Wednesday and I am up early and packing to go to the gym. I drink a coffee and take my meds and then I am off on the road. The world has gone back to work so the gym is empty and I can have the pick of equipment. I grab a cross trainer, put music in my ears and set off. My legs after yesterdays stint on the bike are stiff and complain. I keep going and end up burning 714 calories and going 7.77 kilometres. Not bad given how my legs were. I get in the changing rooms and have to sit for a bit to recover. I then get into the shower. Its lunch time so I order coffee and a bacon and egg roll in the club lounge. I get a message from a colleague who reminds me that there is a meeting at 2 o’clock. I act cool but I’m thinking it could be tight. As it turns out I get home in plenty of time.
The meeting was on of those that made me wish I had not bothered and it dragged on. It finally came to an end and I was free to spread my wings. A friend rang me from her car outside the hospital in which her daughter was in. There is nothing more guaranteed to challenge us than sick children and to make us feel at our most vulnerable. She and her wife were juggling the care and the family, I’m sure that rings bells for all of us who have children. We go our separate ways , I wish I could be more helpful. I had mistakenly arranged to phone a friend in the evening but had to rearrange as I was reminded that on this night we are going out to eat with friends. Such a rare occasion that I had overlooked it. Of course this brings on the “what to wear” conundrum, one that I have nit had to face for quite a while. I go really conservative, trousers, shirt and blazer. I add a pair of Oxfords to this for security. So my partner and I are whisked away to a pub in the countryside where we settle down to chat and eat a good pub meal. It was really good as the company we were with are lovely. We had not seen them for a long time due to COVID but we slipped back into conversation as if we had only seen them yesterday, it felt very natural and easy. I guess that’s how good friendships are. We of course were the last people in the place. I think other people eat in a sort of hit and run way as if being with the people they are eating with is a secondary consideration. For me its always the people, I guess I belong to a generation that sat up all night with people to talk as opposed to a generation that huddles under the bed clothes with an ipad/iphone and live out a fantasy of a relationship. Soz, I mean init, so olds. Any way we get a lift home and say farewell, and so to bed, after midweek match of the day of course.
Thursday, the last night can of Coke was not a good idea. My new meds are playing havoc with my gut in the night but Coke really doesn’t help. Memo to self “don’t”. I make coffee and toast and get myself in front of the laptop for the Thursday team meeting. It is the usual catch meeting and I am simultaneously catching up with some of my work emails, mostly trying to track people down. Its Easter holidays, no one is at work who has children it seems. The meeting ends and I continue to do bits and pieces of communications till lunchtime, when the family go for a lunchtime walk around the village. A quick lunch and then I head for the Shed to write letters, which of course is followed by a trip to the post box. I keep thinking that I should train but my body is really not up for it, I take a nap instead. I just about come out of my nap to find the guy who does our garden has arrived so I leap into chat mode and and go and talk to him, give him coffee and pay him. While he cuts my grass I feed the hedgehog. There is just time to eat tuna pasta before taking my daughter to her trapeze class and returning to write the blog and phone a friend. My friend is very helpful and supportive and suggests some useful things to help support my sister. We end the call promising to talk again soon. A message tells me my friends daughter has returned from hospital.
I am about to go downstairs when I get a phone call from my sister’s neighbour in London, He is ringing me to tell me about his concern for my sister. We talk for a while and I tell him about the referral I have made and my chat with the GP. We exchange numbers and agree to catch up again tomorrow. I ring the duty team at social services and express my concerns again. I am told that the duty social worker will ring me later. I settle down to watch a TV programme on design but the I am called by the duty social worker who is very helpful and has accelerated the appropriate referral to the team who will do the assessment. They will ring me tomorrow. I make note of numbers and return to the TV programme. It feels like there is nothing else to be done tonight, as uncomfortable as that feels. I take my meds, finish the blog and go to bed full of the sound of inner doors opening and closing.
