July was dominated by the heat - we languished in front of electric fans for most of the month - and by health problems. The doctor had promised to send me to a chest specialist for the breathlessness, but I ended up having to wait until August for that. In the meantime, the valve at the top of my stomach appeared to have failed completely and I woke up one night coughing madly and retching with a mouthful of stomach acid. I had to sleep sitting up on the sofa for several days, but the doctor changed my medication and that seems to be working for now. At least I started to be able to sleep lying down and I'm not coughing so much or so violently with the lung full of stomach acid, or coughing until I retch. Something is obviously still coming up though, as everything tastes bad. I'm worried the acid will attack my teeth! I also have severe joint pains in my left hip and my right shoulder, but I'm reluctant to mention them to the doctor - what with the breathlessness and the dodgy stomach, I don't think the NHS will allow me to have anything else wrong!
My sister has also been having a difficult time as she injured her knee some time ago and can't walk. She has crutches, but finds it all quite difficult. The hospital are trying rest, drugs and special exercises at present, but if that doesn't work, she may need a knee replacement. She is working from home quite a bit, and as she is very close to a station she has managed to go into work twice or three times a week, though it is difficult. She can't manage stairs, so she uses a bus from London Bridge. A lot of Tube stations have stairs, so the bus is easier, though much slower. We have driven up to her place take her shopping quite a few times, as she can't manage the supermarket, and she has come down to our house most weekends. Her life must be quite depressing as she finds it difficult to leave the house. We find it hard to take her anywhere interesting either, as she can't walk any distance.
We also spent some days looking after our younger grandson, as he was teething and got diarrhoea so the nursery sent him home. But it's a one hour drive to their house so it makes a long day for us. I worry about Paul falling asleep on the motorway on the way home!
We had a big family party for more than 20 people on the last weekend in July, for Paul's cousins and most of their children and an old family friend. Paul's parents and his aunt and uncle (all now dead) were very friendly with another couple in the 1930s and 40s, and this couple had one son (P.) who is severely disabled; he is about our age, and lives in a care home in Croydon. His parents have been dead for some time and I believe he has few, if any, other family, but Paul's cousins keep in touch with him. One of them thought it would be a nice idea to ask him to lunch here, as our house is fairly wheelchair friendly and not far from Croydon, so this was the lunch. We were very lucky that it wasn't a boiling hot day so we were able to be outside. It was so warm indeed here for most of the month, we had to keep curtains closed most of the time or we would have fried. The hot weather, though it didn't suit us at all, obviously suited the hydrangeas in the lane, which looked very good for the party.
The day of the party was slightly fraught as P. wanted to be independent and travel here by train so somebody met him at the station and walked back with him to help him find his way here in his electric wheelchair. They had to push him in the end, as the hill was too much for his wheelchair battery! Fortunately, Paul was able to re-charge the battery while he was here - and there's more downhill on the way back to the station.
I had both of my sons here with wives and children, and all Paul's cousins with their children and grandchildren - many of the grandchildren teenagers, so there plenty of folk to play with my grandchildren. Paul had a busy time beforehand building a bridge over our terrace to get the wheelchair in and out of our terrace doors, as the step up and down is quite high. The bridge was made from pallets Paul found in nearby skips and some old pieces of hardboard!
The party was a great success, which had a lot to do with the lovely food everybody brought with them. My older son and family left after the party, as did my younger son, but without his family. They stayed with us for about ten days, and my sister stayed for a week. It was lovely to have such a house full, though it took me a long time to get through the washing and ironing afterwards! My grandson enjoyed playing in the garden so much we didn't manage to persuade him to go out anywhere much, though we did manage one day out at a nearby animal park.
My grandson was fascinated by the horses outside beside the car park.
He was delighted to see again old friends like Colin the crocodile (in a cage and behind glass) and was also happy to see the big tortoise again.
He was quite terrified of the python though, and in spite of my having it slither onto me, was very reluctant to touch it. We also admired the birds
like this extremely handsome one, as well as all the other animals like the lemurs and meerkats. We even saw the beavers this time; the last two times we've been there, there has been no sign of the beavers.
Posting photos seems rather difficult at present - I have just updated this iPad to iOS7 and it now seems it will only post a few photos at a time. For the last posting, I could only post 4 and had to add in the others one at a time. Next month will be very difficult, as I have rather a lot of photos, having been on two visits.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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