Sunday excursion

Felt really rough on Saturday, so just vegged in bed all day. Sunday it was so gorgeous out that we both felt we had to get out of the house. So wonderful to see so much sunshine.



Liverpool really is a city of cranes at present. I find them interesting - the angles they make against the sky and other buildings. And I love their colour against blue skies! Especially the red ones!



Baltic Fleet and cranes

Went to Gordale Nurseries first, where I was tempted by several plants (especially some of the euphorbias, but I worry about their nasty sap) but decided that I didn't really have the energy to look after any new plants right now. It was good fun to have a look at what is available at this time of year though, and it's so great to even begin to think about gardening again.

John trundled me as far as the kids' playground, when we heard some strange bird calls. We headed off towards them and found these strange birds:



What on earth are they? John made a guess at quail, but I didn't think quail had bald heads!

On to the flat afterwards, brought some more stuff home. Cooking notes Mum made at night school in the 1939-40 session. First recipe is lentil soup, followed by kidney soup. Not had time to read further yet. John went for a walk round the marine lake while I went through more bits and pieces.

It was very still, though very cold despite the sunshine. We watched a couple of kayackers paddling round the lake. Rather them than me!!! And then we watched the sun sink over the hills of Wales. Here's the last glimmer before it disappeared:



Today I went for my regular Monday evening counselling session. Been going for a few weeks now, was lucky enough to be able to contact the Counsellor I saw when I was fairly newly disabled with ME. She helped me a lot back then, and now I am seeing her for bereavement counselling. Today we began work on my Life Line. This is going to be painful I think, but I am convinced it will all help in the long term.



Sunday Traffic jam outside St Luke's Church. We think there must have been something on at the new stadium. Obvously this is something we are going to have to take account of when planning on driving through Liverpool!

Antiques Roadshow in Liverpool (and weird week)

Queueing for the Antiques Roadshow, St George's Hall, Liverpool

We went to St George's Hall the last time the Antiques Roadshow was in Liverpool. It was a lot of fun, even the queueing, both times. At least I managed to take some photos outside today!

We took a taxi down, as we thought it would be much too difficult to park anywhere particularly close, and I prefer to minimise my wheelchair travel as much as possible... Especially over cobblestones!



Dolphins on the base of a lamp post

When we arrived we noticed the queue was snaking up and over and down the steps in the front of St George's Hall. There was no way that we could manage that with the wheelchair, so John parked me at the bottom of the steps, and went to the back of the queue to ask the folks there to mark a place for us, and we would join behind them when they reached us.



Fun outside St George's Hall

Then someone saw me sitting in the wheelchair and offered their place in the line! They had decided not to wait any more, so decided to be kind to me. We explained we were happy enough to wait, and we didn't want to jump the queue. But the folks behind seemed happy enough for us to take the place of our benefactors, so we went for it.



Shortly afterwards a young chap approached us and asked if we knew that wheelchair users had a special entry, and didn't have to wait. At some point John had been to the front of the queue and asked, to be told that we had to queue like everyone else.

Well, that seemed fair enough to us, other than that we couldn't manage the steps for the queue, but John had sorted that in a way that seemed fair to us. But this young man was insistant, and even went back to check that there was a seperate wheelchair access. Came back to tell us, and accompanied us to the door. (Well, he walked around the outside of the queue, we cut across inside to avoid the cobblestones)

Once inside it was a labyrinth to find the lift! Up to the first floor, along more corridors until we reached the right level. Into the Great Hall, and oh, the ceiling, the stained glass windows, the statues, the marble set behind them, the moulded and coloured roundels - George and the Dragon, Liverpool coat of arms, the Liverbird. Not to mention the amazing chandeliers, suspended from moulded ships prows. I tried to take photos, but sadly the light just wasn't good enough.

Everyone was very kind. When we first entered the Great Hall one of the Roadshow crew fetched us the labels we needed (books, china and miscellaneous) so we were able to begin the individual queuing.

We went for china first, it was a pretty long wait, but in the wonderful surroundings, and with chatting with other folks in the queue, and watching things being set up for filming (suspect will be an item on slavery) the time went pretty fast. A note to self for next time - not a lot of folks took glass.

Followed up with a pretty short queue for Miscellaneous and then a somewhat longer one for Books. John was standing behind me in the Book queue (he had to push the chair) and thinking something along the lines of "there's a lot of people here, bit odd we haven't met anyone we know" and about 30 seconds later someone comes rushing up to me to say Hello!

Margaret, who I used to work with before I got ill. She was a bit surprised to see me in a wheelchair. She said she retired a couple of years ago. I knew exactly who she was, but simply could not remember her name when she greeted us. Think this is cognitive dissonance - Antiques Roadshow and (ex-)work don't mix in my mind. Unexpected juxtaposition.



As for the rest of the week it was all rather awful.

Monday got IB50 (EEEK!), but from Birkenhead not Liverpool, which worried me. Managed to get advice from some folks on email Lists that allayed some of my worries. And John called DWP in Birkenhead on Tuesday and found that dealing with the forms is centralized within areas rather than cities and towns now.

I re-joined the wonderful Benefits and Work. Took a look at their advice on filling IB50 in, and fell asleep...

Next morning (Wed I think) found I'd kicked the dregs of my glass over, splattered keyboard and screen, computer frozen and couldn't re-boot. EEEK again!

Kept trying to re-boot over next few days, finally somehow (not sure how!) managed to get to a screen that let me take the system back to how it was when last working. I am not going to try and install my (perfectly good otherwise) printer on this laptop again, as I think maybe that was the root of the problems.

At least I finished reading 3 books while I couldn't get computer to work.

But don't want to go through that again anytime soon!

Roadworks

They are digging up the road right beneath our bedroom window as I type this. The noise is unbelievable, hope it doesn't go on for long. Ah well, most of the rest of Liverpool is a building site, so why should things be different for me.



I've seen both Mum and Dad a couple of times since I last wrote here. Mum is behaving as bizarrely as ever, Sunday she hardly noticed we were there once we had made it clear we weren't taking her home. She went and talked to the lady in the bed opposite, she seemed to think they were related.

The week before she refused to say Hello to John, and after barely acknowledging me said "I hope you're feeling guilty". I replied "I've nothing to feel guilty about, Mum."

"What about how you treated your sister?" (I'm an only child) She keeps insisting her father is alive, and when John asked last week if she'd like to visit her husband she said "I don't have a husband".



So we left before visiting time finished, and went to see Dad. He had only returned to the nursing home on Saturday after a week in hospital being treated for pneumonia. At least Mum had a few visits with him while he was in. He was very tired, so we chatted for about half an hour and then he asked to lie down (they had to bring in a hoist to move him to the bed) and went to sleep. So we left then.



On to the flat, where I sorted some of Mum's clothes to bring home and wash. I did the first batch of washing yesterday, it's a bit damp still, but if John takes it back to the flat this evening after visiting Dad I guess he could hang it up to air there. Next load is in the machine now, so hopefully will be ready to take back on Thursday.



Mostly it's been too wet to get out into the garden much. But I can report that the flower on my agapanthus grown from seed has begun to open. I haven't got a picture of it open yet though (been too wet when I've had both the time and the energy recently), but here it is about a week ago.



Not done much knitting since I last posted. I cast off half the stitches on my sock swatch bag (this is the stage in the photo, the needle poked through the body of the bag is just to stop the edge curling), and have continued on the rest to make a flap. I'm not enormously pleased with it, so think I might rip out the flap. But I'm going to think about it for a while, so the ten remaining stitches are languishing on a stitch holder until I make my mind up!



It's quite fun trying to decide how to proceed. Currently I'm thinking of edging the flap with garter stitch, but I don't want to rush at it this time! I've found the perfect button for the bag, so I'm sure I'll get going on it again soon.

I finally ordered a swift which arrived last Wednesday, but it took me till yesterday to get organised enough to try it out. So I wound my first cake of yarn (artesano alpaca hummingbird, colour Lovebird) yesterday evening, and I think it looks very pretty. Will be casting on this evening I hope!



Thank you everyone who has left comments. I am finding life quite difficult at the moment, so mostly don't have time to reply, or to leave comments on other blogs. Mum is to be assessed soon for discharge. Obviously I am rather worried about it all. And the emotional upsets are taking their toll on my energy levels and capability to get stuff done. It is all just so utterly draining.

Friday around 4.30pm John had a phone call from a social worker (they always seem to ring around 5 on a Friday, rather like DWP and DLA stuff always arrives in Saturday's post), saying that a psychiatrist would see Mum on Monday, but we haven't managed to find out anything about that yet. The nurses we spoke to on Saturday didn't know anything about it. We are waiting to hear from her consultant's secretary, who John contacted yesterday. The staff on the ward aren't allowed to tell you anything over the phone (apart from a brief "bulletin") because of the Data Protection Act.

This is what I had for lunch today.

Comfort Food

Sad, angry, confused

but happy to get a picture on way to hospital to see Mum's Consultant.

Kernackered

Before anything else, take a look at this video, but be warned it's not safe to have food or drink in your mouth while viewing unless you want a be-splattered monitor.



We went to the case conference yesterday, which makes it 3 trips to the Wirral in 4 days. And every time involved using the wheelchair, which gives me a numb bum and does my back in. So today I'm just surfing the web and resting up.



Liverpool Cranes

Liverpool skies

Saturday we went to visit Dad in hospital. Coming out of the Mersey Tunnel at the Dock Entrance on the way home we were stopped by a red traffic light, so I took the opportunity to shoot one of the Liver Birds.



The whole of central Liverpool is in a state of flux at the moment, with skylines of cranes everywhere. This was the best of a disappointing bunch of photos - the light was just too poor to shoot from a moving car.



We had a very difficult weekend, but I can't really talk about it much at present. And today hasn't been any better so far, just hoping it doesn't degenerate as much as yesterday did.

Tomorrow we have a Case Conference at the hospital about Dad's discharge. Please send us all your positive thoughts at 4pm!

Spring has sprung...

Bright and cheerful crocuses - a few flowers blew away in the gales the other week, but plenty more have followed on.

It's been a lovely sunny day here in Liverpool. John was feeling sufficiently recovered to go for a swim this afternoon, and take a bit of a walk along Otterspool Prom amongst the kite-flyers and other strollers.

Yesterday we drove over to Clatterbridge in the afternoon to visit my father. I thought he seemed less well than the last time I saw him, about 2 weeks ago I think, but it's hard to tell. Maybe it's just disorientation after being moved. But he was pleased to see us.

He has a label around his wrist saying something like "Danger of Falling", and I was relieved to see he is now in a bed with side bars. He kept getting out of bed before (on the last ward), but didn't manage to use the frame he'd been given. Instead of leaning on it he just carried it around. Dr R will be doing a ward round on Tuesday or Wednesday, so hopefully we will get a better idea of how things are going after that.

Some of the freesias the girls gave me for Mothering Sunday are still flowering, and they still smell wonderful. John can't smell freesias. And it's my favourite flower because of its perfume. He brought me a bunch into LMH when I'd just had Sarah. I woke in the night, and smelled them, and cried. Felt so lonely, and touched he had remembered how I liked freesias even though he can't smell them. Plus was terrified at having a baby - I'd never even held a baby before I was being trundled on a trolley through the bowels of the hospital clutching Sarah to me and scared I was going to drop her.

Of course that was back in the days when you were kept in for 10 days as standard. But I was chucked out after 7 as they needed the bed. So some things haven't changed!

Oddments

Haven't looked at my stats recently, so was rather surprised to find I had 70 page loads on Tuesday. Very strange (usually it's between 10 and 20, with the occasional blip). Some of the search terms people use are quite entertaining, and I find myself wondering why on earth they are looking for such stuff. This is the funniest I've had recently:
pictures of bacon stuck between teeth

The phone has been ringing all day today. Mum rang at 9am, worried as she'd had a phone call from Social Services asking her a lot of "lifestyle questions" as she put it. I don't know why, and they haven't made an appointment to visit. She is supposed to be being assessed by them, but gawd knows when.

Then I had a couple of silent calls. Pick up, nobody there, and number withheld. I hate these.

I was very tired so had a nap this afternoon, and just as I was dropping off the bloody phone rang again, I'm afraid I left it. Yet another silent call around 5pm, so John was lucky I picked it up when he called at 5.40 to say he would be late home. Since then Helen has called from the hospital as Mum couldn't remember if John was going to take her to visit tomorrow (he is), and the phone has just gone yet again (Helen again with news of the visit).

Sounds like Dad is getting his sense of humour back. The staff asked him what he'd like to drink, and the response was "a gin and tonic". When they said they couldn't manage that he said "a nice Italian white then".

We got yet another phone call after all the rest - Orange ringing to try and sell us their internet service. I bet it was them that all the silent calls that withheld their number were from earlier. Grrr. John told them not to call us about it again - they rang me a couple of weeks ago too. Used to be our ex-directory number didn't attract sales calls, but it doesn't seem that way any more. Grrr, grrr and grrr again.

Paula's place - House of Poland, Lark Lane. .



Paula is the best hairdresser I have ever had my hair cut by. And she is lovely too. I've been going to her since the kids were tiny, and remember them getting styled for the school disco one year - Helen had totally crimped hair (well, it was fashionable back then!) and looked fantastic. Paula, if you ever read this, hugs to you.

The last time Sarah came up from London (nearly 3 weeks ago) we both had haircuts, and she treated me to a manicure.



We sat in Keith's for a while beforehand (Paula is usually running a bit late, but we're used to it, and she is well worth waiting for), I had cappuccino, she had hot chocolate. Helen met up with us post haircut to drive us home, and she and Sarah split carrot cake and chocolate cake. They decided the carrot cake took it on this occasion as it was nice and moist. Nice to sit there and watch the people passing by - Lark Lane is a great place to people watch.

I am pleased with this photo I took through the window at Keith's, but just need to get the angle slightly different so I get the whole of the sign for The Albert showing through the window. Next time we go I will attempt to do that.



The old laundrette across the road, where Sandy's Mum used to work, has been closed for a while now. It's being done up, refurbished, and will become yet another restaurant. But I was struck by the wonderful lettering on the old shop banner exposed where the laundrette sign has been taken down.



We also noticed some amazing detail on a building across the road from Paula's, and a bit closer to the Park. We were speculating on its history - there is an entrance part way along the building that goes through a tunnel to a courtyard/space at the rear. Presumably to drive a coach through? It's on the same block as The Albert, so maybe it used to belong to that. Who knows. But I think I'd like to try and find more out.



Lark Lane has a lot of interesting buildings, I really must go and take more photos one of these days. And it'd be good to take a stroll (well, more of a stagger for me!) along Hadassah Grove, lots of interesting buildings down there!

More snow - but not much!

Had a gorgeous sunset last night.



Woke up a little after 6am to find John had left for his swim, leaving me with a pot of tea to keep me going till breakfast. Just a sprinkle of snow here in Liverpool, but the news has been showing kids off school in loads of places, disruption to trains and flights etc etc. Of course most places are getting more snow than us, but just maybe John'll get the sledge out of the loft before the weekend.



I like the way the snowflakes have swirled outside the window - looks like white scribbles, but maybe it shows better in a bigger picture.