Boulevard of Bumps

Smiley's favourite phrase is "I'm Hungry". When he walked out at the Parade of Nations practice for the Judo World Cup holding this sign I had to smile. This week our wonderful Samoan doctor decided Riley might need to see an ENT specialist to investigate what is going on with his ears. He was brave when she said he might need grommets, he saw what Bunny went through and he knows what might be install for him. Monday he got his yellow belt at Judo, he actually passed the grading three weeks ago, but we had to leave Judo in a hurry so he missed out on the presentation of the new belt. We celebrated with a yellow belt burger at Apia Yacht Club, well done Smiley.

Sometimes living in Samoa is like living inside a large petri dish of disease. Over the past two years we have experienced a range of viruses and the like, if we were living in Australia DOCs would be becoming suspicious!   Recently Smiley was stung by a nasty orange wasp, these big fellas agressively defend their nests in October and on our first year here one attacked Bunny, chasing him into the house and stinging him five times.  The welts are nasty and Bunny still has some scars. The next day Smiley came to show us his red shoulder and I observed some other small r ed spots on his torso. His mate at school had just been diagnosed with Chicken Pox although he had been immunised in Australia.  Smiley has also been immunised but these Samoan viruses are strong and Smiley ended up with some red spots sans blisters, fever and pain.  Little did he know he got off lightly. Bunny happily ended up having three days off with Smiley, with a mere th...