Today really starts off with the events of yesterday evening. A carer called round to help me to get Meg to bed but she did seem to have much a clue but watched as I did most of the bedtimes routines myself. Nonetheless, I am grateful for help from whatever quarter. After Meg was abed, I had a FaceTime call with one of my ex-University of Winchester colleagues as we have got into the habit of weekly chats on a Friday evening. But I suspected that I heard sounds from upstairs so I terminated our FaceTime session abruptly and shot upstairs, only to find Meg had successfully negotiated and evaded the devices I place around the bed to prevent her falling out of bed or even getting out of bed and rendering herself liable to fall. I found Meg upright and clinging onto the frame of our en-suite bathroom door so after making sure that she was comfortable I got her back into bed and came to bed myself within about ten minutes to prevent further peregrinations. To prevent this happening in the future, as soon as I was conscious this morning, I got onto Amazon and ordered a baby alarm which I hope will do the trick. Even in the 1960’s, it was possible to buy baby alarms and we bought one to monitor our son but it was never tested to the full because he never work up in the early evening. This product should arrive today and, if it works as intended, then Meg should be able to call out for me if she needs me whilst she remains in bed and this means that I do not need to keep running up and down stairs to check on her. But we both a good night’s sleep and then we got up and waited for the carers to call at 8.20. After half an hour, Meg was still practically undressed in the bathroom so I completed getting her washed and dressed and we made our way via the stair lift into our Music Lounge for breakfast. As we had been a bit delayed waiting for carers who did not arrive, we made our way to Waitrose and were soon joined by four of our friends, including our University of Birmingham friend who had a shrewd idea where to find us. The five of us spent a very jolly hour or even more in each other’s company and in Meg’s case. she enjoyed a double version of a chocolate cake the portions of which had already been heavily discounted in the first place but one of the Waitrose staff working in the cafeteria let Meg have the last double portion of cake as she had just come out of hospital. In the middle of the conversations, my mobile rang and it was the NHS ReAblement team ringing at about 11.10 presumably to get Meg out of bed and wondering if we were all right as we were evidently not at home. After our sojourn, getting into the car proved not to be easy because Meg proved to be especially wobbly and the wheelchair on a slope was running away with us. The upshot of this was that Meg and I both ended up on the floor. About four people rushed to help us and Meg and I were quite quickly got to our feet. The young woman who rushed to help us put her baby into the hands of her partner, helped Meg into the car and then pressed a bunch of daffodils that she had just bought for herself into Meg’s hands. As it was a fine day, I thought it was a good idea to make some preparations for our first mowing of the season. We returned home to pick up a petrol container and then we headed for Halfords. It must be a sign of the times but Halfords was both deserted and also easy to park outside. So I popped in and got a litre of the oil used for garden 4-stroke engines and then journeyed to the nearby garage where I bought a gallon of premium grade petrol (to avoid future problems with the ethanol added to modern petrol which can absorb water and adversely affect the engine of the mower) Then having got home finally, I made a lightning lunch of ham and those microwavable vegetables which are invaluable when in a hurry.
Meg seemed pretty tired and was practically asleep half her through her meal so I quickly hurried off to our little settee where she fell into a deep doze. Knowing that Meg would probably sleep for the best part of three quarters of an hour, I thought this was an excellent opportunity to at least make a start on the lawn mowing. Ascertaining that Meg seemed to be in a fairly deep sleep, I oiled up and fuelled the mower, adjusting the cut to the highest possible setting and it then started fairly readily. So I got through about the first half of the first cut and then our neighbour appeared to edge his lawn. I enlisted his help to keep his hand on the ‘dead man’s handle’ whilst I keep the mowing running and ascertained that Meg was still asleep. As she was, I finished off the second half of the first cut and went inside, to find that Meg was just coming round. I explained to her that I still had the second cut to perform but she seemed happy enough to doze whilst I mowed on fast as I could. The upshot of all of this was that by the middle of the afternoon, I had got the important front lawns cut and the mower cleaned up and put away whilst the back lawn can wait for another fine day in the neat future. As a bonus, I discovered that the frost scraper I had kept by the front door which although useless as a frost scraper is an excellent tool for the removal of grass clippings from the inside of the mower dome, so this was a happy discovery.