NOT the Type of Pedicure I Had In Mind

Oooops! Had a bit of an accident today. Well I couldn't let Ian take all the sympathy now could I?

A large crowd of us descended on The Park for our last Sunday Brunch and all was going well, the adults enjoying good food and all the children fed watered and ensconced in the hotel's viewing room watching Shrek.

Luke decided he wanted to climb up on my lap and as I pushed my chair back to let him up, my flat soled sandal skidded on a chip and my toes rammed straight under the metal base plate of the table. Huge pain, blood, stars, nausea, the lot.

My very own Florence 'Juliet' Nightingale quickly and deftly administered first aid and ice while Nurse Sejal made calls to her doctor...and it was straight off to Apollo hospital for me. Xrays to make sure nothing was broken, nothing is. But once my toes were cleaned up it was apparent that my big toe nail was split right down to the base. "We'd better take it off", says the Doc.

After two lots of local anaesthetic a crowd of around 10 Doctors and nurses have gathered around my feet to watch the removal of my big toe nail and I just feel like fainting, but I managed to stay awake with Juliet focusing my mind. Credit due, when it was all over it looked as though the lovely Doctor had done a good job!

It just wasn't the kind of last Indian pedicure I'd been planning - I had intended that once we had moved out of the house and into the hotel for a few days I'd slip down to Salon 2000 for one last complete works...because it ain't half cheap here and as of next week I'll be back to taking out a small mortgage for any pampering of that kind...Ah well, at least my toe's not broken, and, I got to see the inside of yet another Indian hospital before we leave!

PS...A very big thank you also goes to Andrew Purdy who also accompanied us to Apollo and kept reminding me that I do have a sense of humour. Like you said Megan, he doesn't 'do' blood though!

So Long, Farewell

Just take a look at how the Desperate (ex-pat) Housewives of Chennai spend ALL their time!





Last week a very fond group of us did the school run and then de-camped down the coast to Fishermans Cove for my leaving lunch and we had THE BEST time. Expertly arranged we enjoyed a peaceful time relaxing around the pool...the first time I have been able to do this since...well I can't actually remember when! And then enjoyed a lovely lunch in the Bay restaurant overlooking the Bay of Bengal with a nice sea breeze to cool us down.


Fruit Mocktails - it was only 10am after all!


A wonderful group of girls who have all helped me settle in here and made my life in Chennai a little bit easier with regular injections of humour and shared experiences and tales of our lives in India. Thank you all for coming, Thank you for the wonderful gifts which will always remind me of you all...and thank you for being here in Chennai the same time as me! There were a couple of girls that I include in all of that who were missing on this day, you know who you are. Going to miss all you girls xxx

Where's that box of tissues?

Countdown

1 day until the packers arrive
1 week (yesterday) until departure day
4 days since my lovely leaving do
1 hour before we see the English Patient
1 hour before our last ever Chennai brunch with many lovely friends

The (Impatient) English Patient

I am sparing no details on this one!

Poor Ian has been suffering with recurring bouts of tonsillitis for the last couple of years. Our doctor in the UK had recommended 'the op' last year but he didn't have the time. Uh Oh. After several rounds of anti-bionics(!) a doctor here also recommended 'the op' but there just wasn't time, there never was.

He got back last weekend from his 2 week trip and unbeknown to me paid another visit to the doc. He had seen a 'little window' of opportunity as only Ian does!

Ian: "I'll think I'll have my tonsils out before we go".
Me: Errr pardon?
Ian: "Have my tonsils out...before we go"
Me: "Right. When exactly?"
Ian: "Saturday"
Me: "The Saturday before we leave? 2 days before the packers arrive? That Saturday? Oh help me! Lots more dialogue followed on the pros, cons, whys and wherefores...the BAD timing, but you get the picture I'm sure!

On Friday evening he went to the hospital for his pre-assessment and at 10pm tells me that he will need to be there by 7am and that someone has to stay and be with him for the entire time, I couldn't understand this?? When I had mine out aged 14 I was in hospital all on my lonesome whilst my Dad was away on business and my Mum was looking after my sister 20 odd miles away. Granted I ran out of 5 pence pieces nervously phoning home every 10 minutes beforehand but in the end the pre-med shut me up and I succumbed.

We all awoke early this morning and Ian went off with Murasoli to the hospital while I got the kids up and ready and waited for Mary, who had been hurriedly drafted in, to arrive. By 8.40am I arrived with Kumar and was whisked up to what I can only describe as the 'Penthouse Suite' of this hospital. Ian is lying there serenly with Murasoli quite literally almost holding his hand and looking very worried and concerned. A nurse arrives and I have to sign consent forms and at 9am he's wheeled off to theatre.




I kicked off my shoes, curled up on the sofa, put BBC World on the massive widescreen, opened a Diet Coke and had a well deserved snooze. Until firstly Kumar arrives to tell me that the entire mobile phone network is down throughout the City so he MUST give me a different number just in case I need him and secondly a woman comes to ask if it is OK if someone comes to take some pictures of THE ROOM - got that? The Room. OK whatever, maybe today isn't the best day...Oh no, but it HAS to be done today.



Five minutes later a nurse arrives to tell me that the Doctor needs to see me down on the 2nd floor, I fly down the stairs imagining a problem, but am greeted at the door by said doctor, "Take your shoes off put a gown on and follow me" he says. Before I have even grasped the fact that we are all barefoot and the sleeping people around me are actually 'in the recovery room' he presents me with a small bowl containing Ian's tonsils!! Euewwwww! "Please sign here to say you've seen them". Now I do actually know what Ian's tonsils look like after the number of times he's asked me to look and check if they are swollen or have white spots on them. Had he been having his appendix or something else removed I wouldn't have had a clue...could belong to anybody! After making sure a very grey looking Ian was OK I exited as soon as I could without even looking left or right...I really didn't want to see anything more.



Back upstairs the photographer(ha ha)has arrived and has not just set up a camera but a huge very professional video camera and I'm thinking there's something not quite right. I leave to wait outside, but they insist that I just sit down as I was and they'll work around me. Back on my comfy sofa I pick up my out of date edition of Marie Claire and then I happen to glance up to see this huge bloody camera trained on me! It dawns on me that they think we are medical tourists, people who travel to India to get all sort of Ops done because the NHS lists are too long and private is way too expensive...unless you come to India, and we're actually a convenient marketing tool. Then the guy says, "Mrs Wilson would you like to talk to camera about your Apollo Hopsital experience?" Errr hmmm, in a word NO! They beat a hasty retreat, to just outside the door? A few words in the 'Directors' shell like along the lines of...if you think you're filming my husband when he gets back here, you can think again, they get the hint and eventually leave.

Poor Ian arrives back, looking the worse for wear and then croackily announces that "This must be even worse and as painful as childbirth". At which point I stopped mopping his brow, lost all sympathy and wondered to myself where in Chennai I could get hold of a bag of Walker's Salt and Vinegar crisps...just for him!

Oh just one more thing....did I mention that a couple of hours later he asked for his laptop because there were some emails he needed to see? Good job I had sent it back home. I mean...Arrrgggghhhh...Men!

Luke's Party

We threw a little party in honour of Luke's 2nd birthday last weekend and we invited a small group of friends and our staff to join us.

The Cake

Pool Time!

Cake time, except Luke wasn't that impressed with his cake and candles. We'd been practicing 'blowing out' for days but on the day he got a little stage struck!


When I said we'd invited our staff that meant, Kumar and his 2 children, Pushpa and her son Balaji, Murasoli and Mary. As usual I thought I'd overdone it on the catering front but as it was Mary's daughter Angel also arrived (pale pink Salwar) together with Mary's sister, husband and 3 children! The whole spread disappeared before our eyes and so did they! As I went into the kitchen this is the ensemble I came across...with rice and more chicken cooking on the stove! Not a morsel was left! I think they had a good time.

Only in India...rounding off the day with a nice game of cricket! Luke is a pretty mean bowler!

Countdown...

2 weeks (yesterday) until departure day.
3 days until my leaving do.
1 week until the packers arrive.

...and I'm feeling remarkably calm, errr it just doesn't seem real at the moment!

Happy 2nd Birthday Luke!

I can't believe that our little boy is the grand old age of 2 years today. His 2 years have been a whirlwind for his parents in more ways than one but he seems to have come through it all pretty much unscathed!

Daddy has been in the US and UK for the past 2 weeks and arrives home in the early hours of tomorrow (Hallejuleigh!), so today has been low key and busy busy with jobs, school concerts and sorting out. Tomorrow we will celebrate with a little party with some close friends and our staff.

Wonderful people come and wonderful people go...today is a very happy day but also a sad day for me and my sister. Miss you so much Mum xx