Another hot and sweaty day.

This time it wasn't at the marathon, it was at hospital. I had these hot flushes all the way through. I hope it's not the menopause. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, hospital. Babydoll and I went to St. Philomena's, and our new friend The Clown With No Name came with us on a training session.

We didn't see many children today, but there were an awful lot of newborn babies and new mummies. I have analysed this since, and come to the conclusion that many people felt a need for closeness and intimacy after the Bombay terrorist attacks. And hence: lots of babies nine months later.

After we finished clowning with the children, The Clown With No Name waited for us outside, while Babydoll and I went into the maternity wards. We saw lots of lovely newly made babies and had tons of fun with the mummies. None of them were Egyptian. Babydoll had two new baby dolls of her own, so we had a little twin delivery and some tortuous breastfeeding, and I even got to do the circumcisions on her little twins. The mummies were quite delighted by all this, because I think they really related to it all!

We also bumped into the monster cleaning lady who loves us and hates us at the same time. She's always shouting at us in Tamil, telling us to get out and let her mop the floors, but then she really enjoys playing with us too. We mopped some of the floor for her till she chased us away. Babydoll jumped up on a chair and trembled with fear! I tried to escape by flying on the mop which had a very long wooden handle and looked a bit like a Hogwarts broom. However, I clearly do not have the knack for flying, so it didn't work. But we did manage to get away. After a while, she missed us, and came by to chase us some more and play games with us. I think she had a lovely day because we're probably the only people she can shout at and order around, and she got to be the star of the show. I can't wait to see her again next week.

So it was lovely as always but there was one sad thing I found out afterwards, that Babydoll met a lady out in the corridor, who had had a baby, but the baby died. That is a sad thing, indeed, and difficult even for a clown to face. It's easy to make people laugh and smile, but sometimes that's not our job. Sometimes the most important thing for us to do, is just to be there with someone and share their pain a little. I wish I had known, I would have gone to meet that lady. Next time I should keep my eyes and ears and heart more open so that I don't miss important things like this.