Tottering along

Of course - 24 hours after being unable to go to the concert - Okaasan was feeling well enough to go out for a walk in the local shopping area.
Of course.
Did I let my feelings of anger eat away at my soul? Did I knash my teeth and beat my (ample) chest is rage?
Yes, in private.

A part of me wonders if she was faking it because she didn't want to go to the concert...for some reason. But maybe it really was just an old lady having a bad day.
She's been off and on the past week. Some days apparently ok - standing up fairly quickly and walking around at home. Only been out twice in the past week - and that just locally.
Other days she asks us to open and close the curtains, and struggles to get to the toilet or the kitchen table.
I think this is "just" rheumatism, and the plunge from fall into winter temperatures here are making it worse. She still complains that her arm hurts. But she will never take it to a doctor.

So. Kind of ok.
Her walking style is tottering. Think penguin/Chaplin. She accepted advice to use a stick once. Then refuse yesterday. DS had to go in the car and bring her home from a walk-too-far.

But overall her physical and mental condition isn't great at the moment. 

And winter cometh. We have discussed between ourselves getting a taxi to come once a week to take her out to the shopping area, and then I can pick her up after work. Or to get a day care helper to come once a week and have chat and dinner with her.
I am starting to tell my students that December to March I will be restricting my night work to two or three evenings a week - because I need to be home more. Okaasan needs mental stimulation of a dinner companion and at the moment I generally have evening work 4 nights a week until 7 pm or 8 pm. That would not be good for her.

Happier/crazier news?
I had a one day job as an extra in a TV commercial! I can't say what the product is, or who the celebrity was until November when the CM will be on air in Japan.
But it involved me dressed up as an old lady - aged with the help of white makeup in my hair - paired with a very dapper gentleman, and a street scene, and a sheep, and lots of smoke from a smoke machine.
In the 15 or 30 seconds of the commercial it'll probably be hard to catch me. But it was hard working fun. Watch this space for next month, because after that I can show the photographs from the day. Now, it is all top secret.