A Tale of Two Hospitals

Health has been very much on the Plummy Mummy household's minds in the last few weeks.
Hubby went for the first stage of his anti-snoring programme....having a deviated septum fixed at Lewisham hospital.
As I'm not overly familiar with the layout of Lewisham, let alone the hospital, there was much teeth-grinding and general moaning on my part as I dropped him off and picked him up later in the same day. Some of that moaning was to do with the distance we travelled for him to have his nose picked.
Poor sod was in agony for a week and I cowered as I realised that it was my fault he went for the surgery (threats of my leaving him if he didn't get that snoring sorted). But as you will see below I had some justification for being in a bad mood.
Our second visit to the hospital was less stressful as I knew where I was going and actually found the parking to be logical once you figured it all out.
He's a lot happier now that the splints have been removed from inside his nose and should be back at work next week. He's also snoring less so I'm happier.

My hospital experience was somewhat different. I was 7 weeks pregnant, but am no longer having miscarried 6 days before hubby's surgery. There has been considerable pain and sadness over this not least because at our age, any delay in increasing the size of our family is quite a blow. I spent a lot of time on the net during the whole business (which took nearly 2 weeks to complete and is still ongoing) looking at causes. In my case methinks its AGE. There is a 51% chance of miscarriage. I didn't know this before. It's burned into my brain now. Mostly I feel sad for my tot as she is that much further away from having a sibling.
I had two visits to QEH in Woolwich. A much easier place to get to and to park in than Lewisham hospital. As I sat for hours waiting, I was reminded just how many chavs live round here. I saw red when a couple of the stupid bints got on the phone to graphically discuss their miscarriages while others, including me, were waiting around to see the sonographer. The saddest thing was on the 2nd visit when I knew it was all over, a young woman came in with her daughter and new born child. She obviously didn't cotton onto the fact that there were women around her who had lost theirs. My heart went out to a very sad looking lady sitting next to the oblivious one.
I have no doubt we will try again and have been encouraged by women who have told me they went on to have successful pregnancies. In the meantime, my heart has a tiny hole for the soul who only stayed with me for 7 weeks. I will never forget that baby.

Steer clear

On way home from IKEA Edmonton tonight we noted that there are roadworks planned for Blackwall tunnel, that the Woolwich ferry is down to one service (they say broken ferry, I say people skiiving off for Bank Hol weekend), roadworks on the A12 and huge tailbacks on the Dartford tunnel approach.
So this weekend, we won't be travelling anywhere by car.
I must admit that I would rather do the Dartford route as you don't get the utter rudeness of drivers seen on the Blackwall tunnel approach. But by far the best way to come is via London bridges. As long as you are happy to wait until the congestion charge doesn't apply and prepared to brake every now and again for a jaywalking tourist.
Even better, I wish I could get a lift off one of them Chinooks that are always flying ahead. That would be cool.

Royal Arsenal

Sometimes I get quite down living near Woolwich which I consider to be quite a dump. This is made worse driving back from North London which takes two hours because there are yet again, roadworks around the Tunnel.
Today I was however, pleasantly surprised when I took tot and hubby to Royal Arsenal. We wanted to look at the boarding point for the Clipper as I want to take a boat trip down to Waterloo.
The development is rather nice IMHO. And very un-Woolwich like. We enjoyed a stroll along the river, watched the Woolwich ferries making some circles in the water and then went for a coffee in the Royal Artillery museum. Not a bad cafe for the standards around here though my coffe was a little cold.
I'll post some pictures up soon.

Open for anon

A comment made by a poster in Plumsteadshire's blog made me realise that I had turned off comments from anonymous posters.
Well I've changed that for now. Hope no-one abuses me as I'm a rather sensitive sod to that sort of thing.

Apocolypse Now?

Every night around midnight our peace is shattered by the sounds of helicopters. Sometimes I think they are flying so low that if I looked out the window I'd be able to see the pimples on the stupid pilot's face. This annoys us and also leads to a lot of breath-holding as we wait for our sleeping baby to wake up in the middle of what sounds like a warzone.
I initially thought these were taking prisoners to their cells but realised that was a silly thing to do around midnight. Then thought maybe they were to do with the barracks.
Now I believe its tourists who want a midnight view of the o2 else why would they fly so low. No doubt it will get worse in the run up to the Olympics as people want to fly around the site.
Now don't get me wrong, people are entitled to view the sights. But fuck me, I am entitled to sleep and this is too much.
To break the so called camel's back, from 4am we have the sound of airplanes going into City airport and the barking of some very annoying dogs who are obviously owned by drunkards who are in a stupor and don't hear their mutts disturbing the peace.
If you hear banshee like screaming, that's me. I've had enough :(

Toddler swimming Eltham

After a restless sleep filled with nightmares of dilapidated leisure centres, verrucas and spotty teenagers, I woke this morning to a sunny day and a more positive attitude. We took tot to Eltham leisure centre to try out the swimming.
What fun!
The centre is very well set up to take toddlers. The large changing areas included 4 family sized changing rooms which included a baby changing table to park tot while hubby and I changed.
We were pleasantly surprised that the pre-pool showers were warm.
The family pool includes a beach entrance and again the water was warm and did not reek of chlorine (a worry as tot is eczema prone). This was very encouraging for our tot who has never had a cold bath. I was also happy as I'm a short arse so the water started at my ankles and never got higher than my chest area.
There were plenty of parents with tots including quite a few dads with young sons and daughters.
I'm not a good swimmer but felt very comfortable. Between my hubby and I, we were able to play plenty of floating games with our tot and she seemed to enjoy herself.
We were in the pool for about 15 mins when a fountain shower started at the shallow end of the pool which the kids all rushed to. Unfortunately, when we tried this on the way out, the water was a bit too heavy for our little one.
Once out, we took the showers and I was delighted to see a playpen where I parked tot whilst I had a quick shower.

All in all a great experience. The centre is a wonderful civic centre and with Sunday parking free it wasn't too costly. Thoroughly recommended.