Hello everyone! I feel really guilty not having spent much time in here over the past couple of weeks. The truth is that I only ever get time to "lurk" when I'm at work and as we've been at home with all the animals, things have been even busier. I'm afraid I can't even stop long now - I had breakfast really early today, no time for lunch and we've only just finished the evening feeding/cleaning. I really must cook some dinner.
I just wanted to tell you about how some of my Mum's Christmas presents were received in the hope it may be of some help. We actually used some of my Mum's money before the move to a) get her finances under the LA limit and b) buy all the things she'd neglected to get herself over the years. We did replace her old PC with a lap top and I must say some of the software has worked very well indeed. Computer pets like Catz and Oddballz are great. They can be petted, but they will happily amuse themselves if using the mouse proves too much, as it is for my Mum now. Who Wants to be a Millionaire was great! I played with my Mum against my husband and it's ideal. Most of her old memories are still there and she could answer quite a lot on her own. By far the best present though was a Shaun the Sheep iPod player. We'd already used her money to get an iPod, as using a conventional CD player was too confusing. Yes - we could start it off, but half an hour later the thing has finished and my Mum couldn't work out how to change CDs. With the iPod I've "ripped" all her old music and created loads of different playlists. Each one must last several hours, so all we do is plug her in at the end of a visit. I've stuck a label on the bottom asking the staff to turn it off at the end of the day.
Anyway, back to Shaun. My Mum wasn't too comfortable with the little headphone, but Shaun plays the music in the traditional way. If you turn the volume up, his own headphones light up in time with the music. She already had a Grommit toy (bought off eBay), so they both sit by her bed and keep her entertained.
I just wanted to tell you about how some of my Mum's Christmas presents were received in the hope it may be of some help. We actually used some of my Mum's money before the move to a) get her finances under the LA limit and b) buy all the things she'd neglected to get herself over the years. We did replace her old PC with a lap top and I must say some of the software has worked very well indeed. Computer pets like Catz and Oddballz are great. They can be petted, but they will happily amuse themselves if using the mouse proves too much, as it is for my Mum now. Who Wants to be a Millionaire was great! I played with my Mum against my husband and it's ideal. Most of her old memories are still there and she could answer quite a lot on her own. By far the best present though was a Shaun the Sheep iPod player. We'd already used her money to get an iPod, as using a conventional CD player was too confusing. Yes - we could start it off, but half an hour later the thing has finished and my Mum couldn't work out how to change CDs. With the iPod I've "ripped" all her old music and created loads of different playlists. Each one must last several hours, so all we do is plug her in at the end of a visit. I've stuck a label on the bottom asking the staff to turn it off at the end of the day.
Anyway, back to Shaun. My Mum wasn't too comfortable with the little headphone, but Shaun plays the music in the traditional way. If you turn the volume up, his own headphones light up in time with the music. She already had a Grommit toy (bought off eBay), so they both sit by her bed and keep her entertained.
