The Greatest Crepe

[MontserratCaballe]

I hope I have remembered the chosen title correctly - I have used Crem's title (think it was Crem's) as the old thread is full.

Herbs - will be fab to have lots of time en famille in the summer but eek re new job on horizon.

Inspired by CV and Rose I have put 10 things on Ebay. They range from size 10 to 16. WTF.

MI Glad he's apologised. What did he actually mean to say?

I have just sold some of DMs craft items on eBay - not a huge amount of money and I still have to bundle them up and schlep them off to be delivered

Herbs is she forgetting to take her meds or not wanting to take them? Does she get them in blister packs - that seemed to help DM for a while. Glad you have sun - it's just muggy here.

Oh Herbs, what a day! I really feel for you.its not as if we all have the knowledge and resources to ba able to look after parents in built. It just seems so topsy turvy. And weird. It does sound like the dps need a reassessment of their needs. Otherwise it may well go from crisi to crisis, which would be impossible to deal with. I'm really so sorry.

MI, kick him in the slats. How RUDE! You've just buried your DM fgs. Tell him to Ti the Chi off.

Funeral went well. Was quite upbeat for a funeral, which was how she had designed it. Her poor husband though, is broken.

right, a bit of work in the garden.

It is a shame I am stranded in Mitteleuropa MI, otherwise I would rush round and drag you out for gin. I am remembering that evening in your kitchen where we chattered on and neither Herr Schadenfreude nor Mr Inferior muttered one word.

Herbs, sending you love and good vibes.

Excellent. We both get so tetchy when dh's side come, as he knows I'm really not enjoying entertaining them. Actually, I get tetchy for at least 24 hours ahead of each visit, in anticipation of vast acres of silly chitchat

God yes, they said NOTHING. While we chuntered and indeed so did our daughters.

Second the recommendation for blister packs and a reassessment of needs.

They have blister packs of meds for morning and evening, but the pain relief has to be taken four times a day. And aren't in the blister packs.

She forgets, or just takes it when the pain gets excruciating. Which isn't helpful. I had a long chat with the lady in the mobility shop, who talked of morphine patches, which do slow-release of morphine for such occasions. Naturally they have to be got through the gp, so sis is going to nag them on Monday. She is also making appointments to look round care homes, should it come to that.

How do I go about getting their needs reassessed?

Another annoying thing - they each have one of those panic buttons, but it turns out they don't work via TalkTalk. I forsee another admin nightmare.

Good job my mother in law doesn't have a fatal brain tumor, my partner hasn't just been made redundant, and I don't have a really difficult and badly paid job. Oh, wait...

MIMrsS, did they hate each other on sight? IIRC MrI was reasonably chatty at Herbs's 50th

I am thinking about organising our summer hol. It looks like we need to get a move on and book internal flights and maybe some places to stay as it is High Season there, not Shoulder as I originally thought Usually DH does all this, but he hasn't got the time/brain-space now he has a Very Important Job

Herbs, when I got DM's needs assessed originally, I rang the LA who arranged for a nice lady to come round and told me way too much at once to look at physical changes to the environment. She told me that as DM would be self-funding initially, it was sadly down to me to sort carers, but gave me lists.

I also took her to the GP who did the initial memory assessment and then a battery of other tests and got DM referred to the Memory Clinic. This all took quite a while. I would advise you to get them (or just DF) along there asap.

Re the Panic Button, it was frankly more trouble than it was worth

Also, the Care/Nursing home manager would have to come and assess them so as to see if they can meet their/DF's needs. Your sis needs to make sure she doesn't waste her time looking at homes that don't take dementia residents (if you think he has it, and it sounds like he has)

Sorry, it's really, really crap, isn't it?

It is so monumentally crap. I want a grown up to take charge, then realise that I am that grown up. Except I feel about 15.

I feel your pain

Herbs {{ }}. It is very crap... My mum just wouldn't press the bloody button on the panic thing!

Here dad continues the battle with banks, life assurance etc etc who all, despite the fact he has power of attorney, want different things! It's a nightmare.

MI glad he apologised although it was incredibly rude

I purchased the Boden ruched wrap over top - I like it but wow it's snug!

Having spent so much on food and wine at the airport, I only had enough cash left fora bottle of Aperol. The gin is cheaper in Waitrose, and has same % alcohol (for the gin I was interested in anyway). I am full of Klops and Kartoffelsalat. And wine. and have squirted myself with Tom Ford's Neroli Acqua so smell delicious.

I have hit the wine. My mother is nagging me for dinner. This is both good (she's feeling feisty) and bad (FFS). The freezer is not cold enough.

I'm going home tomorrow come hell or high water.

Herbs, sending you huge hugs xxxx

Herbs, that is just too big a portion of shitsicles for any one person.

Sending you strength, Herbs. It sounds like a hellish situation, and there's no instruction manual to navigate your way through it.

Well done buying the painting, WAF - you shouldn't feel a moment's regret for buying something beautiful you are going to look at for years to come. We have quite a lot of original art, of many varieties and standards, and love them all.

Meanwhile, I've had a day chillaxing at home - a nice ladyjog this morning, and a satisfying blast of "admin", including applying for ESTA visas for the US trip. A tortuous website, which asked me for a vast amount of information for each one of us, with no facility to copy over information in common (addresses etc).

DS has gone off to a party, dressed as Spiderman.

Oh hell, Herbs, I am sorry. .

CV, I have just applied for ds' ESTA. Does anyone tick the box to say they are planning to commit espionage or genocide, or that they have smallpox? What a waste of time and effort.

Arrived home, put moose sausages and caraway seeds cheese in fridge and discovered cat had done a monumental sick over the chaise longue and a pile of books. DH has gone to Oddbins for wine. He has also a smashed one of my favourite lamps. But is now cooking dinner.

I want to go back to my lovely hotel room...

Herbs, BD, BTM, sorry about parent-worries. My Mum could not manage blister packs at all and could not read anything printed on them. What she really needed was a dosette box, where the pharmacy charges up the little compartments with pills for each time every day. You don't really need to know what day it is, or even whether it's morning, afternoon or evening but you do need to know whether you've just taken them or not. I think you can now get one with an alarm that goes off when the pills are due.

My DM had me instead.

We went to visit her grave today- looking absolutely wonderful in a field of buttercups, next to a wood full of speedwell and surrounded by lush greenery. As I walked up the hill with DSis2 and DH, I was thinking 'I don't believe this - it can't be right'. Yesterday morning I heard DM having a conversation in the next room. My first thought was not 'that can't be Mum, because she's dead'. It was 'who's she talking to?'

On Thursday I had to go in to the Co-op because they still had not sent a correct invoice for the funeral. It's about five weeks since they sent one with a charge for a celebrant, which (as they knew) we didn't have. There were convoluted stories about why it had all taken so long, but I just sat there until the man printed off a correct invoice (at the third attempt).

Today I received a reminder for the fee which is now overdue, pointing out that they expect payment within 28 days.

On the other hand, BBC 4 iPlayer has a wonderful documentary about the Highwaymen and a two-hour recording of a live concert from their glory days DSis2 and I have watched it all twice.

Herbs, that really is way too much grimitude. Hope you can get home this morning and breathe.

Y, Y to the dossettes. Chemists do them all the time, it shouldn't be a problem to get them set up via gp/regular pharmacy.

Auriga the field sounds beautiful. It's all still so new for you.

Auriga for you re bill. Sit on it until the 11th hour....

Mrs S hope you're happier to be home this morning

Thanks CV, I appreciate that. My mum told me a Chinese proverb: 'If you have two loaves, sell one and buy a lilly.' She also thought the painting looks line a Hockney, which if course it isn't. I have been hurling money around lately like a Euro millions winner - 'what can I get now?'. I am so delighted to not only have work now, but also, all things being equal, gently crossed fingers, for months ahead. It hasn't been as good as this.... like, ever, so I'm giddy (giddy goat). I'm going to hutl more at an excellent sit2stand desk and some bodywork sessions to release my neck shoulder, but then I am going to zip IP my purse and find my kicks in the house, sorting through stuff, loving what I have. I was really good at managing with barely any money for a couple of years, I don't want rocket the other way.