Painting the Palace...

When I opened the bedroom blinds this morning I was greeted by the wonderful sight of Billy hard at work painting the Gin Palace.  Woo hoo, the spring makeover is underway :-)

The new colour (Fresh Rosemary) is a little lighter than the previous colour (can't remember what it was) but I like it.  So pleased the weather has been agreeable and they have managed to get the outside painted.  Doesn't matter if it rains when they're painting the inside (country cream :-)   Our job for later in the week will be to get the GP properly dressed and ready for the 2019 official opening.  Agnes and Adrian are here on Saturday so that may well be the day ;-))

And so from Palace to the House of Cards that is (at times) Alan's support network.  

Despite having a core team of four support workers and a back up of five agency workers, it doesn't take much for the levels of support to dwindle when illness and holidays collide.

Poor Jordan felt ill yesterday when out and about with Alan and had to cut his shift short.  So with Shelley on annual leave, Lisa unable to work extra hours due to school holidays, Ashleigh with a young baby making childcare arrangements at short notice difficult and the agency workers also not being available at short notice,  Alan's care fell to us.  Not a problem (other than Alan not being impressed at having to spend the day with his oldies :-)) but it does worry me that despite having a potential pool of nine people, he can still end up in a situation with no support available.  

To make matters worse, Jordan has been diagnosed with Labyrinthitis, a horrible ear infection that can take weeks to recover from, and Ashleigh (who should have been working this evening) had to get an emergency GP appointment this morning after twisting her back lifting little Lily into her cot.  She's in agony and can hardly walk and has been prescribed strong painkillers so she may also be off for a few days at least.

Thankfully agency worker Ally can pick up a couple of their shifts tomorrow and Wednesday.  We're still waiting to hear if any of the rest of the agency team can cover the other shifts.

Of course it's not a problem for us to step in (well D really as I'm no longer  able to provide the physical care Alan needs) but D won't always be able to step in and we won't be around forever so it does worry me.  

When D is away we organise for one of the core team to be on call, so that if anyone is unable to work their shift, back up available.  It may be that we need to look at putting this system in place at all times.  Unfortunately agency staff can't offer an on call service so the core team would have to cover it so may mean more recruitment.  

Hey ho...nothing is ever straightforward!

On a more positive note, I am looking forward to welcoming my wee pal Anna and her family on Thursday.  I just have to think about this little live-wire and I smile.  They are staying with us till Saturday and I can't wait to catch up.  Looking forward to getting cuddles from her little sister Faith and seeing how much she's grown. 

And on that note, I better go and get my online Tesco order completed.  Need to make sure I have plenty jellybabies  watermelon in stock!  :-))