Lovely day today. I walked the dogs in the freezing sleet this morning and by the time I had come back HHL#1 had got kp up, washed down and sitting having a cup of tea in the front room.

It was lovely to see her looking out at me as I walked the dogs past the window. She was lovely, warm and cosy and I was dripping and cold

I treat the girls to a cooked breakfast this morning. Tracey (on a diet) had something that looked like cardboard. It didn’t look quite as nice as our Bacon and Eggs

After our late breakfast, kp went back to bed until teatime when it was my treat again – Roast Chicken and all the trimmings. It was lovely not have to wash up

We have had a nice evening together and the weekend has gone all too fast. Tracey and Marge fly to Southampton early tomorrow morning. It was lovely having them, really lovely. It was a real bonus that they did loads of jobs while they were here also – thanks Ladies !!

Look forward to your January visit.

Mixed bag of a day today.

kp had said goodbye to the ladies last night and I dropped them off at the airport this morning.

After walking the dogs in the snow, I let the home help lady #1 (HHL#1) in to get kp up and we all had a nice breakfast cuppa in the lovely warm living room

Then for a snooze. kp had barely been up an hour. We had a couple of hours.

After the snooze, I made us both a cup of tea. Tracey had left some of her fruity teas so I decided to have a cup of mango and cinnamon tea. Mango and Cinnamon tea is bright red in colour !

When both teas were ready, I took them both in to the front room, but was met halfway there by Karen walking in the other direction. Well I sh+t a brick !! The red tea went up in the air and I uttered a few expletives to karen’s surprise.

Normally, it takes so much effort for kp to get out of a chair, she normally waits for me to get her up. So, I REALLY wasn’t expecting to meet anyone in the hall. The red tea that I thought would have really stained the carpet was actually easy to get out.

Geraldine, our next door neighbour but one, popped round to see Karen. We had a lovely chat with her and she kindly brought some wine round

After the tea and when Geraldine had gone home, we had a natter. kp is getting a bit concerned at the amount of sleeping she is doing and I am starting to think it may be a bit too much sleep as well. So after the snooze we had a chat about it and we are going to stop the tamazepam (sleeping tablet) to see how she fares.

Later in the afternoon, kp went to check her emails and we went to confirm some flights for holidays next year. One of the websites for the flights was asking what level of assistance we needed to get on the plane.

“Do you need a wheelchair to the plane steps, but can then board the aircraft yourself via the steps ?”

“Do you need a wheelchair to the plane steps, and need assistance boarding the aircraft”

“Do you need your wheelchair to be hoisted into the aircraft ?”

The wording was a little more professional, but as I read these out to Karen, she started crying. I am welling up now thinking of her getting upset. The tears got worse and worse.

dp:- “What’s wrong love ?”
kp:- “I don’t know”

I left it for a bit and just hugged her as the tears got worse.

kp:- “I don’t want to be in a wheelchair. And I can’t take everything in !”

Basically, she is obviously realising more and more about her predicament, but I think what got to her more was the fact that she couldn’t take in all the flight information. I was perhaps reading out the wheelchair options at my normal speed but obviously too fast for kp to comprehend. Even when I repeated them, it just wasn’t sinking in. I felt so sorry for her.

She just isn’t as fast as she used to be at times and this is very sad for her (and me) ‘cos she knows how much more switched on she used to be.

I tried to distract her for the rest of the day but I know she is still not 100% in her head, far from it.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings………

We have lined up a nice meal with Mum and Dad (their treat) with Tommy and Eileen for Friday, and we have a busy Wed, Thurs and Fri day as well, so hopefully this week won’t be as bad as today.

As always, fingers crossed !

First night with out Tamazepam and it didn’t go too well. According to Karen, she hadn’t slept at all. I have learned not to take this literally and normally it means she has had a bad night’s sleep. She has said this a few times, and I have caught her snoring her little head off.

Her first question to me when i woke her up to give her her tablets was “Was I snoring ?”.

When I said, “I don’t think so”, she then responded “I haven’t slept a wink”

I think it will take her body a while to get the Tamazepam out of her system. We are going to persevere.

HHL#2 arrived (HHL#1 is on her day off) to get kp ready to meet the world.

Whilst she was here, all hell broke lose. The postman arrived setting the dogs into “frenzy” mode. The HandyVan came with two what-seemed-like 80 year olds who had come to fix a KeySafe to our wall. The Keysafe allows the home help ladies to get in to the house without me being there. Jane Burns phoned to see how kp was and all of this occurred within seconds of each other. kp was oblivious to it all with HHL#2 drying her hair at the time.

Marie texted us during breakfast to let us know she was coming for the afternoon. kp had offered to take her for some beauty treatment. Pretty much as soon as Marie arrived, she was whisked out to the beauty salon. kp wanted some facial feature tinting, something waxing and something plucking. I can’t remember which was which, but she came back fluttering her eyelashes and looking longingly at me (as a joke). She can be such a temptress !

The other day I was knitting on my scarf project (I have done about 1 inch of the scarf) and according to Tracy I was knitting too tight. Well, I didn’t see the problem with this until moments later, when one of Marie’s knitting needles splintered and shot itself all over our living room in many pieces.

I had called the “new needle” hotline (Marie) and she came up trumps today with new needles. METAL ONES !

Thanks Marie.

I am in the process of writing Days 2 to 12 of the blog which are very sparse. Marie and I sat down and collated our notes of the first 2 weeks and then it was time for her to leave on the bus to Middlesbrough.

Tonight is Lasagne and Chips. Last night was Lasagne, Salad and Garlic Bread…..GARLIC…………….BRREEAAADDD……………….. (Peter Kay fans will know what I mean).

Shaving Legs day today. Since kp has left hospital, we have got out of the routine we had whereby every Monday we would shave her legs and pits. She has been out 2+ weeks now, and we hadn’t shaved her legs in that time and although her legs weren’t quite as hairy as mine, they weren’t far off.

So, today, we shaved legs and pits. I offered a free Brazilian whilst I was on my hands and knees but she wasn’t the least bit interested.

Adele arrived about lunchtime to help us with the cleaning. I nipped out to the vet to pick up a prescription for Cleo who has arthritis. They wouldn’t give the prescription on the day Cleo got re-examined because he “didn’t have time to write it out”. I had took with me a pre-printed prescription that just needed signing and he wouldn’t even sign that. What a fart on. So I had to go back today. The vet effectively charged a fee for the prescription (which they are not supposed to do). I was there 10 minutes arguing my case, but he wouldn’t have it. Clearly they want to provide the drugs as well as the veterinary service to make more money.

When I got back to the house, the telephone engineer was there to try and fix a fault we have with our phone line. As soon as he had gone, I wrote a letter of complaint to to the practice owner. Fingers crossed they see sense.

kp went for a snooze about 2pm whilst I was writing the letter. I joined her about 3pm and we both snoozed until 5.30pm. Lovely snooze !

Eileen (next door neighbour) rang to say she had baked some pies (Corned Beef) and did we want one for tea. I was straight round !

In preparing the veg, I came across a potato in the shape of a loveheart

I showed kp………who didn’t seem too impressed.

She liked the pie though.

When i saw the potato shaped like a love heart, I did a bit of rearranging of veg to drop some hints to kp about nocturnal activities.

She wasn’t impressed. Here’s her “Get outta here look”………

The pie was lovely Eileen thanks !

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