ooh I was starting to worry about you” Doris said as I walked onto the ward.
“I’m sorry, I err.. I got a bit tied up with something” I lied. There was no sense in making an old lady feel guilty.
“You don’t have to come every visiting session, you know” she said “I don’t want you doing too much”
“No, No it’s fine. I enjoy coming to see you” Again I lied, not that visiting wasn’t fun. It was just harder work than I’d initially thought it was going to be.
“I’m coming home tomorrow” Doris seemed happy at the thought.
“I know, the doctors have said I can come to pick you up at 12” I replied. Then it hit me, I still hadn’t arranged anyone to give me a lift. I quietly tapped out a text message to Charlie.
Hey hun, can u do me a massive favour? Doris is getting released 2moro & I need a lift bringing her home. Any chance you can give me a hand?
Her reply came back almost straight away.
Sorry chick I can’t. Picking mouse up from airport : -) but I’m with Beardy & he says he’ll give you a lift.
I replied saying thanks and to pass on the details to Beardy. He was a good mate of Itchy’s and he already knew Doris.
The next morning I got a message from Beardy. He’d pick me up at 11 so we had plenty of time to head up to the hospital. He was there bang on time. I jumped in his truck and we headed through the busy Sydney streets to the hospital.
“Does Itchy know that you’ve been visiting Doris the whole time he’s been away?” Beardy asked me
“Erm..yeah kind of” I replied sheepishly
“Charlie’s told me you’ve been going up there twice a day, every day to the visiting sessions. And on the bus too. You must be nuts.. Why didn’t you ask us to give you a lift? We all know and love Doris. We’d have helped you if we’d known”
“Aww thanks, that’s sweet. But I really didn’t know that many of you that well to ask such a favour and well it was a pleasure visiting her. She’s a lovely lady”
We chatted the whole way to the hospital. It was the first time I’d really had a lengthy conversation with Beardy. He was one of the quieter guys who tended to be over-powered by some of the other more extrovert lifeguards at the social events I’d been present at.
We collected Doris and dropped her back at her apartment. We both went in with her to get her settled and stayed for a brew. I gave her my mobile number in case she needed anything and told her to ring me at anytime and I’d be there. Once Beardy convinced me she’d be fine, he drove me back to my apartment building. I collapsed on the sofa again and crashed out for a couple of hours. I would write late into the night to catch up as there would be no evening visiting today.
The next few days flew by, I settled into a routine of checking on Doris first thing in the morning and then again early evening. Her apartment building was closer than the hospital and I could walk there in 15 minutes. I re-focused myself on my writing and managed to get a few blog entries up.
Then I received an email from my editor, Julie.
Dear Alex,
I’ve been reading your blogs and articles recently and it pains me to say this but your writing has declined and you are losing readers. Please remember that it is your readers that are keeping you in Australia at the moment and your contract can be terminated. You really need to focus all your energy on your writing for the next few weeks and I will review this situation again.
Julie
Oh god, what was I supposed to do? I knew my writing had suffered and I knew I’d been neglecting my blog. I really didn’t want to have to go back home. I’d grown to love Sydney & Bondi and all my new found friends. I buried the idea at the back of my mind and started to note down some ideas I’d had for upcoming articles. I decided to drop into the Tower and see if Charlie was about, maybe talking it over with her would give me some ideas.
Luckily when I got there she was in and on a break. We went and sat on a couple of chairs on the deck on the front of the Tower. Whippet & Chappo were on watch in the window behind us.
She listened intently as I told her how serious my situation had become. Whippet popped his head out of the window
“Are you serious?” he said “They’re gonna send you home?”
“They could do” I replied. He’d taken me a bit by surprise. I hadn’t realised he was listening in from above.
“Don’t worry” Charlie said “I’m sure it won’t come to that. Hang around here for a day or two – I’m sure there’s enough stuff going on here to give you inspiration”
She was right, being around Bondi there was always something going on. Perhaps I should spend less time in the apartment thinking about writing and get out and experience some stuff to write about. Itchy would be back soon and I suppose that would take some of the pressure off visiting Doris.
The next couple of days I got up early and headed over to the Tower – the central hub of all things Bondi. I got a few good ideas. Charlie had a visit from a young girl called Lilly who worshipped Charlie and all the guys. She was an avid Bondi Rescue fan. I wrote an article on the way they’d treated her to the day at the beach helping with everything from setting up the flags to even a rescue (a fake one) but in her eyes she’d done a rescue. The lifeguards had all done such a good job she’d even been inspired to become a lifeguard herself when she was old enough. In fact she even signed up for nippers young lifeguard training while she was there.
There was also a lady who visited the Tower who had attempted suicide from the cliffs overlooking Bondi a couple of years earlier, she’d been saved by Charlie, Maxi & Jesse. She’d brought her 2 children with her to show the guys how she’d managed to turn her life around thanks to their help. This showed me a side to their jobs that I hadn’t really seen before. Lifeguarding was not always necessarily in the water. It was about guarding lives all the time, and wherever it was needed.
I actually received some praise from Julie my editor for that article. She told me she was blown away by it and it had been picked up by one of the national tabloid papers. After receiving that email I was on a high. Things were starting to fall back into place again, Itchy was due back. I’d missed him terribly while he was gone, we’d only just started to get to know each other. We’d talked a few times on Skype with us both being so busy it had been hard for us to both be free at the same time so it was mainly just traded messages. He asked me every day how Doris was doing. I hadn’t wanted to get my hopes up while he’d been away as I didn’t know if our relationship would survive. But the closer his return date got and he was still in touch with me the stronger my feelings became. I’d got to know him a little better through Doris and she’d become like a surrogate grandparent to me.
