I’ve spent most of the weekend at my parents (the Old Seniles).  The aim was to be helpful.  The result was that I caused quite a lot of chaos and ate them out of house and home (they have full fat cheese, home made muffins and they make bacon sarnies for lunch on a Sunday.  It would have been plain daft to refuse…).

The Old Seniles have a cellar that’s been used as a dumping ground for the 2 years they have lived there and for, I image, a few decades before that.  Last weekend, the idea of ‘getting it to a reasonable state’ didn’t seem too difficult.  That was before I realised that you actually had to wear a mask if you went down there for any length of time to clean…  I’d also not anticipated the obligatory Guantanamo Bay overalls.

we both smiled for the camera...

I think I was a bit tired by the time we reached to the painting stage.  I picked up a full tray using one corner and just watched as the contents poured out of the tray onto the floor.  Dad made sure future residents will know who is to blame though…

oops

 It wasn’t just me afflicated by daftness though – Mum was attempting to read something and, after a while, started complaining about her glasses.

‘Useless  – can’t see a thing with them’.

‘That’s because they’re my glasses mum’.

I may not have been hugely helpful, but between us we got a hell of a lot done.  And it’s more fun listening to Gardeners Question time with mum adding in little thoughts of her own.  Fantastic tip on there today about how to stop slugs and other pesties making holes in your potatoes.  Oh God.  I spent too long there.  I think I may have become an Old Senile myself… :o)