Sunday 26 August 2012

good day

And this is the second half. It's much nicer.

After the stress and emotions of Friday, I had a very much needed day out in London with one of my best friends yesterday. I've been meaning to see "Wicked" for years now and finally got round to seeing it - and my goodness, it was worth the wait.

Wicked!

Fantastic songs, great acting, and the two main leads had phenomenal voices. Just magical and wonderful and all the things you want when you escape to the theatre. I stood and applauded with all my might at the end.

We headed to Westfield Shopping Centre in Stratford to do something else I've been meaning to do for ages - have a meal at Wahaca, a Mexican cantina style restaurant co-founded by MasterChef winner Thomasina Meyers. I love a good Mexican meal (my only remotely authentic experience of it has always been in San Diego) which is very hard to come by in England. Wahaca's food surpassed expectations. We went for a sharing selection and for £19.95 (for both of us), we were amazed at the amount of food we got. All of it was fresh, bursting with flavour, and cooked beautifully. We had black bean tostadas, pork tacos, chicken tacos, broad bean and feta quesadillas, fried tortillas filled with new potatoes, and coleslaw. Devouring my meal with dripping hands, I "mmmmmed" my way through the whole thing. Not a pretty sight, but I couldn't care less. I also had a classic margarita made with the smoothest tequila I've ever tasted. For dessert, we both had a hotcake (a thin pancake) topped with ice cream, dolce de leche sauce, and a peanut praline. If no one was watching, we would have licked our plates clean.

Wahaca, Westfield Stratford

At the end of the meal, I was surprised to see a book of matches - I didn't think they gave those out anymore. I opened the book to find sticks of chilli seeds:

Wahaca

Very clever and such a great idea. Service was friendly, efficient, and attentive. All totalled, our bill came to £43. A bargain for the quantity and quality of the food we ate, especially for London.

I didn't realise that Westfield was right next to the Olympic Park, so it was a delight to see it as we rounded a corner to get to the restaurant. I never got a chance to see any of the events, so being this close to the park was fantastic. To top it off, we kept passing by Paralympic athletes and officials from all over the world. Such a brilliant experience. It was an amazing, much needed day.

Just one question, though: why are our mascots so angry?

London 2012: Our Mascots Hate You

bad day

This is a blog post of two halves. Here's the first half...

On Friday, Jack, Mia and I headed off to the cinema. We were stopped in traffic but the older guy behind us failed to stop. I don't think he was going very fast, but it was a complete shock, a very loud bang, and Jack was distraught and in pain. I've never been in an accident in this country before, and had no idea what to do. The guy who hit us was no help; he seemed disoriented (and we all thought he'd been drinking, but the breathalyser proved otherwise) and was more concerned about his car than anything or anyone else. Thankfully the guy in front of us, who I actually hit because of the force of the shunt, was on the ball and called the police and ambulance.

Jack was very shaken but calmed down as time went on. The paramedics and policemen were fantastic with us, but were particularly great with Jack. Paul came to take Mia home (who really wasn't fazed by any of this and found it all rather exciting) and I went off in the ambulance with Jack - an experience I really don't want to repeat ever again. They had to strap him in and keep him in a neck brace until they could x-ray him, so the poor little guy was stuck like this for over 2 hours in total:

Happy chap in the hospital

But as you can see, he wasn't very traumatised by this point. Mostly he was bored and hungry. I joked around with him, told him stories about when he was in my belly and we had to spend time in hospital, and talked about when he was born. Hospital staff were all amazing with him and we were sent home after his x-ray came back normal.

The most difficult part for me was not only seeing my child in distress and being worried sick about him, but it was also very hard to be back in the A&E for the first time since I miscarried. I caught a glimpse of the nurse who looked after me and walked the same back corridor to the x-ray area that I was wheeled down to ultrasound. I always find going to this hospital distressing, but revisiting these particular memories was especially hard.

After we finally got home, got everyone fed and in bed, I lost it. Holding it together for all those hours took a lot of energy. Kids are strong, mummies not so much.

Two days on and we're all okay. Jack's neck is still sore and my back, neck, and shoulders are sore as well. I'm nervous about driving again and have to go all the way down to Kent on Tuesday, but I need to get back on the horse again. Mostly, I'm very, very grateful that we're all okay.