The Aftermath.... an eclectic mix of thoughts

Well we seem to have survived the BIG party... but boy are we all exhausted.  And to top it all we have another six visitors arriving today, (J's brother and family).  I think I shall have to deploy some match sticks to hold my eye lids open. 

We are also dealing with various invasions of insects; ants and wasps to name but two.  It makes you realise that give them a year unchecked and your home would be over run with pests, vermin and various vegetation.  The Victoria Creeper on the front of the house needs a hair cut every other week this time of year, otherwise it really would literally creep into and over the house. 

We have also discovered that rats had been nestling in the loft in The Outback.  These are being dealt with but had only been noticed when the man to service the Rayburn popped his head up into the attic... "How many are there?" Her Next Door shrieked (in pure panic mode), but Boiler Man wouldn't commit himself, just grunted.  This vagueness of course toyed with her dark imaginings; we must have vast colonies up there she insists.  Although only the droppings have been sighted so far.

I also listened to the news last night about Nick Clegg's "suggestion box" and apparently there is still an archaic law that states as a British citizen you are supposed to report sightings of grey squirrels, well we'd be on the phone every half hour.  If there are any laws or regulations you'd like to do away with Nick invites you to comment, see http://yourfreedom.hmg.gov.uk/ for more on this - generally very interesting stuff.  I'm going to put my two penneth in.  Get involved or please don't moan about it.

Letter from The Queen (& Ian Duncan Smith AND The First Minister of Wales AND The Secretary of State for Wales).

Well it’s the morning of my Gran’s 100th. It’s the culmination of a lot of very, very hard work, mainly for Her Next Door. The ‘event’ starts today with Gran’s actual birthday and some people arriving to help us celebrate with an evening meal at Something’s Cooking (thank you Tony), the big party on Saturday through to the final people leaving Tuesday.

Unless you have ever organised a large ‘do’ it’s difficult to understand the amount of hard work that has to go in to it. So much to think about; invitations, organising who stays where (thank you to our neighbours who have been fantastic), talking to the B&Bs for those we just can’t accommodate, organising transport to and from the B&Bs, the venue, music, balloons, food, the cake (thank you Tracey), drinks, contingency plans if it rains, organising the letter from the queen, publicity.

The list is endless. Her Next Door has not been sleeping very well either as she keeps waking up with jobs to do churning round in her head.

We were going to just have an ‘open’ weekend all weekend, but in the end we managed to organise the Visitors Centre just across the way (only a few steps really) for the Saturday evening. Gran knows and likes it there. It has a disabled loo too, which at 100 is important! I personally was quite keen to do this for three primary reasons:-

1) firstly and most importantly in my eyes it gives Her Next Door a few hours off, once she is there she can relax and let others pour drinks and sort out the food. She too can really enjoy the actual party.
2) if it does rain we have one large room where we can all gather and mingle.
3) it gives a focus to the celebrations; everyone getting ready, changed, expectant for the main event.

Initially Gran herself was not so keen on a large get together. She finds it difficult to hear what you are saying to her when in a large crowd, with lots of others talking in the background. But recently she has said that she is really looking forward to it now. There are some people coming that she has not seen in an awfully long time and very, very nearly all of her family will be there. Sixty two in total.  There is one very dear man who won’t be able to come, but I am sure Granddad is looking down on us. We miss him, Gran most of all.

Today and Saturday though will be two extra special days, remembered and treasured by us all.

Mid Life Crisis

It was my birthday yesterday.  I may have lived more years than I have left to live.  A sobering thought.

I need to let rip, otherwise I may be too old to do so.

I could buy a Ferrari, but I’m not really into cars. A car for me has always been about getting from A to B without breaking down.

I’ve considered a change of job, but I really can’t think of anything I want to do more. I don’t think I’d qualify as a wine taster with my indiscriminate taste.  Any way I like working for myself - I can give myself half days off and I can change my job description to suit my mood.

I could buy myself some heavy jewellery, but that really does remind me of medallion man and hairy chests from the 70s.  Not that I have a hairy chest, nor am I a man last time I looked; but it's all very ostentatious.  Not really me.

I’m pretty confident I could get a bit on the side, but I imagine after a few months it would be like having two partners.  Why would I inflict that on myself?

If I didn't have responsibilities I think I'd sell up, get a back pack and travel light for the rest of my life.  Can't take it with you after all.   Without the people I love around me though, I'd be very lost.

Perhaps I'll look more seriously into keeping chickens or bees.  Or do more gardening.  Not exactly letting rip though.  I'm going to go shopping on Saturday... let's see what I come back with.

Gran's rebelling...

Him and Her Next Door have gone away for a few days leaving us to Granny sit.

This is fine except Gran is going through a rebellious stage... "I am not getting dressed today, I feel dizzy when I try to..." glaring at me as if daring me to argue.  "I've put on my summer dressing gown for the daytime.  I'm quite decent."

Hmmm, one of Her Next Door 'rules' is that Gran should get dressed daily - except for her bath day, she is allowed a day off then. 

"And another thing, I don't want a new dress for my party." 

Blimey, let it all out Gran.

Is there a book on how to handle teenagers centenarians?

Hopefully Her Next Door will remain blissfully unaware of this outburst.  Nobody reads this do they?

Our garden in pictures

I love this time of year... (and wondering around the garden on a sunny day like today is the perfect antidote to politics).

Ms Angry to Ms Proud in 48 hours

Lows
Friday morning I found our Internet was down – being an IT company we are dead in the water without it. I phoned our ISP (note this stands for Internet Service Provider) who duly did the line checks and found nothing wrong. He told me that before anyone would send an engineer out we had to replace our router.

Not an unreasonable request I suppose except that I informed them that our neighbour was also down. What was the likelihood of two routers going ‘ping’ at the same time?

Apparently this information was irrelevant and had nothing to do with our issue. To me it was obvious that they were following a problem solving ‘script’ and come hell or high water and even when provided with useful information, they had to ensure that each item was duly checked off the list. Sorry Madam, it MUST be your router, grrrrrrr.

An hour round trip to pick up a new router, ½ hour to configure and £80.00 later, low and behold… our Internet was still down. Apologies, but the earliest an engineer could be with us now was Monday. My response? Insert expletives here.  I would also like to know who is going to refund us the cost of purchasing the router - it doesn't make a very convincing objet d'art.

Highs

Sunday I did the Race for Life at Scolton Manor in Pembrokeshire, what a beautiful day in more ways than one. There was a little team of us and G8 also ran. It brought tears to your eyes reading some of the dedications pinned to the backs of most of the runners. I ran for one person in particular who never got the chance to grow old, but also for two or three survivors. As we began our running they played Heather Small’s “What have you done today to make you feel proud?” and for once I had an answer to that.

Carers

It struck me recently how old age strikes with some stealth, it creeps up on you almost unnoticed.  We're all living longer and therefore having to cope with aging and all it brings in a way never encountered before.  If not for ourselves then for others who are close to us.

My Gran, who is very alert and has all her cognitive skills, yesterday had an accident she couldn’t avoid and was utterly heartbroken. How cruel ageing can be. The only real joy she gets from life (apart from her family) is from listening to her books and doing quiz shows on television as her sight too has let her down. She never moans though and is usually surprising cheerful.

My Mother-in-law is with us for a week and she too is struggling a little, mainly with arthritis which her weight aggravates and the two combined are now really affecting her mobility. She fails to remember things sometimes too.

Both Grannies would choose to remain totally independent - but for various reasons really can't. Mother-in-law lives on her own still but is helped enormously by her only daughter who shops, cleans and drops in daily for much needed human contact and Gran obviously lives with us cared for mainly by Her Next Door - but neither helper gets much direct help from the Government - financially or practically. This caring group is ignored yet it will become a bigger problem in years to come as each generation seems to live that little bit longer.

All this free caring is saving the tax payer a lot of money. Is it fair that people in their late sixties and early seventies who should now be free of mortgage, children, paid employment etc are finding they have other responsibilities? Please don't misunderstand, all mentioned here do this willingly and with much care and love - they wouldn't have it any other way. But should this silent army be doing it alone and without any support?