A quiet Lull for the Graeae

 Zak is spending the day with us. He has a temperature and feels sick. I have set up a space for him, a bowl, some pencil and  paper games, and have covered the furniture. He is very happy as he is snuggled with the hudl too. We are rationing his time on Minecraft. Here I offer all a sample. My small boys build their own animations on this miracle of online lego with action and gamelike procedures. They have been building it using their programming app Raspberry Pi.

Here I appeal to all the unitiated to LEARN THE WORDS Raspberry pi. Small children all over the UK are using it to learn computer programming. We sure have come a long way from Floor Turtles and LOGO. I have one . Its the most basic of computers where you programme it yourself to do what you want. Mine is set up to run  BBC iplayer and ITVplayer. It looks like a small box with lights and doing stuff. Just know the words! Thats all I do. MY grandchildren have already told me that all I know about computers I have got from their Dad. Cheeky boys indeed!

I'm so glad its pouring with rain here, as we can't go out anyway as we look after Zak. Colin has just played Scrabble with him. I'm supposed to be doing e mails about my aged Mother to Healthcare Professionals, Social Services  and her hairdresser. However the quiet LULL of having Zak is a godsend. 

I am becoming BORING as much of my thinking life seems to be taken up with thoughts of AGED PARENT. My sisters both say the same. In some ways it would be easy if there was just one of us, like all the months I did for Aunty Jean in 2102. I of course, have splendid and long suffering but not showing it husband ,to help and support me, to talk things over with . We three sisters have to share together. Sometimes I feel we are like the Graeae with one eye between us. Our phones are hot, our minds on autopilot, and our brains feel on stop. We all have different priorities for our AGED ONE. WE all live in not the rhubarb triangle but the Mother One, Cheshire, Sutton and Filey. WE are as different from each others as sisters can be. 

So this is a welcome brief lull . Its sandwiched amongst the most difficult months of my life as a daughter.

WE had to talk to Mother on Friday about how she couldn't go home. We had to talk to mother about could she remain in the Beverley Care/nursing Home. We had to talk to each other about the redispersing our mothers possessions. It all went well ! DG. We had to talk to each other about finances, podiatrics, diabetes, commodes and deed boxes. We have found all the short stories our father wrote in the 50s  never finding a publisher . We have found pictures of our mother in her WAF uniform, an cards sent to her on her 90th birthday.

Our mother is not dead, so we need to ask her all the right questions now, and make sure we carry out her wishes as much as we are able to. Yesterday was the first time in 2 months she asked for her handbag. What progress! Do we keep the Church Times coming to her, do we buy her lots more clothes now that she has lost so much weight? 

The upside of all this is that there are many people working in Care Homes and Nursing homes who are truly good at it, devoted, kind and professional in all they do. I didnt really know this so well. Aunty  Jean was bedridden the whole time and made no effort to co-operate with anyone , and was cared for well for the few weeks in Whitgift House. We sit outside Mothers bright room and as the door is shut know that she is being attended to . The Carers do not know we are outside waiting. We hear the gentle and loving way she is spoken to , we are grateful . We will tell them , having passed the eye between us, we have all seen the same thing .

A trip to town

At long last there is semblance of order as one enters the Capital from the comfort of the Flying Scotsman. It certainly looks better now the hoardings have been removed ,and all the misleading signs telling one to go this way .

I love walking into the Euston Road, re-acclimatizing myself with its sense of the Tower of Babel and Hull Fair mixed with a football crowd.

The new Concourse at Kings Cross

I walked to Gower Street to get the 14 bus direct to Putney and the familiar  home ground from my barefoot and beads days, when Laura Ashley and Biba were fresh and new and just a tube ride from home. I rarely take the tube these days, when my Old Lady Bus pass lets me ride around London enjoying all the latest fashions and trends from the top of the bus. The latest trend is SCOOTERS, Toddlers , infants, schoolchildren and their parents travel on the bus with them , get off and ride them.

Tribes of Israel encamped at Mount Sinai by Alan Sorrell 

I have long treasured my RSV with Alan Sorrell illustrations. It's dropping to bits now , but I love the reconstructions of Biblical Places. I have other books illustrated by him too, from my days of teaching Prehistory. The exhibition of Sorrell's Art at the quirky Sir John Soane Museum  was a real didactic pleasure. Those who love woodcuts, Eric Ravilous and the work of Mark Heald would have loved the draughtsman's skill in the work of Alan Sorrell. I've got the book now so can make my lovely visit last and last.

I had forgotten too just how interesting was Rumpole of the Bailey land. 

I enjoyed brunch with the boys at the Fleet River Bakery  then walked with them to be shown Persephone Books in Lamb's Conduit Street, yet another feast , and subject of a blog post  penned by my son in law . I don't know whether I dare tell him that Persephone books features too in the Middle Class Handbook. 

Before tripping back to Putney with the Bus Pass I said farewell to the boys and went in the back door of the British Museum to have a quick look at the Starr Carr exhibits, then exit through the glorious front door. (NB Vikings Exhibition coming up v soon). 

Oh there's nothing so good as a bit of Bloomsbury for me .

Good to be back

Well I've  stopped doing new posts on the Filey Parish http://fileyparish.blogspot.co.uk. I am only re-posting the most popular posted items from the last 6 years  .I am updating the diary of course , but just waiting until Hazel  takes over as webmistress for Filey Parish with a smart newlook website. I can get back to being me . Here I am not having to answer to anyone but God and my discerning husband ,and thus can say what I like about Filey Parish and Filey  without the loyalty that defines a job for an organisation.
 I am hanging on by a thread to the C of E .  @ABCJustin came just in time for me and I will stick it out a little longer with a leader I trust.
You all know that for 2 years now I have been made into an expert  of sorts on Geriatrica, Gall stones and grumbling . I am making a real effort now to recapture the rest of my life.

This is a first . I am scribing this post on the train going to London. A first because I'm using my supermarket Tablet. I cannot find the way to highlight the text and justify it. Please excuse the alignment, its not what I like or learned to do on the courses on Text Processing I struggled through 12 years ago .Now I have become a Grumpy Old Woman. I look at other peoples websites,posts and paper articles and want to edit them ,update them ,make them look more attractive. So giving you this less than perfect post in the visual sense  is made bearable by my having to explain  its faults  to you be cause of my insecurity.

I'm alone in my travels today ,and just using prebooked tickets  when the circumstances  for the journey have altered. Beloved will celebrate my 2 day absence by cooking just what he likes. The poor man has had a diet of no fat since May and is probably craving pastry and buttered toast. I notice that a Fray Bentos pie in a tin has moved forward on the pantry shelf. I've just had an East Coast Mainline complimentary Jacket Potato with chilli ,welcome ,delicious and with out the butter was fine .
Tomorrow I am going to an exhibition of one of my all time ,long time,favourite artists - Alan Sorrell. I'll tell you what I think tomorrow.

http://www.soane.org/exhibitions/alan_sorrell

best  i can do  for PIC till I get the hang of this tablet