Happy Birthday to Ali- 47 today.
Sadly, Sephy Fleur’s hamster died today. Her demise was rather sudden and distressing and not what any of the family wished for. She was on borrowed time for a hamster but she was a sweet little thing. And F will miss her and her little night time scuffling. She was a pandemic pet to help during Lockdown. And she did. I’m not a hamster fan, but she was cute.
A reasonable night was passed. But the swirl of potential happenings that felt like a machine gun peppering me with events, lay ahead. I’m definitely reluctant to deal with diary events and do not generally enjoy having commitments. As follows: 1. Get T to Daycare for 09.30, usually stressful; 2. Get myself to Goring Surgery for a blood test at 10.10; 3. Get back to Friends of Old Vicarage Care Home for a coffee group they are trying to establish, for 10.30. 4. Walk Heidi at some point.
However, before I had even started to think about the Day, I had a message from Ali ( did I say it’s her 47th birthday today? ) to ask if I could take F and G to school at 08.25. There were complications in the Illingworth household which meant not taking the school bus. Luckily, this event preceded everything else, so I was able to slot it in to the early morning activities.
And things almost went according to plan without undue stress. T was up ‘well early’ which helped. He accompanied us to the Downs School, and we returned home for 20 minutes. He was then dropped at Daycare. I was in plenty of time for my blood test which allowed me to visit Goring Hardware for larger storage boxes for my art materials. T keeps fiddling with these and the original box is too small (and broken) .
I was at the Friends of the Old Vicarage Care Home in plenty of time. But no one else was there and no one else arrived. So I don’t know what happened to their regular ‘ Wednesday Carer Coffee Group’ that they were promoting. I was only trying to be supportive.
But the Care Home smelt nice and was elegantly furnished. The cleaners were out and about making sure it was all hygienic. And the atmosphere was calm and peaceful. Almost an utter waste of my time. Except I was able to discuss Respite Care with the Manageress. At £1700 a week for Dementia Care, what a bargain!
T would probably think he was in a grand hotel.
In amongst all this stuff going on, DHL kindly ignored my delivery instructions and left a package with a neighbour, one I do not really know. I needed this package because it was Ali’s birthday present.
But the neighbour was out, although he did eventually appear.
H is waiting patiently for her walk which I think will take place with T when I pick him up.
And then it remained for me to get the Miele out and give it some exercise.
I may even have had time for a little snooze.
I could pretend I leapt up to go and collect T, but a leap does not really describe my actions. I stuffed H and Ali’s birthday present and a warm coat for T into the car.
I was looking forward to being by the river at Pangbourne. As we drove through this village, past the public loos, I asked T if he needed the loo. No definitely not. We exited the car and he needed the loo. Doh! He definitely didn’t need the warm coat I bought either, until about two minutes later when the ‘I’m cold’ whinge started.
Luckily there are public loos near the water meadows. Which is where we went.
At one point, I had an old man with dementia striding towards the public loo in one direction, whilst H rather brazenly produced a huge crap in the middle of the meadow in the other direction. I couldn’t deal with them both. But decided I needed to stick with T.
Once the bladder was relieved, it was time to make the point about being cold. So, in a big sulk, T spent about 20 minutes trying to do his coat zip up. Not moving. Making his point. While the thicker down coat remained in the car.
Why do I do it? Take him for walks with me? It is never remotely enjoyable. But he does need exercise. We didn’t really get anywhere today, but H had a good run around chasing the water fowl.
We popped to Cobbs, the ridiculously expensive farm shop. Too late for coffee because of all the zip fiddling. I needed bread and they sell nice bread. We bought Ali a lemon drizzle birthday cake. I ignored the flowers for sale, which was just as well because she is over-flowered.
We called in to deliver the present which is when the sad news of Sephy’s demise landed. It rather took the edge of Ali’s birthday celebration , minor though it was.
So, eventually, this rather long bitter sweet day is drawing to a close.
Thought for the Day
I’m feeling very sad.
Leave a Reply