Friday 26 April 2013

A happy accident


Got a call from Youngest’s School on Wednesday: she’d fallen in PE, couldn’t put weight on her foot and needed to be fetched home. Mummy to the rescue, of course, but what to do with her? Called at the local GPs to be told we’d have to wait for someone to be free and then a doctor would have to fill in a form and send us to Swindon for an x-ray. They suggested we’d be better going to A&E. Feeling rather guilty I drove to Tetbury, where there is a little part time department. They were very welcoming (despite our Wiltshire address in a Gloucestershire hospital) and within ten minutes we were sat in a room with a very efficient but friendly nurse poking Youngest’s foot. We came away with instructions to keep her foot up and rested for at least 24 hours, to take lots of pills and to walk only with the (demonstrated) crutches provided.
Today she has gone to school, clearly fine in herself, but on crutches and putting no weight on her damaged ankle. It would seem the nurse knew what she was doing when she decided not to send the patient for an x-ray; she certainly convinced us it wasn’t necessary.

The hospital was marvelous. They had the time and all was well and Tetbury is only a 15 minute drive from the GP surgery. Although I am slightly puzzled by the advice… I suppose they’d argue there was no guarantee she wouldn’t need an x-ray and as soon as she did they’d made extra work for themselves, but it does seem a bit mad. With GPs running businesses I guess they don’t want anyone hanging about waiting for the possibility of people turning up needing advice now, appointments today are rarely available.

Tuesday 16 April 2013

AWOL


I’m sorry I’ve not been to visit here, and failed to visit everybody else, but I have been busy ‘doing’.
Father’s chair is complete and will be delivered this weekend. Friendwithmatchinggirls’ curtains are all altered for her new house and will be delivered tomorrow. I have been out lifting and dividing perennials in my garden where spring has finally sprung: there is frogspawn in the pond and daffodils, pulmonaria and primroses flowering in every direction. The washing's gone out on the line at last. The hall and landings are being decorated so we're living in a certain amount of chaos, but it will be lighter and brighter - and cleaner!
Now, have you been watching The Great British Sewing Bee? (And yes, I thought they were spelling bees, I’m not sure about sewing ones.) It’s Bake Off with sewing. Thing is, I’m definitely part of the target audience as both a seamstress and a keen viewer of many cooking programmes, and I know it’s early days, but it’s not right yet… I want more information about the tasks and how they should look, I want closer detail of the stitching they’ve done so that I can better understand what’s right/wrong about it, and I want a better rapport between the three presenters. Did Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood get it right at the start? I don’t know as I didn’t watch the first series, but they give down to earth feedback without it seeming as though they are trying not to be scathing – I feel the nice lady from the WI and the smart tailor don’t even have a passion for sewing in common. Claudia’s cute but a bit too random in her comments, without the humour that is Mel and Sue. Episode three of four is tonight on BBC2; I hope it gets another series, but with amendments. Watching Paul Hollywood making bread last night affirmed how beautifully food is now photographed at all stages; it would make all the difference if they could do the same for stitching.