Laughter and lunch!

And so here I am at the end of a hectic but lovely day.

Up at 7am and in the pool for some hydrotherapy as I've been a bit achey the past few days.  It's been a while since I was in the pool and I felt it, but I'd forgotten that there's a point, about 20 minutes or so after I get in the water, when my joints suddenly relax and loosen and it feels wonderful.  

I had a lovely time flitting between pool jogging, walking, stretching, floating, and then I went to the end of the pool that has the underwater ledge (basically a long seat) where I do some of my physio exercises, and as I leant forward and let my legs float out behind me, I came eyeball to eyeball with a huge spider!!!  Arrrggghhhhh!

David was summoned and dealt with it.  My hero!

At lunch time we met up with friends and ex-colleagues Sheila and LJ at our favourite Italian Deli.  It was so lovely to see them!  We saw LJ recently but haven't seen Sheila for over two years!  Lots to catch up on!  Also saw Frank, the manager and owner of the Deli.  So lovely to see him too and hear how the restaurant has bounced back.  Such a lovely man and he has the town's full support.

Since it was such a lovely day, rather than sit in the cafe and have coffee, we bought some goodies (Lotus Biscoff brownies and Portuguese custard tart) and came back to the garden to enjoy them in the sunshine.  That's when I took my chance to grab my blip.  I won't tell you what I said that made Sheila laugh!  :-))

Once they left I sat in the garden a little longer then Alan and Ashleigh arrived home (they'd been to the Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh) and I came inside to gather together Ashleigh's leaving present as it was her last day with us today.  She's heading to Uni to train to be a nurse.  She will be a fabulous nurse.

Ash has supported Alan for five years and has been with us through thick and thin...Alan's terrible illness and emergency op in 2016, all through our building work, the arrival of Lola and of course covid, to name a few.  

People often ask me what it's like to have people in our home every day working to support Alan and I can't deny it is odd.  I found it very difficult at first and had to keep being reminded that Alan's support workers aren't guests (Initially I kept making them cups of tea and meals!) but gradually we've got used to it and now have a good routine worked out.  Alan and the team have their space in the house and we have ours.  We kind of live independently, together, if that makes sense?  

But of course there's more to it than that.  In order for people to be in our home and for us to feel totally comfortable with that, not only Alan has to like them, we do too, and Ash has been an absolute star.  She's become like one of the family and we're all going to miss her so much.  I hope she keeps in touch but I know what it's like when life moves on.  It's difficult even with the best of intentions.

Once Ash had gone I got my Tesco online order completed and a new to-do list written up.  I stopped when I got to task no 14!!  That's more than enough.  The rest can wait! 

And just like that it's the 1st of September!