Hospital day 2: Waiting

I left J in the anaesthetic room, knowing I would have five or more hours of anxious waiting before | could expect the call to join her in Recovery. Knowing it would be hard to settle to anything, I walked. I've had little opportunity to walk around cities over the past couple of years, and I always enjoy looking at buildings of all kind, so I found plenty to interest me in the varied domestic architecture and street life close to the hospital. The main photo is, I think, 1950s social housing, probably built for London County Council, though its curved corners and horizontal lines have something of a 1930s aesthetic. The extras are an amusing insight into the social life of city pigeons, a statue of William Booth outside the Salvation Army College, which occupies a huge tract of land in this part of London, and a prettily planted small front garden setting off a yellow front door. My walk ended in the park, where I sat for a while admiring the colours and textures of the flower garden and its surrounding trees. Later, I sat in the hospital trying to read, then knit; and eventually, the phone call took me back to J and the welcome news that all had gone to plan.