Halloween In London / Argentina Recap

We're in London for a few days, and I'd expect tonight should be a hoot as it's Halloween.  Last night, the streets looked CRAZY as we took a cab back into the city after visiting Emma, Nick, little Ivy, and tiny Flo in beautiful Raynes Park.  London's got a lot to live up to though, as the Halloween festivities in New York have trumped about everything we've seen...and Tropical Bar Santorini is a close second!  Our jet lag is finally fading away, aided by daylight savings last night, so we'll see what trouble we can get into tonight.  Oh, and...the 49ers and Broncos are playing at Wembley later this afternoon!  We tried to get tickets, but they are sold out - damn.  


Before the month is over, however, it probably would be good to catch up on the last week or so in Bonus Aires, and our first visit to a PUBLIC HOSPITAL.  


The day after the Columbus Day picnic in the park, Mandi woke up with a migraine and a sharp pain in her left eye.  As we have had issues in Argentina before (emergency appendectomy in March), we called on our local and reliable contacts to send us in the right direction to get her eye looked at.  Apparently a public eye hospital is the best way to go?

Wow, that place looks welcoming.  Is it a prison?

The waiting room.  We felt like we were in a 1960's war hospital in an old abandoned elementary school.

Mandi waited in the hallway because she was blind and scared.

I was scared too, probably because I could SEE the peeling paint, the dirt and the rust everywhere, and the one light bulb hanging from the ceiling like in a horror movie.

We were given a number and we waited and waited and waited, and there didn't seem to be any order as to what was happening.  Poor Mandi was in terrible pain and she was scared to death because NO ONE spoke English, of course, and she needed help and we had no idea what was going on.  So...after about an hour, and after seeing no movement from the waiting room, I asked her if she could sit tight for five minutes while I went to investigate.  And she said "Yes, what else can I do?"


On the far side of the waiting room, there was an old door hanging off its hinges, and occasionally someone would walk out and say something, then walk back in (torture chamber?).  So, I decided to barge on in - not many other options - and when I did, I found a couple of nurses and an "assembly line" kind of operation with two filthy eye examination stations.  I politely tried to explain to the nurses that my girlfriend needed help and they didn't give a shit.  


Not only did they not give a shit, they were mean and they tried to shoo me out, so I calmly stood my ground and made sure that they knew that I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.  I gave them the Greek facial expression for the word "no."  I guess they got tired of trying to get rid of me, and realized I wasn't going anywhere, because they finally gave in and told me to go get Mandi, which I did.  Hahaha...I understood that bitches!

Finally seeing one of the nurses...assembly line medicine 2010!

The male nurse seeing Mandi turned out to be very nice (the chick on the right was a bitch) and he diagnosed her with pink eye.  Thank goodness she didn't end up on the operating table like last time!  After a quick trip to the "Farmacity," we headed home with a soft, comfortable eye patch.

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On a lighter note, I had a little medical emergency of my own a few days later.  

I ran out of Pepto-Bismol a few weeks ago, and I'd taken my empty bottle to the Farmacity to show the pharmacist what I was using in hopes that he had a replacement.  Well, he sure did!  He gave me this handy little bottle of strawberry-flavored upset stomach relief, Spanish-Bismol if you will, which actually worked great - and tasted even better! The only problem was that I apparently missed the "Refrigerate After Opening" warning on the label.  You don't have to refrigerate Pepto - how was I to know? 

So...a few days later, at 4:30 in the morning, I reached over onto the bedside table and took a HUGE swig of my new Spanish-Bismol while I was half asleep, and ended up swallowing about 5 tablespoons of chunky, curdled strawberry goo.  

Of course then I completely freaked out and started choking and cursing and spitting and sputtering everywhere, because I was still asleep and I thought I was being attacked, and Mandi was confused and trying to help, and Louis was scared to death under the covers, until he realized that Daddy was vomiting and spitting out curdled strawberry goo (all his Christmases at once), at which point he tried to eat as much of it as he could before it got cleaned up.

Sometimes it's the little hiccups that make traveling worthwhile.

Not so good after a week on the bedside table.