It’ funny, some days fly by and others drag; just lately the
days have gone far too quickly, it’s been the nights that have felt long and
the early morning wake-ups are the worst.
I am sleeping a little better than I was but not quite good enough,
sometimes I think Phil wishes we had separate beds or better still, separate
rooms!
I had a bad day last Wednesday. Left the flat before 7.30am and drove to
Melton to see mum and had another nightmare 2 hour journey on the M1. It hadn’t helped that I’d had a bad night and
was up in the lounge drinking tea before 3am so I was tired. And when I’m tired, I am not good. Mum was
pleased to see me. My first jobs were phone calls; I phoned the TV licensing
people to tell them that mum was over 75 and therefore didn’t need to pay for
her license. Bett had seen some snow boots
in a magazine so I ordered these for her.
I also ordered her a wall mounted seat for her shower. She’d been wanting me to do this for ages,
but with everything else going on, it completely slipped my mine. My last job before going shopping was to
renew mums house insurance. This took
precisely 22 minutes on the phone but I was pleased with myself as I managed to
save mum £120 on her policy.
Mum had a money off Tesco voucher, spend £30 get £5 off so
we had to do a big shop. This took some
time because on top of the money off voucher Bett also had money off for
certain items. I am not sure she really
needed these things but we duly scoured every aisle and every shelf until we
found them. After shopping, it was back
to the bungalow to put shopping away and make lunch. Lunch was our usual salmon with boiled
potatoes but I like this and it’s easy to do.
After lunch it was off to Boots to buy some Tenna knickers. Poor mum, because of her prolapsed womb, has
a tendency to leak. She was going on a
day out with Joan and wanted to be on the safe side. I had taken some Tenna knickers down but I
brought large when what she really needed was medium. Mum got these and a few other bits and was
feeling pleased that my visit enabled her to tick things off her list.
All in all, a productive day, just a shame that my journey
back was awful and it took me 2 hours. I
stopped off at Sue’s when I got off the M1 and felt really bad that I had
forgotten that it would have been Alan’s birthday. I knew it would be a tough day for her and I
was cross that I had forgotten. Sue was
okay, well okay but not okay if you knew what I mean. I eventually got home at 6pm, only just
walked in when my sister phoned. Julia
said that in her opinion, as a qualified nurse, she thought that dad’s cancer
had spread and she felt that dad really didn’t have long. My dad
has been given a morphine patch for the pain as the pain killers he was on aren’t
doing the job any more. Dad’s dementia
has got worse but this could be a side effect from the morphine. The main problem is that dad isn’t eating
enough to sustain him. Who knows how
long he will be with us but I am going down to Suffolk on Thursday to see
him. I am dreading it.
After the gym on Thursday morning I went to see my sister-in-law
Sonia and my nieces Sarah & Sofia. Nick my youngest brother was at
work. I was a little apprehensive but it
was fine, I like Sonia and she was very welcoming; she’d brought cream cakes in
my honour. I didn’t have the heart to
tell her that I don’t do cream cakes and dutifully ate a whole chocolate éclair. Actually it was the only thing I’d eaten that
day so it wasn’t too bad.
Still doing the family thing, I met nieces Emma & Louise
at the pub in Broughton. Emma lives in
Broughton so I thought it was convenient for them. I didn’t think about Louise who actually
lives in Wolverton and had to miss college on Friday afternoon in order to meet
up with me. That’s the trouble with me,
my heads all over the place and my thinking is definitely not joined up. I was very nervous about seeing Emma &
Louise and I think they felt the same but it was all okay. They had lots of questions for me and I for them. We had a lunch and it was fairly
relaxed. From what I can gather the girls
didn’t have a great upbringing but they have turned into nice, normal girls. I
am not sure how much contact I will have with them but Emma has said that she’d
like me to meet her children which I will try and do before I go away.
On Friday evening we picked up Sue & Ian and went to The
White Hart in Sherrington for tapas. Sue
had brought Phil a groupon voucher for his birthday; it expired on Saturday so
Friday evening was our last chance. The
pub was packed but it had a nice atmosphere and the tapas made a change. Sue said it wasn’t the best tapas she’d ever
tasted but Phil & I enjoyed it, even if the service was a little sloppy.
I had a reasonable workout
at the gym on Saturday and did some shopping.
In the evening we went to Sue’s for a charity dinner that she was
hosting. Personally I thought she was
mad cooking a 4 course meal for 17 people but somehow she managed to pull it
off. The food was good, the wine flowed
and Pat brought his guitar and kept us all entertained. Everyone paid £10 a head and Sue collected
£170 for charity, although she did tell me afterwards that the food cost her
£160 so she may as well just have donated £160 to charity and been spared all
the effort. But secretly I think she enjoyed the challenge, she must have,
because she’s doing all again on the 23rd of this month.
I thought we did lots of clearing up as we went along on
Saturday evening but the place was like a bombshell on Sunday morning. Sue offered us a bed and we stayed over to
help clean up. It was very much a team
effort and between the 4 of us, it was all done and dusted by half ten. Sue & Ian invited us out for lunch but we
declined, unlike them, both Phil & I just don’t have the stamina these
days.
Needless to say Sunday was a duvet day; Harriet came round
and I ended up cooking a roast dinner but in the end Harriet decided not to join
us for lunch. With lunch cleared away,
we spent the afternoon watching TV, X-factor, Strictly and a couple of
films. I had a sleep on the sofa
somewhere in-between and it was fairly early to bed.
I went food shopping yesterday morning and in the afternoon
I left Phil cooking curry and went over to Overstone to sort the caravans. It was a miserable day and the caravans were
cold and damp, they felt very unloved. First job was to put on heaters and strip
the beds in both caravans. I did 3 loads
of washing but still ended up bringing lots of washing home. I defrosted both fridges, hovered and bunged
anti-freeze down the loos. I popped into
see Dennis next door, he has a set of keys for both the vans and sometime over
the next few days, he will drain them down.
We had contemplated collecting mum and bringing her down to spend
Christmas at Overstone but I had a chat with her and she wants to be at home
for Christmas so that’s what we are going to do.
It was almost dark by the time I got home last night. I was knackered but I forced myself to get
stuck into ironing the freshly washed bedding.
I did 2 hours’ worth and probably have another 2 hours which I shall do
sometime today. Then I shall pack it in
plastic sacks and put it away until March.
This morning I am going to get my hair which should last me until after
Christmas. Then, this afternoon I am
going to do some Christmas shopping. I know I sound bar humbug but the festive
season does nothing for me, I can’t wait for it all to be over. 2013 has not been a great year for us.
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