Confusions and Frustrations.......

 
Thought we were having the dog last Saturday so dog proofed the lounge, put food and water and her bed out in the dining room, then it turned out we weren't needed so put it all away again, then told Tuesday onwards this week. 

My brother put this tribute to our parents on fb as 15th August is the anniversary of VJ day and I have his permission to share it here. 

Thanks Bruv.

Sunday was a lovely visit from Son&fiancé with their dog

They came with birthday gifts and cake. 

Although their vase did look a little worried by my other new vase. 

This visit we did manage to have the Chinese takeaway that didn't happen last time. E doesn't enjoy Chinese so I cooked her a dinner just before ours arrived. 

After eating we had all just settled back in the lounge when Son got a message from another family member who was parked on their drive while he went abroad. The message said they were back in the UK and heading back from the airport and will be with them in 10-15minutes! Panic stations as Son lives nearly half an hour away from my house and knows his clever parking means two cars need to move and nobody has both keys. So mad pack up, hugs, kisses and gone. 

Monday morning and the neighbours all laughed when greeted by the new coffee club sign. In the afternoon Son suddenly arrived (I'd forgotten he was coming) he'd arranged with Hubby to bring over his pond frame as he's filling in his pond and our netting wasn't enough when the otters came and took all our fish. Son had taken a charity day off work and sat in on M's games week. M has gathered a lot more retro computer and console games for his school holiday event and Son couldn't resist especially as some of the games had been his.   

Tuesday morning more dog sitting confusion. Yes we had dog proofed but weren't needed. Got an apology and the message that we were definitely needed Thursday. 

E has had a nightmare getting an NHS booking! GP did the referral for a test, E got a message to phone the booking team which she did. The booking team are an outsourced company that are remote and couldn't answer E's simple question but said they'll ask and someone will ring her back, they didn't ring back. To cut a very long story short this has taken a month of chasing, lack of responses, a booking and cancelling and emails getting lost and finally found for E to now have an appointment for a test she needs another month away and E having made 14 of those phone calls! On her records all medical staff will see her condition is made so much worse by fatigue and stress. 

As we are on the subject of medical frustrations I chased for my results of the CT Scan I had two weeks ago and was told they are now taking 6-8 weeks to come through aarrgghhh! I'll be due another scan by then. 

I have to say that all the hands-on medical staff I've had contact with are efficient and caring however the NHS is very broken on its systems, recording and communications side! 

This is the last week for Theatre in the Forest after which Red Rose Theatre Company takes a very well earned break and shuts for a few weeks. R has a holiday with a friend booked. I told R we'd get her some euros to take, they will mostly use plastic but things like bus fares or buying a coffee might need cash. I did the research and found the best deal was order online then pick up in person from the Foreign Exchange inside Sainsbury. As always Hubby does the shopping and would pick up after a hospital appointment, so I gave him my passport and the bank card I'd bought them on as requested. He was refused the euros as I needed to be there with my ID. He argued but they wouldn't budge. So in store he still ordered online in his name and collected. When he got home I went to cancel my order then discovered there was a £10 cancellation fee which made me cross so back with Hubby next day to pick up my order. Not sure that was the most cost effective way to do it, but the spare euros will sit here with our spare US dollars for someone's future trip. 

Hubby has been playing with bits of frame to see what works and what extra bits he needs to order. He's also cleaned off some of the slabs. 

While over there he disturbed this little chap and managed to get a good photo. 

Sad seeing the pond so short of water but it is helpful for Hubby while sorting it out.

We did dog sit on Thursday and warned it was till late as M had included a parents evening. When M and D came to pick up the dog they said their version of parents evening was actualy nearly all of the dad's who came to play the retro games they remembered hahaha.  M's son D is now working full time there as Uni is finished. 

Hubby got a couple of hours with the guys playing pool on Friday which he hasn't done for ages. 

Very unpredictable weather with the lightest of showers and a few heavy storms all short lived but so welcome. Did mean coffee morning was a shall we sit inside or outside debate, we chanced outside and was OK. Still quite warm so doors and windows open, then a storm means a mad dash closing them and starting the day with the optimistic t-shirt but the cardigan nearby. 

Ended the week with a late message from M can we have the dog all day today while he holds his final school holiday BBQ. So I'm off now to Doggy proof again. 

Enjoy your weekend.

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