hospital hairstyling and opera

We had high drama early this morning when I my next-door neighbour fell violently ill while her husband was off on a business trip. We grabbed the kids and had an exciting ambulance ride into St Thomas’s (just across the river from the Houses of Parliament). Then we spent the rest of the day in the emergency room, where I had my hair plaited in every possible style on the planet. We also discovered that the dialogue in the Charlie and Lola books makes for fabulous opera (we sang very quietly); Covent Garden should take note.
Here is a picture that her daughter and I made together:

And another one she drew of Charlie and Lola and Sizzles the dog:

Amazingly, blessedly, and a bit weirdly, the 3-month-old baby didn’t cry once in eight hours, she just sat there grinning and blowing bubbles at us all day. My neighbour pretty much recovered by the evening and now I can hear through both of our doors that the baby is making up for lost time.