So, here we are.

Jinx

Registered User
Mar 13, 2014
2,333
0
Pontypool
Great photo, LadyA. A whole hour with a baby all by yourself - how on earth did you cope bringing up your dau! Isn't it funny how new Mum's don't seem to stop and consider that we have been through it all and they are the living proof!! As Verity says I'm sure your services will be required as he gets a bit more of a handful, which I'm sure he will.


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LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
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Ireland
I've been away for a two day break - it was mum's break really. I brought her away for a couple of days for her upcoming 80th birthday present. She wanted to go to Bunratty in Co Clare in the West of Ireland - must be the most touristy spot in Ireland! Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. It was good though. I'd never been there. Couple of nice pub/restaurants and hotels, and high end gift shops. I'm really tired though. Couldn't sleep much. Mum snores!! And I'm very attached to my own bed! It was my first time away since in six years!
We enjoyed looking around the folk park, but didn't get to go into the castle itself because it doesn't have disabled access. Mum uses crutches to walk, and couldn't have managed the flights of steps up to the castle entrance. But we shopped, and oh, boy, did we eat!! I had THE best fish and chips I've ever tasted one night in the hotel bar!!

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LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
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Ireland
IMG_20170405_133150557.jpgIMG_20170404_141846446_HDR.jpgIMG_20170404_162327306.jpg
First pic is in the Folk Park, an old School - this was the girls' classroom which had a separate entrance door. Mum said even the playgrounds were segregated!
The second pic is a view of the Castle (obviously!)
And the last pic was in Bunratty Winery, where they make Mead and Poitin (the legal type). The Mead is made from gorse honey and grape juice, and is stronger than wine but not as strong as spirits, we were told. I can't have alcohol because of medication, but did try a tiny taste - it's really delicious stuff! Not a bit like alcohol! I'd say you could find you had drunk an awful lot more of that than you intended to, it's just so pleasant tasting!

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Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
81,450
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Kent
It sounds a good couple of days Lady A.

A couple of days away suits me now. I`ve just had a couple of days away in London and felt I`d been away for a week. :)
 

LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
0
Ireland
It sounds a good couple of days Lady A.

A couple of days away suits me now. I`ve just had a couple of days away in London and felt I`d been away for a week. :)

I've totally lost my confidence about driving anywhere I don't know, Sylvia. In fact, about going anywhere I don't know! I have a hopeless sense of direction and am not the best at following directions. I ask for directions, but they seem to not stick! I've forgotten as soon as I set off, what the person said!! The nice thing about Bunratty is that it's very compact. If you were mobile, you could walk to the Folk park & castle, the pubs (which all do excellent food), and the gift shops. Breakfast was not included in the hotel (I had to pay an extra 9euro for a good buffet breakfast, but it was excellent, and we didn't need lunch!), but if you didn't get breakfast in your hotel, there's a small petrol station/mini market that has a little seating area and does a full breakfast for 5 or 6 euro. And they also do a great selection of food for taking away, including sandwiches etc. if you wanted to take a picnic lunch into the Folk park rather than buy lunch in the cafe. I saw a lot of families with kids who were staying in our hotel, in the playground in the park (which is brilliant, with zip wire, pirate ship and other fantastic stuff for kids from young ones to tweens) with picnic lunches from the mini market.

But I was most delighted at mum's ability to keep going! At home, she's been using one crutch for years but because of her osteoporosis, a hip replacement a few years ago left her with one leg longer than the other, and a lot of pain. Now, she's been getting lots of pain in the join where her opposite knee was replaced about six years ago. I told her that I felt it at least partly because the one crutch was putting her off balance, and putting too much pressure on that leg. So, as I knew there would be a lot of walking on our trip, and ordinarily, mum can't walk far at all, I insisted she brought two crutches. She's delighted at how much farther she could walk, without pain, with the two. She had no problems at all, apart from how awkward she found it, and she couldn't carry any bags! And her hands got a bit sore by the end of the day. Still though, she had a really good time, which is the main thing.

And finding my way there and back boosted my own confidence too, which is also a good thing.
 

Spamar

Registered User
Oct 5, 2013
7,723
0
Suffolk
It might be osteoporosis that caused one of your mums legs to be longer, but it can happen anyway. The docs will realign the legs so that the new joint fits correctly into the pelvis and it might work out that one leg then happens to be longer. This is what happened to me! This, of course, can lead to mobility problems later on in life.
 

LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
0
Ireland
I did, Verity, but I find I am exhausted today. Being with mum literally every minute from Tuesday morning until Thursday evening has really brought home to me things that I knew, but that don't impinge much on my day to day life, because I'm not with her 24/7.
She doesn't have dementia, but there is definitely age related forgetfulness going on. And she gets confused very easily. Our hotel room was quite literally directly on the left when you got out of the lift. Therefore, when we came out of the room, the lift was directly on our right. Yet every single time - mum had no clue where to find the lift, inevitably turning the wrong way and setting off down a corridor! And when we came up in the lift, off she would go again, straight down the corridor, looking neither left nor right, when our room was just a step or two from the lift doors! And I have known for ages that she's hard of hearing. I've suggested she gets a test. But for several days to literally have to repeat every single thing you say is very exhausting! And more exhausting is explaining all the time (and having to repeat the explanation!) that you haven't actually said anything- that the noise she heard was a door closing, a car passing, children laughing nearby, a dog barking, other shoppers talking among themselves, or whatever.
And then after taking her home, she had to be brought to the bank. And when we got back from the bank, she had to be brought to the bank AGAIN, as she had left her card in the machine in the bank - again!

So yes, I enjoyed it. But I'm not sure I will be rushing to repeat it!

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Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
81,450
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Kent
It`s amazing how quickly we find it really difficult to resume a caring role.

I have friends who are becoming needy. I don`t want to let them down but I don’t want to become any more involved than I am either.
 

LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
0
Ireland
It`s amazing how quickly we find it really difficult to resume a caring role.

I have friends who are becoming needy. I don`t want to let them down but I don’t want to become any more involved than I am either.
I'm already the one who does whatever mum needs here, as regards bringing her shopping, to appointments, generally organising things, and do her garden. But I don't want to do 24/7 with her.

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truth24

Registered User
Oct 13, 2013
5,725
0
North Somerset
Think I know how you might feel, LadyA. As much as you love someone, the thought of having to go down the fulltime carer road again is quite daunting. Hope it does not come to that. Are you having this sunshine, although with a cool wind now?

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LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
0
Ireland
Think I know how you might feel, LadyA. As much as you love someone, the thought of having to go down the fulltime carer road again is quite daunting. Hope it does not come to that. Are you having this sunshine, although with a cool wind now?

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I'm a cold creature, but I also can't stand heat! I feel the cold quite badly, especially if there's a wind, but if it gets above about 20C, I can't cope well with that either! It's a bit chilly here still, and I'm struggling to get things done. I seem to really struggle to get going in the morning, and then about 4 o'clock, I get a spurt of energy and get loads done!
 

LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
0
Ireland
Fabulous weather, and thank God, with the good weather my motivation for the garden has returned! After a couple of years neglect, I'm finding the veg garden really hard to deal with. It's totally overgrown with weeds! The mild Winter meant the weeds kept growing! I've made a start though. Cleared enough yesterday to get broadbeans in. And I took the strimmer to a lot of it, in hopes of at least stopping the weeds from seeding before I get them dug out!
Poor William would hate to see his garden without a full complement of new bedding plants in. But I hope he'd appreciate that I'm doing my best, not being a natural gardener.
 

LadyA

Registered User
Oct 19, 2009
13,730
0
Ireland
Meant to show you this little cutie! He's four months old already! Greets his Nana with smiles and giggles!
 

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