Roller coaster riding

Today has slid around the emotional spectrum like a pig on roller skates. Oh my goodness gracious me.

It all started out pretty well, took the dog for a walk, enjoyed the quiet and listened to the bird song...

Getting home though...eldest's stomach is acting up. Again. Badly.

High ho
High ho
It's off to the doc we go...

But first to work. I left youngest at home with her as second in command...work was fine....

Back I came and we trotted off to the medical center. This is not leaving me happy here...sick kids don't. Gotta love that parental pendulum swing between being certain that they are fine, and wondering if they have cancer....

Bleach.

We see a lovely doctor, who is Argentinian, so speaks little Catalan and less English which doesn't exactly complement my non-existent Spanish, minor Catalan and English. We concluded that it probably is not mortal, and they prescribed an analgesic.

Fine.

Eldest needs to go to the can so I run her home, I have 30 minutes till the bus...can you say irritation and tension....

I get into the farmacia, well, our temporary health cards are expired. We knew this. I went in a month ago to ask about this...and I changed the phone number which was listed wrong..but there was apparently no problem. I did leave with some of my usual confusion when dealing with everything in Catalan, but what the heck.

The man went back last week. Let me repeat that, it bears on the story of my day. The man went back LAST WEEK and was told that this was normal, the cards frequently take several months to come through, up to 8 or 10. No problem, don't worry.

Well, with 20 minutes left to catch the bus to meet my sister, the dog unwalked, the kid sick, the beds not shifted around so everyone has a place to sleep, and no one fed, I am told that NO, this is indeed a problem. Please go back to the health center.

Turns out that way back in oh, say, December when we filled out these forms there was a paper from the town hall we had to give them. We gave a photocopy, fully approved by the lady there. Well. It was supposed to be the original.

Now this is when I lost it.

You know, my Catalan isn't half bad if I am angry enough. You see, now I have to go to the Ajuntamin as well for a form, return and fill in more forms, and time is ticking away on me, my kid is sick, and I haven't got a lot of patience for bureaucratic bullshit in the first place, let alone in another language.

I ended up both shouting and weeping in the front hall of our town hospital to the stunned amazement of everyone there. Fortunately I have absolutely no qualms whatsoever about pitching a fit when I deem it necessary. This one had a large measure of frustration with it as well. I cannot speak the language well, and the woman I was talking too repeatedly slid into Spanish, and talked incredibly quickly in spite of my repeated requests that she slowed down.

In the end I got it all done. She called the ajuntamen about the form, I went over to get it, where they also looked at me in stunned amazement, I returned and bought the damned medicine.

Got home with about 3 minutes to spare...and, though I was sorry for my sister, her plane was delayed an hour. Thank God. I got lunch, dealt with a certified letter, the wine delivery and got some of the beds moved.

I have to add that my stress levels were also moving up there because we are having some issues around the rental of our house which are ratcheting my shoulders skywards, along with the pending hassles of returning to Canada...

But then I got on the bus, and BCN is LOVELY, and it was nice to be there with the beautiful buildings and the bustle....

I got out to the airport in time to go to the loo, which I had needed to do for about five and a half hours, and have a cafe amb llet...cafe con leche in Spanish....

And then my sister came out with her two kids.

Which was great.

They got a little overtired when we changed buses in BCN, but I've done little kids before and we weathered it.

Got home

Phew.

And as a balm to my day, one of my neighbours saw me wheeling my sister's suitcase down the street. She pulled over, offered to drive the suitcase home and did so, waiting outside our place till we got there.

Maybe she had heard about my day.

It is a small place.