Sad day for Pinto

Our friends, Rolf and Christa, his godparents, who usually look after Pinto when we go away, are unable to do so this time as their daughter and four children are staying with them before going to Sweden and also with Christa's health problems it is unfair to do so. Pinto is staying with a couple of his friends. Sandy and Toby. He gets on well with Sandy as he has known him longer. Toby gets a bit jealous. Anyway I packed his bag and with his bed Tony took him over there this morning. Les and Lyn are the carers and have a rather large grassed backyard so there is plenty of room for Pinto to do his favourite thing, sniff around. The carers also spend most of their time at home so they will be there to break up any fights.

Pinto could sense something was going on when we started packing our bags and became very clingy last night. I know for the first couple of days he won't eat anything but his hungry will get the better of him and he will come around. I don't like to admit it but I miss him around the house.

We leave for Perth tomorrow at lunch time and come back on 3 June. We stuffed all our belongings into one middle size bag and one small bag. Most of the bag was full of gifts for all the family over there so it should be light on our return. The wedding of Catherine's half sister Amanda is on Saturday. Craig and the girls are already over there. Danielle had to stay behind as she is unable to fly because of the blood clot. I am wearing light clothing so I hope its not too cold.

Speaking of cold, it was cold and windy on Saturday morning when we ventured over to Greystanes to see Amy play soccer. However, she was not feeling well so Craig thought it would be better if she didn't play as they were going away the next day. They were standing on the sideline watching her team play. She is the only girl in the team.

My hospital visit on Monday was a day long drawn out affair. I was told to be there at 7am for 9.30am op but didn't end up going into the theatre until 1.30pm. Tony picked me up at 3.15pm. I didn't end up seeing the doctor afterwards as he had already done his rounds when I came too. As a matter of fact I didn't even see him in the theatre. I suppose he turned up. He left a message to say everything went OK. I have booked a follow up visit when I return from Perth so I will know more then.

Sheila's brother in law from Perth, John was over here for a course at North Sydney last week. His wife Kathy came over on Thursday to be with him for a few days. Kathy hasn't been to Sydney before so Tony volunteered me to take her around the city and have lunch.

After arranging to meet at the Town Hall we had coffee at QVB then ventured down to Chinatown, Paddy's Markets, Darling harbour and back to the city on the monorail. I got a surprise to see that they had knocked down centrepoint shopping centre and had planned to eat in there. They have also updated Centrepoint Tower and have a tour around the outside of it for $40 if you are brave enough. We settled on lunch at DJ's cafe overlooking Hyde Park. After lunch we went through Hyde Park and into St Mary's cathedral.

Saw a great adaption of the ballet "Nutcracker Suite" on Saturday. Poor Kerry-Ann just made the start by a couple of seconds. I think she must be training for the City to Surf. Anyway when she had settled down and had a sandwich at interval she was back to her normal self.

I had the same rush to get home as I normally have as we were meeting John and Kathy for Dinner in Manly.

Will say farewell for now as I may not get a chance to write until my return from Perth.

A Day in the Lives at Tebbutt Lodge

My day begins with turning off the DVD some of the residents of TB have been watching in the main lounge room and putting on an exercise DVD. The exercises are gentle ones although I find some of them a bit difficult. Most of the exercises they are able to do sitting in their chairs with a couple standing behind their chairs. We have a few residents that are quite keen like, Thomas, Robert and Ada; and others that will half hearted go along doing them when you walk past they row. Then there are the ones that Shirlee writes up as "observant participants" (are present but not doing any exercises) and "passive participants" (are present but are asleep). My role is to try and get them to move a few limbs. You know the saying "use it or loose it".
After exercises its time for morning tea. I prepare for this by putting on a cap before entering the kitchen; washing my hands and putting on rubber gloves. I got into trouble with Maria the last time I was there because I had earrings on and was told that jewellery is not allowed as it may fall in the residents food. I wheel the trolley out with sandwiches and biscuits on and are told to hand out one sandwich and one biscuit with their tea. However, they generally want either two biscuits or two sandwiches so I give them what they want. After collecting all the cups and rubbish I then return the trolley to the kitchen and my part of the kitchen duties is done. The cook in the kitchen looks grumpy and never says a word to me.

It is now time for the gardening club. About 10 of the residents proceed on down to the Social Room where the club is held. There is a Baptist minister from Eastwood that comes in every couple of weeks who is a keen gardener and has a gardening group at his church. He gives little talks and tips and advise. We have so far planted different types of basil, tomatoes, beans, sweet peas........and other things that have slipped my mind. Its good to get out in the sunshine and into the dirt.

Residents have there lunch at 12.00 noon so I venture off to the office and help Shirlee with
getting out the residents records so she can write them up. All activities the residents participate in must be recorded on they records. Also do a bit of stapling and that sort of thing.....nothing to mind blowing. I then go and have lunch and a chat with the staff in the lunch room.

There is a resident's meeting today but I am going off to massage some of the residents hands with hand cream and have a chat. First lady I visit has just come back from hospital and is in bed. Her name is Rose and she is very chatty. Have you ever put hand cream on with rubber gloves? It is quite an experience. You do not know whether the cream has been absorbed or not. I had to then wipe the hands with tissues to make sure I didn't leave any residue. Rose told me about all her family of 11, how she was blamed for everything her sister did and how her bitch of a mother was cruel to her and that she was her father's favourite. She also got me to drag out all the knitting from her cabinet to show me and we went through all the 50 pictures on her wall telling me who all the people were. After about an hr it was time to leave and I promised Rose I would call in on her again. I only had time to do another couple of people's hands as I had spent a lot of time with Rose.

Nelly is one resident I have made a challenge for myself. Nelly sits in the lounge room watching TV clutching her handbag. She has a very stern face and occasionally will glance over at you with her eyes without turning her head when you are standing nearby but will quickly turn her eyes back in front if you look at her. I sat down next to her and asked her what she liked doing. "watching TV" came the quick reply without turning her head keeping the stern face. I asked did she like music and dancing. Silence then "yes". Did you do ballroom dancing? Again "Yes".
After a few more questions I had the feeling she just wanted me to go. I then turned my attention to Ada and had much more luck there. But I haven't given up on Nelly.....I will try again next week.

Mother's day and other things.

Forgot the camera so no photos of Mother's day this year. We were going to venture out on our usual Mother's Day picnic; this time at Gough Whitlam Park on the Cooks River; however the weather looked uncertain and Felise was not feeling the best so we had our picnic at Kerry and Michael's place. Kerry made some yummy roasted pumpkin soup and lemon slices, David made some delicious rolls and chocolate macadamia slices and also some cheeses and Pate, I made some sausage rolls and Chicken Caesar salad without the chicken (I had left it at home). Luckily Craig brought along some chicken. We also had tiny fairy cakes and a belated Birthday cake for David. We had put a trick candle on the cake. It kept relighting when you blew it out.....the kids got a good laugh out of that.

I got a nice surprise in the evening when Melissa rang to wish me Happy Mother's Day.

Emily stayed overnight on Saturday night. I got out a couple of DVDs for her, Hi Five and Kung Fu Panda. However she insisted on watching our Wiggles dvds that she has seen a "million" times. Later on I watched Hi Five with her and danced around. When I went to church on Sunday morning Tony watched Kung Fu Panda and said that it was boring so they only watched half. Not long after we went to bed Emily woke up. I got up and found her standing in the hallway so I put her back to bed and got in with her. When I thought she had fallen asleep I tried to creep out of there but she sat up so I had to get back in and ended up staying the whole night half hanging out of the bed with not much of the doona as the rest of the bed was taken up with Emily hanging onto this giant sized Elmo. Next time I will make sure I put her into the double bed.

Pinto's getting fat fat fat. He is beginning to look like a pig. I was cooking eggs tonight and he wanted one so I only gave him half his meal and an egg. He then wanted the rest of his meal. Afterwards he begged Tony to fill his ball up with treats. As soon as we put the jug on for a cup of tea he is there asking for a biscuit. Seriously I will have to cut his food intake.

The Birthday Boy

Its my little boy's Birthday today. "Happy Birthday David". I can't believe it is 31 years since you first came into this world.


I hope you get the $250,000 I put in your Birthday card I sent you. If you don't someone else will.

One of the things I have enjoyed most in this life is being a mother. I was given 3 most beautiful children to look after and they have given me much joy. No matter how old they get they will always be my "babies" and I will continue to worry about them all. That's what mother's do.

We made our usual 2 monthly Pilgrimage to Raymond Terrace for lunch with Dancing lot on Saturday. The trip seems to get longer and the time we spend there shorter....or is it because we are getting older. Maybe its because we now have to detour and pick up Leighton who is on his own. I then have to let Leighton sit in the front seat because he has a pin in this hip and needs more room. So I am squashed in the back seat with Rolf and Christa for the rest of the trip. Not complaining of course, but luckily I have lost a bit of weight.

Emily is sleeping over this Saturday night as it is Danielle's father's 70th Birthday and they are giving him a party. All she ever wants to do is watch videos or chase Pinto around. Pinto knows Emily only to well and runs and hides when he sees her. I have planned some activities and will have some one on one time with her without her sister. Amy is going to a baby shower and staying with her other Grandmother.

We are finally going to New Zealand. We booked today for a 10 day holiday to the South Island in September. We have to thank Kerry-Ann for that.