8 June 2012
Today was one of those rare days when ‘my lovely’ was able to go to London confidently leaving me in the hands of that good Doctor Michael. It is one of those very important respite days in the life of a carer. Where, in Alice’s case, she can clock off, briefly, leaving her utterly free without concern or worry about the person for whom she is caring
I was up, dressed and breakfasted by the time Alice, came to say goodbye so the morning was able to pass like any other, me working on my blog and e-mails and, MIck in the room above. also on his computer.
We had booked in at the Cricketers for lunch at 12.30 and as it takes us at least 15 min to get ready, hoisting me from the study lounge chair into the wheelchair and then from this wheelchair into the electric wheelchair in the hall, we had just started this process when all hell let loose.
Jane the ‘sheep’ arrived in order to’ babysit’ the house while we were at lunch, Mary, one of our district nurses, turned out in order to examine and re-dress the two toes on my feet which has caused us some concern and being midday, or thereabouts, our carer from Ross Nursing turned up to do her midday stint. With me in the middle of all of these activities you can imagine what chaos it was. However, we managed to dispatch them all before 12.30 when we set out for our lunch date. Unfortunately the weather was absolutely ghastly; cold, wet and very windy Mick, after some consultation with the caring professionals decided that I should be covered by a plastic cape, which Alice bought some time ago, that completely enshrouded the wheelchair all round, down to the ground. This certainly sounded like a good idea until I got outside I started to the wheelchair down the narrow garden dividing the floral border. Then great gusts of wind flapped the cape onto my face and I was completely blinded and unable to see when I was going. The narrow garden path was bad enough, at the best of times, to navigate and avoided getting over the edge into the herbaceous border, so with the narrowness of the path and half of my face covering the cape, this became quite a hair raising start to the journey. It was with some relief when I I did get to the end of the path and was able to safely negotiating the lawn.
The Cricketers had saved our usual table so we were well away from the other people who were lunching there and we could speak without being overheard. We both noted that the pub was far less busy than it had been since our last visit and could only surmise that the credit crunch was beginning to bite, even at this level. We had an enjoyable lunch, nothing to write home about, but perfectly adequate. I started with some delicious spare ribs which Mick was able to scrape off the bone and feed me with the spoon whilst drinking his own soup. Mick chose sausage and mash – the ‘credit crunch lunch’, whilst praying that Alice would not serve us sausages this evening, knowing Mick’s propensity for that dish. I had a crab salad which I had requested the chef to prepare for me, removing the crab completely out of the shell, so I could eat it without fear of choking. No puddings, as we both, at that stage, started mumbling about putting on weight and so on. The homeward journey, although a little more than 50 yards, still meant battling against the elements and we could not help wondering what on earth is happening to the weather in what has been known for generations as ‘flaming June’
We whiled away the afternoon and towards 5.30 started touring with the idea of some champagne, when’ my lovely’ return home and took charge once more.
I’m glad to say that she had had an excellent day in London. First going to the Horse Exhibition at the British Museum and then down to Olympia to oggle at the beautiful antiques, and Fine Art, most, if not all, well beyond our pocket. I think she still gets a personal invitation to this particular exhibition because she bought some small object there many years ago, or, which is far more likely, she is invited as a connection to Smiler.
It has been sometime now since I included some beautiful nature photographs, so click here for a treat.