My First Respite

[BeckyJan]

Helen:
Its lovely to hear all went well and Alan was ok with sitters. Are you planning the next one now?

Good to see you back. Love Jan

 

[Helen33]

It is so wonderful coming back to your support and encouragement All your comments make me feel connected and that our lives actually matter Before Talking Point I felt very disconnected from everyone and everything because it felt like our lives had been spiralled into another world (dementia) and I knew nothing about this new world Talking Point (which is all of you) has enabled me to have the courage to express myself, ask questions, feel around in the dark, stride out, get angry and have a laugh and a cry.

Alan has been fine today. There are no evident signs of anything having changed because I have been away. I feel very good in myself, relaxed and chilled.

I wanted to tell you all that I doubted that the time I had (3 days and 2 nights) would be sufficient to enable me to feel relaxed and re-charged. Even after the first day I felt as relaxed and re-charged as I would after a fortnight. I now don't think it is the length of time but the quality of time and the quality of time I had was excellent.

There is, however, a very traumatic part of the story.

When we arrived at the B&B we checked the rooms and they were superb. I did notice a tiny spider on my ceiling (about the size of 2 money spiders) and I asked the farmer to remove it because it was above my bed and I was scared it might drop onto me in the night. He did and I could just see him thinking "we've got a right one here" Anyway we had a great day and a lovely evening meal and came back to the B&B where we enjoyed a cup of tea in my room. All was well. Marilyn then retired to her room for the night and I get ready for bed and eventually drop to sleep. At 12.05am I wake to go to the loo and see a massive spider on the floor I throw a leaflet thing at it and take all my courage and stand on the leaflet. Anyway I eventually fall back to sleep. At 2.20am I wake again and when I put the light on the room is full of spiders They are all massive. There is one near the ceiling by the wardrobe. One crawling down the wall on the other side of the wardrobe. One on the floor and one coming down the curtains I am sitting in bed traumatised and shaking. I have the flimsiest, shortest nightdress and am afraid to get my knickers or anything else to wear in case my clothes have spiders on them so I grab a small throw that was on the bed, wrap it round myself and rush out of the room. I have to wake Marilyn and end up sleeping with her in her bed. In the morning, Marilyn is still asleep and I creep out of her room only to find the farmer at the desk nearby and he says good morning to me. I found myself saying that I couldn't sleep in the room because it was full of spiders but he looked as if he didn't believe this was the reason that I was exiting the other bedroom I have to steal myself into the room and force myself to get my clothes because I couldn't deal with this issue wrapped in tissue-like attire Then I get the farmer to remove the first spider. After he did that I found another and I had to get him back again. Then a few minutes later I saw another and had to get him to deal with that. He must have thought I was a right one. Anyway after we'd gone out for the day, his wife cleared the whole of my room and went over it with a fine tooth comb and even she said that they found another one which was absolutely massive on the curtains I did manage to sleep the next night in this room though which I wouldn't have been able to do at one time.

I'll tell you about the gas leak tomorrow!!

 

[BeckyJan]

Helen:

You must have stayed on a spider farm - I did not know they farmed spiders

Will you go back? Jan

 

[donkey]

glad you had alovely time helen, im off to spain with two friends on 9th sept and cant wait. im just going to chill out by the pool with a good book . i wont feel guilty cause dave will be looked after and he would never come anyway he hates the heat, only 2 weeks and 2 days to go much love lyn/wifeand mum x

 

[Helen33]

They are retiring from the B&B part at the end of the year because they've had enough after 30 years of it. They do have a log cabin that is self-catering but I wouldn't stop in that because I bet it's spider heaven I expect my room in your home to be thoroughly de-spidered before the retreat (whenever it is).

 

[Izzy]

OMG - what an experience!!!! You did make me laugh with your description of you zooming about wearing the throw!! Can't wait to hear about the gas leak!! Izzy x

 

[Bookworm]

eeeuuuuw

I wouldn't have put on the throw - might have been another spider!! You tell a fine tale!! You know people who see so many spiders usually need ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy!!) Can't wait for the gas leak story!!

 

[Grannie G]

Helen if that had been me I would have been half a mile down the road as quick as a flash. And I wouldn`t have cared what else I was flashing either.
Was you spider like this?
View attachment 6299

 

[CYN]

Helen i thought your photos were wonderful and i could see you were enjoying yourself, and i also admire your attitude with regard to having some time to recharge your batteries.well done .

Cynthia x x
shame about the spiders,but the big ones do show up near to September.

 

[sue38]

Hi Helen,

I'm so glad the weekend went well, apart from the spiders (I hope you have your knickers back on now ) and that Alan coped well with your absence.

It's amazing how such a short respite can re-charge the batteries. Looking forward to hearing about the gas leak...

 

[Soobee]

oh blimey - that sounds like one of my recurring nightmares. You did so well to stay in that room again, I'm not sure I could have done that!

I am glad you had a lovely break regardless.

 

[connie]

Well you do twll a good story. I caertainly could not have slept the second night in that room, even since the spiders had been evicted........I would have been too traumatised.

So glad the respite went well. You certainly sound more upbeat.

Stay strong. Love n'hugs

 

[nellbelles]

Helen

I could have dealt with the spiders for you, but I could have done with you for the earwig in my caravans bath

 

[TinaT]

Wonderful story, wonderfully told. Had a good belly laugh and still have a smile on my face from reading it.

What a wimp you are - frightened of spiders - You wern't in Australia you know!!

My mother came to visit us in Spain in our newly built house. She got me up in the middle of the night telling me that she had spiders all over her ceiling. As she always exaggerates, I expected to see a couple of spiders when I opened the door.

Wow, it really was a ceiling covered in tiny little spiders! The must have hatched out that night from a tiny crack in the new plaster!

So you aren't on your own with your spider phobia - my mother was in a right old state too!! But I didn't check to see if she had her knickers on.

xxTinaT

 

[Grannie G]

Coincidence?

Everyone must have experienced buying a new car and suddenly seeing hundreds of the same make and model you would never have noticed before.

Tonight I was cleaning the kitchen, bathroom and toilet floors for the last time. I lifted the bucket to empty it and from underneath crawled an enormous spider.
You would have been proud of my reflexes as I squashed it with my bleach soaked mop.

 

[Canadian Joanne]

Helen, I too share your spider phobia. I can kill them myself but only up to a certain size. The thought of you running around knickerless with a throw wrapped around your head is such a diverting mental image.

I do wonder what that farmer thought when he saw you creeping out of Marilyn's room. He probably thought it was a waste of money for you to book two rooms.

Sylvia, WELL DONE! I thoroughly approve of spider-squashing. One of the advantages of having 4 cats is that they dispose of most of the creepy crawlies. Mind you, we know whenever something is in the house as the cats are busy flinging themselves all around. But they do have a good kill rate.

 

[Scottie45]

Dear Helen

Well i could not have slept in the room again,and if it had been my daughter she would have been home in a flash at the sight of one spider never mind anymore.TinaT,what are you trying to tell us about OZ and spiders,i am off next Feb for 4 weeks and i hope not to see a spider.Well Helen looking forward to your next story,take care Marian xx

 

[Bookworm]

Spider murder?

Mrs Bug (as Brucie has nicknamed me) is going to warn you all of the rise in more unseen creepies if you kill all the spiders in your house - like silverfish...... The house spider can live outside - so put a glass over it, a card under the glass & pop outside, if you can, another time - this would not have solved Helen's problem - even I could not have stayed in that room even the second night. I wonder how common it is to have a spider fall on you in the night - this happened to me as a child & I saw it coming aaarrrggghh - so I would always rescue a spider if on my feet - but laying down - I'd run like Helen!!

 

[Helen33]

There is no way I could put a glass on any of these I doubt a glass would fit over them (they were massive)!!

Lyn (Donkey) I missed your post because we must have posted at the same time. Alan never used to come on holiday with me because he didn't like holidays. Last year was the one and only time he wanted to come and I knew that would be the last. Glad we did it though. I really hope you have a wonderful time.

ABOUT THE GAS LEAK.

Marilyn and I are like chalk and cheese in many ways but we have been friends for 25 years (good friends). She is a natural pessimist and I am a natural optimist. We had a laugh on holiday because we both brought note books to wrote down our experiences in and after a couple of days I asked her to read me hers because she was writing whilst we were waiting for some beverages to arrive. To say we were two people on holiday at the same time, in the same place, Marilyn told the story in a completely different way. She started her tales with all the piddly things that I wouldn't even notice. For example the first place we stop at is a pub in Youlgreave. We need the loo and we order tea and coffee. There is an old guy in another room which can be seen through the bar from where we're sitting and he is shouting "if she comes in here, I'm walking out" etc. etc. I just think to myself "so village life can't be as idyllic as it looks" and it is gone from my mind. For Marilyn it has remained in the forefront of her mind. It is so interesting.

Anyway I needed to tell you this in order to understand about the gas leak. My mobile phone runs out of juice very quickly and I have forgotten to bring the charger. I have never known my phone to run out of power so quickly to say that I have only phoned home twice. So by the middle of the 2nd day my phone is off completely. Marilyn has told everyone that she will not be having her phone on at all because she does not want to be pestered by everyone (which she usually is). However, on the last morning I ask Marilyn if I can use her phone in order to ring home to see how Alan is, so she turns it on. It then remains on for the rest of the day and it comes for a huge walk with us in her backpack. We spend the last day right down in Lathkildale and somewhere down there her phone rings. She can't get to it in time and when she does she can't get a signal in order to see whether there is a text or voice mail. She then becomes worried because she can't understand why anyone would phone her when she's told them all the phone will be off. I believe it is nothing and even if it was there is nothing that can be done whilst we're down here. We continue with our day but I notice that it has taken the shine off Marilyn a bit. We end up doing a longer and more arduous walk than the previous days and it is wonderful. When we get back to the farmhouse and Marilyn gets a signal we discover that there is a huge gas leak at Marilyn's house (outside the front garden). It affected her next door neighbour and they manage to cut him off and deal with his bit. Marilyn's partner has phoned my home to get my mobile phone number which the sitter gives him but they can't get through to me. The reason they needed me is because my car is parked over the part that the gas men need to dig up They have been waiting to get hold of us since the night before.

I was thrilled that they couldn't get hold of us because we would have had to have gone back. Marilyn would have believed that all holidays for her were doomed because the last break she went on a few months back with her partner, they had to come back home on a tow truck because their gear box went!!

When we arrived at her house, I waved to all the neighbours, Marilyn's partner and the gas men, and they all clapped and cheered and we all had a good laugh and a few jokes. When I moved my car - they all sent up a very loud jeering

I will eventually get round to telling you about Alan's experience as I understand it

 

[Grannie G]

You were only away for three little days Helen but you have had more drama than some have in a life time.
Forget `The Perils of Pauline`. These are `The Highlights of Helen`