Number two child is going into hospital on Wednesday to have her ears and breathing sorted out. As parents, we're very fretful, as it's the first time she has had any sort of operation. We took her to the hospital today for the pre-operative checks and some kind of administrative cock-up had occurred which meant that they weren't expecting her. My heart dropped, because I was convinced that we would be sent home from what was clearly a fully booked clinic and that we would also be bumped from the operating theatre slot on Wednesday because the checks had not been done. The staff had other ideas. After a ten-second moan directed at their local administrative team they squeezed us in and treated us superbly - they explained everything to number 2 child using photos and simple language and then explained it to us (using similar methods). The next hiccup in the process was the need for a hearing test, which also had not been sorted out in advance. The audiology clinic was wedged with people but within fifteen minutes they found us a slot, the test was done, and we have all the bits of paper we need for the operation to go ahead.
The NHS gets a lot of bad press but I think they did a stirling job today and I'm grateful for their professionalism and good humour.
After six months of "sitting in the garden and eating worms" I have taken off the dust covers of the Blacknotebook blog and am going to use it again. I have no real plan, other than publishing bits and pieces that interest me and using it to build up my confidence to get some of my creative writing work published.
