NB New Direction - 1. NB New Direction Chapter 1

Nearly two months after the wonderful Christmas on board the Ocean Explorer, I had ended back in hospital in Stanley once more, and this time once I was discharged, it was recommended by the doctors, that I no longer do any physical work, due to the occasional headaches that I was getting.

Since then, I have not been able to do anything strenuous, and that included any type of farm work and horse riding, which made me get quite upset on occasions, and as a one month ended and a new one started, along with a new season, I was sitting in the office wondering what will happen to me in the future, when Sebastian entered, and sat down on the lounge.

“So, cousin, I have been informed that you have been struggling with daily chores and that you’re not happy, tell me what I can do to help you” Sebastian said to me, and I thought about this for some time before answering him. “I think I want to go back to Perth, and see if I can find something to do there” I replied, “That is fine, I will arrange things right away, and have Mrs Cooper collect you from the airport” Sebastian said in response.

“No don’t do that, I can make the arrangements, and I want to stay in the city for a week or two, so I will organise a hotel for me to stay in, a three-star motel will be just fine for me” I answered, and Sebastian nodded his head. “The boys and I will miss you a lot, we would like to stay here on the Falklands, if you are ok to be on your own for a while” Sebastian said to me after a period of silence.

“Yes, I will be fine, you and the boys have a new life here, so I will just return to Perth and make a change in a new direction for my life, I will be fine” I answered with a smile. Four days later, I was at the Stanley airport, saying goodbye to Jose, Sebastian and the twins, having already said goodbye to Margaret and Tom earlier in the day, and Eric and Mary only an hour earlier.

I had an overnight stop in Santiago, before flying to Auckland, where I would stop for two days, with a direct flight to Perth from there. I had found a courtyard apartment in the heart of the western suburb of Claremont, and once I had cleared customs at the International Airport, I caught a taxi to the apartment. The apartment was in an older apartment building, and once I had showered and unpacked, I went to bed to catch up some sleep from all of the overseas travelling, and slept for the remainder of the afternoon and all night, waking up at down the next day.

After a shower and a change into some fresh clothes, I decided to go for a walk around the streets, and I found the street I was on, Freshwater Parade, to have plenty of gum trees and Jacaranda trees, and that it was nice and quiet. A narrow lane opposite the building, looked interesting, so I headed in that direction.

At the T junction after a short stroll, I found a bowling club in front of me to the left, and a primary school in front to the right. Looking in both directions of the street – Bay View Terrace, I chose to turn right, and I noted For Sale signs on two properties opposite the school, both were apartment buildings, with one older house separating the two properties.

Pulling out my phone, I took photos, of the two For Sale signs, before continuing to walk. When I came to another T junction, on Victoria Avenue, which appeared to be a main road, I turned right, to head back towards my accommodation, and on reaching Freshwater Parade, I turned right onto it, and I was now feeling a little more alive, from doing this walk, and even feeling a little light headed, which I put down to the fresh air.

I was about halfway up the street, when I saw another set of apartments that are for sale, as was an older house directly opposite, and I took photos of the signs, before attaching the four photos and adding a message, and sent it too Sebastian, suggesting that these would make good investments.

As I continued to walk again, became very dizzy and I collapsed onto the footpath. When I woke up again, I was in hospital, and I heard the beeping noise of a monitor, which made me groan, “Not again”. “Hello Mr Devonport, what was that about not again?” a female voice said to me from beside the bed, turning my head a little I saw a nurse smiling.

“I have been in and out of hospital a bit lately, so I was saying not again when I realised that is where I am now” I replied, “Oh ok, where were you in hospital?” the Nurse asked me, “King Edward Memorial, in Stanley on the Falkland Islands” I replied, “Oh wow, that is one place I never expected, let me go and get a doctor to check on you, I will be right back” the nurse said to me as she dashed out of the room.

I must off dozed off, as I woke up when I heard some noises, and saw a doctor standing at the foot of my bed, “Hello young man, the nurse informs me you have been in hospital in Stanley on the Falkland Islands, when were you last in the Falklands?” the doctor asked me, “About four days ago, I only arrived back in Perth yesterday, and they are 11 hours behind us here, if you are going to call them, oh and while your at it can you ask the hospital there to call my cousin, at Douglas Farm, he is my next of kin” I replied.

I fell asleep again, and woke up, when I heard my name being called, “…you have a long-distance call from the Falklands” the nurse said to me as she handed me a cordless phone, “Hello this is Huon Devonport speaking” I said uncertain who was calling, “Huon, what on earth have you done this time?” I heard Sebastian say in a concerned voice, “I am fine, I took a walk and got dizzy and fainted, I’m not sure which hospital I am in” I replied.

“Ok, you are at Bethesda Private hospital in Claremont, and I have spoken to Annette, she is on her way to come and see you” Sebastian said to me, “Did you say Bethesda Private hospital” I asked unsure if I heard my cousin correctly, “Yes I did, why is that?” Seb replied, “It’s just I passed it about five minutes before I fainted, it is just down the road from my accommodation and only half a block from where I fainted” I replied.

“Well that is handy then isn’t it, oh and by the way, I am not sure if you remember, but you send me a text before all of this happened, with pictures of some apartment buildings, that may be a good investment, I have already got a local law firm working on the purchases as we speak. I agree with your observation that they would make a good investment, something to keep you busy, when you are not in hospital, I will talk to you soon, just relax and get better mate” Sebastian said to me, and he ended the call.

A lady walked in with a meal tray, and she placed it in front of me, “Excuse me, what day is it today?” I asked, “It is Saturday, sir and about 12 noon” the lady replied with a smile, “Is there any way I could get a Saturday West Australian newspaper please” I asked nicely, “I will see what I can do for you sir” the lady said and she left the room.

Soon after finishing my lunch, Annette arrived to visit me, “Hello Rev, good to see you again” I said to her, as she sat down in a chair near my bed, “I think you should be in Toodyay, were June can keep a close eye on you and look after you” she said to me, “I was planning to come home next week, I just wanted a week on my own, I didn’t expect to end up back in a hospital again” I replied.

Annette nodded her head and smile, “Is there anything that I can get you?” she asked me, “Yes can you get me today’s West Australian, I need to check on something, I did ask the service lady, but I’m not sure if she will have time to get one for me” I replied, “I will do that for you when I leave, Kyle knows you are in hospital, and he will be coming to see you straight after school, I will pick him up from here at about 5.30 this afternoon, so he will have about an hour with you depending on how long it takes him to get here” Annette said to me.

“Ok, that sounds great, thanks for that, and thank you for coming to see me” I said as I started to get sleepy again, and I slid deeper into my bedding, and soon fell asleep. When I woke up, it was to the sound of a knock on the door, “Wake up sleepy head, your worst nightmare has arrived” I heard Kyle said, which made me laugh, “Come in doofus, it is god to see you mate” I said and I noticed a newspaper on the meal trolley beside the bed.

Kyle chatted to me, telling me all about the dramas and life at the school, which kept me highly amused, especially at the way he described it. When Annette arrived, she smiled at me and motioned Kyle to come with her, “Come on, let the poor boy rest and recover” Annette said, “Ok mate, see you again soon” Kyle said to me cheerfully, “Thanks for visiting buddy, see you when you visit next time” I replied happily.

When Kyle had gone, I picked up the newspaper and opened it up to the real estate section, and after a thorough search, I didn’t see anything for sale in the Claremont area, which I found a bit disappointing, so I placed the paper on the bedside cabinet, and opened the top drawer of the cabinet, where I found my wallet and mobile phone.

Once the phone was turned on, I looked at the photos that I had taken a day earlier, and found the phone numbers for two local real estate agents, and I dialled the first number. “Good afternoon, my name is Huon Davenport, I wish to enquire about real estate properties for sale in the Claremont area, for investment purposes” I said when the call was answered, “Yes Mr Davenport, we do have a few that are suitable, although most of them have been snapped up by a Swiss Investment company just today, my name is Mark Harvey, I am the senior sales representative here” came the reply, and I smiled at what he had said.

“Yes, Mr Harvey, I am aware of the company, it was my cousin, from Wagner International Investments, who arranged the purchases, after I had seen the properties for sale yesterday” I replied, “Well then sir, how may I be able to assist you with your further enquiries” Mr Harvey responded.

“I have ended up in hospital last night, so I am unable to do anymore searches, for property, and I was wondering if you could bring any other properties for sale that are in the same area as the others, to me at Bethesda Hospital” I enquired, “Yes sir, that would be no problem, as our office is very close by, would 45 minutes time be alright with you” Mr Harvey replied, “Yes that will be fine, see you then” I replied, and I ended the call, and turned off my mobile to save the battery life, as I wasn’t sure how long I would be in hospital for.

When the nurse came in about ten minutes later, I explained that I was expecting a Mr Harvey to be visiting me in about half an hour, regarding some important business, and she said she would aske the doctor if that was ok or not, before leaving the room. Shortly afterwards my dinner arrived, and I began to eat it, while watching the news on the television, and the nurse returned just as I was finishing my dinner.

“The doctor has suggested no more visitors, as you need to get some more rest, so this business visit will have to wait till another time” the nurse announced to me, which I was not happy about, and I waited till she was out of the room, before I slowly climbed out of bed, and dressed in the clothes that I had worn yesterday, before grabbing my phone and wallet, and walking out of the room.

Luckily there was no one at he nurses station when I walked past, and I headed for the main entrance, and eventually found the entry lobby, and sat in a chair to wait for my visitor. When I saw a man dressed in a suit arrive and head to the enquiries desk, I called out his name, loud enough for him to hear me, and he turned and walked towards me. “I am Huon Devonport, the doctor wasn’t going to let me have any more visitors, so I sneaked out of my room, no doubt there will be a search party looking for me shortly” I explained.

“In that case I will make this very short, so you don’t get into too much trouble” Mr Harvey replied with a smile, and he opened up his briefcase, as he sat down beside me. Over the next ten minutes, I was shown six other properties, including a large block of ground level apartments, located directly across from the Grammar school, another small block of apartments and two houses on Bay View Terrace, and two houses on Freshwater Parade, next to the two apartment blocks that were already purchased by the company.

With five properties in a row, this would add up to 1.5 acres of prime real estate on one street, opposite the local primary school, plus four properties on Freshwater parade, that back onto the Bayview Terrace properties, and the large block of apartments on Queenslea Drive opposite the Grammar School. I gave Mr Harvey the go ahead to arrange for the purchase of these additional properties, and I would contact my cousin to organise the finances to purchase the properties.

Just as Mr Harvey was saying farewell, I spotted a nurse marching towards me with a wheelchair, with a very annoyed look on her face, and when Mr Harvey saw this, he left very quickly, leaving me to deal with the nurse. “Don’t even try to be annoyed or angry with me nurse, I had to deal with this business, and that is final, now I will return to my room and bed” I said to her as I moved over to the wheelchair.

Once back in my hospital bed, and alone again, I made a quick phone call to Sebastian, to pass on the news of the additional properties, before turning off the phone and stowing it away. The following morning, after breakfast, when the doctor arrived to assess my condition, he informed me that he was ordering a MRI scan, to try and find the cause of these dizzy and fainting spells that I had been experiencing, after having a conversation with my doctor in Stanley about this new occurrence.

“After It appears that you have a small tumour, which is what is causing your dizzy spells, we will need to have an operation to take it out, and to assess if it has any cancer cells in it, I have scheduled the operation for tomorrow morning, the quicker we get a look at it, the better” the doctor announced before leaving the room, leaving me shocked at what I had been told.

I retrieved my mobile and dialled Sebastian’s number, “You do know that it is 2am in the morning don’t you” Sebastian said when he answered the call, “Oops sorry cousin, but this is an urgent personal matter that I needed to let you know about” I said, as Annette arrived for a visit, and I motioned her to come in and sit. “Annette has just arrived so, I have someone here for support, the doctor has just informed me that I have a small tumour in my head that is causing the dizzy spells, and I am having an operation tomorrow morning” I announced to Sebastian.

“Oh wow, now I am well and truly awake, how do you feel about this? are you ok?” Sebastian replied, “Yes, I guess I am alright, the news is still sinking in, but I will have a chat to the Rev when I have finished this call, she doesn’t appear to be surprised by this news, so I presume she has already been informed” I said as I glanced over to Annette, who gave me a small smile and nodded her head.