I took quite a lot of stuff up to them as they are both very involved with their local dog rescue who have just opened a charity shop and they need things to sell. I even managed to help out in preparing the shop for opening before I came home. They had their grand opening on Saturday and it looked very impressive considering they only got the keys to the shop on Wednesday.
On Thursday last week I spent almost the whole day at the hospital with my mother-in-law. She had a nasty fall a couple of weeks ago and we thought we were going for a follow up appointment at 11.00 am that wouldn't take too long. We finally left at about 6.30 pm after a bout of tests and lots of prodding and poking. Who knew that sitting doing nothing could be so tiring. My MIL is still not great and actually spent Friday to Sunday in hospital but she's home again now. The fall really seems to have knocked her back and she's looking very frail at the moment. On top of all this she's now moved back to her bungalow with her eldest daughter and her husband. This is good in that she's now on one level and in a familiar location but a bit chaotic at present as the daughter tries to combine the two households into one. But they are making progress.
Having had a busy week we had a very quiet weekend. Today I'm back at MILs as otherwise she would have been on her own this afternoon and that's not the best thing at the moment.
If you read my post about being evacuated from our houses recently I still haven't really got to the bottom of what caused the scare but speaking to my neighbours yesterday it seems it may have just been a drill for the local police. Understandable given that everyone seems to be on high alert following the Paris bombings. I can't confess to understanding the situation in the Middle East but some of the negative comments on social media can be really annoying.
There was a post at the weekend about the semi-permanent shelters that IKEA have designed to house refugees. These look much better than tents and can be solar powered. Unfortunately the thread of the discussion got hijacked by a) someone suggesting that IKEA use child labour and b) people picking holes in the grammar of some of the participants in the conversation. Given that many of them seemed to be Scandinavian and presumably writing in their second language, grammar mistakes could surely be forgiven.
The discussion to me should have been more about the sad state of affairs we find ourselves in that means such shelters are necessary. There did seem to be concern about refugees needing to be housed for up to three years (the life expectancy of the shelters) but I can still remember the pre-fabricated homes that were erected here after WW2 that were supposed to be a temporary solution to the housing shortage. Their life span was put at 10 years but some still exist today!
I hope your MIL can improve and gain some of her health back. Always sad to watch our loved ones in decline. As for the refugees...there is no easy answer in any country. Interesting that IKEA has temporary housing kits. I've not seen anything about that here. Will have to Google it. Hope the rest of your week goes well!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds to me like you could really do with a few days for yourself. Don't wear yourself down with too much helping others. I know you love doing it and it was great to have your help here but you must remember to take care of yourself too. Talk soon. xxx
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