Tuesday 16 September 2008

The Best Laid Plans...

Today Roger had organised to help his mate Fred do some building type work. He has already helped him do some concreting and putting some tin on a roof. Today they were doing decking, and rendering a wall. I hope he gets to build a swimming pool and a rock wall, because those are skills that he could really use when he gets back home!

Fred, who does marvellous transformations of house yards.

Roger, rendering a wall.

Hugh had a full day at school and all the kids were having lunch at the school cantine today. So I had a free day and was looking forward to reading some more of the book I started this week (La Rage au Cœur by Ingrid Betancourt), and then going out and taking some photos. First I dropped Hugh at school (it takes ages because he always has to "fait pi-pi" at the tiny little toilettes at school.)

Child-sized toilets at the maternelle (pre-school).

I wanted to take a photo of Hugh, but he was more interested
in me getting a photo of his backpack.


Then I bought a baguette and the local newspaper from the kiosque, before coming home and reading the paper over a cup of coffee. Haaaaa. Relax. That felt good...
Then the phone rang and it was Sophie's school. Sophie had fallen in the playground and hurt her foot. The teacher had put ice on it but she thought I should come and get Sophie and take her to the doctor. So I jumped in the car and found Sophie in tears in the office at school. We went straight to the doctor's surgery, and had a fair wait before we saw the doctor. But there was a nice man who was in the queue in front of us who let us go before him. Maybe Sophie's whimpering had got to him...
The doctor didn't think the ankle was broken, but he booked Sophie in for an x-ray to rule out any fractures. Then it was a trip to the pharmacy to get some crutches and a plastic and velcro cast. We had time to come back to the house for lunch before going to the radiologist for the x-ray. As predicted there was no fracture, but an ultra-sound showed the ligament was partially torn. So I learnt a new French word "une entorse", which means a sprain.

Sophie on her crutches.

We got back about twenty minutes before Hugh and Odette's school finished at 4pm, so we called in to where Roger was working and filled him in on the news. Then it was time to pick up the kids, and that was the end of my day to myself!

2 comments:

Fragola said...

Poor Sophie! Hope she's making a speedy recovery.

I love the pic of Hugh walking away with his huge backpack. Something very touching about it.

C

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear you sprained your ankle Sophie - I imagine it's very painful. How cute to see Hugh going off to school, what will he do when you come back to WA and there's no kindy until he turns 4?

It's lovely to see Versailles through your eyes. You all look so summery and relaxed and Versailles is amazing!

take care,

the goodings