A Tedious Day!

Which I spent shopping – buying a new duvet and covers for mother, buying a cat litter tray etc for the cat! Then drove over to Holme – phoned the Department for Works and Pensions to update them on the new changes with my parents, which was a complete nightmare AND I have to phone them back again tomorrow! Meanwhile two Red-backed Shrikes have turned up in Norfolk and I start to worry something big will turn up, when I haven't really got the time to go birding today.

I then confessed to mother that she now has at cat litter tray for the cat and she went berserk! The reason I got the tray is because I am totally fed-up with Mother hobbling outside in the dark every night with a torch to first of all take out a hot water bottle to warm the cat bed up in the shed (not joking), then back a second time with 3 hot water bottles, a third time to take out food and water and the fourth time to carry the disgruntled cat out to the shed and place nicely in her bed for the night! Mother then lets the cat out early morning. Isn't this completely and utterly insane and I'm a cat lover?!

Mother has also been using the cat as an excuse as to why she can't go out for long during the day, well I've had enough! So I emptied the cat litter into the new tray and placed it in the best place in the kitchen and got shouted at big time. Mother and I hadn't argued for a long time, but the air was blue this afternoon. A cat litter tray is just pure common sense to me, the cat gets to stay indoors at night = happy cat. Mother doesn't have to go out in the dark with torch four times with her dodgy hip = happy mother?. Money saved on electric, boiling four kettles = happy bank! But mother was NOT happy and the reasons why were ridiculous 'the cat wouldn't use it', 'she's used to using earth, she's an outside cat' and 'I don't want that smelling in the kitchen' (I had already thought of that and did lots of homework and bought 'Catscan' which apparently never smells). Anyway, with lots more ranting and raving, we eventually compromised with putting the new tray and litter in the shed overnight, to see if the cat would use it and as soon as she does, she will be able to sleep in the house – that cat better use that tray after all my efforts!!!

I then told mother she has a new luxury duvet arriving tomorrow (had to be ordered in from Debenhams), which she didn't get cross about thank goodness. I then left the house and went to visit father at about 7.45pm. I was told that he was in bed early and had been very emotional this afternoon and had been asking for Penny – oh dear! I went upstairs to his room and peeped in the door – he was awake and looked in a lovely comfortable position in his bed. He seemed very pleased to see me and we had a nice little chat, although he was confused and kept talking about Germany for some reason, something he has never mentioned before! He was asking where he was and that he didn't want to go to Germany, so I brought him back to time and place and he then said 'how far away are you?' 'About 10 miles' I said, 'closer to me and a bit further away from mother than you were'. This seemed to reassure him and he looked settled when I left. I found out from staff as I was leaving, that another resident had been talking about Germany and how they didn't want to go there, so this is where the Germany conversation had come from! The sad thing about putting someone with any degree of dementia into a dementia home is that they will get more confused when listening to other's people's dementia!!! No easy solution.

Back in King's Lynn I did a supermarket shop and returned home shattered, with hardly enough energy to put everything away! Mother has got a little surprise tomorrow, will tell you all about that on Friday night! Another day of cloud and rain tomorrow I see, but Saturday and Sunday look fabulous with sunshine and NE winds forecast, what a treat that will be! Saturday and Sunday are going to be for me, before I return to work on Monday.