As I left the park on the way home today I was surprised by the bedroom windows being closed. Then my surprise was even greater when I didn’t see Emma in the library window. She normally spots me and races to the front door, leaping against it. Even when she’s not in the library she tends to reach the door when I do but she didn’t. I opened the door and the only greeting was an empty silence.
I then noticed that the car was missing from the drive.
So, while Mirinda walked the girls around Thursley then had brunch at the Holly Bush, I sat in my office and renamed a few hundred photographs on the blog. This was exceedingly dull but something that had to be done in order to please others.
I also rang mum and we chatted for an hour. She seemed happy and still pleased to be living in the facility. Of course her memory isn’t improving but I think the rate of decrease has been slowed with the move to a place where she can see and talk to people. Her memory was going very quickly when she was alone most of the time with whole days going by without seeing anyone.
While nothing can fix it, I reckon it can be slowed with company.
Something else that can’t be fixed is the condition of Mirinda’s flowers from Bob and Fi. They sent them to congratulate her doctorate completion but I think they’re ready for the compost now.
She did concede they needed to be removed and did so later in the day. I put them to rest along with the kitchen scraps.
Being a Saturday I had a long chat with the butchers about the cricket. The older butcher, while very pleased with the result of the last test is still convinced that Australia will retain the Ashes. I wasn’t about to argue with him and, in fact, I may have strengthened his belief after telling him about James Anderson not playing for the rest of the series.
Richard (Butcher the Younger) was a little more confident. He was playing cricket up at Farnham Park during the final few overs of the last test and said that as Ben Stokes closed in on the prize, the two teams stopped play and huddled around a smartphone screen to watch and listen to the end. He said the size of the screen was ignored as the excitement took them all to Headingley.
I asked him how the rest of his game was after that. He said his side was batting but Ben Stokes hadn’t really inspired them much and they lost.
As the chat turned to Premiership football (after the other cricket loving customer entered the shop) I begged leave to depart. When asked if I didn’t like football, I told them I supported Aldershot. They were all quite surprised. I don’t know why.
Back at home I continued renaming photographs and waited for Google to catch up with me. It was very frustrating when Google didn’t. It was even more frustrating trying to explain to Mirinda why when I didn’t really know myself. In order to try and force the issue I have submitted various URLs to the Google Remove URLs page and my fingers are crossed tightly.
Late in the day, in a moment (30 minutes actually) of laziness, I watched a short Youtube video on the life of Sisi. While it was just a talking historical head, with the occasional photograph, it was very good and I enjoyed it thoroughly.
I made lamb and pistachio rissoles with ribbon cabbage and spinach with sumac for dinner. It was a big hit.
