Should have called him (Un)Lucky!

 Family in south London got a rescue dog over the Lockdown. Quite old and infirm, reject at least twice and returned to Battersea Dogs Home, nearly adopted by him off the tele (ITV programme? which I can never remember name of celeb or programme as not a dog person myself or a lover of Celeb types!). 

They re named him Rocky cause he rocks and rolls with stiffness when he walks. Last weekend he was attacked by two out of control Pitbull-type dogs in the local park. Very expensive vet bills followed by a bank holiday of care.

Honestly never mind Rocky, should have called him Lucky!! or UnLucky?

Family did not share the details of their incident as they were too upset. After seeing TV footage of that dog attacking the seal on the Thames I am absolutely sure I would have not been able to do a thing if I had been there. What a scare. 

Testing

 My eldest, a teacher  in a specialist school, started his weekly Covid tests this week. All teachers done on Mondays and older cohort of returning pupils (residential) on Tuesdays. He was negative this week. His contribution to the process was to go to workshop in the most distant part of the school complex and build some test tube holders for the testers to use and then take his mother's advice to stay well out of the way!

Meanwhile my husband had his 74th birthday and got excited when an NHS logo envelope arrived. Not vaccine. 😞.  Advanced warning his bowel cancer screening test was due -  the poo test!

Oh,  in a sad Pooh voice, not much of a birthday card. 

Lockdown low point

 Thinks I have reached the bottom. I have been in this house too long. This week I find myself wandering around with a scalpel, metal polish, PVC reviver, cloths, and other bits of kit. I am looking for those blobs and smears of paint on the casings on door furniture, plugs and light switches. 

I know. Its pathetic to get pleasure from taking a minuscule bit of old paint off and rebuffing. On my way round I have noticed we are missing at least 4 radiator caps too!!!  (And I am hatching a plan to clean all the radiators and repaint them.)

Less than a £10 for these new caps...... mmmmm .... I may shop on line. But that may be a bit of dangerous living and I may get carried away..... I did last week and spent £80 on underwear and pyjamas* for us both!

I blame daytime TV for my obsession with the paint blobs. I was watching a house renovation show and that Simon O'Brian said the sale was in the close details.  Daytime TV, another dangerous living thing.

I shall go off and live dangerously vicariously through books in front of the fire for the rest of today. Found a different way to search the County library catalogue and found my way through the filters to a different set of books! Plus husband found a way to download from Amazon free access to Kindle on both our tablet things - so we now have access to more free reading! 

* Blame my youngest for this obsession. He started to worry about us going into hospital at short notice and sent us a spare mobile and wanted us to write down our prescription needs and generally be prepared. Result of which was I realised we didn't need phones or anything fancy, what we would need is pyjamas as all our nightwear is not fit to be seen. We do have a bit of emergency kit but it has sadly been neglected of late and I must replace some spare toothbrushes and stuff. 

Let down.

 The September weather has been beautiful and my husband suggested a visit to the beach and a picnic after we had been to the DIY store on the way out of town. So excited as it was our first outing all summer to the beach (except once with family)!!!

Chairs, stove, emergency coat, fresh baguettes baked and packed, tea bags and milk, paddling shoes, book...... etc etc.  "Could you get my credit card from the desk upstairs Dearest?"  I rushed up and found it under some paperwork.  Slowly came back down.

"Just reassure me you taxed the car at the end of last month?" I asked.

"OH. I'll do it now on line".  Two minutes later. 

"It wont work. No MOT. I thought there was an extension due to Covid for 6 months? When did it run out?"

" The 3rd of this month like it says on the post it above your desk, dear. And the MOT extension ended on July 31st. Ring the garage."

Man laughed heartily. Next week mate. You and everyone else, I am fully booked.

Its very quiet. We are not talking.

Son now recovered and finding a new sense of smell and taste. Small light meals until system settles down and hopes to regain the weight lost soon.

Meanwhile we are trying to find remote bits of Norfolk to walk and relax away from any busy hot spots. Staying away from beaches as they are rammed with visitors. Using back roads we found our way to Litcham village and Common Nature Reserve for a quiet walk along part of the Nar Valley Way.

Such lovely weather too!

Update

Well life is going on and so is the stress!

Covid son has had 25 straight days of throwing up in hospital and at home. Has not got the body mass to lose weight and there is always the Type 1 diabetic and keeping blood sugars right to worry about. Then there is the no visiting!!!  As a mother the instinct is to run towards - like they say about fireman and police - and not stay away.

The garden continues to drive us slowly nuts this year. The weather just does not settle down consistently and we have such mixed results.  Since April 4th we have been trying to sow parsnips. Two rows of seed tape and two rows of old seeds form last year put in at various points - usually between showers and then a hot spell. We can't get any to come up and just end up with a row of weed seedlings.

One success we have had was treating cabbages with a home made thyme tea to get rid of white fly.

They have recovered well!

Meanwhile back to researching more recipes for courgettes. They are giving us loads already!

Hospital phone service

The ambulance service scooped up my son at midnight yesterday (? night before? lost track of time) in crises and covid and diabetes do NOT make happy bedfellows even on day 4 of infection. The ward staff are really doing a great job with IVs and drugs, but just getting through the phone system to ask how it is going is proving a nightmare. First time I uttered the word Covid I got very quickly shoved off  down an extension that rang for 8 minutes and cut off.  Next time I got a lovely lady but then did 4 more transfers to find the right nurse station. Finally got a direct ward number and now its only 3 transfers if you can get through. If I get to the receptionist and the lines are busy I hang on for 10 mins to be next in queue. So if you end up here in the UK playing these telephone tag games, keep hanging in there.  If I get a chance to feedback to the hospital one day I think this should be highlighted as an improvement need for the sanity of relatives.

I like Matt Hancock as Health Secretary right through this crisis,  and this morning he gave Andrew Marr a right going over on the Sunday politics show.  No Andrew, its not over and stop making out we are all down the pub not social distancing!! 

  

HERO!!

I have a whole list of things to do. First was to get check he had a phone. Yes, but hard on Mothers to get request to get his cat sorted while he actively throwing up at same time as the anti sickness meds were not working that we... Neighbour is going to feed and look after (it has an outside sleeping hut). Second make sure his work rights and sick pay are in place as that can get out of hand quickly and in past the employer has been a bit mean-hearted. Other son is taking that on. Next, where are house keys? and do we need to check out food etc going off if this goes on for weeks (no way is the ex wife getting those). But first I must find a shirt to wear that the mobile can be held in, usually it can go missing it for 3 or 4 days without noticing! No more.

Just when you think its all over.....

Just thinking "it" was all running down and we could get out, see family, etc when I receive that message.

"In bed not well".

Son. Lives in Leicester, works in food processing firm, has Diabetes Type 1, lives alone.

Several hours of phone, texts, support offered from afar, sleepless night.

Next morning. Nearly 14 hours later before one of us can raise him on phone. Meanwhile panic has set in.

Finally brother gets through (just as about to leave London on rescue mission).  

Been asleep all that time. His phone is on charge, he's eating porridge and going for a test in a bit.  

If Covid does not get him I think I might kill him myself.

Work are tracking who was on his shift last 7 days.  Isolating for 7 days/ until tests results are back.

Then the Parish Clerk emails to see if want to go to a "physical" Council meeting with 16 other people in a small room instead of doing zoom meeting. Apparently that is "allowed" (do not know where that was stated!!!)  She can't cope with tech and some Councillors don't do IT.  

My reply remained short and pithy and  polite (just).

I may need to break out chocolate and red wine soon.

More tidy storage in manshed

I few months ago I wrote about my husband finally tidying the store of his clamps (top of this picture). He has now brought some magnetic strips that hold all his spanners (bottom of this picture)

I am now worried. This as tidy as he has been since we married in 1971. LOL

Meanwhile the 3 boys are on the family What's App link at 11pm at night discussing which chop saw is a best buy.

 It definitely runs in the family!!!

Too late to be a rock star?

In January my husband will be 73. I brought him a guitar for Christmas/birthday as he recently revealed he would have liked to have learnt.

My youngest son, and his son, have taken up Ukulele this year,  and one of my other grand daughter's seems to have got the bug too.

So next Xmas I am expecting a family band to do the Christmas songs!

Lurking

Hi
Been away considering where I want this blog to go in the future. Still not sure but I am lurking in the background still. Hope to be back in flow in near future.

Meanwhile - what can you achieve if you take your hand out of the bikkie/cookie jar and give up toast with breakfast and for lunch with a "little something" on top.Oh, and home made cake (GBBO on Tuesday nights without cake is painful).

 16 weeks ago these scales read 13.8.

Yeah!!!!

Recycling Christmas jumpers

Adult son left a hideous extra large maroon Christmas jumper here 3 years ago.   The front is now  incorporated in my latest rag rug and the back and sleeves are now an elephant.

Used the inside of the jumper as it was more fluffy and cuddly. The feet and back of the ears are an old striped muslin from one of the baby grandchildren, the flowers are scraps of felt blanket stitched on with 2 strands of embroidery thread, and the tail is plaited bits of felt. The scarf was on old bit of double ply wool knitted in rows of 12 garter stitches.

Stuffed with a bit 1 inch thick foam to make it stiff and lots of an old pillow.

The pattern I have used before was off the internet and is quite easy to work out but next time I am going to make the front legs just a shade longer. (xoxograndma.blogspot for pattern).

Cost nothing and kept me occupied for quite a few evenings with the embroidery!

Hopefully one of the little ones will take it home later!

Strange grandchild?

Our 4 year old grandson came up from London at the weekend and spent the first afternoon with us running wildly around the garden till late while his parents took on some heavy duty gardening jobs for us.  After a big tea we were all sat in front of the fire talking when in a plaintiff voice he said:

"Isn't it time one of you put me to bed?"

Horror struck parents leapt to their feet, gosh, its 20 past 8.

"I go to bed at 8 and I am very tired"

Bad parents, we crowed at our son, Very bad parents. (Revenge for all the years of unwilling bed time routines)

Next night he asked to go to bed at 7.45!!    Again, a day spent with grandparents had worn him out.

You hear about so many children being difficult to put to  bed (including the other son's 4 year old daughter), but not this one!  Well, not when he is worn out by us!

The Broads

Went for a couple of days to stay at Horning; this is the view from our super B&B window.

Our Grandson played at being Captain on our hire picnic boat.

The boat was fab. Roomy, with a fully equipped kitchen and a loo. Safe for small ones who can't sit still for 5 seconds.

We found the local park in Horning which was well equipped with play equipment and an obstacle course.  There was an outdoor table tennis table with bats and a bent ball. 

A few minutes later a lady came up from a garden down the hill and gave them a good ball she had just found in her garden. She heard us laughing and came up specially. So kind.

I gave my grandson his elephant I made from his old rugby shirts. 

It was love at first sight.

A difficult subject

I know many in Blog land have been recently bereaved or are in difficult circumstances so I feel I should say this is going to be about funerals - part rant, part information sharing. So if you are feeling fragile, don't read the rest of this post.

Those adverts every 15 mins about buying a funeral "insurance" drive me nuts. Simple maths show that it is a false economy, and the Financial Ombudsman is already gearing up to crack down on some of these "offers".  We did once pay for a family member's funeral in advance, just a one off payment that reduced capital and those kept the person within the benefits remit for the care home costs. Trouble was, despite having agreed to the plan, when it came to it my brother ordered loads of extras that had to be paid up front by ME and it took 6 months to get the extra £1000 back from the probate settlement. 

Neither of us are religious at all and both have hated attending formal funerals in the past. So the other day I spotted an "info advert" in the weekend broadsheet newspaper for something I had never heard of.   Apparently you can have a directed cremation.  The body is collected in a plain vehicle, cremated when/where ever and the family get the ashes some time later. Current price £1100. (Not the £4000 or £5000 minimum mentioned in all those adverts!).

That's us!  We agreed totally.
 a) we can afford it  and can put the money in an account the kids can access
b) the family don't have to rush from all parts of the country
 c) they don't have to involve the distant family  who have barely spoken to us in decades in some false formality
d) when the ashes come back, then the family can arrange a big party to scatter them on a beach in summer or a mountain in winter and play, very loudly, ABBA for him and The Eagles for me. They can hire a big house and spend time together being rude about us.

We had never heard of this alternative but it does seem a viable one for us and there seem to be several well organised companies.

Confused son

Youngest son (aged nearly 35) rang.  He'd just watched Swallows and Amazons (2016 film) with his 4 year old who had loved it (its the family boating gene) but where/how did these Russian spies come into it?

 "I know I was not as keen on reading as the rest of the family" he complained "but I can't remember any Russians. Have you still got the books?" 

Of course I have them all (except the Big Six one), but they are falling apart from frequent reading past and present as  even now I indulge in a bit of S&A reading.  I reassured the confused.  There are NO Russians in Arthur Ransom's Swallows and Amazons and the girl's name is Titty, not Tatty.  Good lord can't they leave great things alone???

I rang off and started Christmas list - for son and grandson a set of Swallows and Amazon books (well at least the first 4 as Swallowdale and Winter Holiday and Picts and Martyrs are better than the first one). Preferably original prints in better order than mine.  I can see me haunting the Charity and second hand book shops over the next few months as I see it would be over £50 on Amazon for these!

Wigwam or Tepee?

Last year I made the grandkids 3 hobby horses on broomsticks for the summer holidays. This year I made them a wigwam. My son called it a tepee.  My 4 year old grandkids  called it a tent and had no idea of a cultural background. Wild west or "Cowboy and Indian" films obviously not on CBBC or Tiny Pop or these other channels??

It was made of 4 of my husbands best giant thick bamboo poles (not needed as we were only going for one row of runner beans this year) and four cloth triangles. I used one half of a white king sized duvet and a long length of thin black cotton dress material (donated free to me) from my stash. No great loss as it was so thin it was no good for dresses and I had already had 3 blouses out of it.  So cost nothing except a few afternoons puzzling out the mechanics.  Secured at top with string in a hem and made a door way by splitting one triangle and putting a facing on it with odd ribbons sewn in to fasten up.  I did sew heavy washers into the corners thinking I could use the wire hoops from the veg netting to pin the sides but the ground was too hard and this was last piece of green grass in the garden.  So I made a hem in the excess material round the bases and threaded in some old roofing battens from the scrap/fire wood pile on three sides which held it out nicely as long as it was not too windy. Old bed covers for sitting on  and stretching out to provide a play patio.

It went down very well, as you can see the giant lego stuff was out here and not all over lounge floor to trip up Granddad. Teddy spent time in the tent and often came flying out. It was a good shady place to send one fractious girl with a digital device who was tired, hot and wanted to watch a cartoon when we were all having a cup of tea and chatting and did not want to go indoors.  Not strong enough for the 18 month old of substantial proportions to practice his standing up skills though.

On reflection how I may improve it next year I did think I would keep an eye out for those kids duvets in the charity shops with the garish characters and it may be something they relate to. I think the kids would like that and it would thicken the sides up a bit. I would also fasten the triangle seams to the poles on the insides it was a pain re lining it up each time it got a bit out of line.

They are all gone to the west Country to annoy their other grand parents now. Poles returned to garden stash, string rewound in the shed, wigwam rolled up and stashed. Hobby horses stacked in corner.  Left the bunting up tied to the bushes and fences for a while.  Bit like after Christmas when you take down the tree.

Come back next summer!  But please get out of nappies - my bin has a stench all of its own and it is not collected for another week!!

Can I help Grandma?

This is how you do it Grandma, you make a hole, you hold the plant up, then you do this, do this, do that, and Grandma you do......, then Grandma you have to......

Four, next month - does he ever stop talking?   Is half term over yet?

Alternative routes

From about 5 years ago (as we have got older) we started to get annoyed with motorways and busy A routes/dual carriageways and all the rush, rush, traffic.  When we go out we look for an alternative. One that is now our favourite is to avoid the A47. Anyone who has been on it will know it is all roundabouts and lots of single carriage way bits, and far too many lorries!  This weekend we took a parallel route slightly north, and going to Stamford to get to the Midlands from Norfolk.  It was a lovely day and the villages and rolling countryside were absolutely wonderful and it was only a few miles and a few minutes longer than the main road.  It reminded us that there are still some lovely parts of the UK, relatively unspoilt and full of people looking relaxed and enjoying village life!  We were jealous of the lovely pub gardens we passed especially - could not stop, obviously, as drinking and driving is just not on.

Even better at the other end our two young grand daughters (ably assisted by our middle son who loves to play with fire) cooked us a lovely barbecue. We have never been into BBQs. This is probably the 3rd one we have been to in 10 years and we were surprised about how nice the food was especially as my daughter in law uses her Indian influences in the marinades!

Catching up

Now that Easter holidays are over and all the smaller grandchildren and their teacher parents are back at work the weather is 10 degrees warmer. Grrr.
Froze our selves at the beach in 7C - had to find a hollow in the sand dunes for a digging session.

Froze at the Animal Park. The cow licked grand daughter to thank her for blowing a kiss.

Opps. Quick Daddy, stick that lump of fur back in that rabbit and move away!! 

A bit later we hastily picked up the fur he dropped in the tea room and hid it. 

No animals were harmed in this production (much).

The Aquarium was bit warmer.  Except the outdoor bit where even the penguins looked chilly.

Back home Granddad was entertaining the plasterer. He was plastering the kitchen so we had to leave the house by 9 and not return till 4pm at least. That was a bit of a chore in the 7C temperatures and we could have done with better weather.

Ah well. They have gone home and the sun is out to do all the sheets at least.