Good news – the doctor thinks that the overtiredness, etc, is due to my hayfever tablets and my other meds disagreeing with one another. So I’m to stop taking the hayfever ones and see how it goes. Fingers crossed!
Bad news – I just wrote a monster-long post here which included typing up the entry I’d written long-hand on the train, about last weekend. And then the browser crashed and I lost it all. Cannot be bothered to type it all up again – it took me ages as it was. So here’s the short version:
Friday – travelled down to London, was sposed to meet Mum near Charing X at 1:30pm. She’d been staying at my aunt and uncle’s place while they were away to look after their cat, and my grandad. However, my grandad went and vanished on her, so she had to call the police to report him missing and all that. He has Altzheimer’s, and has gone out and forgotten where he lives before now. I had to lurk in central London (chose a net café, then Yates for food, as my places of lurking preference) while this was sorted out. Grandad then turned up none the worse for wear, announcing that he’d been to Southend. Whether he really had is anyone’s guess. Ho hum. Eventually met Mum and made it to Hastings. Admired lovely shiny new car (Rover 75) when Dad picked us up. Mmmm, air conditioning! Had a barbeque in the orchard in the evening. Lovely and relaxing :-) Brother is turning “the mud pile” into “grassy knoll with gunman gazebo”. Going to look gorgeous, I think.
Saturday – went to pub-restaurant for Dad’s 70th birthday dinner at midday. Got Dad an “I am 70” badge, as no-one would believe it to look at him. Food was heavenly – I had Gammon steak in a peach and honey sauce. Yuuuuuuuummm. Couldn’t manage desert, though! And they had homemade Banoffee Pie!! *wails* Then we went over to Eastbourne Marina / Harbour / thing and meandered around the Crumbles (retail park bit). Weather v hot. Looked at the new model Micra – quite a nice little car. Shall consider that for when I’m looking at getting a car (hopefully later this year). Went home, slept for a bit (overtiredness kicking in, there), then had birthday cake and watched some telly with the family.
Sunday – Er. Slept quite a lot. Read a bit. Went to Dymchurch with Mum and Dad to visit my aunt Frances in the afternoon. She’s the twin of my aunt Mary, and they’re 10 years older than Dad. They also don’t look their age. I haven’t seen her for ages, so that was good. Tuned her TV in for her – she has the parents’ old one, but doesn’t have a proper arial, just a portable one. Fixed that so it stands up. She now has a decent picture, and the right channels on the right numbers. *g* Was a lovely drive out there over the marshes, then back over a different bit of the marshes (via Camber etc). Though I did fall asleep for some of it. Heh. In the evening, Alison picked me up and we went round to Chaz and Clara’s place where we watched Martin’s DVD of the latest Bond film, and had a bit of a natter. They asked me when I was moving back to Hastings, and I told them I’m not because I’m allergic to it. It’s true – my allergies go mad at that end of the country, hayfever and asthma and all that. Hull is much healthier for me.
Monday – Tried really hard to wake up. Didn’t succeed, but did at least *get* up. Packed, had lunch, and was taken to the station where I got the train. Journey up was fine, and I made it to Kings X with plenty of time to spare. There was the soppiest dog on the tube, though – large chocolate lab who must’ve been still a puppy despite his size. Awwww :-) The train from Kings X was a bit less fun for a while – I was on the side that the sun was blazing in through, and the air conditioning didn’t seem to be working very well. I don’t cope well with being in the sun. Bleurgh. In the end I went to ask if they could put the air conditioning on, and discovered that the next carriage was wonderfully cool – they just had probs in the end one. So I moved and was much more comfortable. Caught a bus straight away when we got into Hull, and I was home by about 7:15pm. Xandermog was pleased to see me be let outside. Terrible monster :-)
My grandad, by the way, will hopefully be going to a care home sometime fairly soon – he still lives on his own at the mo, and that’s clearly not working well any more. He doesn’t recognise it as his house a lot of the time anyway, so it won’t make a lot of difference if he’s elsewhere, and then there would be people to keep an eye on him all the time, which my aunt and uncle can’t.
And that did get quite long in the end. But not half as long as the original. It’s probably for the best…. :-)
