A routine of sorts

I suppose we’re in something you might consider to be a routine. Mary is home. She has 24hr companionship: we do two days, and we pay two girls (Amanda and Louisa, 4 and 1) to cover the rest. It’s a live-in duty and so far, so good. The NHS provide carers four times a day to do the heavy lifting (Mary does not get out of bed) but, in the end, we’re all acting as carers – for which your imagination needs no pushing. Amanda and Louisa are both just fab. We trust them with everything and we have a small contract with both. In short, Mary is getting the best possible care and that should stay in place for as long as it takes.

Mary has had some visitors

And that, of course, is the rub. Bex, Steven and Henry are home and we want to see them. We have friends we want to visit and two pretty big evenings in the diary, including Billy Joel in Cardiff. And then, importantly, we need to get away this autumn. We’re going to get away. We can put further care in place if necessary and that may be a bridge we need to cross. We shall see. However, I’m pretty amazed at how invested we both are in this. C has been absolutely fab with Mary. Ex-nurse and carer, she has a natural way which puts the patient at ease. And nothing is too much trouble. I’m getting better at it, but two days a week is probably as much as my back will take. Again, we’ll have to see how that goes.

We hired a van

But we have been away already. Last weekend we hired a van with B&S and moved a whole lot of kit around the country so they could move into their new house. Whilst there I assembled three beds and a complicated chest-of-drawers. Their house, which is in Penkridge ‘up north’, needs some cosmetic work, but nothing we can’t handle between us all. I sense it’s going to be a busy summer in that regard. Henry, as you’d expect, is a fabulous bundle of joy. He’s talking, up to a point, but gets everything. We’re not yet at the ‘reasoned’ end of arguments, but he is delightfully well behaved. We’re back up again with them this Sunday, after a brief respite back home. Back to Mary’s next Wednesday.

We’ve all been busy

Oh, and we’ve had covid. All three of us. I think we caught it in hospital. I have to say we both felt pretty rubbish for a couple of days, but it didn’t put us out of action. I have tried to keep running. I’m working really hard to break 23 minutes over 5 kms. I think I might have been there just before covid struck, but it’s now back to the drawing board. I’ll get there with a little bit more effort.

Book sales have flattened and I am tweaking sales locations and the ads. Up until the beginning of this month I was close to doubling my money. I’m now running a flat line (which is something I would have bitten your hand off for at the start of the process). I haven’t really found the time to work out why things have dropped, but I will. 

Mary’s view

And book 9? Still v much in gestation. I’m meeting with an AI expert towards the end of August as the proliferation of AI is part of the plot line. I would like to think I’ll start writing on 1 September, with a first draft complete by Christmas. That was my previous routine, but time has moved on and I have no idea if I might keep to it. We’ll see.

Politics – fab to get through a week without hearing of some disaster or government embarrassment. Long may ‘boring’ continue. As you’d expect, I have so much to say on the subject but energy levels prevent me from venting. We just need Biden to step aside and for the Dems to select a younger version and I might feel slightly more at ease.

Football? Cricket? The Olympics? So much still to look forward to, thank goodness. Anyhow you lot be safe. Covid is rife at the moment.