@dlowan,
I'll respond to people's lovely posts in a bit.
My day continued:
Next client....things STILL chaotic...new kid...very stressed and distressed and AAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNGGGGGGGRRRRRRYYYYYY!
I crawl exhausted out of room to get cleaning materials and take out Milo and coffee cups. H grabs me and wants me to sign files...."sure, when I have finished this"...thinking nice thoughts to stop my irritation showing...."I have three messages for you"...thank you, can you please email me them, and I will attend to them when I have finished doing this..."Can you tell me what I ought to do about these rooms? Two people wanted the same one."...sure, when I have finished doing this.....I clean room which takes ages....
I attend to signing the files (which now, for crissake, have pink stick-it notes saying "sign here", as do all the others....what the?????)....and explain in great detail about room booking etiquette...ie first come, first served, unless there is a compelling reason why one person needs the room more than the other and there CAN be compelling reasons)...I explain what compelling reasons are...and that having a tanty isn't a compelling reason, generally...though it won't stop us having them (some rooms are much more suitable for some kids, and some people work from frameworks that tell them that the child must always have the same room..)...H ventilates about how stressed people are and how they are always interrupting her to ask things...I explain that this is very frustrating, but it is part of the job, and when she knows what she is doing it will all get easier.
I scoot back across the road.....and get out of the lift at our floor, to find myself erupting from the lift into the midst of Africa!!
What appears to be an indeterminate number of simply enormous and stunningly colourfully outfitted African adults are all around me, as well as numerous variably sized and extraordinarily energetic African children, all bouncing off the walls.
Our new-that-day other new receptionist has a baby in her arms, and is attempting to amuse and quieten the bouncing children.
One of my colleagues is earnestly explaining something to the adults, who are listening intently as the children boil around them.
Then, one of our Registrars, who is possibly the Smallest Doctor in the World, and the palest and blondest, emerges with another adult, and with a toddler on her hip.
The toddler's legs nearly reach the ground....
Our tiny doctor tells the children it is time to leave now, and she will take them to where their taxis are.
The children immediately gather round her, engrossed, nearly hiding her from sight in the process, as she seriously tells them that this is a HOSPITAL....for CHILDREN....and who is in hospitals for Children? SICK children they yell triumphantly!!! And what do sick children need to help them get better? Medicine, yell the children.....yes, and what else? They need REST says the smallest doctor in the world. And what do they need to rest? QUIET yell the children...yes,,,so what do we need to be when we walk through the hospital? QUIET say the children.....yes...QUIET AS MICE..says TWSD......who can be the quietest mouse of all? ME scream the children......TWSD holds her finger to her lips.......me whisper the children....
And, as innumerable mouse-like children and, as it turns out, only four resplendent adults, file into the lift with their tiny leader, all the children are tip-toeing with their fingers to their lips, and all the adults are trying not to laugh.