Friday

Fingers crossed everyone! Ross has an interview at Bancon at 2:00 pm (hope he got up OK!) - he got the phone call last night in response to his letter (one of the 9 posted by me on Wednesday) - he is the very last to be interviewed.

Sent off my objection letter to the CALA application today - hope lots ot others do the same!

Come on girls, your blogs are out of date!

Thursday

I arrived back from Fraserburgh today for my meeting with Gary Grant and Stan England to discuss progress on the installation of the stair at the back of our house. I was a little taken aback to see that the stair was fitted and the radiator inside the back room removed and replaced by a new one on the side wall aready! The work is well under way and tomorrow they will try and fit the landing to the stairs and then, on Monday, the hardship begins - they break through the wall and start to fit the new windows. We need to move the new TV and cover the new suite to make sure they don't get too much dust or damage whilst they are working next week. The week after is when the re-decoration (painting) takes place - Stan is going to get a quote for me, but it may be that we use our painter from work - we'd only have to pay for the paint and we could get some other rooms done at the same time.

The photo above shows the bare stair in place - without the handrails etc. Stan and Gary recommend we leave the stairs as they are (stainless steel) - no or little maintenance required. However, the handrail and the central post are made of mild steel and will need painting - Stan suggested a plain grey-ish paint for the central column, which will look similar to the stairs.

Travelling

As well as my usual music downloads (which recently includes Cat Power, Ian Hunter, Joanna Newsom, John Fogerty, Miles Davis, Otis Redding, Bjork, Radiohead, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Thom Yorke, White Stripes and, I'm shamed to admit, Katie Melua - in a moment of weakness!) I've taken to downloading audio books for the long journeys up and down to Fraserburgh and Glasgow. The first two were excellent - both John Grishams, lasting about 6 hours each - a nice length - but I really chanced my arm this month and decided to download a classic Charles Dickens - Bleak House - all 36 hours worth!!! It's pretty hard going and I'm still not a third of the way through it yet - not sure if I'll make it all the way to the end - the combination of language and the multiplicity of characters that come and go, make it a real feat of concentration.

TV stand

Oh - and let's have your votes - Jo's seen this stand for the TV in the Cotswold magazine (http://search.cotswoldco.com/Search.aspx?Query=demilune+tv+stand&sid=547d99a51fc2d46bacca790bc8801d8a) - but can't quite make her mind up - what do you think? (right click and open)

Monday/Tuesday

Squash aborted on Monday - somebody had washed the floor just before we played - and it was still wet - and lethal! - so we trudged off to the Legion instead. Harry insisted on going for a short run and asked if I wanted to join him, but as it had been well over 15 years since I last ran on the roads, I decided to give it a miss!

Had another go at Ross for not doing anything about a job, and Jo did the same later on. It at least had some effect as he had made out a total of 9 job applications by Tuesday evening! I'll post them off tomorrow.

I went down to Glasgow today to meet Barry and Dawn and have a preliminary look at a potential home for Dad, who is getting to the stage of not being safe at home any more. He had another fall last week and it was discovered by the day care centre when he didn't show for lunch. No idea how he did it and how long he had been there but there was blood all over the kitchen and Barry got called away from work to the infirmary, where Dad was by this time. The bruises were still showing this afternoon - see photo above.

The place we looked at is a newly built offshoot of the ex-servicemen's Erskine Homes - it only opened in October and the official opening (by Princess Anne we believe) is not till next month. It's called Erskine Glasgow (http://www.erskine.org.uk/WhatWeDo/our_homes.aspx) and has just 46 beds on 3 floors - the upper one caters for those with physical health problems and the ground floor with medium to severe dementia patients. Dad would probably initially go to the middle floor as his dementia is still at a relatively mild level.

We agreed to fill out the forms - we need to get a Social Care assessment and Doctor's report to go along with the application form and the whole process could take a few weeks or months, so there's no harm in doing this, even if we decide not to take up any place offered. Barry thinks Dad needs full time care now, but Dawn is still a little reluctant, although she recognises that Dad is not coping all that well now. There's also the question of legal Guardianship to consider - we all agreed it should be all three of us who are appointed to look after his care and his finances (a job Barry has been doing on his own for the last few years).

There are only 6 or 7 patients in the middle ward just now, and the place looks really nice, so it's an ideal time to make the application for Dad. We need to find his old RAF number - he has no idea what it was and I had a little search in his house this afternoon, but couldn't find anything. I did come across some amazing old papers in his bureau, however - including various birth and death certificates and even the receipt for the engagement ring he bought Mum over 60 years ago! There was also a membership card for Sarah Kelly (Grannie Barr) for the WRAF dated 1918 when she was 25 years old. It listed her height as 6 feet 1 inch! I only ever remember her as a little ball in her later years and can't believe this is the same person - surely there's some mistake somewhere?

The other photo is of Dawn and Barry leaving Erskine Glasgow this afternoon.

Things are hotting up with the planning application by CALA for the Tor-na-Coille site. I discovered yesterday that there's going to be a second application for detached houses on the lower level of the grounds. I've been spreading the news and this evening I received a phone call from one of the rich neighbours across the road who asked if it was OK for him to pass on my correspondence to his neighbours (including "Mr Chickens", Fred Duncan) - of course, I said yes. The application includes tree surveys and they are planning to remove about 70 trees - roughly half for "safety" reasons and the rest for the development. Strangely, however, 9 of the trees to be removed for the development are the ones facing our houses, in the triangle of land between Arbor Court and the main road - what has this got to do with the development of flats behind the hotel? Watch this space!