Stuck

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

In the end we did decide to keep Tiger off school today to actually get some rest.  Though her crooked, timid frame probably could have made it through the day, we figured a good six hours resting and three solid meals would stand her in better stead for tomorrow.  And we did okay for the first hour and a half while the movie was playing.  After that Tiger was sent to her room for another hour to rest on her bed and read, and it was then that I noticed the rash that had appeard on Joey's back and legs this morning had now spread to his stomach, knees and arms.

In this chicken pox and measles-riddled climate, we figured it was better to be safe than sorry, so hot footed it up to the health centre (apparently it's just an allergic reaction to something) where no doubt the two medicines I have come home with will soon have Joey back to a picture of health.

While there, however, Tiger managed to get herself locked in a toilet.  A bathroom, I suppose, rather than a toilet stall.  Anyway, it took five minutes, one handyman (and five other security personnel, concierge type staff and a customer relations officer) to discover they didn't in fact have a key that fitted the lock from outside, and twenty minutes of screwdrivers, hammers, electric drills and old fashioned brute strength, to finally pop the lock.  And by pop I mean pretty much disintegrate.  But still they couldn't open the door.  All this time Tiger was a trooper and sitting quite calmly on a toilet lid inside a cubicle, as far away as possible from the hammering, drilling and (I'm sure, though I don't speak Urdu) cussing.

I, on the other hand, was trying my hardest not to laugh.  Or take photos.  I failed at the first but succeeded in the second (which is saying something in this day and age!).  It was all just such a farce.  I mean regardless of the fact that Tiger probably shouldn't have used that lock since the toilet stall itself had a lock, they really should have been able to find the master key.  This was even a toilet in the pediatric area of the health centre.

I was quite confident that Tiger, even in her post-operative state, would be calm and know that we were trying our hardest to get her out (and told her that many a time during the various efforts), so I just sat back amused that it took that long and that many people to get her out.  I mean the handymen here got in to my house in about 30 seconds flat!  The two local women that alerted me to the fact that she was locked-in (another story for another time) were not quite so amused and their string of, what I can only assume to be, harsh reprimands to everyone just made me laugh even more.  I was desperate to get out my phone and take a picture of the whole situation, but did not want that particular tirade turned on me!

Poor Tiger did have a wee cry when she finally got out, but I think that was more relief, and maybe even embarrassment, than anything else.  Nothing for it really but a quick trip upstairs to McDonalds (the health centre is on the ground floor of a mall; McDonalds is in the food court on the top floor) to recover.  No other real choice either as we'd lost all time we had to go home for lunch and instead had to start on the afternoon pick up runs.  Another relaxed day in the life of the Boyds...