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September 11th 2013
The floorboards are sighing with relief
I was at base camp today for 9.30am I had to make some form of effort to sort the house out for the social workers return visit at 2.30pm.
I finished off the side of the bed so that around the bed was safe. It is now possible to not only see the floor but actually the floorboards which are the originals and actually quite fashionable right now. The only issue they have at the moment is that they creak rather badly. However it is not a nasty pressure creak, I swear it is a creak of relief. How those poor floorboards have not snapped under the weight I do not know. I am sure they will be partying tonight though.
There is still a lot of stuff which will have to go out but I have done what is necessary for Imelda to come home. Imelda has persuaded the social workers that the second he gets home he will start sorting the mess. I think it is more likely he has driven the staff in the hospital crazy and they cannot wait to get shot of him quickly enough. The social worker came and told me I was amazing and I had done wonders. I was happy to hear that. I am sure anyone who had not seen the original 'before' photos would likely believe those I took today were the before photos as it is still a terrible mess in there.
What do you think?
From the space you see above we dragged about 23 shoes, 18 vile Hawaiian shirts, lots of old knickers (ewww) bags of clothes I threw out when I was about 18, odd socks, lots and lots and lots of old newspapers, two broken clocks, old coat hangers, more toothpicks, some old tin labels, scraggy old rubbish, holiday itineraries and tickets dating back to 1996, more of my mums tights (bear in mind she died 19 years ago), empty boxes and bits of total rubbish. Also to my horror was a very swish box of Thorntons chocs (another one) all boxed and wrapped in ribbon. There was no date on it, nor was there a bar code. the stains are - stains not design. What a tragic waste. I estimate 22 years old at least.
Also there were some of these dated 01.04.2001 - they were solid. Note the Safeway bag.
I managed to sort twelve bags full of paper recycling and a full black bin full of rubbish. As it is bin collection day Oggy had a day off from the skip run. I hope the guys at the skip don't worry about me. I am going to go and get a shoe rack and a clothes rail for him for his excess shoes and clothes. I think I will allow a 30 pair rack and the rest will go to Oxfam or something. I will have to get the kids round on a 'sort the shoe' mission. I will tell them it is a real life version of 'pairs'.
The very minute I left the house it started raining. By the time I got home it was pouring. I do think it a little 'coincidental' that the weather to date has done this every day I have been there. no matter what the forecast, as soon as I get there, although it may well be cloudy with rain forecast, the rain holds off while I bring stuff outside to sort. It would be impossible to sort inside due to the dust. As it is I have to wear a full industrial dust mask and shower cap when I go in and then have a shower the minute I get home. If it was raining I would be forced to either abandon ship entirely or attempt to clear up inside which would be foolish with my dust allergies. I think somewhere there is a little angel looking after me - and I have my suspicions who she may be.
So, Imelda will be allowed out soon. I think they are looking at getting a hand rail on the other side of the stairs and a few other small fixes. The social worker left a nice big white plastic loo seat attached to the toilet. She kindly took the loo seat wrapper box away saying she would usually leave it but in my case she thought I would appreciate her taking it. I think when he gets home I will have to be far more subtle about 'recycling' his stuff. I can't see him letting me bring piles of stuff outside to sort out and then leave with bags and bags. He expressed surprise the other day when I told him I had taken some old rags to the skip. His actual words were 'Oh so you have found a skip somewhere have you?'
That is one way of putting it! I have found a very large skip at the council recycling centre which is FREE to Cardiff residents (yes 'free' I thought the word would generate interest). I don't think it quite sunk in though, firstly because it was me who said it because I am clearly just a stupid child and as if that wasn't bad enough, a female one too.
OK so now it is tea time and then off to see Imelda with all the kids in tow. I will update after the visit.
AAAArrggghhhh. Why do I bother visiting when I come home so wound up? I went to visit Imelda today and he was sitting up in bed. 'Oh there you are' he says 'I've been trying to contact you for the past two hours but I keep getting a strange tone'. Obviously this was my fault. I looked at him. What did he expect? 'There isn't anything wrong with my phone that I know of'. I informed him 'we have had calls today'.
'Well I tried many about eight times - one of the kids must have been on the computer'.
He says this every time he calls me if my telephone is engaged. Every time I have to explain to him in words of one syllable that it does not matter if 73 people are on a PC in my house as the telephone line is separate. For continuity I explained again.
He looked at me blankly. 'Well someone must have been on the computer because I couldn't get through'.
I asked him what number he was using. He showed me the phone display - which was the wrong number! Of course this was my also my fault! We established that if he used the number which corresponded to the telephone in my house he may have a better chance of reaching me.
Next he started having a go at me because nobody had told him when he was going home. This also, of course, was my fault. I said the social worker had said he could home, he translated this into he is coming home tomorrow. He asked me to get bread and milk etc on my way over to the mountain. I agreed, no problem. He then asked if I needed him to write it down for me as if I were a total idiot. As I had to take all three of the kids in on this visit as the bloke was working I was a bit on edge. The kids were all playing up and trying to wheel each other round on a stool with wheels. The ward was full and they were getting annoying. They were getting in the nurses way and getting very bored. I know they are entitled to get bored, their Grandad does not listen/hear a word they say and so they have stopped bothering trying. I don't blame them.
Next thing, he picked up the phone to call my brother. I asked him if it would not be better to make the call once we had left. He said it wasn't. So I sat on his bed like a lemon while he rang and had a chat with my brother. How very, very rude. The kids became worse and so I stood to leave. He soon finished the call. I asked him why he had chosen to call then and not waited until I had gone and told him I thought it was extremely rude. He said he was 'trying to get the family to communicate with each other'. He acts as if he is some form of kingpin keeping the family together, as if we need him to be able to communicate. I told him that my brother and I have spoken to each other at least once a day as well as all the time we spend together at the house.
Imelda says 'Well I don't know that do I?'
I feel like saying 'Well you ****ing would if you bothered listening', but I don't.
I stand to go and the kids race off down the corridor. They know Grandad will want to kiss them goodbye and none of them are daft enough to hang around for it. They had all disappeared before he even stood up.
So here I am home again. I really do not know if he will be out tomorrow. That hospital are never in a rush to release patients. An hour turns into a day and then into a week. I am surprised they haven't kicked him out yet though. The way he was whingeing at me he would have been out head first.
Goodnight. I will update tomorrow.
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