Friday 7th December - Where did the week go?

Dear Reader,

I am living in a demented time machine, where the minutes flash past like seconds; a day lasts barely an hour, and a week is over in the space of an afternoon.

The alarm goes, and minutes later it is time for bed again.

There has been frost, rain, sleet, and, briefly, snow; real snow, the big fluffy-flake sort of snow. looking at the weather forecast, and looking out of the window, there is to be more snow today. I believe them.

 

 

The camera on my phone does its best, but cannot convey the way that the mass of clouds is growing even as I watch. I'm glad that today is a "local" day - usually I wend my way through the maze of country lanes that connects the village schools where I teach.

 

There have been school concerts - three of them - where the children have displayed their skills on ukuleles, djembes, and stunned the school and parents into a shocked silence at samba (that was a VERY LOUD concert!).

 

There have been music exams for my piano pupils. There has even been a little tiny bit of Christmas shopping; I went back the the Place of the Cornish Pasty and scoured the gift shop for likely presents.

 

There was a trip to the Portsmouth Naval Dockyard for their Victorian Christmas Day. That was Sunday; a bitingly cold day with clear blue skies.

 

  

 

Today, I will be accompanying fifteen children at instrumental music exams. Then home to teach, then off to a choir practise, then sleeeeeeepppp.

 

My mother has been moved into another bay in the stroke unit. Medically, she is ready for transfer to a nearby hospital where they have a rehab centre. However, she is experiencing such pain in her left shoulder and left leg, that they cannot give her the physiotherapy that she needs to get mobile again. It is clear that one cannot predict the recovery path of stroke patients. It is not at all like - say - cataract operations, or broken legs, or many other conditions.

Her left arm is clamped across her chest, the fingers curled into her palm, and resists any attempt to be moved. When I tried imitating this, I found that my shoulder immediately became painful - could this be what she is feeling? How does one go about releasing this tension? They are going to give her botox!

At least she is now well enough to be bored. This is a great improvement!