Morning all,
Red, they mentioned yoga too - but the reason they went with Tai Chi (and possibly pilates) is because they said once I've 'done' a few classes, I could invest in a DVD on either and perhaps keep up at home using that. They said it might take longer to get topthe stage where they would recommend yoga DVDs at home - I have no idea why? Had no chance to look into either classes, or laundry service just yet - between the pain clinic on Tes and a very busy day yesterday, barely went near the pc (or anything else) at all!
Hi Izzy - I find some of Mils tales leave me feeling like I'm walking on eggshells, which is the main difficulty for me. All too often we go from something quite benign to something that suddenly takes a 'nasty turn' and worst of all, she will suddenly involve me in the story. She can be garbling on about the dance she is off too, or the pictures or the shopping trip she has been on. And then usually its something like 'I gave you the tickets - I want them back
now', or she wants the dress she says she asked me to sew, or the money she gave me to look after. Occasionally, I've even had a dead body appearing in the tale, and I can even find myself accused of being involved in that! Thats the infuriating bit, because there is NO shaking her - whilst I have a fighting chance of being able to hand her a fiver, I can't at the drop of a hat produce a dress that she has given a detailed discription of - but which doesn't exists. And Oh, I do get fed up of having to try and convince her I'm innocent of murder!
Thanks Celia, for the link - odd you should post something like that because I was actually thinking the other day that we have a perching stool here, got for Mil, which she now won't use on the grounds that she is convinced the seat 'tips me up' - I could maybe give that a try for several things!
Oh Peggy, they know how to iron - its just that being as I am at home, I tend to do the bulk of it. But yes - I need to be more assertive about getting OH and youngest to do a bit more, you are right x
Hi Amy - hun, if you know where I can find a housework fairy, do please tell
Otherise, I think that all future clothes purchases - especially for Mil - I need to look for fabrics that don't need ironing.
The offer of help with Mil bathing really did lift me up, Anne - I just thought it was so decent of them
Especially after the 'Empty' offers of 'help' from adult services . . .
Talking of which - I had a bit of an encounter with them yesterday and I sort of got cross
The profile bed (now being referred to as the 'profane bed' in this house!) was as I said, due to arrive yesterday. Which mean dismantelling Mils old bed and trying to work out where the hell we could store the base at least - it was bought a couple of months after she moved in, so hardly has any wear at all. Once Mil was off to day care, I went upstairs and decided to empty the drawers under it and generally start sorting the room out. Walked into her room, and could smell wee straight away, which is not nice anyway, but I was also thinking of the poor delivery men, who I assumed (wrongly as it turned out) would get the new bed up to the bedroom for us. Turned out that Mil must, after wetting her first set of PJ's earlier, have at some stage put other pairs on too - and I found 2 absolutely soaking wet pairs of PJ bottoms, hidden down the side of her bed, where they had been wet enough to create a lovely puddle on the floor. Out with the dettol and mop, another load carted downstairs for the washer, made the pleasing discovery that the 'washable' pillow that I'd bought wasn't actually washable at all and had burst its seams in the washing machine. Back up after sorting that, lifted the mattress - lovely - I had believed Mil when she said the had put the wet pull ups in the bed, silly me, cos there they were, under the mattress! Thankfully not there long enough to soak into the fabric of the base, more dettol and a lot of febreeze and it was sorted. After that, it continued to be one of those times where every job seemed to hit snags. For some reason, the washing machine decided to start skipping the spin cycle, meaning each load had to set on a separate spin at the end. I managed to scorch the chicken I was browning to make Mils casserole tea, and had to start from scratch. It was that sort of day. Working out where to store not only the bed base, but also the bookshelf in Mils room led to some heated arguments - the new bed would take up quite a bit more room than the old divan and there simply was no space for the bookshelf. We were waiting for a call saying that the beds arrival was imminent, and - expecting it in the morning - were getting increasingly worried that we hadn't yet heard. Then, as I came downstairs to find that now the machine was leaking, the phone went.
Adult services - "
Hi Mrs Mac, my name is ----- from Adult Services. We've been informed that your Mum has managed to get of of the house and go missing and I'm phoning to see if there is anything we can do to help . . . .!
Do these morons even talk to each other? 3rd phone call, first offering all the help in the world, second rather apologetic confirming that none of the help offered is actually available - but adding that being as I seem to know what I'm doing and am coping, Goodbye! - and now another! I'm stood there, watching the spreading puddle in the kitchen, got a heap of wet pjs that I want to get washed sitting in a basket, wanting the phone free in case the delivery guys phone - and she wants to talk about what they can do to help to 'ensure your Mums safety'?. Can't remember the exact words, you'll be pleased to hear I didn't swear - but I did tell her that basically she was the 3rd person to ring me, and being as I already knew that they could do absolutely nothing useful at all - goodbye! And I put the phone down.
Two minutes later, the phone went and its the CPN - obviously Ms Adult Services had contacted her. Lovely as she is, I really was not in the mood. She got both barrels, basically being told that I was up to my neck in it. That I was a bit fed up of a service that couldn't even give continuity of medical care with an ever changing stream of locum consultants, all of whom delight in changing medication and diagnosis at the drop of the hat, leaving me to cope with the fall out - which included Mils behaviour changing and 'Adult Service' phoning me to offer 'help'. But that when I'd tried asking them for just two things that might help - a bed and an assessment stay for Mil - that I'd already established that they were about as much use as chocolate teapots and could help with neither, nor could they offer - by their own admission - anything else remotely useful at all. So being as I was dealing with a pile of wet (don't think I said wet, though
) bedding and clothes, plus waiting for the bed (which I had arranged for with no help at all from them) I really didn't have time to go through another long winded phone call that would produce no help whatsoever. Unless she 'was ringing me to tell me different? No? Didn't think so. I'm busy - Goodbye'.
5 minutes later, bed arrives with no phone warning. Just one driver, and 'Oh no - we just leave it outside the house and you get it upstairs and put it together yourself'. This is where the 'profane bed' title came into it. It weighed a flipping ton and the way it was packaged left both OH and I with painfully trapped hands at various times (hence the profanities) and instructions that were so poor that it took FIVE hours to put the damn thing together. Blazing arguments, strops, tantrums - and for a change, this was all before Mil got home!
We got it together literally 5 mins before I had to go pick her up, leaving OH to dive into the shower ready for a late dental appointment. Then Mil spent the journey home, absolutely convinced I was giving her a lift to the pictures, and kept taking her seat belt off, demanding that I 'drop her off here, Ann' - the last time being on a rather large roundabout, currently being 'maintained, and which at the moment has no road markings. More money for the swear box
We went out for tea - I really couldn't be bothered after a day like that. Very noticable was Mils lack of pleases or thank yous - especially with the waitress, she was very rude. We had the 'I want salt' routine and a mini strop, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been, despite sundry enquiries abotu the dog she said we had left in the car, the 'big tin of that stuff' that she wanted to tell OH about and her going on about the hole in the garden that she had spent the last week digging
Back home just 20 minutes and off to bed she went. Thank God!
I've put her back to bed 3 times since just before 5 this morning, but it at least looks like she has left off 'christening' the new bed today - it seemed dry (though I wanted her settled quickly so I didn't check too closely)
Just as well, cos I'm off to Chester zoo with one of my photo buddies today.
Hope you all have a good day xxxxx
