t-t-time to be brave

her ma'amship (formerly known as mrs prof) is visiting. she is off tomorrow to pick up the extreme programmer from heathrow where he will be arriving at some unearthly hour having been in san francisco.

today her ma'amship offered to treat herself to lunch. this was very welcome. the peeps aren't eating out much just now. unfortunately, as the tt is rather small, there was not room for my lady friend and i to tag along. i would have been happy to sit on herself's lap, and my lady friend is happy to be anywhere that people do not hit her, but we had to stay at home.

as the ladies were going to a restaurant near to the town where herself used to work, it was decided that they would also try and brave driving through the town. part of herself's vicarious trauma thing seems to involve being scared to go to the town where she worked. it is not so much a little bit scared as having panic attacks which stop her breathing and are rather alarming all round. the lady who knows about trauma says that you have to face this sort of stuff head on. being scared of it makes it worse.

so her ma'amship agreed that they would drive through the frightening town and then have lunch. to sweeten things she offered to let herself drive the tt. this is her ma'amship's car. you can see a picture of it with me in above. herself loves this car. it is like sparky the audi with bells on. and it is a sweet drive. but as she only has third party insurance on auntie bernie's fiat, which is now elsewhere, she is not covered to drive the tt.

so her ma'amship drove, fortunately fast enough to take herself's mind off not being able to breathe. things were by all accounts going fine until they got near the hospital. the hospital is right by the estate where herself used to work. herself got a little worried.

"keep calm!" commanded her ma'amship, "think of something else. like end-stage renal failure!"

this worked. herself needs to be able to go to the hospital. it is where the renal unit is, and if himself is rushed in herself needs to not be looking like she is having a heart attack in the ambulance, especially with my boy there too.

mind you my boy is pretty calm in a crisis. the main problem would be stopping him adjusting the controls on the resuscitation gear...