Coffee morning - our style.

The day of my coffee morning finally arrived. I spent the day in the kitchen yesterday making lemon meringue pie and milk tart and the kids were salivating and hoping that there would be left overs after my social gathering.
Jess and Malcolm walked to the bus stop, Malcolm has a social engagement this evening so liquor will be involved and handling a motor vehicle will be prohibited. I needed to get things ready for my guests so Kirstin happily went off on her own this morning, usually I walk her down to the luas.
Enter disaster….

ACT ONE
Scene One:
11 year old girl in a pink jacket happily scooting along listening to her Ipod, sun is shining and her heart is glad, 2 more days of school and then Easter holidays, hooray!!!
Enter mean crack on sidewalk path…he he he he I am going to trip up cute girl on scooter.
Followed by two good Samaritans consoling young girl in pink jacket, one shoe and a holy stocking.
Finally call to mommy at home whose heart drops into her big fluffy pink pyjama pants, wearing her pink slippers and maroon nightie, and a red fleece hoodie complete the look.
Luckily one of the kind ladies has a word with distraught mother, sounds very nice and will stay with child until neglectful, bad, disorganised (should have set up cups, plates blah blah blah last night, and driven her to luas this morning) monster gets to child.
Worried, trembling, heart pounding mother jumps into little blue car and roars out of driveway heading to the rescue of wee soulie.
Guardian angel, not sure if belonging to distressed mother or inconsolable child, parts Dublin traffic with her magic wand.
Yes this is true…when I got to the busy main road expecting queues of cars and 15 minutes of stress, including 3 traffic light changes I reached the offensive traffic being second waiting to turn, I kid you NOT!!! Yeah, yeah it is Thursday and loads of people leave their cars at home and use public transport but still.
Another call to tear stained child to find out which side of the road and then I see the little huddle, my baby leaning up against the wall with two protectors.
Jump out of car on very busy main road in above described outfit and put all manner of goodies in boot of car, including a discarded shoe.
Help injured child to car, thank kind ladies profusely, recognising each other from morning walks and head for home.

Scene Two:

Pain riddled child limps into warm cosy house.
Carefully placed on sofa and foot propped up on cushion.
Ice pack found lurking at the back of cupboard, squeezed till bursting and all shook up.
Deformed looking foot (please no) not at all happy with more pain thanks to offending icy bag.
Nurofen should do the trick, Nurofen…..good.
Ice pack…bad, still bad.

Frantic call to husband – no answer.
Enter Google search engine. “Crumlin Children’s Hospital” and “Rockfield Medical centre.”
Call to Rockfield, very quiet, good news at last.
Frantic search for emails between coffee morning guests and myself.
Quick explanation, please come one hour later mailed to 2 people
Call to Tracy – voice mail, leave garbled message, something about injured child and possible x-rays.
Call from Tracy around the corner from my house, on her way.
What to do, what to do???
Could it possibly be broken, not swelling too much, but cannot touch it without hearing a little sob from the patient.
Husband returns call and explain what ahs happened. Not much he can do but a relief to have someone to talk to.
Enter Tracy!!! Super hero….
I prepare coffee machine, show her where the cakes are and give her a set of keys
Really strange because it is the first time she has been to my house!!!
She will be at my house for 10:30 coffee morning guests.
Heart starts beating a little more slowly.
Carry Kirstin to car.

Scene 3

Carry child into very quiet waiting room at Rockfield medical centre and a wheelchair is supplied.
This impresses the injured as she loves being wheeled around.
Whisked through by nurse who swabs the area with iodine. This produces a watery substance from the child’s eyes and causes a pinched look to cross her puffy eyed tear stained face.
Holds and squeezes concerned mothers hand very tightly.
Doctor comes through, prods, pokes and moves foot which causes huge discomfort and more of the salty liquid to course down cheeks.
X-rays are required to make sure.
KaChing.
Radiologist arrives and x-rays are done, with the required amount of grimacing and lots of intake of breath.
Much reminding of deep breathing as it will help filters through the glass protection from concerned mother to invalid child.
Back to our cubicle and much chanting of ‘Please don’t let it be broken’ ensues.
See doctor with x-rays, study his face looking for any reaction as he surveys pictures of child’s bones. Takes an impossibly long time to determine, much frowning and chin rubbing.
Turns to walk towards patient and sees mother’s expectant face and the doctor give a thumbs up!!
Relief flows through body of both as the thought of a cast had been very unappealing to both.
Compact bandage is applied to injured leg and a pair of crutches appears.

Quick visit to the pharmacy for some pain reducing Nurofen while bandaging is being done.
Quick lesson on how to use crutches, very unnecessary as this child ahs had the opportunity to experiment in the past with friends crutches!!!
Two hundred and thirty euro lighter a relieved mother and child exit the building and head for home.


So that was how my morning began. Of course it could have happened ANY other day and I could have spent the whole morning/day at Crumlin, paid nothing and had something to do. But no, it has to happen on the ONE day that socialising is taking place. Tracy was a life saver, she supplied coffee to all and when I got there everyone was standing around the kitchen counter talking and laughing like they had known each other forever. Milk tart and lemon meringue pie were produced as well as a delicious banana bread by Tracy and Mandy had brought crackers, chive cream cheese and smoked salmon which was a killer combination!
Cake was consumed, more coffee and tea and Kirstin sat and absorbed the accent and the familiarity of South African people together in a strange land.
In the end the coffee morning was a great success and much telephone and email address swapping took place. Slowly one by one people started leaving, children to collect, toddlers to be fed and life to return to its normal patterns.

Of course the day would not be complete until big sister got to see for herself just what little sister had been up to all morning. So much so that Kirstin came with me to fetch Jess from school. The withering look, how dare Kirstin sit in the FRONT seat, was replaced by one of pure and utter sympathy/panic at the sight of the gleaming prized possession of crutches. The story was told and much hugging and patting and oohing and aahing ensued, huge sympathy at the revelation that Kirstin was alone when she fell, no mommy in sight. A high five even wheedled its way in when it was discovered that I had to purchase the crutches as the girls can think of nothing much more fun than giving crutches a serious work out. All is well that ends well.