with one eye on the pot and the other up the chimney...

I overdid the seeing thing last night. Prematurely comfortable, I spent too long on the computer and knitting with the result that I'm back to cyclops today. Sod it, I'm going into work (ie running away from the phone).

Yup, mum phoned home 4 times this morning before catching me at work to check I'm going over tonight. My boss gave me special dispensation to leave work early to avoid straining my eye so I left at 3.30pm. I'm hoping either Mr Lily or lovely daughter will take me to mum's.

They didn't. It wasn't too bad. I left at 8pm, pleading poorly eye - not too much of an exaggeration. I've overdone it again tonight. Ah well, I could always start a new sick leave tomorrow!

urrrgh

I'm still off work nursing a sore eye so this will be a quick post. Being at home is not as restful as you might think. I'm back to phone paranoia - 2 days running mum has been asking outright whether she can come and live with us. When I'm not at her's, she phones me to tell me how lonely/miserable etc she is. I'm just leaving the answerphone on. I am a terrible daughter, I know, but its the only way I know how to cope.

Alternatively....give in to the umpteenth phone call but take beloved dog with me as a distraction. Worked fairly well!

no apologies!

Last night I got a gardener to come round to mum's and she agreed to take him on.

She has just phoned in a panic because a gang of gardeners have arrived two hours earlier than expected. It took me five minutes of shouting to make her understand that I wanted one of them to come to the phone so I could check the right gardeners were there before they started on the garden. (They were.) Then she phoned me back for reassurance, but still without her hearing aid so she couldn't hear despite how loudly or slowly or often I told her it was OK.

Why does she phone me and ask me questions when she knows she won't be able to hear the answers? Why does she complain that I don't phone her for a chat when its impossible to have a conversation with her? Why doesn't she use her hearing aid? Why wouldn't she try the amplified phone? Why am I letting myself get all wound up about this?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!

no comment...

...am biting my tongue for England - mum's reaction to my near blindness preventing my driving over? "Its awful having no-one to rely on, everything happens to me, I wish I'd had a bigger family, I'll have to start knocking on doors, I need help urgently - I must get a gardener (etc etc)". 5 times she phoned this morning before 7.30am.

useless doctor!

"All ok", my eye! By yesterday afternoon, my eye was really painful and the 'modern matron' at work said he thought it looked infected and I should go to the emergency eye clinic. I did and they discovered a foreign body - probably a flake from the tip of the eye dropper that I'd accidentally poked in my eyeball. Anaesthetic gel was applied and then the intruder was seized and scraped out WITH METAL TWEEZERS!!!!! That has left me with a rip in the surface of my eye which will need a course of antibiotic drops and then another eye ointment for 6 MONTHS to prevent it opening up again!

Good job I'm a touch typist - I only have to open my one good, but tired, eye every now and then to check I'm not typing gobbledegook. Can't see to drive so have had the day off work - every cloud etc! Its my friend's 60th birthday party tomorrow night - Mr Lily has bought me a rather fetching black eye patch so I'm going as a pirate.

Thanks for your concern folks. To be fair to the eye nurse, I think the foreign body must have been embedded in my eye, otherwise it would have floated out when she first put drops in and the rip was as much my doing with the original jab, as hers with the tweezering. I was so tired yesterday I didn't make it to the party. I still can't see very well or keep my bad eye open for more than a second or two and am really sensitive to light so I'm wearing sunspecs all the time - what a poser! At least it gets me out of going to mum's/work lol (lovely daughter is doing the Morrisons shift tomorrow).

A fun day off work....

Mr Lily and I collected a kennel this afternoon that I'd bought from a friend at work. I reckoned it would be a good idea for our old lady (14 now!) - so much nicer in the summer to be able to let her roam in the garden and have somewhere to rest and shelter, rather than be stuck in the house. Also, its only a matter of time before her elderly bladder can't do the whole-day-without-a-pee-while-they're-all-at-work thing. Of course what I should have done was measure the side gate opening and the kennel before committing myself. Ah well, thank goodness for Mr Lily and next door neighbour (not the tree poisoner, grrrrr) who managed to lift it over the top of the gate without dropping it or giving themselves a hernia. I have already sat in it a couple of times, with my little hairy daughter, just to encourage her to use it. I know, barking mad.

Second piece of luck - got to see a doctor at short notice this afternoon. Poked myself in the eye trying to administer gel tears (my eyes are so dry I can hardly open them first thing on a morning) and was worried I'd done some serious damage. (I hadn't.) While I was there, the doctor gave me some magic shampoo that hopefully will sort out my itchy scalp.



















Last but definitely not least ... these guys were brilliant tonight, especially the dude on the right! I love a bit of Ry, well I love a lot of Ry - if truth be told, I could listen to the man all night and then some. Couldn't believe my luck when his tour with Nick Lowe came to the SAGE at Gateshead - less than an hour away from home! Son of Ry wasn't half bad on the drums either, nor were the supporting act (Alex Lily and Juliette Commagere) who doubled as backing singers.

I knit big stuff too!