leukaemia-limbo-dance

We have had a very interesting day today.

For a start, I nipped into Kenilworth Books to meet an author who was selling and signing her book in the shop. Lovely lady, and I was glad to have made the effort. Apparently, though, she didn’t make many sales. My purchase made up 50% of the total……. oh, dear! Anyway, I’ll let you know what the book is like when I’ve read it! ‘Cuckoo in the Nest,’ by Fran Hill, is about a girl in foster care, so it’s something a bit different.

Andrew was out early to get his teeth polished at the dentist this morning before planning to hasten home and finalise the christening cake. John would be there to offer a helping hand – or maybe just moral support? Whichever it was, Andrew was grateful for the company.

Meanwhile, back in Kenilworth, I thought I’d slip across the road to see if there were any nice dresses in the dress shop. There were, so I bought one of them. A funky one. Heaven knows what everyone will make of it tomorrow at the christening! Tee-hee!

Having purchased a nice new dress, I then took myself off into Waitrose to buy some crudités for tomorrow’s buffet and then drove to Michael and Danielle’s to drop off a few pashminas for Danielle to choose from. She and Harriet were just returning from Costco having bought all the goodies for the buffet, so it was a thrill to see Freddie and Harriet as well.

When I finally arrived home at mid-day, my first question was, “How have you got on with the cake?” Andrew grinned, “Erm…. not done anything on it yet,” he replied, as he stirred a delicious-looking risotto for lunch. “Not long got back from town. Been buying myself a suit!” Well, would you believe it? We seem to be pulling out all the stops to look nice for the christening.

Anyway, suffice to say that the cake is still in progress and there may be a photo of it tomorrow! Perhaps. If there’s no disaster as it’s transported to Kenilworth in the morning. Meanwhile, please enjoy a pic of Chef in action……

After lunch, I left the boys to it and trotted off to see Mum. She was pleased to see me but had no idea who I was. She smiled at me as I arrived, and said, “Nice to see you” before following up with “Who are you?”. I suspect another water infection but we’ll see – the staff will organise a test on Monday.

Mum was rather confused today and apparently still being awkward about eating, drinking and personal hygiene. Despite that, she complied when I suggested she go to the loo and change her underwear today. And we had a nice time together – so much so, that she was reluctant to let me go, unsure of when she might see me again. I promised another visit in the week and so she blew me kisses as I waved her goodbye.

Home for tea and a bit more cake-faffing. Well, Andrew cake-faffed, while John and I made all sorts of unhelpful suggestions!! I’m sure it’ll be alright on the night!!

Take care everyone. God bless.

Since we arrived home from our little break away last week, we have been very busy one way and another! Andrew is home, having brought everything with him, so it’s been a matter of trying to find homes for everything since Sunday. The house is creaking at the seams! He sent us a video while we were on holiday, in which he walked through the hall, the kitchen, the utility room, the gym and the garage to show us that each space was full to the gunnels.

We haven’t finished the ‘Great Unpacking’ yet, but we hope to break the back of it next week. The attic may be bowing under the weight of it all…….

Danielle and the children came over on Sunday for a roast dinner, which was lovely, while Michael was out and about watching the Coventry City match in the Play-Offs. We had a great time together just chilling out; and then, further excitement just as we were waving goodbye to them: the Kenilworth Originals arrived for a cuppa on their way back from a trip up North. Smashing to see the family so soon after we’d got back from our holiday.

Andrew and I have spent some time during this week digging the house out, in between other bits and bobs. John took himself off to his exercise class on Monday, which was good and he was pleased he went.

However, John has been pretty tired all week, feeling a bit ‘post-holiday blues’ and frustrated that every job he tries to do seems to take for ever. I had suggested a visit to the docs to ask him to up one of his meds, but we’ll see if things improve before he does that.

We had great fun on Tuesday – Michael was working and Danielle had an appointment at the hairdressers for a full overhaul of her hair. Four hours in the stylist’s seat and she came home looking beautiful. John and I looked after Oliver for the morning and a bit of the afternoon. Well, I say ‘John and I’, but John was quite tired and spent some of the time inspecting the back of his eyelids!

Oliver was as good as gold and great company. He’s not daft though. I had sent a photo of Oliver and Chester to reassure Danielle that all was going well. Danielle texted back: ‘Not missing me, then?’ And he wasn’t at that point. However, a bit later on, he crawled with purpose into the hall. Finding no joy there, he crawled into the lounge. Ah…. no Mummy or Daddy! He turned round to look at me, as if to say, ‘Well, where are they then?’ Fortunately, no tears as I was quickly able to distract him, but he was definitely looking for one parent or the other.

We drove into Birmingham on Wednesday morning for an appointment with the immunologist and he said he thought John is doing very well considering the tough times he’s had. It was a good appointment and we came away satisfied. Despite that, John continued to feel tired all day, to the point that he wasn’t keen to stay the course for Quiz night. It turned out that none of us were really, for one reason or another, so we simply had an evening of chat instead, postponing the prepared questions until next week.

More blood tests for John on Thursday down at the surgery, whence he travelled on his scooter as I had the car to go to yoga, and Andrew had taken the other one and stayed over at Paul’s the night before. We both pottered about a bit. John mending the door handle to the lounge, and trip to Screwfix and ToolStation for parts, before we collapsed on the sofa for some evening TV watching.

Andrew and I gathered together a whole pile of stuff – his and ours – to take to the tip on Thursday afternoon and both felt better for getting rid of some junk, but bad about the waste when you see what other people are chucking out!! More sorting to do and another trip to the tip next week, maybe?

And today, John and Andrew have been baking cake ready for Oliver’s christening on Sunday. Danielle was working and Michael had a meeting mid-day, so I toddled over to Kenilworth to look after the two littlies for an hour or two. Once again, had a lovely time, messing about in the garden and the children were as good as gold. Only Chester spoiled the tranquility of our togetherness by doing a bit of barking for what appeared to be no reason at all.

The boys worked hard on the cake(s) which are cooked but not yet decorated…… pics tomorrow if it’s finished!!

And that’s us!! We’ve been on the go all week and are beginning to feel a bit befuddled……hehehe! Take care everyone. God bless.

We had a lovely break away in Cornwall last week. The travelling went well, the hotel was special, the weather was kind and John’s health kept up with whatever was asked. All in all, it was wonderful to get away for a few days.

We weren’t sure how it would all turn out, given that when we arrived at (nearly) our destination, the heavens opened and it absolutely poured down. We had decided to call in at St Ives before driving on to the Carbis Bay Hotel, but it wasn’t as easy as we’d hoped. Nowhere to easily park, and then the heavens opened. So we had a quick cuppa in a café and decided to move on. No sightseeing for us there after all!

The hotel staff in Carbis Bay were great and brought our bags into our upgraded bedroom – nay, suite – for us. Perfect. The only thing we wondered about was how John would get about as it was a bit uphill and down dale. However, he managed exceptionally well, and walked everywhere, including a couple of treks down the stairs to the beach.

The view over the bay was absolutely spectacular and we revelled in the view from our room every single day, feeling very blessed indeed.

The hotel had a spa area, where swimming, sauna and jacuzzi were the order of the day and which I visited frequently. I had thought I might swim in the sea but, after a paddle up to my ankles, decided that it was freezing cold and not for me this time.

On our first day we enjoyed a Cornish Cream Tea – but failed to follow the Cornish way of putting the jam on the scone first…… oops, the etiquette police will be after us!

For our evening meal on the second day, we made our way to the ‘Ugly Butterfly’ restaurant, which is a fine dining restaurant, where we had the tasting menu and really enjoyed it. Marvellous.

We spent one lovely day in Marazion, too, where we visited familiar haunts and whiled away time, watching the boats and people travelling to and from St. Michael’s Mount. Fabulous. And we couldn’t resist a thoroughly tasty pasty from Philps’ either!

On our way home, we popped in to Coverack, another old haunt with fond memories, stopping at the Paris Hotel for a swift pint. Here’s the ol’ man enjoying sitting in the sunshine in the garden. Ah, what memories the visit evoked!! Lovely.

And yet another treat was in store as we wended our way home. Richard and Linda Bones invited us to call in and stay over if we liked. We liked – and so we did! And what a marvellous overnight stay that was! They were such brilliant hosts – great company and just easy to get on with.

John and I were both given a tour of the land that Richard has acquired over the years, with its lake (they call it a pond, but I assure you it’s not!), its woodland, its barns, and the fields with grazing cattle and sheep. Glorious. What an amazing amount of work Richard has put in. It absolutely took our breath away.

Linda created a delicious evening meal when we arrived and then, the following morning, she and I took the dogs a walk while John and Richard went to the land. It was beautiful weather and we had a smashing wander. We then went along to the local church where a wedding was taking place, to listen to the bell-ringing. Linda is a trainee bell-ringer and she was keen to listen to the experts. Such a fabulous experience.

Here we all are, having just arrived on the Friday! Don’t we all look good?

And that was our holiday. We had such a lovely time and came home felling exceptionally blessed – and tired after along journey, but refreshed. I think we’d like to do it all again!!

Take care everyone. God bless.

It was a new one on me. ‘Coronating’ the King. I had never heard of such a thing, but yes, it actually is a bona fide word. Anyway, we thought we’d have a family party. Any excuse to get together, drink champagne, eat lots of lovely food, chatter and play.

We started off with bacon butties and ended with a buffet lunch/tea. But, do you know what? We were having such a good time that we forgot to do the Piñata!! It wasn’t until everyone was going home that I remembered, and by then it was too late. “Never mind,” soothed Danielle, “we’ll have it at Thomas’s party instead.”

The children had a good time, too. “Can we get the craft box down?” Freddie asked. Yes, of course. I popped it on the kitchen table, poured some paint and they dug in. I meandered into the lounge, leaving them to it. Quite a long while later, Harriet went into the kitchen and then came back into the lounge, horrified. “We’ve left the children unsupervised!!” she exclaimed, “There’s glitter everywhere!” Hehehe. Yup! The kids had had a great time!! I wondered why they were so quiet……

Naturally, we had brought toys downstairs for the children to play with but who needs toys when you’ve got other, more interesting stuff………? Hehe! Oliver loves a dishwasher!!

Oliver was clearly having a ‘standing up’ day yesterday. Not quite walking but steady on his pins. “Clap hands!” we all chorused as he stood, looking as pleased as punch with himself as he got ready for bed. And he did. Bless him.

The day was great fun – as it always is with the family. The only thing was, I think we were quite loud. Anyway, after we’d eaten some of the buffet, John felt overwhelmed by it all and took himself off upstairs to lay down on the bed. An afternoon nap is normally a good thing but he didn’t feel so great when he came down again. So, after the family had left about seven o’clock, we just spent a quiet evening together.

The family had tidied up before they left, but there was still a fair bit of crockery waiting to go into the already-busy dishwasher, so it wasn’t quite like the Wrinklies Cartoon in the house, (and sorry for the repeat showing of this, it always makes us chuckle) but this is what we felt like……… and we’ll be discovering glitter for months to come I expect!! Tee-hee!

We had planned to go over to Kenilworth Castle today and watch the Lion King with the Kenilworth Newbies, but it was a slow start for John who is not as well as I’d like him to be – although his cold has improved greatly. He’s feeling weary and everything is an effort. So we decided to stay home for the day – until the plan changed this afternoon!

I had got up early to greet the Ocado delivery driver at 7.30 with all the goodies. I had got fed up doing the order and just allowed a previous order to roll on. Ha! Ha! That was a mistake! I mean, a bottle of Port and a huge bottle of sherry? It must have been the Christmas order….. Anyway, suffice to say that we can’t eat three bags of carrots and two packs of pear, a pineapple, 8 bananas, 2 boxes of mushrooms and so on, before we set off tomorrow for our few days away can we?? I think Andrew is going to eat well when he gets home*……..

Once the shopping was all put away, I suddenly remembered that I’d ordered some play sand from Argos in Kenilworth, so we decided to nip over and collect it, and take some of the excess food to the Kenilworth Newbies. As it was a lovely day, I suggested we might go to the pub on the way back. “Let’s see what time the family will have finished at the Castle,” I said. In the end, it was Michael who phoned us and we had happy hour drinking beer and cider in the sunshine. Nice end to the weekend. Ah…. family!!

……*which reminds me! Andrew will be home this week!! He has waved goodbye to Midsummer House and is moving on to pastures new. Nice tribute from Daniel Clifford on Instagram on Andrew’s last day today:

Take care everyone. God bless. Hope you enjoy the rest of long weekend.

Yesterday was one of those funny days, whereby you whizz about a bit in the morning then, like an untied balloon, you deflate extremely rapidly and flop on the sofa for hours on end thereafter. So, nuff said about yesterday.

Today, however, we seemed to keep going most of the day. Wow! That’s an improvement!

We were up early to go to Solihull Hospital. John drove there and back. He insisted and said he felt up to it. The appointment was for me this time, you see. I had finally got an appointment with the Eye Clinic following my referral from the optician at the beginning of last December.

It transpires that the scans show a lamellar macular degeneration in both eyes, but mostly in the left. It’s a ‘watch and wait’ situation. Fortunately, the chap I saw was very kind and he was quite upbeat, saying that the holes in the macular were ‘quite small’ and not to worry. So I won’t.

On the way home, I had suggested to John that we call in at Oakes’ to buy some goodies for our family get-together tomorrow while we watch the coronation. He was in agreement and, in turn, suggested we stay for a bite to eat. Yep, that sounded good to me!! And who should we see as we walked in? Louise and Dave!! The very same whom we’d had to cancel for lunch on Tuesday! What a lovely surprise.

They posed with us for a photo, but were soon setting off as they were entertaining their Canadian relations and were on their way elsewhere for the afternoon. Fortunately, John’s cold is no longer infectious!!!

This afternoon I left John at home and went with Paul to visit Mum. And what a good time we had!! Would you believe it, but Mum was on top form and quite lucid for a change!!

She didn’t quite remember who Paul was, but knew she knew him somehow. She was absolutely enamoured of him though and couldn’t stop stroking his hair and feeling his muscles. I don’t know how many times she said, “You’ve got lovely auburn hair! Where does that come from?” and then, “You’re very big, aren’t you?”

She thought he had a lovely face, lovely teeth, lovely hair, lovely muscles and was in fact, all in all, just lovely.

We giggled together for the whole of the time we were there. Naturally, with Mum being hard of hearing, there is often a mix-up in what was said, what was heard, and what was interpreted. It always ends in laughter.

Mum had been repeatedly admiring Paul’s hair – and then we got to talking about age. “You are 97,” I told Mum. She could hardly believe it. Paul followed up with, “And I’m forty-two,” Mum looked him up and down, looked back at his hair and said, “You bought it, too?” And, before we had time to respond, she reached out, patted his arms and said admiringly, “It looks like you had a very good buy!”

We plied Mum with cups of tea and water throughout the afternoon to try and keep her fluids up. The first offering of tea was rejected. Mum turned her nose up and said ‘it tasted funny’. Paul called it, and thought was probably too sweet. Ahhh…. yes, it had sugar in it. The second cup of tea was initially rejected because it was too hot. We offered water instead. Mum took a sip and said it was too cold. We decided she would give Goldilocks a run for her money…….

All in all, it was a very enjoyable afternoon. Seeing Paul must have triggered something in Mum’s memory because she did remember quite a few things today – some of which made her sad to remember, but still…. it was a bit of my old Mum back and, after all the worry, she seems to be on the mend, after all. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Home again and we had a cuppa with Paul before John and I decided to set off for Sainsbury’s. I wanted to buy a Piñata for the children to play tomorrow, and Sainsbury’s website suggested that they might have some in.

John went off to Timpson’s to get a key cut while I walked round and round and round Sainsbury’s and couldn’t see any Piñata. I asked and was directed to the stationery department. Nothing there. I asked someone else. The girl thought they’d be on the bottom shelf…..oh, there weren’t any there. “Amy will know,” she said. But where was Amy? Nowhere to be seen. The girl went to find her and, by luck, did so. “They’ll be on the bottom shelf, if we have any…. oh, there aren’t any there.” My heart sank but I was resigned to coming away empty-handed. Amy suddenly remembered they had shifted some of their stock to Aisle 4 the other day. “You could try there?” she suggested. And, guess what? Success!! Yay!! We’re going to have fun tomorrow!!

Take care everyone. God bless. And thank you for all the healing vibes – John is feeling a lot better today.

I had been promised that a doctor would visit Mum today and that the surgery would let me know when the visit would happen so that I could be there. So, while John took himself down to our surgery for his regular injection of Prostap and I waited for the phone call to come in this morning, I started to look into another of Mum’s affairs – namely, getting my Dad’s name removed from the deeds so that Warwickshire County Council can lend us some dosh against the house, to keep paying Mum’s fees.

I searched the website for a phone number for the Land Registry. I scrolled round and round until I finally came across one, which I promptly dialled. ‘We are experiencing a high volume of calls and the wait for an operator is 25 minutes.’ Oh, crikey! Ah, well, I wasn’t doing anything else so I waited. In the meantime, I decided to search some more on the website and found a form to expedite the application I had submitted. I filled it in and sent it off.

The Customer Service operator finally talked to me on the phone and said, “I can fill in a form to expedite your application if you like?” Ha! Ha! Ha! Anyway the upshot of it was that she also filled in an ‘expediting’ form, so between us there’s a double whammy and someone, somewhere, might get on to looking at what needs to be done. “Yes, it should be picked up tomorrow,” said the operator, ” and they should turn it round in ten days.” Oh. I’ve only waited four weeks already……

By the time I’d finished the phone call, I still hadn’t heard from the doctor, so I phoned the surgery (you are number 6 in the queue). Yes, the doctor would be going. Probably between 11.30 and 1.00. OK.

John came back very late from his appointment. “Gosh, you’ve been a long time,” I exclaimed. “Yes, the computers were down so we had to wait until they were back up and running.” he replied. Oh…… crumbs! He’d had to wait about half an hour for his treatment.

Anyway, I left him behind and toddled along to the care home. “We’ll go out into the garden and enjoy the sunshine when I get back,” I said to John, as I left the house, thinking I’d be a couple of hours.

I had a good chat with the Care Home Manager and then went to help Mum with her lunch. She is still refusing to eat and drink, although we did get some ice cream into her plus half a glass of squash.

And then we waited for the doctor to arrive. When he came, he was quite thorough, pronounced that she was medically fit and took a look at her arm which she had shredded in her fall.

Immediately, he said that the District Nurse needed to be called and a new dressing applied. Guess what? We waited some more….. I didn’t get home until nearly five o’clock and poor John had been on his tod all day.

Bless him, he wasn’t feeling great. His cold is slightly better, but he was feeling very miserable and a bit frustrated. Andrew had asked him to book a van for the removal of his stuff from Cambridge, but one way. No vans available one way. He was disappointed he hadn’t been able to deliver. Grr.

All in all, John has taken a bit of a downturn in the way he’s looking at things, so I’m on a mission to cheer him up. Not sure how, but I’ll do my best.

Quiz Night tonight and John joined us, but he didn’t have a great deal of energy to contribute much. He left before the final round, and tucked himself up in bed, hoping to get a reasonable night’s sleep and feel better tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Take care everyone. God bless. And more healing vibes if you have any – thank you!

Yesterday, in anticipation of a lovely lunch with Louise and Dave today, I picked some Spring flowers from the garden and set the dining table…….

Looks a bit lonely, doesn’t it? Empty chairs at an empty table? That’s because we thought we’d better cancel our lunch date since John has a cold!! What a shame – we had been looking forward to a get-together so much, but decided it was much better not to risk it – and now we’re on the hunt for another date in the near future. The best laid plans……. ah, well!

John stayed in bed this morning but got up at lunchtime. He stayed downstairs until midway through the evening when he took himself off to bed feeling rather weary and not too clever.

I wasn’t sure quite what to say to him when he said he was going to go into the garage to do a bit of tidying up. I didn’t think it was the best idea when he was feeling poorly, so I just bleated the constant refrain on my lips at the moment; “Well, don’t do more than half an hour – we’re trying to keep you healthy for a our trip to Cornwall next week….”

I am not sure that it was the effort in the garage that did him in – I think it was falling asleep without a blanket on and getting a bit of a chill. Fingers crossed there’s an improvement tomorrow.

I had quite a busy day one way and another, having been to yoga class this morning, then did a spot of spring cleaning of the oven, put on some washing, cooked the lunch (we thought we’d have the lasagne John had made anyway!), talked to Mum’s care home and doctors (more on that tomorrow), prepared the Quiz for tomorrow night and took Andrew down to the station and hugged him goodbye, before a bit of a tidy-up after our day at home. Gosh, I hope I am not sickening for something….. hot lemon and honey all round, I think!!

Take care everyone. God bless.

We were doing so well!! John has managed to stay relatively healthy for a good while but this morning admitted he had a sore throat!! He’d done a Covid test just in case, but that came back negative, so fingers crossed it’s not that.

We had planned to go to the Warwick Races today, but we took our time to get going this morning, so I wondered if he wanted to go? “Yes,” he said, putting his Mr Determined face on, “Yes, I do. Come on, I’m ready.” Oh, OK. So we set off.

We actually had a lovely day all of us together at the races with the Kenilworth contingent. It took us a while to actually get into the race course however, as there seemed to be millions of people all queuing for the same event. But we finally made it and found a great spot to watch from.

Naturally, we put some bets on and one or two of the family had winnings and came out up, but we didn’t – we were several pounds the poorer, but it was very good fun, so we didn’t mind at all.

We failed to get a full complement of the family in a photo but here’s a few of them looking happy!!

We stayed pretty much all day and got home just after five o’clock. By then, John was beginning to feel very tired and a bit rough, so I made him a cuppa and he had a snooze on the sofa.

We were just finishing our jacket potato about seven-ish, when a car drew up on the drive. And who should be? It was Andrew!! Yay! He’d come home to bring a few things ready for his leaving Cambridge next week. He has decided on a change of scene after working so very hard at Midsummer House, and he’s going to see where life takes him next. We might have a lodger for a little while……

John stayed up to spend some time in Andrew’s company but was soon on his way up to bed. I am hoping that he’ll feel better tomorrow but he’s not great at the moment – might have to send in the cavalry to improve him before our planned trip away to Cornwall next week…… wish us luck!

Take care everyone. God bless.

I had intended to go to church this morning and was disappointed not to be able to join Paul and Freddie, but I’d promised to go and visit Mum after the phone call from the home yesterday. So I was up and about quite early and on my way by about ten o’clock.

Mum wasn’t too bad in fact but, having decided she didn’t want any more of her toast and jam for breakfast, it was still sat there on the table in front of her, one quarter of a slice having been eaten. The staff had tried to persuade her, but no luck. She had a cold cup of tea in front of her too, half-drunk, so the care assistant made her another one when I got there, and then Mum and I sat together for a couple of hours while she drank her tea, ate some of her Easter chocolate and drank up some squash.

She enjoyed my company and was grateful for a bit of a back massage, too.

The staff on duty were very good. They had given her a bath this morning and, as usual, she had screamed the place down, apparently. Bless her. Her sore arm was painful and the nurse on duty gave her paracetamol which Mum took without too much fuss. So all in all, I was pleased with the efforts of the staff today – and they promised to try her on some soup and maybe offer her some jelly and ice cream in an attempt to get some fluids into her.

I left about twelve-thirty, promising to check up on her again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, John had had a lovely morning with Paul and Freddie, who had called in after church. He hid some little Easter Eggs for Freddie to find, as he’d missed out at Easter while they were on their holiday in Florida. I think he enjoyed searching for them and eating them!! John certainly enjoyed their company.

John was catching up with the women’s rugby match from yesterday when I arrived home, so I prepped some lunch before nipping up to the shops to buy ingredients for Tuesday’s lunch when we’re entertaining.

I sat on the sofa. John was watching the Grand Prix by then. Our eyes felt heavy…….. several hours later, we woke up. Oh, heavens!! Where has our energy gone??? We are permanently exhausted, it seems.

“Do you want a cup of tea?” John asked once I woke up. “We haven’t got any teabags,” I replied. “I forgot to get them when I went to the shops…” So John took himself up to the shops to buy some – what a guy. What a hero.

By then, we had got ourselves going well enough to prep food for our evening meal tonight, and John prepped for our lunch on Tuesday, but honestly, it was a push for both of us. Ah, well, maybe an early night now and we’ll feel better tomorrow? Hope so!!

Take care everyone. God bless.

Saturday. What to do on a Saturday? Well, this morning I actually managed to winkle myself out of bed by about 9.30 and get ready for a writing course. And not such a struggle to emerge for a change.

John had got up before me and brought me a cup of tea in bed, which was rather good, and then we thought we ought to get on. Stop all the faffing about and procrastinating!!

John went and tinkered on the car for a couple of hours. He said it was quite hard work and came in just after 1.30 absolutely jiggered! He staggered into the lounge, still wearing his work clothes, and flopped onto the sofa. I’d suggested he have a bath to ease his aches and pains. “I’m not having a bath yet,” he insisted. “I’m too knackered!”

Meanwhile, I had had a lovely morning doing the ‘Writing for Wellbeing’ course, where we write absolutely anything in response to some stimulus or other. Today it was about ‘Our Creative World’. It certainly gave me lots to think about and I wrote loads – as usual!! Even managed a poem which the group thought was OK. Go me!!

We sat down for some cheese on toast at lunchtime and just mooched on the sofa for a while, watching the Grand Prix Qualifying. Poor John had his work cut out trying to explain to me the new rules about ‘The Sprint’. All I could ask was, “But why?” Makes absolutely no sense to me and I got bored after a bit.

John went up for his bath eventually and I nipped up to the shops to buy some indigestion remedies. I’ve been suffering for a week or two – I think it might be too much prosecco – and thought I’d try a remedy or two before I toddle off to the doctors and the dreaded offer of an endoscopy…….

Home again and John was still languishing in the bath when a text message from Danielle came in. The electricity was off in their neck of the woods. And wouldn’t be on again until 11 o’clock at night. And now it was tea-time. ‘Do you want to come round?” I asked. Yep, that’d be just the ticket! And what about the Kenilworth Originals? Were they affected? No, apparently not.

I thought they might sleep over, but in the end, they went home just as dusk was falling to put the boys to bed, all armed with lamps and torches. What an adventure it would be for the children!

We had a lovely couple of hours together and I feel blessed that we were able to support them for a little while.

Just as they were getting the children ready to leave I took a phone call from Mum’s Care Home. Apparently she’s refusing to eat or drink and they thought they ought to let me know. Botheration! I had had high hopes when I saw her on Thursday that she was on the mend. I’ll call in tomorrow and see what’s what, and see if I can persaude her to ingest something. We’ll see.

And that was us done for the day. We waved goodbye to the Kenilworth Newbies and settled in for a bit more Grand Prix and a catch-up on programmes we’d recorded, before making our way up the wooden hill.

Not a bad day today despite our continued fatigue and John’s impression of the Puffin’ Billy.

Goodnight everyone. God bless.