Hmmm .. I knew it couldn't last ..

So, having been amazed at mum's easy acceptance of the stay at the care home, things went very downhill ..

She went to bed as usual at 7 .. at 9 she appeared, dressed and ready to leave .. I got her back in her nightie and back to bed and she was wittering about what she needed to pack .. same again at 10 .. and at 10.30 I got to her before she dressed and we had a 'discussion' about her going to respite.

We get on very well most of the time - the only time things get very tense and difficult is on these occasions.

I got very fed up and flounced off to bed, having put mum back in hers ..

In the morning I found her downstairs, asleep on the sofa - curtains drawn and light on - god knows what time she came down.

The sub-plot to this drama is that a warning light had come on in my van a couple of days ago .. so had to take the van to the garage this morning .. so I had to take mum to the care home in a taxi.

The combination of a strange car and huge anxiety inevitably meant she threw up .. but at least she saved it for the care home car park.

Got her settled in .. had one last change of her trews etc etc and was feeling like my break would never start!

Got a taxi home. My van was fixed very quickly for £86, so that wasn't too bad.

I went out to Patrington Haven where I was told there was a cuckoo to be found. Got there and didn't hear a thing .. but found a gorgeous family of friendly goats.

Had a drive around and my phone rang - the care home telling me that mum's huge box of meds was missing a packet of aspirin. Aspirin!!! I said surely they had some they could give her - but no, health and safety doesn't permit that. So .. I had to go all the way to bloody Cottingham to drop off an 85 pence bottle of aspirin .. aaarrrggghhh!

Eventually got home feeling as washed out as a dish rag and not in the mood for much other than crawling under my duvet ..