Mersey Street

I went to the doctors today to get a tetanus booster. So far I haven't encountered of the any pain or inflammation that the nurse said might occur. Long may that last.

The Medical Centre is in a suburb of Welllington called Island Bay, which is the first place I took up non-temporary residence when I first arrived in New Zealand 10 years ago.

Island Bay is perculiar as all of its streets are named after rivers in the UK - Avon, Dee, Humber, etc. - and one is named after the mighty waterway that runs along side my home town of Wallasey: The Mersey. Or, in the local accent, The Meersy.

I used to walk down this road every day on the way to the shops or bus stop and I would often reflect that even though I'd travelled 12,000 miles from home, the river, in some sense, was still with me.