21 April 2007

Woman in Labour coming through!

We're back home with Martin still returning his eviction notice unopened. **Sigh**
But getting to the hospital was exciting.
We didn't want to drink town water so we stopped in at the first service station (gas station) to buy some bottled water. As we stopped a fellow spoke to me before I left the car and said, "Are you going South? A truck has jack-knifed and the road is closed. Probably for several hours."
"Umm," I replied, "My wife is in labour now and we are going to the hospital."
The man's expression was priceless. "Ooh" he replied, unsure what to do now.
I went into the store and asked the three truckies who were standing around. (You will have to imagine rather strong Australian accents)
"How bad is the road closure?" I asked.
"Stuffed." replied one driver.
"Yeah, no-one's getting through for hours" added the other.
"Up to eight hours I reckon." joined in the third, smiling at the exchange.
"My wife's in labour and we need to get to the hospital."
The three looked at each other and then me.
"Hope she can wait." said one dryly.
I picked up the bottles of water and spoke to the lady behind the counter.
"How about I call the cops and see if they can do something?" she offered.
"That would be great." I repied.
Once she had called and was waiting for a reply she asked, "Is this your first?"
"No," I replied, "Our seventh."
"Seven!" she exclaimed.
"Don'cha have a TV, mate?" added in one of the drivers.
"Is that how it works?" I answered with a smile.
"I had one and that was enough" said the lady, "He was destined to be an only child."
Then the phone rang and the police had arranged for an ambulance to pick us up.
Not long later the ambulance arrived and the two paramedics were quick to tell us their names, Rob and John. They were obviously hoping for a role in the naming honours.
I followed in my car. As we approached the long backlog of cars the ambulance turned on its lights and I followed with my hazard lights along the verge.
The police had specially worked a path through the waiting trucks and cars so that the ambulance and me could get through. At the police roadblock the policeman said to the ambulance driver, "Have you got the pregnant lady on board?"
"Hello!" Lana smiled and waved from the back of the ambulance.
"Hi! My name is Scott and I moved some trucks aside so you can get through!"
As we passed through the paramedic said to Lana, "It sounds like he personally made a track for us! They'll close it right behind us once we're through."
As they neared the hospital, the paramedics asked Lana if we had picked names yet. Martin" answered Lana.
"That's alright then. That's the supervisor's name. He'll be happy."
So we made it to hospital in great style.
And then the contractions slowed down.

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