Sunday 18 May 2014

The small stuff...

Living with Okaasan's stage of dementia is (thankfully) not so often full of the big dramas, but just a daily procession of the small stuff.

She goes through her days mostly doing what she likes:  getting fed, going out for walks, watching TV, reading newspapers and magazines, watching life go by. Maybe in her mind she is taking daily baths, doing housework and laundry and washing dishes after meals.
Mostly she isn't.

We fill in the gaps of her life, usually behind the scenes - becoming part of OUR routines.

This week for example:

* I checked 3 different dry cleaning shops, Okaasan's favorite coffee shop and our two down stairs closets to see if I could find her missing black and white spring coat.
It's been AWOL since the end of last year. Okaasan says I took it to a dry cleaning shop. I don't remember that. I have no tickets and the 3 shops I use don't have any forgotten coats.
Sapporo is still in cold weather, so the need isn't really urgent - but soon Okaasan will start wanting that coat. And I don't know where it is. She'll start getting antsy about it. I can see we'll have to do a shopping trip to find one just like it.
Probably she left it in a convenience store or coffee shop sometime last year....and it is long gone.
I will do one more check at the subway lost property office next week.

* Her room cleaning is progressing. I do it, he does it. We try to share it.

* Family duty to the shopping mall on Saturday for lunch and a wander round the clothes shops. Dear Son chose Okaasan's lunch for her because the menu was too daunting. He took her to the toilet. 
We walked round shops, she picked up the same stuff I did...and then focussed in on a brightly colored scarf and a bag. "Noooooo...she doesn't need another bag!!!" I muttered to him and we steered her out from the danger zone.
Okaasan enjoys walking round shopping malls. But she looks a little like someone drifting thru, not really connecting. Like me in the make-up department of big stores. I don't wear make-up and have no interest or knowledge in it. I walk past counters with bottles and brightly lit displays, with bowing glossy shop assistants and it means zilch.
Okaasan in a shopping mall looks like that really. Drifting thru it all. But happy.

* Today we sent her walking when the weather finally dried up. She left the house without a coat, and at 5 pm we checked her position on the GPS and drove down to the station to pick her up.
Checked the GPS again - WHAT????!!!
She appeared to be on a different subway line heading north from the city center!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What?????????????????
The GPS isn't 100% accurate. Specially if she is in the subway system, but this was well out of her usual area.
We waited 5 mins...10 mins and kept checking (GPS and cell phones are just a wonderful aid for carers)...and finally she was heading back in the right direction.
Not sure where she went. Probably took a train going north, instead of south. Maybe on the same line. Not sure.

Anyway.
That's our kind of week.

Here are some cute cat pictures. Just because.



Oh and this. The so-called "job", which paid in Sapporo beer and lamb BBQ....back singers to the Mayor and a folk singer at a city promotion event. It was on Tv this weekend. We are on the right of the stage....




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