friday 1 – day off for all saints day, had some work to finish off, then went for a walk with eve and kats trudging through the leaf-laden lanes past the school playing fields and along the isar then the bus back
pizza supper then another 2 episodes of downtown, then we set about planning some cooking for tomorrow, eve wanted to do some baking, we ended up calling the event, “la fete de l’automme”

saturday 2 – making supper with eve, creating a right mess, getting just about every utensil, every pan, every dish dirty as we make:
whities with limette icing, which i did, funny mix but tasted ok
cupcakes with ginger, syrup and black treacle, which eve did, tasted very tangy
we make bolognese sauce, then add spaghetti, eve stirring a bit, then going to room to learn for her geography exam
the usual 2 episodes of downton abbey to watch

sunday 3 – still feeling bad in back due to fall last week, made mistake of asking sabs about plans for next year and just ended up irritating her
taking sunday school which went ok, starting nativity preparations
got back and lazed around a bit, reading and collecting info about john and stanley wills

monday 4 – working at home, then flight to manchester, connection worked well to get train to leeds and back to mum’s for 9.30pm, sat watching tv with her

tuesday 5 – working at number 11 which was ok but very cold, saw the usual crew at dinner time with mum, roger and jane, sheila, david

wednesday 6 – took mum for set at hairdressers then had meeting with solicitors and sat in the wonderful office opposite the church where you hear the gentle speed of life in 15 minute pace from the bells
in the evening, go to bingley arts centre to watch the dancing which celine was in, for the first half they perform the whole of wizard of oz, then the second half there are individual group dances, with celine performing the song by will.i.am, all eyes on us

thursday 7 – go to ikea with james and massively underestimate the size of space we’d need in the van, luckily after taking everything out and re-sorting we manage to get it in with me crouched in the single seat in the back and apologizing to celine for being half an hour late for picking her up at bingley

friday 8 – take sofa and other ikea stuff up to mum’s flat, start work on the chair and easy stuff, go to sleep around 11pm; then get up very early in the morning to start work bulding the sofa and have it ready for 8am, go into town to #11 to work

saturday 9 – after getting back from taking mum back, had a good, energetic dance with sue and even helen who was hilarious during “paradise by the dashboard light”

sunday 10 – had lunch with mum in her normal place in the dining room i think (maybe opposite her normal space), on the left in the corner, presumably opposite David, who was away, also the chatterbox from barlick
so on the table additionally were interestingly 2 former residents of sheltered accommodation, managed by yorkshire housing, kitty (from greatwood close, has been there 20 years) and mary (from roughaw close, been there 4 years), also on the table were mary’s daughter and kathleen, who has difficulty hearing at times. Mum is settling in and i feel she would and is getting on with these 3: kitty (telling mum off for reaching for her drink), kathleen (who in any case doesn’t hear or speak much), mary (pretty old), plus the nice, chatty, motherly lady (looks like she should be called “denise”), so that would make 4 potential or current friends

By dining there at lunchtime, you inevitably get to pick up a lot of detail on how people are being treated and how they end up at abbeyfield.

One striking fact is that 2 former residents of sheltered accommodation in skipton, managed by yorkshire housing, one from greatwood close, who had been there 20 years and one from roughaw close, who had been there 4 years had been made homeless/bribed out of their homes with 4700 pounds each, so that the accommodation they were in can be renovated and used/sold as affordable housing to younger people presumably.
Apparently there are grants available, so no doubt driven by incentives. Seems the nearest similar accommodation available by yorkshire housing is now at embsay, not sure who manages petyt close off newmarket.

What is clear is that sheltered accommodation will be scarcer in skipton, not sure if this is part of a natinoal tremd.

Another interesting fact is that Abbeyfield are expanding fairly shortly to capacity which would mean that they would need to have 2 dinner sittings, although i’ll believe it when i see it.In any event, am glad that mum got on when she did, albeit we are likely spending as much here as a residential/nursing home

so another unintended consequence – at a superficial level grants for affordable housing or another unintended consequence of a free-for-all/pensions-encouraging buy-to-let economy that drives up prices and forces people out of the market to exit at strange places in the overall housing market

so to a moral stance i’ve come to: it is a reasonable expectation to want to pass on the family home to the (or one of) children? I think it is.

travelling by train to manchester airport and notice the rental bikes at shipley station, all raleigh bikes from the firm:
bikeandgo.co.uk

books to consider for katie:
the secret scripture – sebastian barry, young girl from durham was reading this on the train

met up with monica hards on the plane back and we travelled together on the sbahn to ostbahnhof catching up on what has happened

monday 11 – went to cooking course in the evening making chicken soup with griessknockeln, good fun

tuesday 12 – working at home

wednesday 13, stuttgart – out in the evening at a schwäbisches restaurant, the Sattlerei, in the old centre / market place at bad canstatt,to celebrate project success at the “bergfest”
left around 9.30pm to catch late train to düsseldorf, changing at frankfurt flughafen and arriving at 1am

thursday 14, düsseldorf – meeting to go to then long 5 hour train journey back to munich

friday 15 – working at home and then called mum’s doctor’s surgery and after finally getting through after 7 minutes waiting then after a silly conversation about whether the doctor could give me the information, to get an update for mum:
registered district nurse from dyneley house – trying to get contact numbers, but dr wouldn’t give me the number, hopeless
blood pressure: still needs to be done by district nurse
ankles: leave and let district nurse check
urine sample: OK, clear
blood test: low sodium

saturday 16 – preparing most of the day for the visit this evening, katie had invited many friends round:
andy and sue, alistair and jenny, emily and jan, kathy and graham, went off ok, i made a krauterbread and various dressings – with/without wine french dressing

sunday 17 – helping out with coffee, then finishing off washing up

monday 18, karlsruhe – up at 5.30am to get the 6.10am train from harras to catch the TGV to Karlsruhe
back late, brought a couple of french newspapers back for eve to read for her french

tuesday 19, berlin – after day at eantc, cabling and configuring things with thorsten went back to hotel, courtyard marriot on axel-springerstr. 55 to continue working

wednesday 20, berlin – after long day at work, went to chinese restaurant “china city” round the corner from the hotel

thursday 21, berlin – flight back overlapping with katie who is flying to uk, planes in the sky

friday 22 – katie in uk, looking after eve and sabs although in the end they arrange to stay over at friends or be away a lot of the time, eve with rumesa and sabs with school friends

saturday 23 – very cold this weekend
made spaghetti bolognese for evening meal, eve quite late back from rumesas nice to sit and eat all ate together
sit around listening to the radio – some good programmes on and it was nice to have the spoken voice for comfort
then made a fruit pie with the many apples and pears which katie had bought in

sunday 24 – took fruit pie proudly to church and it went in no time, tasted ok too

monday 25 – working at home and katie back from her weekend in england
went to cooking course, made kasespätzle

tuesday 26, berlin – after hard day at eantc, went to peking ente with andreas and ingo, amazing meal

wednesday 27, berlin – after long day at work, caught bayer leverkusen match against man utd, 0 v 5, in irish times opposite the hotel where we were staying

thursday 28, berlin – went to gendarmerie weihnachtsmarkt with sigrid, wonderful show of dancing and acrobatics

friday 29, berlin – got thru work and tests just in time then travelled with andreas and ingo to tegel airport, then back for pizza meal and ine

saturday 30 – took eve to DM markt on albert-roßhaupter for her to choose perfume for katie, then i buy some cheese to make spätzle and we eat at the nearby metzger, she has a lebekäse, i have a pork sandwich
make kasespätzle and eve makes cup cakes – a right mess – we’re the chaos cooks in the kitchen

what i wanted to write in margaret’s birthday card – something along these lines
“to a wonderful sister with a heart of gold:
we may not get on as well as we did when we were young but it won’t stop me from trying!”

links
http://blog.positivediscipline.com/search/label/Parenting%20Tool%20Cards?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer04be4&utm_medium=facebook

quotes

A test of a people is how it behaves toward the old. It is easy to love children. Even tyrants and dictators make a point of being fond of children.
But the affection and care for the old, the incurable, the helpless are the true gold mines of a culture

Abraham J. Heschel

joke
Man goes into a music store to buy a present for his daughter, whispers to the owner:
“er, it’s not for me, but have you got the new one from ‘One Dire…’?”
“yes, of course, but you know, One Direction are called ‘1D’ to their fans.”
“I see, is that the number of dimensions in their music or its value in pounds, shillings and pence?”