Morning all,
Glad the towel rail is sorted, Slugsta - and I hope the plumbers turn up soon so you can 'get straight' again. In a similar position here - OH has fitted and finished front door, and french doors are in and secure - but they are still awaiting sills and final finishing touches, and until they are done, there are tools around and bits and bobs, and my dining room looks a little like a builders yard! OH is fitting doing this around work, to be fair, he has worked his socks off, so not complaining - but I will be glad when its done!
Thanks all for the comments on the photographs - I am so happy with the lens, getting the sort of shots that were impossible before with a smaller zoom, I just love the detail I'm getting now
Can't wait for Sunday next, when I am at the zoo with my 'photobuddies' - and then 8 days later, off on holiday, and trips to Fuertaventura zoo, Betancuria National Park and various other jaunts planned which I hope will give me plenty of chances to really see what that lens will let me do !
Visited Mil yesterday - she was in rather a belligerent mood to start with. I breezed in and said a cheery hello, and got a rather disgruntled '
What are YOU doing here'?. Asked if I could sit with her for a minute - and got told no, I couldn't because
"I know your 'minutes' - you say a minute and you'll still be sat there an hour later". That was me told, I guess - it was several minutes before I risked pulling up a chair and sitting. She stared at me as I sat, and I thought I was going to get some more abuse, but instead, after a couple of minutes, she suddenly said "
And when did you get your hair cut?". I'd had it done on Friday, a lot shorter than usual (hoping to save myself another trim before we go away) - she didn't know my name, or how she knows me generally - but she recognised me well enough to know I'd had my hair cut. I find that so odd. There were a couple more verbal digs, before she suddenly leaned forward and hit me as hard as she could on my arm - and again, I want to know how someone so frail can packs so much force behind a slap or smack! Up till then, I'd been very polite and not said anything about her being rude, but being as that wasn't working and I definitely didn't want any more of her hitting me, I very sternly told her to 'pack it in', and that I would let her parents know if she hit me again ( lately the staff have found that telling her that they will 'tell her parents' often stops the physical attacks - if only for a short time!). I got told to
'tell 'em what you like' (with a few choice swear words added) and so I warned her again, even more firmly, and finished off by using a phrase she used to use with the kids when they were being cheeky - I told her to 'wind her neck in' - instantly she moved her hand near her neck, and started making a 'winding' motion, asking me '
have I wound it enough?'. She was so pleased with her wit, this sent her off laughing - and that put her in a much better mood, much to my relief. One of the staff brought her a plate with 3 or 4 biscuits on it, which also helped.
She has a 'thing' at the moment about looking at photographs on our phones, so I spent a while going through them with her - she recognised her grandson (she nearly always knows his name, if not how how she knows him) but identified my OH as her late husband. She left me creased by suddely saying she 'remembered' a recent picture of herself and my son being taken, because '
Just after you took it, he wee'd all over me' - heaven only knows where that idea came from. In a lot of the photographs, she identified images of herself as being either my Mother, or '
that lady who lives up the road'. I have a copy of a photograph of Mil, taken when she was 21 on my phone, a studio shot - as soon as she saw that she said
'That's ME!", but told me her Mum had had the picture done when Mil was 11. All the while we were chatting (and despite her jaw and mouth constantly doing the TD tics, she was really clear!) she was putting away the biscuits, till she realised that she only had 1 and a bit left - at which point she accused me of stealing them - and back to belligerence. She told me she was
'looking for a fight' - I left soon afterwards as it was pretty clear that it was me she would like to fight with!
Looking at the notes from the staff, so many instances of her hitting out, throwing drinks, being verbally and physically abusive, combined with days when the jerks and spasms caused by the TD at the very least mean she is being repositioned every few minutes to stop her falling, and othr days where she can't even sit safely on a seat, because of the spasms. Her breathing is worse, and though food is being cut up/is soft, the staff say that the choking risk is still very high. But I'll bet you anything that the HBM will still try to argue for the removal of 1-1 at the meeting on Wednesday
After leaving Mil, I finished off the shopping for the holiday stuff that was needed. OH needs a couple of new t shirts, and I need to get the euro's - and then that's us sorted. After a lovely warm and quite sunny day yesterday, its pouring down this morning - Fuertaventura is definitely looking even more attractive at the moment!
I hope all of you are OK, take care and love to you all xxxx