There is a famous song from the 60's called "It's Good News Week" by Hedgehoppers Anonymous - produced by Johnathan King, who eventually went on to find notoriety in much the same way as Gary Glitter did. The song's first verse was:
It's good news week,
Someone's dropped a bomb somewhere,
Contaminating atmosphere
And blackening the sky
It feels a bit like that for me - if it's not one thing, it's another. I got another shock yesterday afternoon when we heard that one of our long-serving and most popular workers at the canning plant died at the relatively tender age of 53. He had to go in to hospital for a neck complaint, picked up pneumonia, then septicaemia and eventually died.
What next? I'm scared to make a move now.
Anyway, I went to Bannatyne's yesterday lunchtime for the first time for ages - it was good, but I did feel a bit sore and tired afterwards. I got home from work in good time to see Luca - fish fingers for tea as usual - to a background of Peppa Pig!
We Skyped Kelly again - but the line was awful and kept going down. We can't be sure but we think the problem may be at their end - they keep getting an awful "whooshing" noise just before the line goes down. I think Kelly is now persuaded to take up her friend's offer of staying with them for a few days in Sydney before travelling down to Adelaide. It'll give her time to get over her jet-lag and to orientate herself and take some local advice - as well as seeing a few of the sights.
Nothing much else to report - might snatch a few holes before it gets dark this afternoon/evening. Then I'm playing football again tomorrow, and, on Saturday, we're going down to Dundee to see Thistle play. I noticed Gary is planning to go as well - might hook up with him.
Ian R. Stewart Family Blog
Thursday 8 October 2009
Wednesday 7 October 2009
Kelly
We Skyped Kelly last night and were gobsmacked with her news about breaking up with Craig - we never saw that coming - not in a million years.
Big decision for her next week - she's due to fly out to Oz, and if she has to do it alone, she's going to have to find a way of getting from Sydney to Adelaide (flying probably), then find suitable accommodation. She's a brave girl and I'm sure she'll cope whatever she decides, but most of all, we hope she is happy and content.
Until we spoke with Kelly last night, my only concern was for my Dad. He's not taking food or drink, nor medication for his heart, arthritis, anaemia or any of the other conditions he's got. Barry got a call from Erskine yesterday to say that they are going to double his morphine patches to two - the pain must be coming from his stomach if he's not eating at all. Meghan went in to see him yesterday, and Dawn was in last night - they both said that, although he looks terrible, he was actually quite lucid and they were able to have a fairly reasonable chat with him - the best for years, according to Meghan.
This morning, Barry and Dawn are meeting with the Doctor at Erskine. What's inevitable is that Dad is going to dehydrate again - and normally they would take him in to hospital, hydrate him and send him back - but it's just a vicious circle now, and I'm not sure what the Doctor will say about it today.
Then there's Ross - still no work prospects - nor motivation it seems. I'm now trying to get him to help me draft an advert in the Piper to sell his services as IT support. He did some work for Anne last week - although he still hasn't invoiced her for it - and he could probably at least earn some money from this - and eventually get some of the cars removed from our drive too!
Big decision for her next week - she's due to fly out to Oz, and if she has to do it alone, she's going to have to find a way of getting from Sydney to Adelaide (flying probably), then find suitable accommodation. She's a brave girl and I'm sure she'll cope whatever she decides, but most of all, we hope she is happy and content.
Until we spoke with Kelly last night, my only concern was for my Dad. He's not taking food or drink, nor medication for his heart, arthritis, anaemia or any of the other conditions he's got. Barry got a call from Erskine yesterday to say that they are going to double his morphine patches to two - the pain must be coming from his stomach if he's not eating at all. Meghan went in to see him yesterday, and Dawn was in last night - they both said that, although he looks terrible, he was actually quite lucid and they were able to have a fairly reasonable chat with him - the best for years, according to Meghan.
This morning, Barry and Dawn are meeting with the Doctor at Erskine. What's inevitable is that Dad is going to dehydrate again - and normally they would take him in to hospital, hydrate him and send him back - but it's just a vicious circle now, and I'm not sure what the Doctor will say about it today.
Then there's Ross - still no work prospects - nor motivation it seems. I'm now trying to get him to help me draft an advert in the Piper to sell his services as IT support. He did some work for Anne last week - although he still hasn't invoiced her for it - and he could probably at least earn some money from this - and eventually get some of the cars removed from our drive too!
Tuesday 6 October 2009
Incompetence - it does make me angry!
I was back at the dentist yesterday to have another impression made for the replacement crown - I hope she gives the lab a row about their cock-up with the first one. Anyway, she wasn't having that good a day herself - she's normally very good, but when she took out my (3rd) temporary crown it fell down my throat and I almost swallowed it! She had to quickly push me up from the horizontal position so that I could cough it out!
I was home early as a result of this, but Jo (bad back) had surprisingly gone off to her Monday swimming group, so it was only me and Ross in the house. We took the opportunity to move a few bits and bobs that have been lying around - the new music cabinet is now upstairs in the living room - I now have to figure out how much of the back I have to take out to get the hi-fi stuff inside it - there's no aperture for this in the cabinet.
We also took the yellow room headboard down to the garage - Jo had it removed when the painter was in - although it looks nice, it leaves a mark on the wall. The 2 old TV's were also removed from the computer room down to the garage - now there's a problem that we need to tackle soon - there's so much junk in the garage and we need to get rid of it before we can begin to tidy up in there.
Then I walked up to the Legion to have a chat with the guys who are coming on the golfing trip to Marrakech in February. There's been a bit of a debate about whether to stay in the resort hotel or just down the road in apartments/villas. The latter is more sociable but there were a few who fancied the hotel instead and when I managed to get a much improved price from one of the agents, we all agreed that it was such a good deal that we should go to the hotel. I went home content that we at last had a resolution and went ahead and booked the flights.
This morning the agent comes on the phone and gives me some waffle about the hotel not having enough rooms available that week - despite the fact that I had asked him yesterday and he told me it would be no problem. Very soon, however, I sussed out that the real problem is he had cocked up his quotation and it was now going to be 50% dearer! Words were exchanged.
So, today, it's start all over again - how frustrating!
I forgot to say that we had a nice day on Sunday at the golf club at our annual end of season match between Scotland & the Rest of the World, which is followed by lunch in the clubhouse. It's always a nice occasion - and the buffet was very good.
Incidentally, after many years of putting off, I'm finally getting round to completing wills for the two of us - but don't hold your breath - we intend to be around for a while yet!
I was home early as a result of this, but Jo (bad back) had surprisingly gone off to her Monday swimming group, so it was only me and Ross in the house. We took the opportunity to move a few bits and bobs that have been lying around - the new music cabinet is now upstairs in the living room - I now have to figure out how much of the back I have to take out to get the hi-fi stuff inside it - there's no aperture for this in the cabinet.
We also took the yellow room headboard down to the garage - Jo had it removed when the painter was in - although it looks nice, it leaves a mark on the wall. The 2 old TV's were also removed from the computer room down to the garage - now there's a problem that we need to tackle soon - there's so much junk in the garage and we need to get rid of it before we can begin to tidy up in there.
Then I walked up to the Legion to have a chat with the guys who are coming on the golfing trip to Marrakech in February. There's been a bit of a debate about whether to stay in the resort hotel or just down the road in apartments/villas. The latter is more sociable but there were a few who fancied the hotel instead and when I managed to get a much improved price from one of the agents, we all agreed that it was such a good deal that we should go to the hotel. I went home content that we at last had a resolution and went ahead and booked the flights.
This morning the agent comes on the phone and gives me some waffle about the hotel not having enough rooms available that week - despite the fact that I had asked him yesterday and he told me it would be no problem. Very soon, however, I sussed out that the real problem is he had cocked up his quotation and it was now going to be 50% dearer! Words were exchanged.
So, today, it's start all over again - how frustrating!
I forgot to say that we had a nice day on Sunday at the golf club at our annual end of season match between Scotland & the Rest of the World, which is followed by lunch in the clubhouse. It's always a nice occasion - and the buffet was very good.
Incidentally, after many years of putting off, I'm finally getting round to completing wills for the two of us - but don't hold your breath - we intend to be around for a while yet!
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