Tuesday 29th December - Family Life

Rosemary. It's been in flower in a sheltered spot just outside the back door for a couple of days now. Is that normal for December?

Nothing is normal any more.

While my father was visiting this morning, my mother was assessed by the Speech and Language ?Nurse ?Practitioner?  - I don't know what her official title is - this lunchtime. She said that she had no previous experience of someone overcoming an end-of-life swallowing difficulty to this extent. The upshot of the assessment is that my mother is able to move from pureed foods to "mashed" foods, and things like omelettes or scrambled eggs. Cake may be a possibility; rhubarb crumble was found to have too many "hard" bits in it for easy swallowing.

This evening I went with my husband just as she had been given supper - a mashed up mixture which she rejected as being "revolting". I tasted it; she did have a point. I think it had originally been sausage roll and baked beans in an earlier incarnation. However one of the nurses appeared and said she had just heard that my mother could have "a mashed diet" and would she like a scrambled egg? This proved much more the thing; she ate half the egg, and half the ice cream. I happened to cough once or twice while she was eating, which brought a nurse at a fast trot to check that all was well.

We talked about this and that, remembering times past, and half watching and commenting on the film "The Queen" which was on television.

As for the rest of us - a quiet day, catching up on things. My father joined us for supper - a pleasant evening together.

Monday December 28th - 2nd and 3rd days of Feasting



Yesterday we went to visit friends for the evening. So, the feast was provided by them - a meal, with cheesecake or Christmas pudding or a variety of other things for pudding. Before and after the meal we ate sweets and chocolates and biscuits.... oh yeah, that was a feast....

Thorntons depends on special occasions such as Christmas and Easter for sales [GETTY]
http://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/445926/Why-success-is-in-store-for-Thorntons

Today's "feasting" wasn't just a food kind of feast - although we did have home-made drop scones followed by banoffi pie for lunch, and for supper, baked potatoes with the last of the turkey stirred into a tomato and chorizo sauce (who says you should only put pasta sauce on pasta?) and more Christmas pudding for those who like it...    and the offspring are off out feasting with friends elsewhere...

No, I "feasted" on getting the Big, Hanging-Over-My-Head Tasks done. Like my Tax Return, which I've been meaning to do since May. Done. Off the to-do list.



http://www.fastcompany.com/3021379/work-smart/the-amazing-history-of-the-to-do-list-and-how-to-make-one-that-actually-works

 Every good deed deserves a reward and a mini-box of GuyLian Seashells was one of my Christmas presents.

http://www.guylian.com/en/discover-guylian/gift-chocolates/

And making a start on all the planning that needs to be in place ready for next Monday. That's right. Just a week left before I leap back on the roundabout.

And the final "feast" of the day is - doing nothing. Which happened after lunch, and will happen again just as soon as I press "Publish" on this post.

Monday 28th December - Family Life

There are daisies in the grass outside the Nursing Home! In December?

I took this picture yesterday when we went to visit my mother n the afternoon. My father had already been in the morning. So that's why we found her surrounded by pages from "the Mail on Sunday" which she had been reading.

There's not much to say - the visits yesterday, and again by my father this morning, are forming their own pattern these days. Recently we have all been talking with her about the darker days, earlier this month, when we really didn't know how things were going to turn out. She now has a much better idea of how things have been.

He says that they settled down to read today's paper, and have coffee together, in companionable silence after talking through this and that. Sounds good to me.

Saturday December 26th - Boxing Day - First Day of Feasting

Or, "Please yourself day" as my mother called it, once we were all old enough to fend for ourselves.

I remember that Christmas - my brother and I stayed in pyjamas, probably all day, scavenging for food in the well-stocked fridge, or scattered bowls of fruit, nuts chocolate. I doubt we had what one would call a balanced diet that day. We watched  TV, played with presents, read, watched TV, played with presents, read...

I think my grandmother stayed in bed for most of the day; people (probably my mother) brought her refills of gin and peppermint cordial, or maybe a boiled egg and soldiers, some tea and toast, a turkey sandwich, at intervals through the day.

Maybe my farther proposed "a nice brisk walk". Maybe he didn't.

Even the dog didn't bother to get dressed.

Ah well, those were the days...

DD and BB went for "a nice brisk walk" into town in the morning, mainly because a Banoffi Pie was to be made, which required bananas and digestive biscuits.

My father joined us for "left-overs lunch". He was a little surprised to discover it was the sausages and bacon that didn't get cooked with the turkey yesterday, stretched to feed five with the addition of fried potatoes, fried tomatoes and fried eggs. Not cold turkey, cold ham, etc.

No1 Son went for "a nice brisk walk" in the afternoon, to see the tractions engines gathered in the town centre, and buy bananas and digestive biscuits (DD and BB had been unable to find them in the morning. Imagine it - Waitrose AND Marks and Spencers were CLOSED!).

As for me - I cooked the lunch. And I made a batch of Speculaas biscuits (no picture, we ate them all before I thought of that).

I started with the Hairy Biker's recipe from www.bbc.co.uk/food etc

But there's quite a lot I don't agree with, including the miniscule size of print.

Into a bowl put

100g plain flour
1 teasp ground cinnamon
1/2 teasp ground ginger (a little too much - use less next time. Maybe a large 1/4 teasp)
1/2 teasp freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teasp salt (seriously? I put in a pinch; next time I might not even add that much)
1/2 teasp baking powder (far too much - I could taste it. Half that amount next time.)
50g soft brown muscovado sugar
75g butter (I always use unsalted)
1 tablsp whole milk. (we only ever have semi-skimmed)

second time around I added a pinch of ground cloves

2 tablespoons candied peel. CANDIED PEEL!! That was a bit of a shock. I left that out.

Mix the ingredients together (sort of rubbing in) and bring together into a dough.

Roll out 0.5 cm (1/4 inch) think and they made shapes with cookie curtters etc. I rolled it into a rectangle, sprinkles flaked almonds over it, and cut it into twelve fingers. It needed another handful of flour to make the dough manageable.

Bake on a lined baking tray in preheated oven 180C/350F/Gas 4 (is that fan? they didn't say) for 15-18 mins. Cool on  wire rack. (It needed the 18 minutes)

Comments "very close to Dutch speculaas" "too much ginger"  "too much nutmeg"   

A blog post without pictures doesn't cut the mustard, in my view. So here's the banoffi pie, filling most of the bottom of the fridge:
    

Here's a second batch of speculaas biscuits which I made just to be able to photograph them, and to test the adjustments to the recipe. (Also, we had eaten all the others, remember?)

Rolled out, just before cutting into pieces

Cooling on the tray

Comments "more delicate spicing than last time"

Still pretty good.

Saturday 26th December - Sit Rep / Family Life

The first dandelion of December (in my garden)

I'm renaming the posts about my mother from now on. At one stage we were unsure that we would all reach Christmas together! "Sit-rep" just doesn't seem to be the right phrase any more.

She's still not as well as she was before this all blew up, back in the middle of November. She still needs nursing at the Nursing Home rather than at home. We're still concerned for her health, and for the future.

However she's eating and drinking more than previously (although not enough), the different thickener for her drinks is more acceptable, and we have enjoyed some fun times together over the past week.

One innovation is that the camera she gave my father for Christmas is proving to be a bit of a good thing. He is able to show her the pictures that he takes on her television, which is a great way of bringing the outside world into her room. In theory, he can take pictures at the bridge Club on a Friday afternoon, and show them to her later that day on his way home!

Christmas Day 2015

The night before Christmas




(Close up)

In the morning we went to church, no, we opened stockings, had baths, then went to church. I was supposed to be playing the organ, but the organ has suddenly developed an unexpected habit of playing by itself; I press one key, and several different notes come out. Not Good. So I played the piano, or the keyboard on a organ setting instead. It all just added to the random and lively nature of a Christmas Day service at our church.

Then we all went down to the Nursing Home to visit my mother and exchange presents. We left after an hour, leaving my mother and father to have lunch together. This is how the sitting room looked about an hour or so after we got home, made and ate smoked salmon sandwiches (we ALWAYS have smoked salmon in some form or another, and used to accompany it with chilled Chablis, but not today). Anyway - the paper pile was not as enormous as it has been in past years.

So it didn't take ages to clear it away. At this point it was silent; everyone was deeply engrossed in the books or models or kits they had received. 

We watched/listened to Carols from Kings in the afternoon, once present-opening had finished and the paper had been tidied away and the Christmas Dinner cooking was under way.

Our Christmas meal was timed for about 6pm. That seemed good to us, and also gave my father a chance to recover after his Christmas Dinner at the3 Nursing Home ( although he only ate a small amount, he says).

I forgot to take a "before" - the table did look good, and even better when all the food was laid out but somehow that part of the day got suddenly busy. The empty square dish had been full of mince pies and apple pies and jam tarts.

After the meal we had a bit of a culture dip - The Lego movie was very enjoyable and there were a couple of phrases that I wanted to remember but have now forgotten (Does that mean I will need to watch it again, notebook and pen in hand?)

Now, the left-overs (not much this year) are stowed in the fridge, the decks are cleared in the kitchen (what's with all this nauticalia, I wonder?) and all is calm again.

It's nearly 11pm and it has suddenly gone quiet.

They are reading, and I am rattling in the blog post.

Hope you too, had a Merry Christmas. Goodnight, sleep well.

Christmas Day 2015 - Sit rep 25

Blog posts with this title concern my mother's current situation. Family and friends will know more of the background and context, and this is primarily for them.

We all - my whole family, and my father, turned up at the Nursing Home this morning. She coped very well with her small room being suddenly crowded with five visitors all at once, and with the exchange of presents. What do you take someone in a nursing home who is not supposed to be eating or drinking? Boxes of chocolates, and bottles of whisky are not quite the thing in those circumstances. I brought a trough planted up with tete-a-tete daffodils which should flower fairly soon. My father brought - yes - earrings! And a super-soft purple scarf.

We (me and my family) left at about noon, thinking that it would be better if my father stayed on for lunch on his own in order not to wear my mother out. To our surprise, the nurses had persuaded my mother to get up, and go down in her wheelchair for lunch.

The staff had set up a special table for two in the conservatory rather than in the dining room. They say, and we agree, that it is a bit galling to be in the main dining room watching everyone tuck into their platefuls of food while you are just being offered purees of this that and the other.

So, the two of them had a specially prepared and served Christmas Dinner. There was smoked salmon on bread for my father, and pureed smoked salmon for my mother. Each component of her meal was pureed separately and carefully arranged on a plate. With great trepidation, my father gave in to my mother's insistence that she would be fine eating little pieces of smoked salmon. And she was. She also ate a fair quantity of Christmas Dinner, followed by some ice cream, after which time she was tired and ready to go back to bed.

This isn't at all how we expected December to end.

The (replacement) Advent candle is about finished, and we seem to have finished a phase in my mother's illness. Now we just have to see how things go on. I'm not sure where we are headed next - we're just enjoying how things are at the moment.

Christmas Eve 2016 - Advent 24

We are ALL here now - lovely!

Nearly supper time. Salmon - we ALWAYS have salmon on Christmas Eve (except when we don't).

The cat has found another place to be, as her bomb shelter is occupied by presents. She can have it back tomorrow, if she chooses. 

I've made another two dozen mince pies, and a dozen apple pies for the person who doesn't like mince pies, and a dozen jam tarts for the person who doesn't like mince pies or apple pies.

I'm rather pleased by how little pastry was left over...

I'm not pleased that YET AGAIN I put too much jam in the jam tarts. I do that every year (except when I don't).

Still, there was only room for 10 jam tarts on the cooling rack, so we shared the ruins at lunchtime.

(It was a harbinger of the near future; apparently two mince pies wouldn't fit into the tin, and were tidied away by a hungry man.)

The Christmas snowdrops have been trumped this year by a Christmas Daffodil.

Whatever next? Christmas Roses? Oh, hang on, that's already a thing...

And how's that for dedication? I've just gone out in the cold and dark and yes, my Christmas Rose is in flower!

Christmas Eve 2016 - Sit rep 24

Blog posts with this title concern my mother's current situation. Family and friends will know more of the background and context, and this is primarily for them.

Time to look for a new image to replace the Advent candle

There's not much to say. I suspect, with any luck, that's how it may be for however long it may be, if you get what I mean. What a change from the beginning of the month.

My father visited my mother this morning. He says the chatted for a while, read some cards, and then she told him to "go home and have a snooze". Very thoughtful, although I gather that she was about ready for a snooze too?

We are all going tomorrow morning, and maybe in the afternoon too? It's not really planned in any great detail.

I hope you all have a good time over Christmas too.

Wednesday 23rd December - Advent 23

(Assam Tea. I shall reward myself with a cup after I've got this blog post up)

Today

BB went out early on foot, braving the crowds, in search of M&S Chocolate Yule Log and a pannetone. Score zero - sold out.

We went to visit my mother - it was a good morning and we had an enjoyable time

Picked up DD from her flat; were regaled with a cup of tea Seriously Excellent Chocolate Cupcakes (plenty of chocolate cake-ness and just the right amount of the delicious icing.

Came home for a late lunch (bacon sarnies, if you want to know, don't read inside these parenthesisisis if you don't. Want to know, that is)

BB went Back into town to capture the turkey crown that we ordered.

DD and I went off to the garden centre to buy a spinning tree ornament (score 1)
the final Christmas present that I needed (score 2)
indulge in a cappucino with chocolate sprinkles and a hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows (score 2 more)
some irresistible Christmas decorations (do we score anything for these? yes, of course - 10 bonus points)
a Christmas present for BB - the ONLY ONE from me which he doesn't know what it is (score 300, unless I eat it before I give it to him, in which case it will be a zero)

Came home to fine turkey crown safely netted and corralled in the bottom of the fridge (score lots more).

My reward; to "Enter the Scene" (Jacquie Lawson advent calendar)

Smash some baubles - see day 4; (BB has managed a score of 11923!)

   and. of course, some Assam tea.

Wednesday 23rd December - Sit-Rep 23

Blog posts with this title concern my mother's current situation. Family and friends will know more of the background and context, and this is primarily for them.

How to cook rabbit

"You take your rabbit, and joint it, and leave it soaking overnight in cold water with a dash of vinegar, and some bay leaves.
The next day, wash the marinade off, and dry the pieces. Fry them until nicely browned, and then make into a casserole with a good gravy, juniper berries, cream, whatever you want.

That's how my mother used to cook it in Holland when I was a child. Delicious. The first time I had it in England was when I was nursing. They made it into a sort of curry, with RAISINS in it. Ugh. Horrible. It all tasted so nasty and sweet."

(You have to say that last sentence aloud, with plenty of emphasis and expression to recreate the moment)

How about liver with apple and onions? "Buy lamb's liver as a single piece, slice it very thinly and soak it in milk for a while. Slice apples and onions very thinly as well. The liver is cooked very quickly, just in and out of the frying pan, and the apple slices the same way, just warmed through, slightly soft on the outside"

So that is what my mother was doing - thinking about food. I'd just asked her how she had been passing the time, and she replied "I've been cooking a rabbit." So I've written up her recipe, or rather, HER mother's recipe in case you want to give it a go.

I went with my husband this morning. We stayed about an hour. The main thing was to move her reading lamp to the right side of the bed so that it could reach a socket and shine onto and shine onto the page when she was reading. We tidied up some bits and pieces and talked about - food - and other things.

My father went this afternoon. He managed to be there at the same time as the doctor. My mother's chest is now clear; good news, and she had eaten more of her lunch than the usual couple of teaspoons.

The my mother sent him on some errands, which involved him driving to the next village to buy chocolates for the nurses and a magazine for herself.

I leave you to draw your own conclusions as to how she was feeling today!    

Tuesday 22nd December 2015 - Advent 22

I've just finished today's tea - "Full-on Breakfast Blend". It may be the evening rather than breakfast-time, but it has been a fairly full-on day.

First on the list was a replacement headlamp bulb, fitted at Halfords. It's quite a tradition in this household of having things break in the few days before Christmas. I know that the usual cliché is for the Christmas Tree lights to fail, but that has only happened once to us. Other years it has tended to be more dramatic. Like the fridge freezer going into melt-down on Christmas Eve. (There is no pun in that sentence, by the way). Or the cooker going off, and I mean OFF, with a bang on Christmas Day, just as we are getting the turkey out to rest, and winding the oven up to High for the roast potatoes. So a replacement headlamp bulb - that doesn't count as a Christmas Crisis at all.

What was worrying me slightly (nay, considerably) was that I still hadn't bought presents for various members of the family. By the end of today, I've only got one left to buy. I wonder what I will get for them? At the moment I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA, which is more than a little bit scary. (I could turn this into a competition, with prizes, but, sadly, "answers on a postcard" will arrive too late).

Anyway, thanks to yesterday's enthusiastic shopping, I've plenty of wrapping paper to wrap the missing presents once I have bought them. Whatever they are.

One lovely surprise came this evening. For me! We came home to find a delivery card pushed through the letter box:

"behind the big woods in your garden" - no, we don't own a few acres of woodland or a small forest. But we do have a dismantled shed, leaning up against the fence, waiting to be mantled.

The "pack" turned out to be a Fresh Flower Card - carnations and Christmassy bits and pieces arranged in a little block of oasis, and a dinky little pipette for me to water them with. I'm properly happy - thank you, thank you, BestBeloved.

Tuesday 22nd December - Sit-rep 22

Blog posts with this title concern my mother's current situation. Family and friends will know more of the background and context, and this is primarily for them.

I am pleased to report that the replacement Advent candle is working fine. I mean burning well.

My father went this morning; it was all a bit of a whirl. First the physiotherapist who has been treating my mother for the past two-and-a-half years came to do her stuff. Then, an hour or so later, the lady who has been looking after the beauty side of things and giving my mother a weekly massage came. For my mother that was quite a full schedule. By the time all this was finished, I expect my mother was feeling both wonderful and exhausted. Probably just as well that the doctor rescheduled for tomorrow.


We (my husband and I, to quote a famous personage) rolled up later in the afternoon, and found her fast asleep. We didn't have to wait very long though, before she woke. We'd been given a little list of requirements to bring; bed socks (she gets cold feet), The Spectator (she gets bored) and a selection of earrings (all gilt and glass, from my personal collection).     

 

 

 

The "Abu Dhabi" earrings are now with me ("unless they start crying and want to come back"). My mother made her choice from the ones I offered; rejecting the round green beads and the little blue diamond drops, but adding the blue dangly ones that I was wearing.

It has turned into a bit of a game between us.

We chatted for a while about this and that; she has ordered the full Christmas Dinner

"How am I going to be able eat the smoked salmon?"
"I expect they will puree it, like into a pate, or a mousse"
"How will I eat that if they can't put it on bread or toast?"
"They can put it on a teaspoon"
(Laughing) "Oh take her home, what is she like!"


We discussed what she  might like to give my father for a Christmas present; our suggestion was met with her approval so we left. She was now getting very tired and sleepy again, and we wanted to try and buy the present before the shops closed (Success).

Monday 21st December - Advent 21

Today started with a rainbow! Well, to be truthful, with rain. Then a rainbow.

I dashed out to take some pictures, and while I was at it, nipped down to the bottom of the garden to take a picture of the snowdrops. They always come out in time for Christmas.

This mild weather has been fooling everyone. It's not as warm as it looks, and nightdress, dressing gown and bare feet were not sufficient clothing for the photographic excursion.

The morning was taken up with a visit to my mother in the Nursing Home. After lunch we went round John Lewis and Waitrose - what else do you do on a dull, grey, rainy day. Especially the shortest day? We got all the Christmas Food shopping done in one swoop, dodging hyperactive little girls practicing their "Strictly Come Dancing" moves, and tracking back and forth as I remembered mustard, added extra wrapping paper (three for two! - yes, and that's how I ended up with too many Christmas Cards), pondering the merits of Cranberry Sauce, Essential Cranberry Sauce, Cranberry Jelly and another half dozen variations

Just glad to get home.

I'm a bit behind with the tea drinking. I had Ginger Bread Green Tea and it was surprisingly good. I let my husband have the Simply Sencha Green Tea. "Nice, gentle, slightly sweet". 

In the midst of tea making, we had the Advent Candle Incident; I lit the candle as usual, and it suddenly flared up with a four-inch high flame (10 cm if you insist) and burned from 21 to 24 in a few seconds. I know I complain the days pass too quickly in the finally run-up to Christmas but that was ridiculous. So I've made a new one - no, really, please, no applause or admiration is necessary. It's just a candle, and judicious application of various coloured marker pens.

The last candle had been rather whizzing through the numbers when I lit it, the last few days. This one is taking a respectable amount of time to burn. Christmas is now approaching at a steadier pace.

Monday 21st December - Sit Rep 21

Blog posts with this title concern my mother's current situation. Family and friends will know more of the background and context, and this is primarily for them.

Well, that explains a lot, how I keep getting caught out by my Advent candle, I mean. I lit it, and asked my husband to keep an eye on it so I wouldn't let it burn for too long.

The flame suddenly flared about four inches high, and we had reached 24th December, just-like-that!

So I have made an Advent candle, the way I used to, years ago when they were harder to find in the shops.

You just write the numbers with a marker pen, and sometimes I stick on some gold stars (not today), and sometimes I spray the candles with a little gold paint (best done BEFORE you write the numbers on, otherwise the gold spray dissolves the numbers that you have just painstakingly written on the candle). Anyway, where was I? Oh yes....

My father and I went over to the Nursing Home in the morning. My mother has decided that she prefers us to visit earlier in the day, and then she dozes through the afternoon.

It was a very pleasant visit. She really enjoyed reading a Round Robin from my brother's family. She read the first page, and said she'd save the next page for later. My Godmother, who (whom?) I'd visited the previous day, had sent a warm grey cardigan as a present which also a Good Thing.

While my father was out of the room, she took the opportunity to ask me about how he is getting on. She always asks me about him when we are alone together - so lovely, that with all this change and turmoil in her life, his welfare remains her first concern. 

Sunday 20th December - Advent 20

I can't remember the last time I made it to church.... nearly got there today, but then...

"But then" seems to happen quit a lot at the moment.

"But then" there is always tea - Green Tea again today - very good. I haven't braced up sufficiently to try the "Gingerbread" Tea that emerged from Father Christmas' Drawer yesterday.

We visited my godmother this afternoon. I was determined to see her BEFORE Christmas, with no "But then" to get in the way. Setting off, the rain poured down with such violence that the road disappeared in the spray... should we turn back? No! We would have looked pretty silly if we had, as within a few minutes the weather had completely cleared.

Well, I could write a long fascinating and erudite blogpost,

but then it is half past ten and I could go to bed.

Zzzz sleep well, good night.

Sunday 20th December - Sit-Rep 20

Blog posts with this title concern my mother's current situation. Family and friends will know more of the background and context, and this is primarily for them.

I lit the candle for about 30 seconds this evening, because I let it burn for too long (again!) yesterday.

My father went on his own to visit my mother today (that sounds so clunky - but I stand by my principles of trying to avoid breaking anonymity in an open blog post.) He sys they had a pleasant time together, talking about a trip to Vienna at Christmas-time a few years ago, and other things.

It is strange to look back over the events of the past few weeks. My mother went from "having a bad cold" on 11th November, to emergency admission to hospital a few days later, to "serious conversations about probable outcomes" all in a week. Then suddenly, she seemed to improve, just before and during the weekend of their 60th Wedding Anniversary. But it was only a day or so later that we were faced with the "seriously serious" conversation regarding End of Life care, possibly only a few days, maybe a week or so, to live. This was all before the end of November.

Now it is nearly a month later, and she is in a much better state than she was, health-wise, at the hospital, and our state of urgency and emotional charge is much reduced.

She still doesn't eat enough, and there is the ever-present problem of not being able to swallow properly. So, it's still "one day at a time", but the days are less anxious and stressed than before, for all of us.

Saturday 19th December - Advent 19

Ahhh, the Christmas holidays have officially begun...

So today we, separately or together,

took a chest of drawers and several bags of stuff to charity - thanks, Dad - a wheelchair-adapted car can be SO useful

collected some ramps and bits and pieces from store, dealing in passing with a faulty spare key that jammed in the lock, necessitating bolt-croppers and issue of a new padlock

hung up washing

made up a bed

loaded washing machine

collected an order from Argus

got a load of batch-cooked slow-roast lamb into the freezer

cooked two batches of "sausage supper"

visited my mother 

zipped back home to collect something that my mother needed

called in at Sainsbury on the way home from the visit to see if we could buy food thickener for my mother

rescued a panicked motorist who had suddenly abandoned her car in the middle of a stream of traffic because there was a spider in it

mended a hearing aid

decorated a Christmas tree

made three dozen mince pies

eaten two of the portions of sausage supper, and got the other six portions ready for freezing

written a blog post

written this blog post

eaten rather a lot of the mince pies

A nice relaxing start to the holidays??

Saturday 19th December - Sit-rep 19

Blog posts with this title concern my mother's current situation. Family and friends will know more of the background and context, and this is primarily for them.

Well, guess who is wearing the "Abu Dhabi" earrings now?


We visited, me, my husband, and my father, this afternoon, and find my mother having her lunch. She had rejected the savoury course ("too salty") but was having some of the plain yoghurt I'd brought in a few days ago. Good job we'd brought some more with us, if she is enjoying it.

So we left her and the nurse to finish in peace, and went back a short while later. She was wearing these earrings, but said she didn't want them any longer - everyone had been to admire them, and now I could have them back! I reckon it's not a fair swap for the Christmas Tree earrings I left with her last week, but I wasn't going to argue.

We went through some cards that had arrived. There were several from family in the Netherlands, and also some Christmas cards. One hadn't been signed; we tried to recognise the handwritten address, but came to no firm conclusions.

The she wanted to go to sleep, so we went and sat in the seating area nearby. After quite a long while she was still soundly asleep, so we left. My father had ordered tubs of the new food thickener from various on-line sites, but it is not certain that any of them will manage to deliver before Christmas and she has nearly finished the samples. We thought we would try Sainsbury Pharmacy on the way home. This might be more successful as they hope to be able to get some in for us by Tuesday morning.

Back at the flat, I threw some Christmas lights and tinsel on my father's Christmas Tree, while my husband mended one of my mother's hearing aids. Then we left my father with his pork pie for supper, and went back home to our sausages.

Friday 18th December 2015 - Advent 18

Random thoughts of the day

My new diary for next year has been delivered. Tide Green this year.

The current one is purple, and last year's, the first one, scarlet. The 2015 one only has a few blank pages left. Obviously. Because next Friday is Christmas Day and the following Friday is 1st January 2016.

Oh my word! Where did the year go? 


I finally dared to try the "Nutty Chocolate" Assam Tea.

It was a bit weird, but not undrinkable. Like the "Fudge Melts" tea from a week or so ago; weird but not scary. Like drinking a not-particularly-strong cup of tea while holding a Ferrero Rocher chocolate under your nose.

My Christmas Cactus has exploded into bloom. My mother's, at the Nursing Home, is really not happy and throwing all its buds away. They are "sensitive" little souls.

I've written all the Christmas Cards! Calloo callay, oh frabjous day! I reckon we've sent about 70, and I've a dozen e-cards to send too. When I feel crabby about writing them, I remember how much I enjoy receiving them. can't have one without the other.

I'm not sure how I ended up with about 7 boxes leftover. I think that the "three for two" offer at Waitrose must have had a strange effect on my calculations of how many boxes I needed to buy.

Memo to self: Do NOT buy any cards next year...