The Weekend from Hell

We had a horrid weekend, beginning on Thursday, the day of my interview with Tom at Hudson, a recruitment agency, and the day of the biggest snow London has had in seven years. I woke up at 8:30am, ready to face the day. The snow was beautiful; I hate that I forgot the camera when I took the girls out for their morning romp. Normally I would have gone back in and grabbed the camera, but I was worried about time and tube delays caused by the snow. The park looked like a winter wonderland, and it was the first time Hadley and Savannah had seen snow. Savannah wasn’t too keen on the snow. She was prancing around in it, trying to keep her feet off it. Hadley, on the other hand, loved the snow. She was running around scooping it up in her mouth like a pelican and eating it.

The sidewalks were coated in slush, and I was worried about getting my shoes and hose sopping wet and dirty, so I had to wear my knee-high, high healed boots to the interview; I took my regular pumps in a Partridge’s bag, and I changed in the bathroom when I got to lobby of the building where my interview was. The interview went well, and I hope that maybe Tom and I can find me a job!

So Andrew’s plane was supposed to leave Amsterdam at 8:15pm, and he would arrive home around 10:00pm. Because of the snow, his plane was delayed and taxi left without him; he didn’t get home until about 1:30am, at which point we were both exhausted. I unpacked Andrew’s suitcase while he got ready for bed. The next morning, I got up with Andrew around 8:30am and went into the computer room to check my email for job updates. That’s when I saw the big pile of pooh. One of the girls had gotten sick in the night. I was worried that whichever it was wasn’t finished, so I put them on their leashes and took them out, but Hadley didn’t even make it to the park. She pooped on the sidewalk, and I, of course, had to attempt to clean it up as passersby glared at me. Later that day, she threw up, too.

So that night, we went to Chinatown to have Chinese food for dinner, and afterward, we were going to walk over to Soho to go to Jazz After Dark, a jazz bar I read about in Access London. I was really excited because I had wanted to go for weeks, and we were finally getting a chance to go. So we find the place (it’s raining, by the way), and they tell us that if we don’t have reservations, there would be a cover charge of £10 apiece. Andrew and I looked at each other and were about to decide, when another bouncer poked his head out the door and said they were at maximum capacity. So that decided that, and Andrew and I walked back down the street and found a bar where we could get a table. When we got home, Hadley had left us an unpleasant surprise.

The next morning, another unpleasant surprise waited just outside our bedroom door, and we were out of paper towels. When Andrew got up, we decided that we needed to cancel our plans to go register with estate agents in Fulham. We had to get Hadley to a veterinarian to find out what was wrong with her.

We finally got to the vet around quarter till two, and the vet was supposed to arrive at two. Unfortunately, they don’t take walk-ins, and they were booked solid. The receptionist said that I could speak with the nurse when she got there. Anyway, the nurse arrived and gave us some “bland” food and a giant syringe of medicine (Prokolin) to help Hadley’s digestion, and we made an appointment with the vet for this evening.

I had to walk by myself, in the dark, through Battersea, because Hadley was too sick to take her on the bus. It was scary, but we survived! Even sick, Hadley can look threatening from far away! It tuns out Hadley's developed a bacterial infection, probably from eating the snow on Thursday. The vet gave her a shot of antibiotics and gave me some medicine with strict instructions about how much, when, and what to feed her for the next several days. Let's hope it works and that next weekend is much more pleasant!