We're back, after two nights of virtually no sleep and two days of boredom beyond comprehension, we're back home.
Poor Anna. She is so utterly fed up of going into hospital. For her, the being there is almost worse than how dreadful she feels. She puts up with the needles, accepts the canulla without complaint and all the general discomfort, but all she really wants to do is sleep in her own bed, and be in her own home. So it was a very happy, if rather pale and weak, little girl that I tucked into bed this evening.
For the record, the whole experience was virtually identical to previous admissions Anna has had in the UK. All the doctors were oriental, the nurses were Irish and the hospital building was a 1960s monstrosity that had been added and added to, making an ugly and incoherent mess. The interior design was pretty much NHS standard issue. The care was good, the nurses were lovely and we had a particularly nice paediatric consultant who is going to refer Anna to the kidney specialist to try and find out why this keeps happening.
There were a couple of areas where things seemed to be lagging behind UK expectations. There were no security people at A& E in the night when we arrived, and the entrance to the children's ward also did not have any security - at Southampton you had to be buzzed in by video camera. Of course, this may well more be a commentary on life in the UK than anything else! Food provision at the hospital was even worse than at Southampton General, which I didn't think was possible - no real choice at meal times, horridly presented with plastic cutlery, and no nutritional information about anything. I didn't see any obvious way of catering for special diets or respecting the religious issues around food. As far as I could see, you got what you were given, and generally it was a load of slop. Which is weird given the extremely high quality of cuisine and service which local people take for granted in restaurants and cafes.
As a result of all this, we are taking things quietly. Anna insisted on going to school for a couple of hours on Friday, as her class teacher was leaving (although we will still be seeing plenty of her, as she has bought the riding school Anna goes to), but I picked her up at about 11.30am and we then spent most of the afternoon lolling about on the bed. I took a few photos of Anna, which I've pu on here. I love taking pictures of her - she is very photogenic. We spent the evening with our friends Sharon and Richard, and ate a really good take away thai meal (and a fair amount of wine...).
Friday was the last day of term, and we now have 3 weeks of holiday. We have gone back and forth about whether to go away for some of it, but in the end I just couldn't face it. I know this will sound like an odd approach to the possibility of a holiday, but we have been moving around like itinerants for months now, and I just want to stay home. There is plenty to do here, and it looks like the weather is finally starting to meet our expectations for an Australian winter (ie sunny). I'm looking forward to not having the rush every morning to get the children off to school, but I'm a little bit concerned about the fact that this will literally be 3 weeks of childcare without hope of relief! With no access to babysitting etc as yet, it has occurred to me that this will be 21 days without going to the gym, or pottering in the shops, or even having a bit of peace and quiet. So if I start to seem like I might be losing the plot, you will know why!
BIg excitement this week was school reports. We were pleased with both reports, particularly in relation to what was said about how George and Anna had settled socially. Comment was made on both reports about how polite they are, George's sense of humour was highlighted and Anna apparently has beautiful manners. Unfortunately, this is not always obvious when she is at home, but her report was so glowing, that I can't help thinking that it must take enormous effort to be as perfect as she appears to be at school, and perhaps we are suffering as a result!
Another area that was highlighted on Anna's report was the super start she has made at learning Indonesian. The other children started to learn the language at the beginning of year 3, and of course Anna only started this April, some 18 months after the others. This didn't stop her from getting 85% in the term exam and getting in the top 20 for the year. It will be interesting to see how she fares when they start French next year. George's report for French was also very good - although this did lead him to comment that he wondered how bad you had to be to get a bad report for French! However, it is always George's style to downplay his successes!
Enjoy the pictures of Anna - as we will be out and about over the next few weeks (assuming I remember to take the camera out every now and again), I should be able to add to the collection.
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