#58 - A day off, followed by ER (minus George Clooney, Noah Wylie et al)

Day off and confusion reigns for 10 minutes...
Monday was a day off.  I assumed it was a public holiday - it wasn't.  I called school to make sure I had read my schedule correctly - we never have a day off during the week!  Ok, we did...

So it was mostly a nice day. I'm skipping the not nice bits - because it hurts to type.  Afternoon tea in St James's Place followed by a walk to Covent Garden and the Royal Ballet.  Graduation present (belated) for LM.  Found out later it was her first ballet, so glad we did it right.  Fun girly day / night out.


ER (don't look if you are squeamish)
So yesterday was another day of sugar.  My sugar leaked a little out of piping bags...got some spectacular burns - put my hand in water / ice periodically, but wanted to finish class.  I think the smart thing would have been to go to the doctor right after, but I had another class so I stayed for that one too. Finished the centrepiece but still have a few kinks to work out for the final.  Pretty safe to say I will avoid piping sugar for the final so will need to consider alternate technique which minimizes potential to come into contact with sugar.

After class, before ER

Unsuccessful attepts to blow sugar during second session. May have had a little to do with the fact that my dominant hand was useless.  Blown sugar will break if you blew it thin enough and then don't pick it up gently enough.  Definitely no apple of discord in my batch of misshapen fruits.  Finished with a practice rose so class wouldn't feel like there was nothing to shoe for it.

Finished early so got a book and went looking for the nearest ER when my fingers started go feel numb.  Surely that can't be good...Google said there was one about 10 minutes' walk away.  Turned out it was some kind of meeting group organizing thing, which is good.  It was in a building where I expected lunatics to come barreling out from nowhere (I pressed a button to get in, the door buzzed to let me in, reception was closed and no one seemed to be around.  Just saw a lot of empty rooms...).  Eventually found someone who gave me directions to the hospital (you go along this road, then turn right).

24 hours after injury...

Temporarily crippled
Eventually got to hospital where I had to ask for directions for the entrance, then directions to the ER. When I finally saw the triage nurse, she asked why I had waited so long to come in. I told her I had class, then got lost. Eventually saw the doctor. One look at my hand and she went to get a more senior doctor. Left hospital a little after midnight with note so I can miss class while my hand regains some functionality. Hmmm, might be while, today is worse than yesterday. Can't be good when the chefs freak out after they see my hand.

Had a pretty walk to class this morning, then yummy dinner near St Paul's - Gordon Ramsay's Bread Street Kitchen - although I didn't know it was Gordon Ramsay's when I picked it or might have boycotted it (you know, general bad language, personal attacks on people, etc etc).

So food:  seared scallops with apple and bacon, short rib burger, green beans with shallots, mac 'n cheese (all of which LM and I shared);

then dessert:  pineapple upside down cake for her and another mac 'n cheese.  The waitress laughed when I ordered my dessert, then laughed a little more when I told her it was the best dessert in a while.

Took forever to wash hair with one hand unable to do anything.  Need more painkillers but afraid to take any.  Dinner was a while ago and you have to take these with food...

Have mock exams coming up but hand is out of commission for at least 7 - 10 days.  Need to do the practice but don't want to damage hand further with exams just over a week away.  Can't hold a pen or spoon, much less a knife so will have to figure something out.  Silver lining - can't fake this kind of injury.  Tiny lining, but there nonetheless.  Going to sleeep now, hopefully some healing will begin to make itself felt because it's starting to hurt a bit now.  Any mistakes are due to exhaustion and pain, but apologies anyway.

So until next time, please stay safe and may you not need to search for silver linings.