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[w3526602]

Hi..

In the last few days, I've called an ambulance twice, and the Fire Brigade twice. All to get Barbara off the floor. The Fire Brigade have a faster response time, with the ambulance never taking less than two hours. Yesterday it took them six hours, while Barbara lay on the Bathroom floor. The last time she dialed 999, nobody answered.

Once she was back in her chair, the Big Nebby in the ambulance crew started laying down the law, demanding that we get out bungalow "sorted" whith gantries, and bocks and tackle hung from the ceiling.

Our daughter went into Management Mode, and demanded we moved into "Assisted Accomodation", and produced details of several "Macarthney & Stone" developments nearer her house (we are currently 3 miles apart, £5 plus tip, by taxi).  Barbara, she say OK, before departing for a night in  Milton Keynes General Hospital.

I'm not in favour of the idea ... no garage/man cave, no back garden, no junk-room. I have not investigated how many car parking bays are available, but both Living room, and (only one) Bedroom are bigger than we have at present  Lounge 20x10, and bedroom 15 x 10, but there is seperate visitor's accomodation.  Dogs are allowed, but it won't be a case of opening the back-door at midnight, and telling him to make his own arrangements, and knock when he is finished.

I don't have any persuasive argument, so it looks like the die (di?) is almost cast.

Watch this space for when I start to list all my man toys. 

602

[Old80]

Before selling off all your treasured goodies, would it be possible to rent a lockup near to the assisted living...... just a thought!

[Genem]

Sorry to hear that this is the situation you have reached John but perhaps ease & comfort for you both outweighs struggling along and wearing you both out ?

"Enjoy yourself while you can...."

Cheers,

Gene.     

[w3526602]

Hi Old 80,

That though had crossed my mind, but I have not investigated, as yet.

My daughter's had a garage ... which became Bedroom 4 and WC/shower 2. The front garden is now occupied by Grand Daughter's 14ft den on wheels, and a HIPPO bag.

Not so long ago, there was a bungalow in MK, needing work, (probably asbestos skin), but plenty of parking space, for £6,000. Our first "project" house in the Swansea Valley, cost us £5,000, outside tap (no water indoors) and no flush in the stone build "dunny", flush with a bucket filled from the aforementioned tap. This place was bought to support the self-build on the half-acre plot on the other side of the lane. I cleared most of the willow off the plot, by feeding it to a huge neutered billy goat ... eat the leaves, strip the bark with his lower teeth (goats don't have upper teeth), leaving clean branches for the wood burning stove. Then the couple in the cottage next door offered us their cottage,for £15,000, which included a building plot.Done!

Can I assume that a 22ft x 14ft kitchen (the whole ground floor of the first cottage) was adequate?

So ... the half-acre plus building plot, cottage 1, cottage 2, building plot in garden of cottage 2, and the 7.5 acres of rough grazing up the hill behind us.

Playing MONOPOLY with real property. Where did I go wrong?

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Hi Gene, Overtaken by your mail, Thanks for the thoughts. Still nothing from the hospital (11.24 hrs) ... which might mean that somebody is actually taking an interest in Barbara's various problems. The ambulance driver expressed his thoughts very firmly.

[LN11AAB498A]

I`m sorry to hear your sad news, very best wishes to you both.

[Noddy]

Checkout "Attendance Allowance" at independentage.org or at gov.uk its not means tested nor does having a pension restrict payment as happens with carer's allowance. Every bit helps as they say.

Alec

[w3526602]

Hi Noddy and LN.etc

Thanks for your interest.

Barbara is already claiming "Attendance Allowance", which made a difference to our lifestyle, far in excess of the £80pw, though I can't work out how.

I have pondered on "Carer's Allowance", but frankly, I don't do much other than just being there ,24/7, apart from the couple of hours at lunchtime when I take Wilkie to his dog walker (aka Grandson) I have to lift her feet into bed, top up her drinking beake, etc.  A team of cleaners mop through, etc, once a week (£40).

However, when the "unexpected" hits the fan, I am very much needed.

Barbara has just bought some sort "MAYDAY" device for summoning assistance.

The leader of the ambulance crew last night last night (possibly ex-military with rank) got very emphatic about what I needed to do to the bungalow, in the form of disability aids and "mechanical handling".

Barbara has just phoned (day after, about 19.00 hours) She is still woozy, says they may be keeping her in for a few days , for tests (?). My daughter says not to visit yet, as the ward is a long way from the car park. I suppose I could borrow Barbara's traditional hand-propelled wheel chair. I've been intending to get a blue parking badge, but the problem is likely to be that I can't remember seeing a doctor in the three years we've been here. Perhaps I should avail myself of our Beneden Health Care insurance? We've been paying it since I "retired" about 30 years ago, and have only claimed for the few days I spent in hospital, when they gave me new eyes. (Sorry, I went to MK eye Xray, where they put drops in my eyes, so couldn't drive) My daughter's friend (also a bank manager) took a day off, to ferry me to and fro. My daughter doesn't drive.

I am never ill, apart from the time the RAF had to cancel my one year tour to Hickam Field. (Somebody at Headquarters must have loved me.)

Hickham Field is where the two Kittyhawk pilots took of from, during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbour. I'd volunteered for a year in Arabia. Gan in the middle of the Indian Ocean, or Christmas Island in the middle of the Pacific. Somebody at RAF Records Office obviously had a sense of humour, decide that Honolulu was the same as Christmas Island .  The day before I was due to go on 14 day Embarkation Leave, they stuck me in front of a mass X-ray machine ... told me I had a "minimal lesion on right upper lung (aka Tuberculosis). I'd never felt better.  After 13 weeks in bed (RAF Hospital Wroughton) they told me I was cured, return to service. I was as week as a kitten. Somebody else got my posting. Then I met Barbara, and requested I be taken of the volunteer list. Approved ... and was promptly moved onto the routine posting list (33sqd RAF, based on RAAF Butterworth. The Aussies and Kiwis were fighting in Viet Nam (guestimate about 1000miles to the East).  Us RAF were not fighting ... we had a SAM-site equipped with Bloodhound missiles (Hence my AVATAR). pointing in that general direction. Our new Australian CO never arrived, believed to have been shot down. Whatever, Barbara and I got married with finger-counting  speed. The first day of our honeymoon was driving from Swansea to Lincoln, to get Barbara booked into the RAF. But it was too late to arrange for her to fly out with me, so she followed about six weeks later. She arrived at RAAF Butterworth, having been found a spare seat on a "Pig" (Vickers Viking), but I was nowhere to be found (I had been told that she would be arriving the following day, so I was over on the Island, arranging a bungalow.

The Squadron Warrant Officer took her under his wing, where I eventually found her, and we spent that night in his married quarter.

I'm guessing her mother, in the Swansea Valley, would have relished being asked "How is Barbara getting on"?

"Oh, she's living in Malaya now!"

I have nursed her through all the problems that she would not have met ... if she hadn't married me.

602

[w3526602]

Hi,

I managed to visit Barbara today, using the same tame Bank Manager to push me in a wheel-chair. It's a long walk from the car-park to her bed.

She seemed quite bright, confined to bed, and isn't sure when she will be home (several days), nor why she is being kept in. Our daughter suspects that they are getting serious about finding out what is wrong with her.

May I suggest chronic arthritis in both knees, and getting very close (9th April) to having 80 years under her belt?

One of the firemen called today, said he'd forgotten to ask at the time ... Do we have a smoke detector (or whatever)? "No!" So he nailed one to the hall ceiling. He said they are usually fitted by the tallest bloke in the crew.  I told him that I had a left-handed Sergeant, who specialised in fixing the passenger side sliding doors to Morris J2 mini-buses.  It was a sort of James Herriot "up to the armpit" job.

602

[w3526602]

Hi,

Before deciding how to dispose of my stuff, I'll ask the Assisted Living developers (McCarthney & Stone) if they have any ideas.

Of course, I now have a completely fenced (2m high) area, between the side of my bungalow and the road, 40ft x 16ft (dropping to 7ft) that could be retained, and filled with trailer horse boxes.     The developers advertise that they will buy our property at genuine market value, which will make life easier. I wonder if ......?  I think I'm joking.

Google says the developers are opening a new development at Bletchley, very close to the DACIA dealers, within walking distance of our daughter (Her walking distance, not mine). Gibbo should know where that is.   I will investigate. ... and maybe start acting my age.

602

[w3526602]

Hi,

My first search for storage near Bletchley, Milton Keynes, reveals that a 50 sq.ft, store (probably big enough, if I don't want to walk around) would be £23 per week, plus extras like insurance. Affordable, but probably not justifiable.

I anticipate we will have one brand new car, so I shouldn't need tools other than to change a fuse ... which will probably be down the the maintenance crew ... not that fuses need changing nowaday.

What's the value of a bucket full of old sockets?  And how much to replace?

And a brand new heavy construction, wooden workbench, complete with new vice, old pillar drill. and grinder?  Breaker drill? Battered welder?

I'll probably be better clearing the lot, and buy a wooden tool box, and a couple of new screwdrivers, and a hammer, like what my daughter's got.

Next move is to get our future written in stone, then maybe have an auction.

Sob!

602

[oilstain]

I to are very sorry to read of your problems and fear I may not be to far behind

I was once told that youth was wasted on the young and now fully understand

[w3526602]

Hi Oilstain,

Similarly, I was told that by the time you can afford the best things in life, you will be too old to enjoy them.

My father told me that when you are "past it", you can say the most outrageous things to women, and they don't take offence. That seems to be true, our cleaners give back as good as they get, with a laugh, but Barbara warns me to "Watch it!", with only a smile.

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