Thumbs Up to the Canada Hospital

At 7'oclock this morning, Smallest came in to ask who's alarm was going off. We didn't know, we sent him back to his room to check, it wasn't there. We sent him to Small's room, it wasn't there. I got up and went downstairs. For some reason I had set the radio to alarm mode to wake us up at 7am. Silly me, I don't even know how to do that!!

Small and Smallest went off to school and the rest of us (Huffle included as he had a day off) all got ready to go for a day to Downtown Toronto. Just as we were about to leave, the phone rang and someone left a message. Then my mobile rang and it was the school secretary. I had sent Smallest to school on the wrong day. He goes every other Friday (he didn't go last Friday so I just assumed,without checking the calendar that he was there today). He saw his friend (who wasn't in his class) and asked why was he there, his friend said "it's you, you're not supposed to be here". Small went to his teacher and asked her if he was supposed to be there today and she said no. We picked him up and he came to Toronto with us. He wasn't Happy at first but he got better.

We parked up and walked to the CN Tower.

Reflection of the tower in another building

.......and another

.......and another.

Gorgeous sky, beautiful leaves and an emerging tower

Grandad and I decided to go up, right to the top. Grandma and Huffle didn't want to go up and Smallest wanted to stay with them. They went for a drink and a little something to eat.

Grandad and I had to have a fake photo first of all (absolute rubbish as it is a fake backdrop with a fake tower in the background). Then we had to go though a machine that 'pfffffffd' us - not sure why.

 

Grandad found a friend.

We went on the middle floor and had a good walk all the way round. We took many many photos.

It was very bright outside

That is Grandad

The Rogers Centre

Shadow of the CN Tower whilst we were in it

Centre Island and harbour

Next we went down a level and went on the glass floor where Grandad stood on it but I couldn't. A really big man ran at the glass floor and jumped on it. Then he shouted "yeah it's okay, it's safe!" Then his friend jumped on with him.

I just noticed that grandad is not quite onthe glass (though he did walk over it)

Ooooh scary

 

We went outside and walked around outside. It was cold and blowy.

"Bit cold, lets go in!"

 

Then we went up to the SkyPod. 447 metres high. Wow.

It was amazing. 'Awesome' as the Canadians say!

Oh look it's Grandad

Rogers Centre again but from higher.

This lady placed her soft toy on the ledge and took photos of it (now that's strange and certainly not something we would ever do!!!)

It was definitely worth going up there. We loved it. We could see Rochester NY and we think we saw Niagara Falls (well a bit of the mist anyway!).

We have been looking for an Indiana Jones hat for Grandad, will this do?

When we came down (the lift took 1 minute) my ears popped and I was deaf for a while. We walked to the waterfront.

Grandad found another friend

The bear pats the Grandad while the Grandad pats the Beaver!!!! (Sorry)

We met Grandma, Huffle and Smallest. We were hungry so after a quick look at the harbour and the boats, we went and had lunch in an Irish Pub. The food was good but we had to wait for ages and ages.

Grandad's Sliders with Banana Chips (crisps)

Finally we walked along the waterfront and found an ice cream place called Lick It - it had proper Italian ice cream. Huffle and I shared a Blueberry Cheesecake and Coconut - it was yummy. Then we headed for the Steam Whistle Brewery. It was quite late by then and we wondered if we could get the tour in, and get home in time for Small to finish school. We went in to check the tour times. We decided to leave Grandad and Huffle there and Grandma, Smallest and I walked back to the car.

We used the sat Nav to get out of the city but there was lots of construction and every time it told us to go right, the construction stopped us. So we had to drive right through the city which took ages. But we got there eventually and onto the right road. At least Grandma got to see some nice buildings. I did block an intersection at one point and got honked at - whoops.

The roads were really really busy and it took much longer than we expected, in fact we got home just in time for Small coming out of school. Just before we got there, I got an answer phone message (my phone ran out of charge as we came out of the tower and I only managed to charge it when we got onto the highway and unplugged the sat Nav). The message was from school saying they would contact me at home.

When we got home there was an answer phone message saying that Small had fallen at school and hurt his thumb. It had been iced all afternoon but they thought it might need looking at as it was a bit swollen. I rang them and they said he was on the bus on the way home and they thought it was just sprained. When I saw it, it didn't look sprained. It had a bump on one side, was very swollen and he couldn't bend it. I popped round to The Royals to check where the best place was to go. They suggested the hospital not too far away which had an emergency dept. we cancelled the swimming lessons - poor Smallest, we have totally messed up his day!

Mr Royal offered to pick up Grandad and Huffle from the bus station which was helpful and nice and very thoughtful. We are so lucky we met them.

Grandma and Smallest stayed at home and played table football, the game was aborted at 6-5 whilst Smallest was still in the lead. Then he watched TV and they read library books.

Small and I drove to the hospital. It was a lovely one. Very friendly staff, very helpful. We saw the triage nurse who took Small's details. She sent him to X-ray and we had to register him. Then we sat in X-ray waiting room for ages. He played on his DS with one hand while I blogged. Eventually he was called in to X-ray but I wasn't allowed in with him as he was old enough to be by himself. The X-ray nurse said he was great.

We went back to the waiting room and the very nice lady in there pointed us in a different direction as the waiting room was full and had some 'interesting' people in there (one of whom had already told me to turn my phone off!!!). She took us to another room where she had put the TV on and left the kids channel on. So we got to watch SpongeBob (oh joy - Small was happy because he doesn't normally get to watch this as it gives Smallest nightmares). It just so happened that it was a SpongeBob marathon. Episode after episode after episode after episode. I went back to the car park twice to add extra money to the ticket. $2 per hour but after you have paid $6 you don't have to pay any more. I asked at reception whether I needed to add more tickets and she said "yes, you will be here for a while". At this point, I guessed he had probably broken it and needed a cast, otherwise they would have just said its fine surely and sent us home.

OUCH

Eventually we were moved into a Trauma room (the only room left), we sat there for a while playing word association games and then we were seen by a nurse and then a doctor. His thumb is broken. It was broken and in a tricky place - right next to the growing point. We now need to be referred to a Hand Specialist who may put on a fibreglass cast. We have to ring on Monday. The hospital were fantastic. Although we waited a long time, everyone was so friendly and helpful. Small had a little wobble after the doctor put his splint on (hence the wet towel on his head). Great place. There is something to be said about having to pay for treatment - maybe it becomes more personal, you get what you pay for. I'm all for the NHS back in England but boy, we would have still been in there now and the place would have been full of drunks. Thank you Canada Hospital for looking after us.

Ahhhhh poor Small.

We got back home at 10pm. Had toast waiting for us. Small went to bed.

The big boys trip to the Brewery was very informative, very forward thinking company with the right ethics. They came back with 12 cans of beer, they had a bottle in there and two samples. I want to go now!!!!!! (Aunty A - we are going here on your next visit).

He says his face is not in this glass, it's behind, had one or two by then Grandad?

 

C'mon Granville!

 

 

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