Our Brush with Russian Espionage

The Fam in the London Hotel Room
Originally uploaded by brownorama.

Being the busy mother that I am I do not have a lot of time to keep up with current events. Whilst this is a source of concern to me, this is the topic of an entirely different blog post. So back to the matter at hand....Because I am so busy my following of current events tends to be limited to scanning the headlines on Yahoo as I rush from one baby-related task to the other. So I had seen the headlines regarding a Russian spy who had died, that radiation was involved, and that they were concerned about contamination of some planes. However, my knowledge of it stopped there. This lack of interest was probably fuelled by a general brain addling that is known to occur with sleep deprivation. However, my attention was focused after talking to my aunt Julia a couple of weeks back when she asked whether I had followed the case. I told her I hadn't and asked why she was wondering. She then told me something that launched me head first into the world of Russian espionage.....my experience with which had been very much limited to books and movies until that point. What she told me was that apparently the hotel that Dan and I had stayed in during our stay in London was the one where the radiation poisoning of the former KGB spy had occurred. Initially I didn't panic. I hadn't followed things closely enough so I figured I would do some research. So when I got off the phone I trawled the news sites of the latest. What I learned was that the poisoning had occurred on November 1st. We arrived at the hotel on the 5th.....I still wasn't to worried....The poisoning took place in the bar and 7 bar employees had been found to be exposed......What a minute.....we had spent a bit of time in the bar......Whilst my concern was not really for myself, my motherly instincts were definitely starting to rear up for Harry. Julia calls back saying that the National Health Service in England has asked that all people staying at the Millennium Hotel should come in for radiation testing. At this point, my motherly instincts go ballistic. I insist that Dan contact the conference organizer to find out what they know. In the meantime I try to find out more online. However, my motherly instincts sidetrack me and I race downstairs to argue that we should call the pediatrician immediately. Dan sweetly and calmly says that he is sure we are all fine. But I insist that he call. The catch was that at this point in the day it was after hours. So it was a matter of calling and leaving a message for the pediatrician. Dan asked whether we should wait for morning. I, however, argued that this was radiation we were talking about and our baby. Need one say more. So he dutifully calls and leaves a message that sounded very much like a crank call. "Hi, this is Dan Brown, Harry Holden-Brown's father....we were on vacation in England and we think that we might have been exposed to radiation in the hotel we were staying in and we were wondering what we should do. Please call us back...." Whilst we anxiously pace the floor we go over what we know and don't know about radiation poisoning, how much time we spent in the bar (only about 5 minutes since the British as so fond of smoking) and generally berating ourselves for being bad parents and exposing our baby to radiation (even though there was no way we could have known.) In the course of this process, Dan stops his pacing to check email. A response back from the conference organizer! He checks it. The response - yes, the hotel that we were staying at was the Millennium Gloucester. The poisoning occurred at the Millennium Mayfair. Not the same hotel. Dan and I are so gleeful that we do a little "Yay, we don't have radiation poisoning" dance around the room and hug our baby with such abandon that Harry wonders if hi parents have lost their minds. It was SUCH a relief! We weren't "bad" parents after all for taking our son across the ocean. Thank goodness! Then, however, we realize......we called the pediatrician! AND AFTER HOURS! Dan tells me that my "punishment" for making him call is that I have to answer it. We wait with baited breath for the call.....giggling with embarrassment....he calls. I tell him, sheepishly, that we had made a mistake and we are terribly sorry for bothering him. He says he is relieved because he wasn't sure what to tell us anyway! Call the State Department, maybe? So alls well that ends well, thank goodness! Who knew that we would have anything to do with an international spy/radiation story. All I can say though, is how grateful we are that it was only the slightest of connections and what a great story to be able to tell and laugh over.