Memorandum Monday - Things can only get better

This is the face of a man who thought he was going home on Friday, then it was to be Saturday. Now it is Monday and our photographer is a bit afraid to point the camera at him.

Friday the ambulance crew were set to take him home when he just happened to say that it would be difficult to get him up the two flights of stairs because the furniture guys had not been able to get a sofa up the stairway. As they planned to use a stretcher you can just imagine the shocked silence that followed his statement.
There was discussion about using "the Chair" and someone to ensure his leg stayed straight. They contacted Social Services to see if there was somewhere else he could be until he can bend his leg again. They asked his age and because he is under 55 they cannot help him.

Today the suggestion is that they will try to get him up the stairs on an air mattress.

What do I take from this fiasco? I take that the government has very nearly broken the NHS sufficiently to be able to tell us it doesn't work and has to be privatised. The fact that his private health insurance through work doesn't cover this situation either just makes me aware of how much danger the population of this country is in. Am I angry? you bet I am. The NHS was started the year after I was born and has kept my whole family alive for nearly 70 years. Now the greed of a few very rich people is set to take this away. I think I have to unwrap my campaigning banners and set to work

My thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this meme to keep me writing

Wicked Uncle Cliff - update

He probably won't thank me for showing him at less than his sartorial best but I am just so relieved to see him sitting up and taking notice.

He is hoping to go home today - although we still don't know the state of his flat after the fire in the building. Did I mention that before? NO? Oh, well, his landlord rang him to make sure he wasn't at home because the building was on fire! Not what you want to hear when you are lying in a hospital bed dazed and confused because none of this has ever happened to you before.

Anyhooo, he is recovering nicely so we have stepped the status down from Amber to black, situation normal.

Me on Monday - A bank holiday

Sometimes you learn things you don't want to be true. Wicked Uncle Cliff is in horsepiddle far away in darkest Surrey. He has separated the big muscle in his thigh from its anchors to his knee joint. He awaits surgery and will be immobilised in a cast for 8 weeks. The smile on his face tells us concerned people that he has no idea of the technical difficulties this will bring.
His flat is up two flights of stairs so how will he do that in a full cast? What about.... the lavatory, how will he manage? how will he keep clean?
Am I in worrying mode? Almost. But he lives on his own and has no close family.

I think it is the fact that I am so far away and I can't fix it.

All this has kind of knocked the whole weekend into a cocked hat. I can't remember what we did on Saturday - oh, we went the pretty way to the garden centre. Sunday I finished knitting a donkey and started sewing it together. That's it

My thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this meme and keeping me writing

Memorandum Monday - 10 hours? goodness me

Breakfast at Jo's

Labels Outlet, they always have something we desperately need

We should have been taking the Bluefunnels for a day out but Lady B rang to say that they were both suffering with "the Virus" and wanted to stay at home and snooze in front of the TV, at least that's what the Admiral was going to do.
We asked DD and Miss Boo if they fancied coming with us and they said yes so breakfast at Jo's and then a quick visit to Baileys before a coffee stop at Labels Outlet at Ross on Wye.
DD decided to really indulge herself at breakfast and had a milkshake with cream and stuff on the top. Miss Boo had two sausages, bacon, beans and toast and scoffed the lot.
She told me that she likes to go out with us because you never know where you will be.

We headed north-ish but avoided the motorway because you can't play the legs game on motorways.
The legs game? Have you never played it?
It was taught to me by a man called Don Turnbull who was the UK boss of a games company called TSR. The produced games like Dungeons and Dragons.
Anyhooo this is how you play.
You take it in turns Beginning with the driver.

OK Diner colouring inside the lines

You see a pub it must be on the side of the road you are driving on so in the UK it will be on your left. It must have the entrance on the road you are travelling on so if it is on the corner and the entrance is on the other road then you have to wait for the next pub. You look at the name and score the number of legs indicated.
There are restrictions. For example The king's/queen's/saracen's head scores zero because it is only a head not the whole thing. The same with something like the Blacksmith's arms - no legs so zero.
The turn goes to the next person no matter what the score. The Badger's wood is also a zero - incase any of you are around Tadley in Hampshire. OH and for multiples like The Cricketers then you score the minimum amount of legs required to play a game - four for the Cricketers because you only need a batter and bowler. Fox and hounds? four for the fox and eight for the hounds because that's the minimum for it to be plural. The game ends at the end of the journey.
DD won with ten points.
We ended the day near Leominster so we had a late lunch early dinner at the OK Diner. The lady who served us on Monday recognised us and looked behind us to see if the screaming hordes were following us this time too. DD said it was ok because she has the talent of emptying places so she cancelled us out.
We were all pretty tired by the time we got home and that was when Miss Boo did the maths and informed us that we had been out for ten hours.

My Thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this meme and keeping me writing

Memorandum Monday - late with good reason

Tre Fawdre Cottage. It is in the farmyard of a working Dairy farm
So we met Tommy the dog and Rosie the chicken. 

I am late because we stayed in North Wales for the weekend and came home in a leisurely fashion down the A5 and A49

The weather forcast said it was going to be wet and cold and miserable but we didn't care. We drove up on Friday, taking our time because the rain was lashing down. We saw the VW camper vans converging on Oswestry and felt kind of sorry for them being in a field full of mud for a weekend.

Today it is mostly Raining

We had paused for a snack at the OK Diner in Leominster - as we do - and then we headed north again. Stopped for a late lunch at the OK Diner at Northop on the A55. We know how to live eh?
Called Eldest son to say we were here safe and then settled into our weekend abode.
On Saturday, after breakfast at Morrisons in Rhyll, we met up with the family at Bodelwyddan Castle where Mr M nearly scored a point when he and ES played at being a weather clock - you know the ones that had a little man and a little woman on them and depending on the weather as to which one was outside.
Well, they made me laugh. The good thing was that Mr M reminded me about the camera around my neck so I took pictures

Today it is sunny

After a short game of chess in the courtyard, where a five year old and a six year old just wanted to carry the pieces around and the adults insisted on the correct moves we decided to go back to the family home and spend the afternoon chatting and snoozing and that's what we did. The boys played in the garden because the weather was cold but dry and sunny. Mr M, or Grampa was in constant demand, especially by the 5yo who thinks he has magic powers, and only managed a brief snooze while they boys were having their shower.
We got to cuddle the new baby a lot, which is always a Good Thing, and I managed to talk with my lovely DiL. We ordered takeaway for dinner and suddenly it was 9pm and I was falling asleep where I sat. Back to the cottage

Sunday morning football

Sunday morning and MJ is to play football - in the league! I have no idea which league, that wasn't important. All we had to do was be there. And we were.
I am not a spectator. I only ever enjoyed those sports I could take part in and even those I didn't watch just entered did my stuff and then sat about waiting for it to finish. We took our chairs, wise move, we sat huddles as the lazy wind tried to go through us rather than around and we watched a bunch of under seven's play their little hearts out. They were all brilliant and the best bit for me was the way the team coach for "our" team was shouting out praise and encouragement to both sides. If any child on that pitch did a good pass or a neat capture of the ball or anything good they got praise from him and you could see how much they liked it. Gosh he was good. Lunch at the pub and then they had to do shopping and we decided to go back to the cottage and sleaze to Father Brown for the afternoon.
Monday we were up early and packed and away to Morrisons for breakfast. After that we had to go back and collect my knitting bag which had snuggled down in a corner and hidden when we packed the car. Then we came home
Did I learn anything? yes of course I did. I learnt a little more about MJ and his brother JA, I learnt just how happy my Eldest Son is with his life now and mostly I learnt just how delightful my DiL is. She is such a shy person that it has taken a while for us to get to know each other but I think we are developing a relationship and that makes me really happy

My Thanks to Sian at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this meme to keep me writing.

A Day out with the fambley

the face of Boo after eating half Grandma's fudge brownie

Grandpa watching every mouthful - just like Grandma

We went out for the day and as the Easter holidays are coming to an end and Daddy, aka Biker Boy had to work today we took Mummy and Boo with us.

We went to Cadbury Garden Centre, which is now a Wyevale one so not quite as interesting as it used to be but still huge and would take a whole day to really explore. Boo scored a point from each of us here. This is how it happened.

Boo: "The last time we went to a garden centre a man was singing at us"
Mummy: "How come he could sing but you slap me if I do?"
Boo: "It's rude to slap strangers"

I found the trough I need for lettuce - nope I am not going to explain. I will photograph the results if the experiment works. Then we stopped for a Costa coffee and I treated myself to a fudge brownie... I say I treated myself but my daughter paid but you know what I mean...
Anyhoooo, Boo was hungry and Mummy wasn't sharing her cheese toastie thingy so she had half my brownie - which is good for me.

Go to the Seaside, ride on a donkey

Next we went to Weston Super Mare. Boo wanted to see the sea and we nearly could. The beach ( use that word advisedly) at WSM is very flat and mostly mud with a sprinkle of sand on top so the tide goes out a long way. It doesn't help that the Bristol Channel, as this bit of water is known at this point, has the second highest tidal rise and fall in the world. Second only to the Amazon River. We could see the subtle change in the grey of the beach for the grey of the water

 What you can see behind the donkeys is the wet estuary mud, and there are warnings that there are patches of quicksand too - exciting place WSM.

Boo had a ride on the Donkey and is now in love with the little fella.

When life serves you lemons . Suck it up!

Grandpa scored a point here but to understand
why you need the background. When Mummy was a baby a nasty person gave her a squeaky toy. I removed the squeak, well that's what mother's do, yes? She maintains that she was a deprived child because she thought all squeezy toys just fuffed air and didn't make a noise.
While we were seated at the table eating icecream a little dog yapped behind me.
Mummy said to Boo "You could have a dog like that."
Grandma: "One that makes that noise?"
Mummy: "Oh we'd have it silenced"
Grandpa: "Sorry, but you can't take the fuff out of that sort."
Collapse of the adults around our table. We had to explain it to Boo.

We rode along the promenade on the Land train. I am still re-learning this camera carrying thing so forgot to take pictures of the train. The wind was a very lazy one, it would rather go straight through than go around so by the time we got back to the car we were all absolutely frozen. This meant we simply had to stop at the Hungry Horse for lunch

Boo tucked into a burger with chips and beans, I had rump steak and once again it was exactly how I like it. Mummy had the "Oceans a Plenty", which has all sorts of fishy goodness in it but is far to much for me to eat.
Grandpa had the Chicken Tikka Marsala BAnquet and again the Nan bread defeated him.
Our next stop was Costco, bought pork chops and beetroot and strawberries as well as butter and tissues
 Then we came home the pretty way through Dursley and Gloucester and then along the A48 through Westbury on Severn, Minsterworth, Lydney and Chepstow.
By the time we got home Biker Boy had just come home from work so he helped to carry all the stuff into the house and then we had a cuppa before they went home and we settled down to download pictures and write blogs.

A really excellent day out.

Memorandum Monday - Still learning

Sometimes, just sometimes I am reminded that I am so very lucky. We went on an exploratory trip on Saturday. The aim was to seek out a good place to take the Bluefunnels for our first excursion of the year We kind of headed out towards Abergavenny but a closed road diverted us.
Next we were stuck behind a moron in a blue car who took up two lanes of dual carriageway and waited on roundabouts for a car to come round - even if there wasn't a car in sight when we got to the roundabout. He took the road we intended using so we went straight on ... I bet his ears were burning.
we intended going through Gilwern but the roadworks meant that we travelled for what Mr M's Nan called "This ages" past what use3d to be the turning so we gave up and headed for Brecon. The intention was to head towards Llandeilo but as we came to the roundabout there were more roadworks so we decided that we could be in Leominster (pronounced Lemster, for all the non-locals) in about an hour and it would be lunch time and the OK Diner is there and we didn't go there for his birthday.
By the time we got there I was desperate for a cup of coffee and the Loo so while he went first I ordered the drinks and then I went while he thought about the food. I like the OK Diner because they let me have a Mushroom and Cheeseburger without the bun and this means that sometimes I have room for a dessert - not this time though.

Mr M sat waiting for food and texting his Wicked Step-Daughter to gloat about where we were and I had a little oh lucky me moment.
This man puts up with me, let's face it he took on quite a task when he got together with me. I was a divorced Mother with three children who were all in their early teens and had the potential to be extremely difficult. He never ever lied to them, gave them unconditional love and here we are 36 years later. He still makes my tummy do that funny lurch when I see him unexpectedly. I miss him from the moment he goes through the door to work and I am waiting for him to come home.
Being reminded of how I feel is just marvellous

My thanks to Sian over at FromHighInTheSky for inventing this meme and keeping me writing