My midwife looked up and said, ‘Your vagina's fallen out'
She was a midwife called Chris. She had just delivered my second child and was in the middle of sewing me back up. Mercifully, I was still numb from the waist down after the epidural. My husband, Andrzej, was sitting beside me holding our new baby in his arms, the two of them lost in a world of their own, as another midwife, whose name I hadn't caught, toiled over a standing desk in the corner of the room, typing up my notes. So it was really just Chris and me, huddled together over a mound of paper towels covering my knees, my two limp legs propped up in metal stirrups.
I had to be sewn up because my daughter's head had torn my perineum
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Telegraph
14 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Piri piri monkfish with runner bean relish
Monkfish on the bone is perfect for a piri piri dish like this – its firm flesh stands up to the heat and a good roast. You can use other fish, just go a bit gentler with flakier varieties when it comes to cooking and serving. The relish is a great way to use up a glut of runner beans – you can also serve it as part of an antipasti spread or with grilled meats and veg. Requires marinating time. Overview Prep time 20 mins Cook time 35 mins Serves 4 Ingredients For the marinated fish 4-5 red chillies juice of 1 lemon 4 garlic cloves, peeled 2 bay leaves ½ tbsp white wine vinegar or cider vinegar 2 tsp paprika 60ml vegetable or rapeseed oil 1 x 1kg monkfish tail or 2 x 500g tails, trimmed For the relish handful of runner beans (about 6-7), trimmed and diced 1 red onion, finely chopped ½ tbsp white wine vinegar or cider vinegar 2 medium tomatoes (seeds removed), diced ½ red chilli, finely chopped 1 tbsp chopped coriander, plus extra to serve 2 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
Telegraph
27 minutes ago
- Telegraph
‘This is our duty': D-Day veterans gather to mark landings 81 years on
D-Day veterans have gathered on a Normandy beach to remember the landings 81 years on. The veterans, aged between 99 and 101, travelled to France for the annual ceremony of remembrance for the men who landed on the beaches of Normandy on June 6 1944, to liberate France from Nazi occupation during the Second World War. The five men – Ken Hay, Richard Aldred, Henry Rice, Jim Grant and John Dennett – gathered ahead of the ceremony for a photograph on Sword Beach, one of the five main landing areas along the Normandy coast. The veterans, sitting in wheelchairs while adorned with medals of service, are some of the few D-Day veterans who are still alive today. Mr Hay, 99, was a private in the 4th Battalion with the Dorset Regiment, and was captured by Nazi troops shortly after the D-Day landings. Held as a prisoner of war, he was taken to Poland and forced to work in coal mines before he was liberated by US troops in 1945. On the eve of the ceremony, Mr Hay told The Telegraph: 'Even though the 80th anniversary has passed, we veterans still feel it is our duty to come back here and remember all our friends who never came home. 'We get applauded, even though they are the ones who gave all. 'Sharing my stories with children in the UK and France is something I am very passionate about. We are the age of their great grandparents – we experienced it, understand it and know that it should never happen again.' Francis 'Jim' Grant, 100, served as a Royal Marine and manned a gun on a Landing Craft Flak on D-Day, spending many hours providing covering fire for troops landing on the Normandy beaches. He said: 'I don't think we were really prepared for what happened. We were firing over the tops of their heads.' John Dennett, 100, was a Royal Navy anti-aircraft gunner on one of the thousands of ships taking troops onto the Normandy beaches. The veteran, from Wallasey, Merseyside, made sure the Allied soldiers did not get shot from overhead during the combined naval, air and land assault on Nazi-occupied France. On the 80th anniversary of the famous landings last year, Mr Dennett recalled the 'unbelievable' sight of the ships sailing to Normandy. He said he remembered the sight of the 7,000 ships and thinking 'nothing can happen to us'. 'When they'd gone and opened their fire and they did realise there was trouble, and your feelings were 'well this one is a bit different than the last one',' he added. Mr Rice, 99, from Cranleigh, Surrey, was a signalman who arrived off Juno Beach five days after D-Day. While Mr Aldred, 100, was a Cromwell tank driver attached to the 7th Armoured Division in the Army. Their photographs came before Lord Dannatt, former head of the Army, spoke at the remembrance service at the British Normandy Memorial above Gold Beach. He said the legacy of the soldiers killed on the battlefields of Normandy paved the way for the Europe in which we live today, before warning that the shadow of the Ukrainian war looms over the continent. The former chief of the general staff added: 'The price of returning peace and freedom to Europe was very high but the legacy of the fallen and the courage, determination and commitment of all those who fought in the Normandy Campaign has given us the Europe in which we live today, albeit in the shadow of the war in Ukraine.' Lord Dannatt, who chairs the Normandy Memorial Trust and is patron of the Spirit of Normandy Trust, gave the welcoming speech at the annual ceremony of remembrance, which is led jointly by the two trusts. The Rev Simon d'Albertanson, a Royal Navy chaplain and the chaplain for the Spirit of Normandy Trust, led a memorial service at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, describing D-Day as a 'seminal moment in history'. He reminded veterans, officials and members of the public that the legacy of D-Day was vitally important given the conflict and 'troubled times that we live in'. Mr d'Albertanson said: 'This was a seminal moment in history, and we forget it at our peril. 'There's a legacy that builds from the different conflicts, and we live in very troubled times right now, and we need men and women who are fighting for peace. 'As a Christian, one of the lines in the Bible is 'Blessed are the peacemakers'. 'We're called to make peace and sometimes that means we have to bring violence, but that's the last resort. We want to be peacemakers.' Two of the chaplain's own relatives fought during the Second World War. His grandfather, Fred Hawker, joined the Royal Marines in 1942 and served on several ships, including HMS Ark Royal, while his great-uncle, who was a Royal Navy sailor, lost his life during the Battle of the Denmark Strait. 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The Sun
2 hours ago
- The Sun
I'm an interior designer – here's the paint colour I'd never use in a small room, it shrinks the walls
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