Karen had a good night’s sleep and only got up twice for the loo. I faired less well, but the torture I had anticipated before the weekend never came about and I didn’t have any problems getting up.

A good day today for us both. I walked the dogs while kp snoozed and got her up at about 11am. We had tea and toast outside again. We got kp ready for a visit from Mum and Dad. We had problems getting kp’s hair to take on a style. She keeps saying she needs a restyle. I agree. We nearly used 2 cans of hairspray to get certain tufts of hair to stay down.

kp:- You can’t push down that hard when I’ve put hairspray on.

Fair enough.

Mum and Dad were very pleased to see kp. It’s been two weeks since their last visit (3 weeks for mum) (they have been in Austria celebrating 40 years of marriage) and they could see a big difference.

They brought with them a wall clock (which chimes every 15 minutes) which we had bought them as a present (thanks Jane). Dad wanted me to get it to work. I think Mum and Dad wished I hadn’t got it working. For the 3-4 hours they were there, it did its thing and chimed every 15 mintues (longer chimes on the hour). We all laughed every time it chimed. Mum wanted me to tell her which wires to cut so it wouldn’t chime. Dad insisted it chime and I not show her. £20 says the wires will have been cut within a week.

Mum brought lunch (Lasagne). Thanks ! She had laid out bowls on the left hand side of each setting for the accompanying salad. I was sitting to Karen’s right and put loads of salad in my bowl. Karen hadn’t seen her bowl and I had put her salad on her plate.

She helped herself to salad from my bowl.

dp:- Karen, your salad is on your plate. That is my bowl.

kp laughed and then got distracted by some conversation with Dad. She then started helping herself AGAIN to my salad.

dp:- Where’s your salad love ?
kp:- Oh, sorry.

I badgered Karen to show Mum and Dad a few walking steps. Karen stood up from the seat, while Dad was out of the room and mum shouted :-

Mum :- John, look. Karen’s standing. Karen’s standing
Dad (returned) :- I have seen that before.

Karen laughed.

They were very impressed when she did some steps with the wheelchair in front of her.

When they left, they stopped halfway up the drive and dad, laughing, shouted out of the car window

Dad:- “It’s still bloody chiming !”

We went for a 2-hour snooze, I think I needed it more than kp.

She is checking her email as I write this. I am not sure what time we are going back to the hospital, so no more blogs tonight means getting back was uneventful.