Home for the Holidays....

Yup.
About to start my Winter Holidays with Okaasan.

Well, I actually start holidays next Wednesday....with a couple of classes slipping under the tinsel on Dec. 27th - but almost there.

And almost out the door: Yujiro gone ski working in Niseko for 11 days...or more.

So. Okaasan and Oyomesan! LOTS of bonding time!!!!

Yujiro's just gave me Okaasan's Health Insurance card. In case she falls again and injures herself.


She was ok after the fall the other day. SO lucky.
She didn't go out much after that. Stayed home and safe and warm. We put a much brighter bulb in the outside light and hope that will make it safer for her.
Yesterday she did venture into the winter dangerland....finally came home at 7.30 pm. Yujiro went out to meet her and he was shocked to see her walking style: he says she looks like a toddler, kind of running, pitching forward, unable to stop....no wonder she falls and often comes home looking breathless.

Why do old people do this? I've seen it with other people. They are sort of out of control, start going at a trot and it gets faster and faster. I wonder if a stick would help. Whether she would be offended by the even the suggestion...although she sometime uses her umbrella as a stick and I don't think she could cope with a stick and an umbrella...and the various bags she always carries.

Apart from that normal life. Our normal anyway.

*  Okaasan burned the pan I left her lunch curry in - she isn't good at all at judging or controlling the heat. Luckily we bought an electric cooker that switches off automatically if the heat gets too high, or if nothing happens for an hour.
*  Okaasan mysteriously used the towel in the toilet for something...then washed it and left it wet on the bathroom floor...THEN cheerfully told us a few hours later: "Do you know there's no towel in the toilet?" I'm just glad she left it in the bathroom and it didn't fester, soiled in her room.
* I rescued some more underwear from her room - and returned some clean...scattering them at different points so she can come across them everywhere.

And so. Heading into the holidays...with Okaasan.
Actually I am happy to be here. So happy to have nice normal, boring time at home.
A few friends/old students are visiting. I have to help a friend prepare and pack for a move back to the UK, eat a lot, watch TV.....and maybe,...just maybe try my leg on a ski slope?????

I just hope Okaasan doesn't fall again and that she stays fairly level emotionally. If she doesn't go out much her mood can go down. I think I will need to take her out in the car to a shopping mall for lunch or something.