Yesterday was a mixed bag.  I had lovely Mum when I was videoing, slightly nuts Mum is Tesco (she got obsessed with finding ‘the thing that hasn’t bee there for ages but we used to get and I know where  it is now’.   It turned out to be the milk.  And it turned out Mum was not happy that we didn’t actually need milk after all that), and shouty mum who shouts that black is white and white is black.  The best example of that this week is when we got in from taking Percy to the park and I suggested mum washed her hands because of the Percy ball slobber covering them.  She walked past the sink so I suggested it again.

‘I AM!’ she shouted

‘The sink is here, Mum’ I pointed out

‘I’m using THIS ONE!’ she shouted back

‘That’s the cooker, Mum’

‘IT WASN’T YESTERDAY’ she shouted

‘Please stop shouting at me’ (I admit I might have done that irritatingly calm and quiet tone of voice at this point which probably didn’t help)

‘I AM NOT SHOUTING YOU ARE SHOUTING AT ME!’ Was the response.  But at least in all this she moved to the sink to wash her hands rather than continuing to try to use the cooker…

I blasted a bit of Abba.  I’m not sure it calmed either of us much.

And in other news, it turns out that a few days ago, Mum had to be rescued from a hedge.  If her recollection is right (and there is a huge possibility it isn’t), her legs started hurting on the way back from her walk and then they stopped working.  So  – as you do –  she had held onto a fence post until a neighbour she knew saw her, got her car and drove her the few hundred meters home.

The slight concern here is that Mum and Dad live in a tiny village that has no pavements, but very fast cars.  Trying to get Mum not go go walking would be pointless as she is too stubborn to actually listen to anyone, but also it’s the only exercise she gets and often her only ‘outing’ each day.  So what do you do?  I’ve been subtlety telling people we see that Mum is often out on her own and if she ever looks a little confused to point her in the direction of her house (it’s easy to direct people to as it is the last one in the village).  If she was able to use a phone (she isn’t) that would be great but there is no mobile signal up there anyway.  So I think the options are a label attached to her coat Paddington style with something like ‘If found, please look after this Mum and return her to XXX’ or maybe a series of ‘Wanted’ style posters around the village with a similar message.  Dad thinks she’d just tear them down; I don’t think she’d recognise herself…  We’re working on…something.

So there you go.  A variable Tuesday.  In shipping forecast terms, Moderate or rough. Mainly fair. 🙂

And here is Tuesday TV.  Tomorrow I’m going back to take her to see a private doctor for the memory assessment we can’t even get on the NHS waiting list for.  She knows she is going to a doctor but not why (as she will refuse to go).  As you’ll see, I think I might have my work cut out for me anyway 😬: