thursday 1 – wake up and slow start to New Year’s day, we take a walk through Brungerly Park and eventually find the place where the tree is planted for katie’s dad; we walk back past sabrina’s old nursery and i think about how her dad would have so much have enjoyed seeing her there for longer, had we decided to stay in the uk.

friday 2 – saw helen, mum’s carer from S&S, in the morning and she mentioned about the different homes and her opinions, mentioned about carleton court and how it had changed dramatically, to the extent that i had a bad feeling about the place and definitely would not want mum to be there – in a way it was this conversation which got me motivated to really take it seriously and get the best place for mum. helen mentioned that both craven nursing and steeton court nursing homes were ok.

back at work today, katie is scattering the ashes of her dad at Brungerly Park, i take the bus after work and after tea we call into the crown hotel to catch up with robert, susan, chris and sarah; sabs and eve come along as we chat intently, me a little too intense at times!

saturday 3 – we have breakfast at swales, then look around oxfam and get a wooden game for the family party later that day, something for the children to play with, we settled on a german game called “Obstgarten/Fruit Orchard”, a lovely game to beat the crow winning, so either everyone won or the crow won.

the family event went well, excellent variety of food and chance to relax and chat, eventually the youngsters play the game, so it was all worthwhile getting it.

we go round to see pam and simon in the evening, quiet final evening for katie and girls.

sunday 4 – katie and girls fly back today, they set off to the airport as margaret, jamie and i set off to look at care homes for mum, as we have to find one asap.

we visit threshfield court opposite the avenue, which would be handy for the rugby, but a bit too prim and proper for mum, more like a university college atmosphere, very nice, but expensive
then via the devonshire at cracoe for a bite to eat and on to the next one:

“The Dales” at Draughton also part of the Barchester group, like Threshfield Court, and i later find out, it is a 1500 pound assessment fee (talk about filtering out the less well-off!).

this one was good and they have separate units for those who are ok (2 units downstairs) and those who are further gone with dementia (one unit upstairs, more colourful and child-like in the decor as those units tend to be).

monday 5 – took day off, went to see craven nursing home via the canal bank and getting muddied up in the process.

Craven nursing home also had 2 normal unit and one for dementia, was ok, i could see mum fitting in ok, still we’re looking for the ideal place, so keep looking.

After lunch at mcdonalds and eating outside (i think margaret thinks it costs more to “eat-in”), we take the bus to see mum in hospital, then john convinces me to go to burnley v spurs match in the evening, nigel takes us and we nearly get him into trouble since he’s been footballing too much over the last couple of weeks. The football game ended up one all, we were in a great position to see the cross and spurs goal, near the spurs fans, who were out in number despite a late, cold monday evening.

on the way to auntie jeans, john got chatting with someone on the bus about mum and trying to find somewhere for her to stay and we picked up the tip of Croft House:
http://crofthousecarehome.co.uk/

tuesday 6 – another day off (heilige drei könige), then looking around more homes in the evening, croft house and sutton hall&lodge

looking around Croft House and the penny eventually dropped that mum would be happiest in a place which wasn’t set up as an institution, but rather one set up as a “home from home”.

wednesday 7 – eve sang to me in the morning then coughed towards the end, made it all the more delightfully unique

checking for bespoke furniture and stripping wood:
http://www.eastburncountryfurniture.co.uk/index.php

also, there’s a place in Skipton for bespoke woodwork including kitchens and stairs:
http://www.ajdjoinery.co.uk/

thursday 8 – went to see mum, as in theory giles from Croft Residential Home was coming to assess her, in the end it didn’t happen but it was enlightening to see how they were dealing with her, basically getting her out of bed for a few hours to sit in a chair, leaving her alone to eat (not even cutting meat up), which she struggled with

Take Mum’s christmas cards to her to read through and maybe it makes sense to give these people her new address when she moves, refer to the data stored for this month.

friday 9 – another set of home visits, this time to see the 2 in silsden, the raikes and summerfield again.

saturday 10 – we go round to the coach house again with margaret and agree to bring her in here, subject to assessment (which later turns out to be a formality and a bit disappointing)

sunday 11 – train to manchester airport and flight back arriving home at around 10pm, flight was a bit early and got through to S-bahn quite quickly.

thursday 15 – worked from Neuperlach at Allianz with the great canteen for lunch.

saturday 17 – weekend spent relaxing and recuperating, getting ready for the next trip to the UK.

monday 19 – start of busy week, conference calls, fortunately trips away.

friday 23 – working from the office at hallbergmoos, then take the flight to Manchester at 4.30pm, getting to abbeyfield for about 9.30pm, bus service from airport to Manchester city centre, due to station upgrades.

saturday 24 – big day for moving stuff, shuffling between abbeyfield, duckett street, via a quick stop-off at Scad on newmarket street, then over to clitheroe, bright street and the henthorn road tip.
driving past pendle, which had a sprinkling of snow, like icing sugar on a sweet loaf of bread.
Went to swales with Jamie and Josh, who enjoyed the sausage sarni and milk shake, they’d both been helping me, then to the tip to deposit the various stuff, really not sure what happened, inadvertently the tool case goes missing – my pride and joy, oh dear!

Go to visit mum in the afternoon, noticing how sad she seemed at the Coach House (due to lack of mobility, she was only downstairs every other day), she would wipe her face as if it was a tear, this brief visit confirmed to me what margaret had been reporting, that mum was quite lonely and getting confused.

Went back again to Clitheroe again in the evening to drop a few more things off. Returning and parking up at abbeyfield ready to take the van back the next day.

sunday 25 – dropped van off, first thing in the morning walking past the railway station with the sun coming up over Rombalds Moor.

then went to ducket to do some work then we visit mum to take her out, which consisted of somehow manhandling her into the car, i ended up giving her a bear hug and simply lifting, since she has lost any lower movement, legs as heavy as iron, knees don’t bend and she is not weight-bearing at all now.

just filling in the application for increased attendance allowance and going thru the medication yielded the current medication as:
adcal D3 – twice a day, contains calcium carbonate to assist against osteoporosis and also vitamin D.
senna – 2 tablets at night, a laxative.
lanzorprasole 1x 15mg per day – decreases acid produced in the stomach – this has been halved but not sure why she is still taking this over a year since we were going to stop this
betahistine 2x 8mg, 3x per day – used for the treatment of Ménière’s syndrome, symptoms of which may include vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss and nausea.

Then we took her over the tops to visit Summerfield care home with us, so that she could get an idea of the place and so that we could see the place again and of course, so that they could assess her without the embarassment of visiting her at the Coach House. Am still getting a good feeling about the place and mum seems to enjoy it, coming to sit in the noisier lounge with the other ladies, whilst they are enjoying an afternoon watching old classics, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and “Gigi”.

We get her back to her room ok after another couple of bear hugs in and out of the car.

monday 26 – flight back to Munich after train to Manchester airport, missed planned train due to conference call, but still enough time to go to Spar and Gregg’s for provisions for the flight.

thursday 29 – again out at Neuperlach to work, then went swimming in the evening with Stephan, first training of the year.

friday 30 – working at home and counting down the hours until 2.30pm when mum moves into her new Care Home.

Collecting together a few links for future use here:

http://www.summerfieldcarehome.co.uk/
http://www.silsdencarehome.co.uk/333-home.php

area and accommodation:
http://www.silsdenonline.co.uk/
possible accommodation at:
The Grouse
Keighley Rd, Silsden, Keighley, West Yorkshire BD20 0EH
Tel: 01535 657788 Type: Traditional

Field View House B&B
2 Walton Street, Silsden, BD20 8DL
http://www.letsbookhotel.com/en/uk/silsden/hotel/field-view-house-bb.aspx

The White Lion, accommodation
Priest Bank Road, Kildwick, Keighley BD20 9BH
http://www.letsbookhotel.com/en/uk/keighley/hotel/the-white-lion.aspx

pizza at home with red wine, we order the pizza from hansa and have to go back for another one when sabs comes back, eve is at chiemsee this weekend for the confirmation class preparation weekend

saturday 31 – trying to fix the light switch in our bedroom, swapping switches over with the bathroom one and generally not making much progress, but i had fun!

we watch a film together in the evening, “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, one if Katie’s favourite films, I can see what she likes in it, the amazing scenery and self-discovery which develops.