Update

Well where do I start. It is some time since I posted as life has been hectic. As you know my other half got made redundant after 30 years service on the Friday before Christmas, so that did not get us off to a very good start for what was supposed to be a holiday break for us.

His mother had been taken ill at the beginning of December, then spent two weeks in hospital with what turned out to be heart failure, and then catching the norovirus. So this meant we were not able to visit and they eventually closed the hospital for a couple of weeks whilst they tried to get the virus under control. We collected her from her home as she was visiting us all over Christmas. This lead to her staying a month as she was too sick to go home. We discovered that there had been no proper discharge plan and her doctor had not been notified she was going home. Her other son is not capable of looking after her, so we found her weak and frail, not eating and with a the memory of a sieve. This lead to issues over medication and we have finally got her doctor to agree to a nomad pack, although some days she does not know what day it is, so there is still the danger of over or under medicating. We took her back home and now phone her on a daily basis to check she is ok.

Whilst she was here she saw our doctor a couple of times, and we have severe memory issues with her. She had completely lost her sequencing of thoughts, could not remember if she had eaten or taken her medication. Did not remember going out to a New Years Eve party and so on. I work with people who have dementia, but believe me it is far different when you are living with it and mighty hard work. How many times can you be asked the same question and still be smiling?

Later today we are going to look at a house that has a granny annexe, with a view to her coming to live with us.

In amongst this the other half is job searching, and being dragged up to London for interviews, only to find that the majority of them are Life Coaches who want to relieve him of a sizable chunk of his redundancy pay to show him how to get a job. Well, as that is what I did for many years before moving into the care sector, I got the fealing that was money wasted, and that we could better use for ourselves.

I have found the whole thing hard as it completely changes your routine and with his self confidence at an all time low, makes you feel you need to walk on eggshells.

Still the good news is that he has a 3 month contract starting Monday, that will give him more to put on his CV showing how flexible and well rounded he is. (of course they can see how well rounded he is, must get down to our diets now that we have lost some of the stress we have been under). We will then take a two week break at the beginning of May. We have a holiday place in the New Forest - nothing swish, but a good place for a retreat, and then hopefully there will be something else in the pipeline for him. His agent thinks that there is quite a lot of contract work around at the moment due to the financial crisis and the work he does is to do with computer compliance amongst other things, so we shall wait and see.

Mary

Happy Christmans

Please click on this link to see your card.

Here is hoping 2009 brings better luck

2008 is finishing on a poor note for us. Bob was made redundant on 19th December. No consultation or negotiation, just an interview to tell him that out of the 3 of 7 people who might be made redundant he had been chosen. Not bad for 30 years of service for the same company. So you will appreciate that he is not a happy bunny and everything I try to suggest is a critism. Unfortunately his current circumstances does not take away the fact that outside of work he is a lazy sod, who would rather play with his computer - chess and emails (or whatever), watch cricket and go birdwatching. Home type things are not for him, so households tasks are something to be done only when we have visitors, and as we do not have them often enough, his efforts housework wise are extremely limited.

Whilst all that was going on his mother became ill and managed to get a serious chest infection, and then the noro virus which closed the hospital for over two weeks.

We are off tomorrow to fetch her here for Christmas, so a journey to Exeter. Of course the house is not fit for guests, too untidy, very dusty and goodness knows only knows when last hoovered. Sympton of the fact that I work long hours and have a partner who would not recognise the place was mess unless he could no longer get through the door.

And yes I am feeling undervalued and sorry for myself at present

2008's First Christmas Joke
Three men died on Christmas Eve and were met by Saint Peter at the pearly gates.'In honor of this holy season' Saint Peter said, 'You must each possess something that symbolizes Christmas to get into heaven.'The first man fumbled through his pockets and pulled out a lighter. He flicked it on. 'It represents a candle', he said.'You may pass through the pearly gates' Saint Peter said. The second man reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. He shook them and said, 'They're bells.'Saint Peter said 'You may pass through the pearly gates'.The third man started searching desperately through his pockets and finally pulled out a pair of women's panties.St. Peter looked at the man with a raised eyebrow AND asked, 'And just what do those symbolize?'The man replied, 'These are Carols.' And So The Christmas SeasonBegins......

Snow uppdate

Well, after oversleeping due to my late night meeting, I set off for work. It was not too bad when I left home, the snow on my car and our houses had disappeared. As I got nearer my meeting destination for today the snow laying was getting thicker and thicker and the road conditions worse, with slushy snow/ice.

What finally blew my mind away was the clear blue skies and bright sunshine, the gorgeous autumn colours of the trees, all vibrant oranges and reds, the snow laying on the fields amd hedges, and then would you believe a hot air balloon rising up in the distance - a combination of summer, autumn and winter all in one - just wish I had my camera with me.

The temperatures are still very low for this time of year, although according to the weather forcast they will rise again next week. No wonder the main topic of conversation for us Brits is the weather - lol.

Well at least I will have someone to warm my feet on this evening as the SO is back from his training course.

OMG its snowing

I have just come out of a late meeting to be greeted by snow. Falling heavily, albeit onto very wet roads. Running around to the car park I found my car covered and the temperature reading saying it was -5 degrees c. Now how can that be for 28th October, summer is barely over, except that we never really had one, and autumn has just begun.

I have 20 miles to drive to and from work each day, and it was a horrible drive home this evening, especially as it was now 10.00 pm and I was tired, and with sore eyes due to too much time on the computer today. The damn staff always want paying during the last week of the month lol.

Last night was extremely cold and in the absence of my SO who is on some conference or other, I had to find other means of warming my feet up - so went in search of another blanket. Given the temperature this evening I may have to find another blanket and wear bed socks.

They are forecasting snow through the night and extremely icy roads in the morning, which may not bode too well for my journey up the M4

Still for now it is late, so I am going to bed with a magazine read for a few mins, and then hopefully into the land of nod till 7.00 am

Sorting things out

Well it is just like leaving home and losing your telephone directory. I think I have now found everyone and have suscribed to the followers list.

Apart from that life is hectic at present both workwise and homewise. I am ploughing through mountains of paperwork to try and get my life into some sort of paperwork order. I was painted at work and had 13 years worth of paperwork to sort out. Managed to sort all the loose stuff out that had never got filed, and now I need to go through files and filing cabinets to sort them out. I took the drastic decision to open folders on my Outlook email and just drag emails there, rather than print meeting notes out. I have been doing that for a year now, and guess what - I had my computer upgraded last week and they lost all of my sub-folders - still at least I did not need to make a decision of what to keep and what not to keep.

At home, paperwork is pretty much the same - there is so much junk mail that comes through the post and I swear I throw it out as soon as it arrives, but I still managed to half fill the recycling bin this evening. Then of course there are all the half read magazines that I never get chance to read, and the craft magazines I buy with good intent but never start or finish the projects.

My SO is away on business so at least that gives me a chance for some semi-serious sorting out.

Well enough of my ramblings, time for bed

Nite, nite