A Day of Two Halves...

Woke up to the birds singing their hearts out at 6.30 this morning and just had to get up, even though the sky was grey and it was very dull outside.

Just after 8.30am AP, the lovely spark who astounded me earlier in the month by giving me a lovely gift, arrived to fit the new brushed steel socket plates in what used to be our dining room (and will become Alan's new sitting room.)  

His timing was perfect because I'd just received a gift I'd ordered for him by way of thank you (it's a magic mug that I created using a photo of mine that matches a Kate Bush lyric.  Magic because the mug is black and the photo and lyric only appear when hot water is put into the mug.  That means it can sit in his cupboard incognito and he won't get slagged about it by his pals :-)))

Managed to work my way through more admin tasks today but still not finished.  Kirsten and Alan decided to go to Stirling this afternoon so whilst Kirsten was getting the car sorted, I went though to say cheerio to Alan and noticed the right hand foot plate on his power wheel chair look slightly out of alignment.  Then I looked at his chair properly and realised something was very wrong with it.  The whole frame looked very wobbly.   

I called David through and as we examined it further, we realised the seat and cross bars beneath the seat, which are welded to the frame of the chair, had all sheared off and the chair was basically ready to collapse!   David quickly got Alan out of it and onto his bed and examined it further and confirmed that just about every part of the chair where there was a welded joint, had separated.   A complete write off basically!  

I am so glad I noticed because travelling in the car with it would have been really dangerous, as would have been walking around Stirling with it.   Alan could have some to serious harm, as could Kirsten if it had collapsed whilst she was pushing him.  

Thankfully he was able to transfer to his manual chair  and go out in that but it's identified a training need for Alan's team, to make sure his wheelchair is checked for defects every day, before he goes into it.   I only noticed the misalignment of his foot plate because I know his chair so well but everyone will have to be extra vigilant and make sure everything looks and behaves as it should, at every use.   I can't bear to think what might have happened if they'd gone out without me noticing!  

I called the Wheelchair repair service (although I suspect this is beyond repair) and the earliest they can come out is Thursday afternoon so we will just have to make do the with manual chair till them.  Not ideal but at least we  have it!

Today's blip is a solitary, little bluebell that is in our side garden.  No idea how it survived all the building work.   Photographed it under grey skies just before the rain came on.  If I'd been patient and waited till this afternoon I could have blipped it in the sun.  

I've just remembered something weird but lovely that happened when I was making dinner.  

Just as I was in the middle of chopping a pile of onions, my phone started emitting a strange ring tone that I hadn't heard before.  David picked it up and realised it was a Whats App video call coming in but we didn't recognise the number.  He answered it and it turned out to be our friend David, who was best man at our wedding.  A hilarious 15 minute chat ensued and we have arranged to get together with him and his wife Jackie in June.

Now the reason this is weird is we'd lost touch with David and Jackie and we haven't seen them for 13 years but on Saturday night when Agnes and Adrian were here, the conversation turned to David and Jackie and we were lamenting the fact it had been so long since we'd seen them and it was on my to do list to try and contact them.   And now this happens!  

And to make it even weirder, David hadn't been trying to contact us, he was just going through his phone checking numbers in his contact list with no names against them and he accidentally dialled our number.  When he realised he decided to leave it ringing just to satisfy his curiosity.   How wonderful is that!  The universe was listening to us!

And that brings me neatly back to Kate Bush as she covers exactly this sort of thing in her song Strange Phenomena  :-)))

Update from Ele, Kenny, Alan & Gail from the West Highland Way.  They had an ok walk over Rannoch moor yesterday but got absolutely soaked going up the Devil's staircase today.   Last push to Fort William tomorrow and it will all be over.  Hope the weather is decent for them.