APOLOGIES

View from Riverhead Inn, New Zealand

Normal blogs will be resumed as soon as possible and as I have access to my own laptop for one evening only, I have posted a few photos from our short time in NZ and more lately.  Sorry if they do not really relate to any of the happenings.

Emmy, Hayden, Cameron - Jan 2013 NZ

Lachlan - Jan 2013

 
Life has been a bit too complicated to keep up the normal service back here in the UK with a computer which will not talk to my Ipod, so the pickings are very thin here in Blighty.

Weather Report:  Absolutely freezing (particularly in summer holiday clothing)

Nice old posters photographed from the Station Noticeboard UK

Activities:  Cooking, food shopping, and watching daytime 'telly' - mostly football or golf, driving backwards and forwards through the New Forest, handling all the incoming and outgoing phone calls, checking Emails, filling in yet more forms for the French Authorities who now think that I live in New Milton.  I have therefore varied their input of Attestion d'Existence paper collection by getting yet another form verified and signed at the nearest Town Hall.  They won't like it - No change there then but it should give them some indication after 18 months that I am alive still.  I have also busied myself writing letters of bitter complaint to my European Members of Parliament because of this contrived delay and annoyance.  Our local MP had to resign after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice and there will be a By-Election in Eastleigh tomorrow.  We are slightly agog at all the interest Eastleigh is attracting on the national news.  However, we have seen Sainsburys, Domino Pizza and the statue of the Railwayman dozens of times in the background to all the throngs of TV reporters sampling the delights of the town centre.  Next week after the media circus have packed up and gone home, it will be a ghost town with tumbleweed blowing down all the roadways again!

Agapanthus growing wild NZ - hope this isn't a repeat!

K has travelled back from NZ via the UK and stayed for a week, which has cheered things up a bit.

Dad is doing remarkably well and keeping very busy.  I spend a lot of time trying not to step on his toes.  Once K arrived, there were three of us all helpfully trying to do the same thing  in swift succession, which was hilarious, but only if you weren't there.

Mum has improved but not dramatically so and is still stuck in hospital.   We have lots of concerns about the continuity of care in the hospital and whether Mum was actually getting anything to eat or drink in there, and in response to this, my sister-in-law Jan, a trained nurse, has taken to spending a few hours with Mum in the hospital each day to check things out a bit and give hands-on care.  This has at least made Mum much more comfortable and gives her some assurance that there is somebody around who knows what's what!

 

BEST LAID PLANS

Apologies for a bit of a non-blog period.  My husband has my laptop at the moment and this older variety no longer allows me to insert my photos. 

It rather epitomises how grey and miserable the weather is at the moment.  I have lovely photos to post, but the powers that be have fixed it so that old computers are prevented from working as effectively as they once did. The blogger page no longer has a tool bar to insert photos and my even older computer did not accept the text from this computer, but would have inserted my photos!  Why does life has to be such a confounded bother?

Our longed for trip to New Zealand was interrupted by family troubles and this was after we had only just about recovered from the Norovirus and deep cleaned one daughter’s house before meeting up with our new granddaughter in the other house.  Lots of effort and time spent doing boring things and checking whether disinfectants which claim to kill bugs and nasties actually do the job.   On researching this, we discovered that good old fashioned bleach was easily the best agent even if the house did smell like a swimming pool for a day or two.

Anyway, no sooner had we recovered ourselves after this than my dear Mum – who had been in hospital in the UK – took a turn for the worse and I was so upset to have to leave again before I had really arrived properly.  Anyway, I think I have already explained about the minor delay, my short trip into Auckland’s equivalent of A & E and my eventual flight booked and taken back to the UK leaving hubby and everyone else in NZ and my son just about to land for the longed for family reunion.  The first time we had been together for several years except that we weren't.

Arrival in the UK was a little softened by some bright sunshine on the journey from Heathrow and my brother was there early in the morning to meet me, looking a little worn round the edges from a lot of motoring and having looked after my Dad for a few days! 

I have taken up the depressing daily round in cold, dismal wintry weather – trying to get to the shops through flooded roads, driving 30 miles or so to get to Southampton Hospital in nasty aggressive traffic through the New Forest, cooking, washing up and watching TV.  If I grab some time to myself, it is a bit like being a teenager again with my Dad hanging around on the front porch waiting for me to get home if I am a minute later that 5.00 pm!!

But, in spite of no blogs, I have not been idle.  I have researched Cdiff on the computer and tried to make tempting soups and lemon barley for Mum incorporating NZ Manuka Honey, cooked some warming stews and casseroles for Dad, putting the residue in individual containers to enjoy later, and steeled myself to drive Dad’s precious car, praying against all the odds that I don’t so much as make a scratch on it!!!  Every day is taken up with writing notes for my Dad about telephone calls, and trying to communicate about things in general.    We have visited a couple of nursing homes, but this step is in the future and Mum is not well enough to leave hospital yet awhile.  Nothing about the tasks are terribly difficult except coping with the absence of my Mum’s lovely presence and the feelings of sadness this brings up and  I am aware that I am conforming to Dad’s rigid routine to make things as simple as possible.  Meanwhile hubby is wondering when I can come home!

My Mum is in a small room on her own in hospital and I am so glad that she has family to back her up otherwise I would be extremely worried about the haphazard nature of her daily care and getting any sort of agreed communication between caring staff, nursing staff and Doctors who never seem to be very specific about what the current problem is and how they are proposing to tackle it.  We are truly fortunate to have a well qualified nurse in the family who has been doing a little tactful checking of her own and speaking to the nurse in charge as a result. 

A typical visit to the hospital involves the long car journey, a longish walk from the disabled car park along to the lifts then along to the end of another very long corridor to the ward right at the far end.  As you arrive, two care assistants/nurses don aprons and gloves just as you are putting your bag down and go into Mum’s room, close the door and shut the curtains.  So you look for somewhere to sit down.  There is nowhere.  Manageable for me fit and healthy but for my Dad, aged  92, this is a problem.  After an indefinite wait, the door opens and you have to put on yellow plastic aprons and rubber gloves.  Sounds easy but it is not.  There is nowhere to put your coat, scarf, bag or belongings while you are doing this.  Once in this garb, you cannot come out to ask for assistance or speak to anyone because you have to dispose of it all inside the room before emerging.  I have taken to buying disposable cups, straws and anything else I am likely to need whilst I am there to prevent wasting time and resources going in and out of Mum’s room to fetch things and change apron and gloves every time.   Mum was cold, so I bought and took a duvet in for her – but it will probably have to be thrown away when she gets out of hospital.   What a nasty bug Cdiff is!

So, times are a bit difficult right now, but we are hoping for an improvement before too long.  All your thoughts and prayers have been so appreciated by me and the rest of the family. x