OMG I can hear you all shrieking!

Yes, here it is, a long overdue blog entry and in the best of the dog ate my homework traditions, I am going to tell you all why it's been so long since I updated.

The first thing is, that life has been ever so slightly hectic and although that is no excuse at all since everybody's life is hectic these days, it's my first excuse and I'm sticking to it. I do have second and third excuses planned too (so as not to disappoint you), but I shall start with the first one and move on.

My mother has been living with me recently...there, that's the truth of it and that simple statement explains a lot. Many of my friends by now will be nodding sagely and those of you who don't know her, will imagine anyway, that having your mother suddenly come to live with you, is bound to turn your life upside down a bit and they might think that its even more true, when your mother is 81.

Writing down that my mother is 81, makes it sound as if some doddery old lady has just moved in with us, dribbling down her front and spilling her tea, but it's not like that at all. It's even not like that when I tell you that she had a fall and so that's why she was here. Nope, my mother is not that kind of 81...my mother is the kind of 81 that...that...well...actually she's not like any kind of 81 in fact. I think I need an example...

A couple of years ago (just before she turned 80), she went to Cuba and then she went to
China (coming home on the Trans Siberia Express and dropping in on Mongolia on the way to stay in a yurt) and then on to Canada. Apparently she wanted as many trips as possible before her travel insurance ran out at aged 80 and she had to buy a more expensive policy - so she decided to do countries beginning with the letter C (I think). I did actually point out to her at the time that doing one letter per year at aged 80 wasn't necessarily the best plan as by my reckoning she'd be about 104 by the time she got to Zaire, but she didn't seem too bothered by the idea that she might have to tote her zimmer frame out on safari with her - just as long as she could use it to rest her camera on.

She did take a little break this year, to go to Oberammergau - a bit out of order its true, but its only on once every 10 years and wasn't going to fall in sequence next time round either... I dunno, she seems to collect countries like some old ladies collect china ornaments. Most recently she has been collecting African Mediterranean countries Libya and Morocco spring to mind and (although not in Africa) is now talking of Nepal. I'm thinking this is just a way to revert back to working her way through the alphabet, at a slightly speedier rate...but who can tell...

Anyway, all of this is by way of explaining how she isn't your typical pensioner (if there is such a thing) but doesn't really explain how she came to be here, although it's true that she had a fall. Three weeks ago, on a Sunday morning, my mother called to say she'd fallen in the night and thought she'd broken her arm. In reality she fell down the stairs - all the way down the stairs, hit the wall at the bottom, turned the corner and landed on the quarry tile floor. She explained it as "rather like doing a slinky" ... which says it all really. She then got up, dusted herself down, climbed back up the stairs, and since it was 3.30 in the morning and she didn't want to bother anyone, she went back to bed. She called us at 9.30 and we picked her up and took her to hospital where they confirmed that it was, indeed, broken. So that was it, arm in a plaster and sling, right arm (and she's right handed) and it was back home with us...I haven't had time to do a thing since then.

Aha! I can hear you all say, but what about now - how come you have time to blog now? Well, the now is that she wanted to get home and so she went home with her arm in plaster just as soon as she felt able to cope (which was last Friday). She's doing fine (thanks for asking!) and hopefully will get the plaster off in another 2 weeks. At least one good thing has come out of all of this though, as given the steepness of the stairs versus the age of the lady equation, I think she can be fairly confident she doesn't have osteoporosis!