I was Gone in 60 Seconds, in a taxi, only to discover ‘sick’ son was mostly just hungry – Hayley Matthews

A friend mentioned to me recently how the Christmas decorations at Tigerlily are outstanding just now and asked would I fancy going to see them, whilst possibly sipping on a mock-tail over a pre-Christmas catch-up.

After a panicked Hayley discovered numerous phone messages saying her son was ill, she rushed to his nursery in a taxi (Picture: Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

I've not had a chance to get some me-time recently, mainly because the boys have been so unwell. I'm talking colds, coughs, sickness bugs, temperatures, sore heads, burst ear drums and everything else the school and nursery has going around in between!

It's been exhausting. But we had a good morning the other week and so I took the opportunity to meet my friend for Christmas lunch. The phone signal wasn't great, however, feeling fairly confident that there would be no ‘dramas’, we sat down to a meal of festive spring rolls, turkey and a mock-tail.

We got deep in to conversation (I’ve a lot of funny family drama stories to tell my friends at the moment) and, before we knew it, two hours had passed. We were just starting our main course when it happened. I had a mouthful of turkey and my friend had her fork an inch away from her mouth when "ping, ping, ping, ping, ping, beep, ding!" My phone started lighting up as it grasped four bars of signal. An array of missed calls from the nursery, missed calls from Mr Hayley, texts, voicemails – everything!

My stomach sank. You know something isn't right when this happens at 2pm on a Monday. Running outside with my phone in my hand, I called the nursery, desperate to know that my little cherub was OK. I was told he was complaining of feeling sick and had gone for a lie down. He was hot, quiet and kept saying he was going to throw up. The restaurant staff were amazing as I went into a full-blown panic. I didn't get the lovely blonde Australian woman's name but she called me a taxi, got our lunch boxed up, complete with Christmas deserts, and was quicker than a 124 heading for North Berwick.

As I jumped in the taxi with my friend, we headed for the nursery. Completely panicked, I ran up to my son, picked him up and took him straight to the taxi. He seemed quiet but not as unwell as I had imagined. Seeing the boxes of food, he asked "what's that mummy?” When I explained it was cheesecake and the rest of my lunch, he said "oh that sounds tasty, I'm hungry". What?!

I'd just literally ran out of Tigerlily's, zoomed down from George Street to the nursery, whilst flapping like a panicked pigeon and when I get there my wee one says he's hungry! To be honest, though, I was quite relieved. I would much rather have it this way than him spewing in the back of a taxi. When we got home, he got some paracetamol, a mummy cuddle, and then got wired into my Christmas lunch pudding box.

So my apologies to the staff who were incredible with us as we upped and left in 60 seconds. The decorations are outstanding, the food was brilliant and really festive looking. So in the words of the Terminator, "I will be back" for the rest of my catch-up lunch before January!