Saturday, October 30, 1999
Pauline Ate A Bad Mussel...
P.'s parents arrived on Wednesday morning. I had rushed around cleaning the house, baked an apple tart and prepared Cabbage Creole from my old NZ vegetarian book, and basmati rice for lunch. Méemée bought lovely veal from her butcher to eat with that. Afterwards they entertained the children while I went out shopping and saw the doctor to stock up on hayfever pills. Dr L. is a rugby fanatic and he assured me NZ are going to win the semi-final against France on Sunday because France has always lost to NZ in odd-numbered years!
We ate fresh mussels for dinner and they were really delicious. Unfortunately Pauline must have eaten too many, or had a bad one, because she woke up crying at midnight in a puddle of cold vomit. We cleaned her up and changed the bed (Kevin snored on through all this activity). I swathed the sofa in towels and stayed with her for the next three hours while she dozed and vomited three more times. When she seemed empty I put her back to bed and managed a couple of hours sleep until 6 am when Kevin got up.
At seven o’clock the phone rang, it was friend Malorie, very upset and asking for help. She had driven Patrick to Fontainebleau for his training course and her car broke down. Baby Fabien was starting to cry for his bottle but she hadn’t brought one with her, so the situation was rather dramatic! I woke everybody up and left instructions for getting Pauline bathed and Kevin to school, then jumped in the car and drove to Fontainebleau. I didn’t even need to change as I had slept in jeans and sweatshirt after Pauline puked on my two pairs of winter pajamas.
Poor Malorie was white and shaking, so I drove her straight home to Marolles. She had had the presence of mind to leave a note on her windscreen explaining the car wouldn’t start, and even put enough money in the parking meter to last till next morning! An hour and a half later I was back home having breakfast when she rang again saying the car had been towed to a repair shop but she needed to get back to Fontainebleau to give them the keys. I asked her to give me 15 minutes to have a shower and wash Pauline’s vomit out of my hair!
The to-ing and fro-ing took up all morning and of course I couldn’t have done it without Méemée and Pépé there to look after Pauline and make the lunch. They left again in the afternoon and I tried to get P. to have a nap as we were both exhausted, but she just wouldn’t sleep. However she slept really well that night and was completely well by Friday morning. So I took her to school because it was the last day and I didn’t want her to miss the Halloween party. The children had made very cute little witch costumes, but unfortunately I forgot to take the camera. Malorie rang again to say her car was fixed, so I picked her up and drove her to F’bleau for, I hope, the last time!
We ate fresh mussels for dinner and they were really delicious. Unfortunately Pauline must have eaten too many, or had a bad one, because she woke up crying at midnight in a puddle of cold vomit. We cleaned her up and changed the bed (Kevin snored on through all this activity). I swathed the sofa in towels and stayed with her for the next three hours while she dozed and vomited three more times. When she seemed empty I put her back to bed and managed a couple of hours sleep until 6 am when Kevin got up.
At seven o’clock the phone rang, it was friend Malorie, very upset and asking for help. She had driven Patrick to Fontainebleau for his training course and her car broke down. Baby Fabien was starting to cry for his bottle but she hadn’t brought one with her, so the situation was rather dramatic! I woke everybody up and left instructions for getting Pauline bathed and Kevin to school, then jumped in the car and drove to Fontainebleau. I didn’t even need to change as I had slept in jeans and sweatshirt after Pauline puked on my two pairs of winter pajamas.
Poor Malorie was white and shaking, so I drove her straight home to Marolles. She had had the presence of mind to leave a note on her windscreen explaining the car wouldn’t start, and even put enough money in the parking meter to last till next morning! An hour and a half later I was back home having breakfast when she rang again saying the car had been towed to a repair shop but she needed to get back to Fontainebleau to give them the keys. I asked her to give me 15 minutes to have a shower and wash Pauline’s vomit out of my hair!
The to-ing and fro-ing took up all morning and of course I couldn’t have done it without Méemée and Pépé there to look after Pauline and make the lunch. They left again in the afternoon and I tried to get P. to have a nap as we were both exhausted, but she just wouldn’t sleep. However she slept really well that night and was completely well by Friday morning. So I took her to school because it was the last day and I didn’t want her to miss the Halloween party. The children had made very cute little witch costumes, but unfortunately I forgot to take the camera. Malorie rang again to say her car was fixed, so I picked her up and drove her to F’bleau for, I hope, the last time!
# posted by Antipodeesse @ 5:10 pm 
