Rainbowfish Diary-2

A
RaINBOW(FISH)
DIARIeS
Notes from the
Covert Ops Room
Second Instalment
Frank Povah
© Frank Povah, 2020

Covert Ops Room: Wednesday, 5th February, 2020
ARCHIE MacDONALD, THE BIG FELLER here
again – that’s me at the top over the title, practising the
laser stare/conversation channelling combo. You’ll note
the team’s got the technique off pat, even that rummynosed
pisspot tetra thing down the bottom right there.
We’ve got the latest info on Mr Whiskers’ visits
to the various Oncology clinics at Orange Hospital
and things are picking up momentum – and I’m not
talking about the momentum the steroids give to Mr
Whiskers’ arms and legs.
How good is Orange Hospital by the way! From
the time Mr Whiskers was actually diagnosed to the
assembly of the care team – a lot of people – and the
end of the preliminary radiation treatment, just ten
days elapsed.
Anyway, last Friday (31st January) was Mr
Whiskers’ first foray into the Medical Oncology
Department to meet the team who will be looking after
him on the next stage of the road and to have a port
inserted into his shoulder with a tube leading into a
major vein near the heart.
It was done with a local anaesthetic only and
though parts were uncomfortable he reckons he’s been
through a lot worse.
He was back again yesterday for his first chemo
treatment – a four-and-a-half hour session by the time he
got through talking to the head nurse and others on the
team. From what we can gather they’ve started him on a
lower dose of chemo to give his one kidney time to adjust.
He had one removed years ago and the other never really
compensated like it
was supposed to do,
probably a genetic
thing.
Once he was
through that, they fitted
a take-home chemo
The Hokum Jug Band,
Wellington NZ, c. 1970s,
from left: Warwick Brock
(d.); Mr Whiskers; Colin
Heath; Ron Davies;
Max Winnie (d.)
2 :: The Rainbow(fish) Diaries Despatches from Covert Ops

ottle to the port and off home he went. He has to go
back tomorrow to have the bottle removed, and then it’s a
two-week wait and some tests before the next round.
Thinking about it, it must be a big saving in the
hospital’s budget. At one time he probably would have
been an in-patient. This morning we recorded him
saying that the bottle and port are an inconvenience,
but not as inconvenient as lying on his back staring at
the ceiling from a hospital bed.
They’ve put him on a high dose of steroids for
the next two days – apparently as an antidote to nausea
– and that should be fun. When he was on them
in conjunction with the radiation to help ease the
pressure on his spine, he had the shakes so bad that
if he’d loosened his grip on his tea mug it would have
hit the other side of the room.
Still everyone in the household is a bit glad
the first lot of chemo hasn’t knocked him
about too much. However, they’ll
be on red alert for Mr Whiskers
in snap-retort-before-thinking
mode.
Despatches from Covert Ops
Mr Whiskers is a bit worried about cleaning his
pigeon loft out. The safety precautions he has to take in
the house are pretty strict: no peeing standing up and
flushing the toilet every time and Level 5 restrictions
be damned for starters. So he’s probably going to have
to buy himself some of those Hazmat overalls. He’ll
love that and we’ll hear how much he does from here
in the house I reckon.
He’s going to miss his pigeons. He’s become
even more fascinated by them since all the “new”
breeds from the Middle East have begun to sow up
over recent years. Those countries, beginning with
Mesopotamia they reckon, have been fiddling
with pigeon genetics for millennia.
Anyway he may have a good new home
for them. The young feller who put the concrete
Belonging to a group with the generic name
Oriental Frills, this black-laced Blondinette’s
ancestors were developed in the Manisa
Palace, Turkey, home to the rulers of the
Ottoman Empire. In Turkey they are still known
as Hünkri, “Sultan’s Pigeons” or, sometimes,
Sultan’s Jewels.
The Rainbow(fish) Diaries :: 3

amp up to the front verandah, and did a great job
incidentally; thanks, Daniel, well his Dad lives over at
Blayney and keeps a few homers along with a heap of
other bird species.
Daniel sent him a photo and apparently his dad
would be keen to take all of Mr Whiskers’ Iranian
A few of my much-loved Iranian Highfliers, Rosie
in the foreground. Some have crests, some not,
a breed characteristic. They fly at great height
above the loft for several hours, some occasionally
“tumbling”, i.e. flipping back somersaults.
Highfliers and the lofts as well. So that’s a good thing
that’s happened. Racing Homer people are pretty fussy
about how they look after their birds and we know Mr
Whiskers was really worried about them.
That’s about where we are, really, until next week,
so this is Big Archie MacDonald signing off until then,
barring unforeseen developments.
Wellington Folk Festival as I remember, c. 1970s. I used to
use a wire coat hanger twisted into shape to hold my kazoo.
Cheap, practical and replaceable. I reckon I was singing
“Germany Blues”.
4 :: The Rainbow(fish) Diaries Despatches from Covert Ops