Ms CatCalls writes an e mail in French

I turn to blogging as light relief .

Saturday morning sees us up at six am , D to return the camper van to York or its environs and me to walk the dog and conduct a counselling session . ( I don't advertise this as one of my services but if asked will oblige .... and it is something I love doing ) .

I fiddle about until the appointed time , trying to get Alice out for her walk ( she is in holiday lazy greyhound mode and prefers to keep her head under the cushion ) , and I finally leave the house in a mad rush . My car is in York , and as I manage to set off the alarm system on D's car my mobile starts , and a nurse from our local hospital informs me that I am needed on one of the wards . I am confused . Moi ? The alarm is driving me mad , the car is refusing to start , the clock is ticking on so I ask her to call me back as she is making no sense ...

It transpires( after two hours of trying to trace which ward called me ) that one of my former CatCalls people has been admitted to hospital the previous night in an emergency after a fall and needs surgery . Furthermore , nightmare , she has no friends or relatives in the northeast , having lived in France for the previous x years , has has to leave her three beloved cats locked in her house and could I help , like now , as she is going into surgery imminently ?

I scan my brain for what can and can't be cancelled ... most can be postponed till tomorrow and I head up to the hospital , manage to find a parking space ( a good omen under the cirumstances )
and finally locate M flat out in a hospital gown , under the influence of morphine and expecing to go down to theatre and trying to remain cheerful despite the shock and her anxiety about her feline friends at home and whether they are safely indoors after the ambulance incident etc .

We make a list of what she needs and what the cats will want . M as ever is far more concerned for her cats but I try as diplomatically as someone as I can to point out that she will in time require "stuff " and that a hospital gown per se will not suffice once she becomes a little more mobile . We finally agree that I will bring in some underwear , toiletries etc and that a work e mail needs to be mailed asap . ( This is all quite surreal . We have only met once before , and I am advising her about the most personal of things .)

Thus it is that I find myself ferreting for pants , and then , get this , writing an e mail , business style , in French , no less , to explain why a piece of work will not be arriving from Madame on time . I can tell you , that took my mind off the court report that had been starting to occupy my mind this weekend as I gear up for the DayJob again . It also occurred to me as I typed in to Google " Translate English to French " and came up with a little square box to help me do same that a Google " Write your Court Report Software " wouldn't come amiss , for those Monday mornings when the brain just isn't in the groove yet . I guess its out there ? I'm probably just looking in the wrong place .
Anybody ?

Meanwhile , when I returned to the hospital to deliver her things and let her know cats are safe and so on , M was still in theatre . I will keep you posted . I think again of how lucky I am to be surrounded by friends and quite a few family members living nearby should I need help .
How scary to find yourself alone .