Family Affairs

I’m back with my parents again now. Keeping my mother company and visiting my father in hospital. I hate hospitals. Just the smell makes me want to faint. I really don’t think I could work in one. My father is being so brave it’s unbelievable. He’s obviously in pain and was having a blood transfusion at the time we were there, but he was still making jokes and as we were wondering who’s blood he might be getting, he commented that it might be Tony Hancock’s. He seemed to be stronger though so it’s as good as we could have hoped for and he seems just delighted to still be alive. The power of the human spirit – as Frank Skinner said today of Eddie Izzard and his unbelievably impressive 1000 mile run for Sports Relief (40 marathons in 47 days!!! I gather he’s worried that his newly required muscly legs won’t look as good in high heels) :- “human beings are dogged little buggers who have a tendency to endure – to keep going partly because they just like the idea of keeping going”.

He’s in a ward. It’s noisy and smelly. He’s got wires going in and wires going out (I love that song). There are huge machines attached to the wall behind each of the six beds that take up a ridiculous amount of space. They are the TV screens and music and telephone systems that cost a huge amount to use. Looking around, it seems that they have become almost completely redundant. Everybody had their ipods, their DVD players and their mobile phones. What a ridiculous waste of money. It would have been far better spent designing moving shelves that are actually convenient for a person who is sitting in a bed. Have you ever noticed how badly designed all the cupboards and tables are? Nothing was where my father needed it to be…and it certainly isn’t going to get any better in any of the NHS hospitals within the foreseeable future, given our budget deficit and yesterday’s announcement about cost cutting options.

The kids are with their father this weekend which meant I could escape London as soon as I’d taken my youngest one to school. I’m not sure I”m ready for the new term yet – I can’t quite face the routine and anyway, I am still suffering from the torture of the slow drip drip effect of kids going back to school over a long drawn out period. Two are back but one doesn’t start until next Tuesday. Good grief. I have had children at home for three months now, given that my son finished hugely early after his GCSE’s.

Normal services will resume next week. Busier roads. Cheaper holidays. Quieter shops. Happier parents. Stressed kids. Swine flu increase. Less money owing to new uniform for giant children (teenage son now in 6th form and needs suits/shirts and ties) and all of them require a huge investment of funds into a new pencil case full of stuff that seems to have miraculously disappeared since last term.

I’m full of good cheer today aren’t I.

Sorry.

Have a good weekend y’all. xx

PS Anybody want to join my “happy parents go on cheap summer holidays whilst their kids are at school with shiny pencil cases” club?