By then it was time for Justine and Paul to head off to their seminars which Elaine had signed them up for, while Roy accompanied them on the walk so that he could continue on to the hardware shop to purchase a tool needing to be replaced and the all important paint for our rock painting efforts, following which he visited the HiperDino again to get a few top up provisions to see us through the rest of this week. On his return, Elaine met him at the Barlovento 326 café for a coffee and baked delight.
Not long after we had returned to Paw Paw, Justine and Paul had completed their morning seminars, had returned for a quick bite to eat and had headed back out for their afternoon seminars. This allowed Elaine to catch up on her blogs and social media while Roy adjusted the gas in each of the new struts he’d installed, then went for a nap.
ARC Sundowners, followed by the ARC Crew Dinner wrapped up our day, but made for a very loud and late night, with everyone having to scream at each other to be heard over the noise.
Today was methotrexate day, which seemed to have come around rather quickly. It didn’t help matters, though, that Elaine woke to the news that Paul was ill, with what appeared to be a head cold. Regardless, he’d taken the decision to leave Paw Paw and booked into a hotel for two nights in the hope of recovering by then. This did, however, send Elaine, in particular, into a panic, but Roy too on what this meant for the rest of us and the possible impact on our imminent departure. A COVID-19 test revealed a negative result and, although, this was good news, our experience of home tests is that they don’t always pick anything up until the 3rd or 4th day. At this point all we could do was take each day as it comes and see what materialises, say our prayers and hope that he makes a speedy recovery without having infected anyone else.
A slight alarm occurred this afternoon when Elaine headed back to bed for an afternoon nap, after suddenly starting to feel extremely fatigued during the morning seminar we had all attended. Putting this down to the late night combined with the methotrexate initially, panic really set in when she woke from her nap feeling absolutely dreadful. It was then that the decision was taken that we’d all skip the costume party and Roy and Justine would set off to get takeaways for dinner, while Elaine went back to sleep.
Thankfully, when Elaine woke up again to an empty yacht, she felt as right as rain, clueless as to why she’d felt so terrible earlier.
With that, arrangements were changed again; she met Roy and Justine at the top of the dock to head out to enjoy another tasty dinner at the Pier 19 restaurant, then returned to Paw Paw to get dressed in our costumes; Roy as “super” pirate and Elaine as “super” Birthday Barbie, then joining all the other ARC 2023 participants at the “superheroes” party, following which a rather fun evening ensued. By the time we returned to Paw Paw, Justine was in bed, having opted to skip the party because Paul wasn’t attending, understandably so. Such a pity, though, because it was an enchanting evening with everyone going to a great deal of trouble with their costumes. and a night Elaine won’t forget in a hurry after someone she didn’t know sat down next to her to tell her that, as far as he was concerned, she was the superhero of everyone at the party and had inspired many people on this rally.
