Was it the 13th yesterday?

Yesterday started well enough. A normal day just like any other - until Rob phoned me mid-morning to say that he’d fallen off his bike and that he was coming home at lunch time. 12 years ago he did the same and broke his elbow which meant 3 months off work.

As Rob was cycling to work a motorist stopped suddenly to avoid a pedestrian and Rob swerved to avoid hitting the car. Unfortunately his heavy rucksack kept going and pulled him over, so that he lost his balance.

I could see which arm he had damaged when I went to pick him up from the bus stop. He hadn’t been to the emergency department at the hospital as he didn’t think it was serious enough. He went to the Doctor later who told him to go to hospital straight away.

It didn’t appear to be too busy in the emergency department as we were checked in and ushered to a waiting room. There were only two people in front of us… The waiting room filled up quite quickly and it was three hours later that we finally got to see a doctor. Rob was examined and X-rayed and it seems that nothing is broken, but as there was so much swelling a fracture could be hidden. He has to go back in 10 days. His arm is now strapped up and he has pretty strong painkillers to take.

We arrived home just after midnight.

He’s well enough to criticize my driving.

A little bit of wisdom - not

I took Olivier into the clinic this morning to have his wisdom teeth out. He makes a bad patient, he was grumpy, tired and hungry. Matters weren’t helped when we all had to wait in a room with vending machines full of chocolate. Not the best place for people who haven’t eaten for 12 hours. About half an hour ago the clinic phoned to tell me that everything had gone okay. We are picking him up this evening at 6.30. He was sure he was going to be one of those people who are awake during their operation, I’ll be interested to see how he got on if that was the case.

He’ll be off school till the weekend when the holidays start

Almost back to normal again this week
Rob has taken a days holiday so I haven’t quite got the house to myself all day yet. The week started with a new lesson in town, a really nice student who needs lots of help so I shan’t feel as if I’m running out of things to do. I was out for three hours for a one hour lesson. When it’s not raining I can do a short cut on foot and save half an hour, it’s ironic that going on foot saves time, isn’t it?

Dom is taking her exams this week, she spent a lot of time revising when she was home. I would have liked to have found time to read her books. Perhaps next holidays. She bought a digital camera with her birthday money, so she showed us some film she’d made of the campus. The funniest bit was when she climbed into a round window and pretended to be a hamster – don’t ask! We also saw her young man (on film) but only for a few seconds and he didn’t speak (Dom: you’ll be able to tell him he’s world famous now).

Christian and MIL enjoyed their visit though it was really cold for exactly the duration of their time here. I hadn’t seen Christian for 18 months so you can imagine how pleased I was to see him.

Olivier went back to lycée yesterday full of promises to work harder this term. If he wants to take science he needs much better results than he had last term.

The hospital in La Rochelle has made national news. Someone died at the weekend because the blood transfusion tube was mixed with an oxygen tube. I think anyone who comes across this in the medical profession will know that it’s something that can’t happen by accident. Although all three children were born there and it was my first experience of hospital, therefore a happy one. They have all spent time in hospital later, so I’ve found myself milling over unhappy times.