A "normal" weekend.

Sorry - didn't blog. Was too busy living it!


All ok with Okaasan - as normal as we do in this household.


I left lunchtime food out for her Saturday and she managed to heat it up and eat it.


Saturday night she came home late and I'd already eaten at 7 pm, but I got back into the kitchen for 7.40 pm and heated up her food, chatted for a few minutes and then used the "8pm friend telephone call from England coming" excuse to leave her.
Yujiro is more accommodating about dinner time and Okaasan coming home late. I'm not. I left for work at 9.15 am, I did 5 classes, I got home just after 6 pm. Changed my clothes and stood in the kitchen for 30 mins preparing dinner: by 7 pm I am going to sit down and eat it.
Whether Okaasan is here or not. (A little happily not!)


Sunday was a relaxed day.
I stayed home mostly daytime watching Japan actually WIN the Asia Cup, playing with cats and hanging all the pictures/paintings/prints that came from England.

Lunchtime I gave Okaasan some face time. I cooked squid and ginger for her, with rice, salad, soup and pickles. I ate left overs.

Conversation 1.: Japanese football fans/Nihonbashi....my father/husband had an office near Nihonbashi and he forgot something and I brought it from home and he gave me money and told me I could buy any food I liked.

Conversation 2.: Football - we didn't have football in Japan in the war, Yujiro did football lessons when he was a child because I signed him up for them. My husband said baseball was too dangerous. He played tennis. He had an office near Nihonbashi....

Each conversation kind of blended with the other and I noticed that on each retelling the husband/father got switched and mixed up - sometimes in consecutive sentences.

Anyway. All ok. After lunch I got Okaasan to hunt down and tie up newspapers for recycling, while I emptied her trash boxes. Praised her for the way she ties newspapers up. Settled her back down with the TV and a cup of tea.

Late afternoon I went out to see Social Network with a friend and have dinner. I got home at 9 pm to a VERY smelly kitchen: Okaasan had burned the saucepan again trying to cook rice in water and forgetting it. But at least the house was still standing and she was asleep by the TV.

Even if we leave a note about HOW to heat up pre-cooked rice in the microwave she prefers to cook it in a pan of water or soup. I did wonder about buying a one-person rice cooker and leaving it for her every day, but I think she would still do the rice-in-pan style.

I've read that elderly dementia sufferers lose their abilities with recently learned technology and go back to what existed as a child. Japan HAD electric rice cookers by the late 1950s, but I am guessing Okaasan is already cooking in pre-war style where you put the rice in a pan. But of course, in the minutes it takes for the water to heat her attention has moved onto something else and it burns. ThankGOODNESS we bought the electric cooker that cuts out on overheating.

And so. I have another burned pan to try and resuscitate.

Fellowship of Carers: It's a funny thing. If you meet someone who is also a Carer of a Dementia Sufferer. Bingo! Instant connection. A new student started Saturday and in our opening conversation he mentioned that he and his wife are caring for his mother, who has Alzheimer's. All lesson plan flew out the window and we poured out and shared our experiences with eachother: Oh! The Random Shopping! Oh! The Date Mix-ups! Oh! The People Mix-ups! Oh! The Lack of Personal Hygiene!

It was great. A problem shared is a problem halved. At least for a while.

Now: burned pans. Anyone got a good way to rescue it?