25 June 2015 - Down Memory Lane

It is funny how 24 C can feel hot and humid after living in cooler climes for a while!  The heat on the buses and Tube trains is stifling and still people wear coats!

I am still wrestling with all the downloadable resources accessible with distance education.  The programs are good, but do require a bit of background research (and good internet connection) before being able to use them to the best advantage.  One such program is the Bug Club.  It is a great reading program which provides terrific books, comprehension questions and rewards and feedback but the user has to know that each bug means a question which has to be answered before the  rewards are unlocked....I finally sussed it all out and so Luke can decorate various tree houses with bits and pieces as a reward.

Tim is working very hard to submit all his work for the semester so he can take the next two weeks off from formal school.  Annika is pretty much up to date which is a good place to be in.  I can't wait!! I can really appreciate teachers needing their holidays!

Tim racing to complete his assignment on poverty and choosing to sit on the floor and eat white rice!

One of our goals in London was to see my old work place: Homerton Hospital in Hackney, the true east end of this big city.  When I lived here, I rode my trusty bicycle to work and after our long slow bus journey from central London to Homerton Hospital this afternoon, I can see why bicycle was my choice of transport.

Glad she was remembered

We took Bus 242 from Tottenham Court Road and wound in and out of back streets and through the east end suburbs and finally reached the hospital.  We had the upper front seats on the double decker and really it was a pleasant journey with a bird's eye view  of the city.  Above the street front shops are mostly old buildings in various states of repair and often with character.

One of the newer hospitals in London

I boldly led my family through the hospital to the maternity section and there was Turpin Ward, my old work area, still looking fresh.  I inquired at the Birth Suite as to whether any former colleagues still worked there after 25 years!  Audrey (Crawford) was still around but on leave, and according to the receptionist, many of the oldies had retired a year or so ago.  It was really surreal walking down the same corridors, still painted in the same yellows, thinking of the years that have flown by since I farewelled my colleagues there. In the middle of the courtyard there is now a tall gum tree!  It may have been there as a sapling all those years ago, but I'd never noticed it!

I thought of the women and their families who shaped my career.  I jokingly say that I could have been the midwife at the birth of any 24-27 year old I pass on the streets of London and I'd never know if I walked right past them!  I remembered Elke, the Hassidic Jewish woman who gave birth to three children in the three years I worked at Homerton.  I remembered the woman who walked down five flights of stairs from the flats opposite the hospital with a placental abruption and came running into birth suite in a panic: "No point calling an ambulance cos the lift's not working, thought it'd be quicker to walk..is my baby ok?" Heart racing, fearing the worst, blood everywhere and miraculously, the baby survived because of the emergency Caesarian Section she had. I remembered the African women massaging their gorgeous babies with coconut oil and braiding each others' hair.  I remembered my colleagues from many nations and that I was the only Australian there! If only I could remember the address of the couple who offered me a life time supply of fish and chips from their shop after I helped their daughter into the world!

Mixed with all the memories I could recall were things I couldn't remember such as the route I rode my bike home from work!  Some of the roads have changed because of the development for the 2012 Olympic Games and the bus took us on a milk run around the unfamiliar back streets. We headed down to the staff canteen which is now an outsourced Costa coffee shop.  I had a celebratory cappuccino.

Celebratory coffee

As there is no underground station near to Homerton, typical of many poorer areas where there seem to be buses rather than underground services, we decided to take a different bus route back to Walthamstow and catch the train from there.

Ayran! Yum!

We knew of a Turkish grocery in Walthamstow  where we could buy Ayran, our favourite buttermilk/lassi type of drink we discovered in Turkey.  After a quick shop and satisfying of our Ayran hankerings, we boarded the train and were home in no time.  Trains are more expensive than buses but the efficiency is so worth it!