Crazy Day!

Arrived at Summerville House Care Home to assist the manager in doing the official 'Care Plan' for father. I presumed this would take an hour tops – how wrong was I!!! I actually thought they were joking when they said we had to answer 400 questions – you heard that correctly!!! The plan is all done on line and each question has a choice of answers that you click and then choice of typing in the 'Comments' box if required. As you answer the questions, there is a tally on the screen that tells you how many questions you have left to answer – eventually it gets down to three hundred odd left, and then ages later to two hundred and something and by this time I was losing the will to live – then onto one hundred and something – I was ready to end it!!! Three coffees and a plateful of biscuits later we had finished! I had no idea that any questionnaire could be THAT long!!! I was mentally worn out and felt like I had done an entire weeks work! I was supposed to be on holiday! How awful that staff have to go through that with every new resident – mind blowing! It took four hours to complete!!! However, I had a fabulous surprise today when I found out that the cook here, was a lady I used to go to primary school with – she was in my sister Lucy's year – so nice to know that she works here and thank you for your very kind support.

Father had hardly eaten any main course and was tearful, but had eaten his dessert I heard from the staff. I took father outside in the wheelchair and we sat by the horse field which had two ponies, one donkey and a cute foal amongst the flowers. I soon realised I had made a big mistake – it was too cold for him and he was not impressed – got him back inside and the staff transferred him to a very comfortable armchair. He was not happy at all and asked when was he going home and also said 'no one wanted him anymore and he had just been dumped here' – I explained again, why he was here and did my best to cheer him up, but he turned from being sad to grumpy and told me to go and said 'I don't want to see you for a month'!!! Obviously I didn't take it to heart! I left him as he closed his eyes in an attempt to nap, but the television and radio was on, so it would have been difficult – my guess is that this is why he is going to bed alot earlier than he does at home, as he likes to be quiet – difficult to achieve that in a care home. Anyway, left here at 2.20pm and headed to Hunstanton to do a couple of chores.

Went to Holme to see Mother and found her asleep in the chair – she is still very upset. At 5pm she agreed for me to take her out for a little drive for a change of scene. I drove her to Choseley Drying Barns, but compared to last night, there was nothing of note aside from Woodpigeons, one Pheasant and Yellowhammer – this is probably due to the fact that there were three other cars here and one couple standing out in the open. Left here and went to Titchwell RSPB, but Mother didn't feel like getting out of the car, so went to buy some chips from Eric's fish 'n' chip shop at the Thornham Farm shop complex. I then drove up to the reservoir, pulled into a field lay by and we had a lovely time eating our chips with the fabulous views of the coast and sea! It was lovely sitting here and we had beautiful views of a male Yellowhammer singing away in the blackthorn of the hedge, right next to us. Swallows skimmed past over the corn field and a pair of Red-legged Partridges scurried along the roadside. Drove back but took a detour via Thornham boat house and the Lifeboat Inn and then returned to Holme.

Mother said it had done her good to get out of the house. I left here shortly after that and had to drop an electric air cushion off at the care home, but didn't go in as didn't want to disturb father again. I fell quite ill this evening when I got home – the 400 question care plan had wiped me out! Good night!