Sunday 25 November 2007

Three score years and ten

Last night we went to a seventieth birthday party at the neighbours. A small marquee had been put onto the side of their house and from our house the red lighting that the party girl's son-in-law had used made it look like a brothel. They are quite respectable really so we wondered what was going on. Once inside the house we found that most people had congregated in the kitchen where waitresses were serving drinks and there was a mountain of food on the buffet. Although we had been told that Del boy was not going he was already there knocking back lager straight from the bottle. During the course of the evening his WAG put in an appearance and was introduced to me - they have only lived next door to us for a year. At first I did not realise who she was (we were not expecting them to be there) when this wet fish of a hand was poked in front of me. From behind she looks like a WAG but from the front she does not. She disappeared rather like Cinderella shortly after breaking some wine glasses. So the glass slipper probably will not fit her.

Thursday 22 November 2007

The me job

This is the time, in between the last stint of work and the next stint of work, to catch up with myself, which means appointments with the doctor, the dentist, the osteopath, the hairdresser, the cottage and if I am very lucky some time to myself. It is really just a different sort of work.

Wednesday 14 November 2007

All hell is let loose

Last night I should have gone to my flower arranging evening class, but as a result of the weekend's socialising I didn't have time to get together what I needed for last night's arrangement. So I was in the kitchen when my brother phoned from the London hospital where his son is now undergoing chemotherapy. He started by telling me that he couldn't cope with any more. He had had a message on his mobile phone from our mother's next door neighbour, to say that our elderly mother had had a fall and he had phoned for an ambulance. Could I phone the neighbour and find out what was happening? which I duly did - before the ambulance left for the hospital, shortly after my mother reached casualty and again after she had been assessed. In between all these calls I managed to get to my evening class to find out what we are doing next week.

My mother is confused, cut and bruised and was kept in overnight as a precaution.

Sunday 11 November 2007

Party in the south

Normally I would be quite keen to travel down south for the weekend and a party. But at the moment I am working full time. So we drove down to Chertsey on Saturday, went to the party on Saturday night then drove back today. This was devotion to duty on my part. I didn't have to drive. I navigate on long journeys but overall it wasn't much of a weekend and after Thursday's bombshell I wasn't in the mood for jollification. Nobody could consider me selfish. I felt hat I had to agree to go to the party which was held by the friends of my husband, who are selling up and retiring to South Africa. We may never see them again, although we are invited to go out to South Africa any time. I would like to see South Africa but I am not sure that retiring there is a good idea.

Thursday 8 November 2007

Black thursday

This evening must have been one of the worst in my life. As I drove home in the dark and wet my ususally silent mobile phone went twice. Wondering why I was suddenly so much in demand I stopped in the library car park to have a look at my phone. My husband had sent me a text message to say that my brother had called him and would be phoning me. (Our house phone is currently not working so my husband has had it redirected to his mobile phone). Then my brother had left a brief message. Thinking that there was a problem with our mother I phoned him back but got his voice mail - I left a message that I would be home in 15 minutes. So 15 minutes later I was on the phone again and this time I got through. I asked him how he was and he said things could be better or something similar. I could hear noises in the background and thought that he must be in a hospital but it turned out that he was at Clapham Junction. Then he went on to tell me the most awful news - his 18 year old son has cancer. As he went into detail my heart pounded in my chest as if it was about to burst. Tomorrow my nephew has a liver biopsy to try to identify the primary tumour. It will be about Tuesday of next week before they know whether or not the cancer is treatable. We have an awfully long weekend ahead of us.