OMG it was so hot this morning! I had set off for the run on my own, as gra announced he wasn’t going when i shouted to check if he and Freeda were up, so you can imagine my suprise when walking up the first hill Freeda taps me on the shoulder to announce they made it after all! Apparently as soon as I left, Gra decided they should go after all, so they had a mad dash and got to the bus station just to see the bus leave, ran up the hill to the next stop to just miss it again and then got on the wrong bus!

After all that excitement, you’d understand if they put in poor performances, but once again Freeda got a PB! She finished in 28.35, Gra managed 31.53 and I came in on 34.52. Hopefully next week will be a bit cooler and I’ll be a bit faster!

At the start listening to the briefing:

Freeda:

This photo isn’t as bad as it looks, although I am running down hill to the finish, the 2 kids behind me weren’t actually taking part in the race!

After another manic week, I’m going to chill tonight with my feet up in front of the tv with a pizza. Tonight I’m going to have pineapple and peppers for my toppings, what are your favourites?

It’s been a bit of a mental week. We had the meeting with the social worker on the 11th. Nan’s behaviour was scored to judge the level of care she needed in several different areas, from her ability to speak, her behaviour (including her tendancy to be lash out when panicked to the condition of her skin. The outcome was that Nan needs EMI care, or in easier terms, Dementia nursing. There are beds available in the home she is in at the moment, and we have put her name down for one, so now we’re just waiting for the funding to be approved.

Thursday was my first day off work and was spent manically cleaning the house as we had the quarterly inspection on Friday, which meant another early morning! After the inspection, I was happy to just crash in front of the tv to watch the Germany v Serbia match with the alternative commentary from Chris Moyles. I wasn’t impressed with it, it was like listening to someone who doesn’t understand or care about the game drivelling on throughout it!

As for the England match that night, the least said the better… I think Wednesday is going to be stressful!

On Saturday it was another early start, but this time it was because Claire was picking me up to go to Tatton Park for the Race 4 Life race she entered us both into for my birthday present. The start was split into 4 groups, 10k runners, 5k runners, joggers and walkers. Me and Claire started with the joggers. Unfortunately the 5 runners starting in front of us, weren’t just runners, so 100m after the start we all came to a stop again as the people intending to walk 5k who had started in the wrong group held the rest of us up!

The 10k was a pleasant course, with only a few uphills. Only the first 2 km had markers and then 7, 8 and 9. The 5k runners split away from the 10k participants after the first 2.5 km and then both groups remergeed at the 9 km mark. The downside of this was the slow walkers were finishing at the same time as the joggers, so once again it was a game of weaving in and out to finish in the quickest time.

I finished in 1 hour 8 minutes, which was 8 minutes quicker than Manchester and a result I was very pleased with. I know I usually finish the Parkrun under 35 minutes, but i’ve always struggled to get my 10k time down to the same level. Claire walked the majority of the course and finished in 1 hour 32 minutes.

As soon as the race was over it was another race to get home (via the airport as Claire was going on holiday) to get to work.

Sunday was spent at Zoes. I took the girls swimming, which they both really enjoyed, despite Areej acting like the world was over when she realised she had forgotten her armbands, thankfully a little lad lent her his rubber ring. Afterwards it was back to the house for tea and almost relax with Zoe and Ali as the others all went to the park to play football.

Today was pretty much a standard day off, went to see nan then came home to watch football.. I had thought North Korea had a chance to get something from the game in the first half, but Portugal completely tore them apart in the second. I left here when it was 5 nil, but by the time I got to the home they had scored another 2! Unfortunately for Honduras, I never felt they really stood a chance against Spain, so was supreised they only lost by 2 goals. Apparently we’re now half way though the tournament already! i’m really going to miss my football filled days when it’s over!

I really like being able to watch 3 matches a day!

Germany v Serbia

After thrashing australia in the opening match, I expected a lot more from the Germans, and as they failed to deliver, I think the opening score says more about Australia’s performance than the German one. As an England fan, I’m always gonna want Germany to lose, but at the moment, I think it will come down to the final match against Ghana to see if they can make it through to the next round.

Slovenia v USA

When I left the home, Slovenia were winning and looking comfortable. By the time I got home they were winning 2-1. USA did well to pull the score back, but were unlucky to have the goal disallowed that would have meant they won the match. I spotted at least 3 fouls in the area, but all against American players?

England v Algeria

Well the good news is if we beat Slovenia on Wednesday, we can still qualify! The bad news is we couldn’t even beat Algeria. We gave them way too much space and repsect, whereas they closed us down and intercepted way too many of our passes. Something has to change by Wednesday, or I’m becoming an Argentina fan!

We’ll be heading out to the pub shortly to watch England’s next World Cup match. After the game, there will be karaoke on. I used to sing on karaoke years ago, but I’m tone deaf and there’s only a limited number of songs I can attempt without completely murdering them.

Do you ever sing karaoke and if so what’s your favourite song to perform?

So far I’ve watched these games:

South Africa v Mexico – I caught glimpses of this match whilst at the home visiting Nan. I was suprised at how well South Africa played and felt they wanted to win more, whereas Mexico were lucky to draw

Uruagay v France – I had predicted a Uraguay win with Forlan to score, I’m still not sure how he didn’t, but quite a boring match

Argentina v Nigeria – I watched the full match on the big tv at the home whilst Nan slept, although she did manage to stay awake for Heinze’s goal. This was the first match for me where it became obvious there would be issues with the ball, that coupled with Nigeria’s inability to do anything that looked like scoring, they were completely outplayed by Argentina

England v USA – It may have been a draw, but it felt like a loss and we can’t just blame the keeper for this. England didn’t look any where near as good as in the qualifying matches, but they should have won.

Argentina v South Korea I feel that because of the Hand of God goal, i really shouldn’t like Maradona, but he’s just so entertaining to watch on the side lines. His team again played well and outclassed south korea for most of the match, letting them score was very sloppy though.

France v Mexico – After the way they qualified, you can’t help but happy at the poor performances put in from france so far. The players looked like they didn’t want to be there and there was no team spirit evident. Mexico should havescore more.

This work thing is getting in the way of watching as many matches as I’d like, but apart from the Engalnd game, I’m really enjoying watching this tournament. every game i’m supposedly neutral I feel myself rooting for one team. I can see argentina doing very well and France going home next week!

Every night when I come home from work, I take my coat off, put my bag down and within seconds have completely lost where I’ve put my keys! Most other times I’ll come in and put them on the bookcase, so I know where they are, but for some reason I just can’t get into the routine of doing this after work…much to my housemates’ amusement!

So my Friday question for this week, is do you have any quirky or amusing habits?

The World Cup starts today

Come on England!

For anyone who’s just stumbled across, my blog and found this post, the first thing I need to explain is my Nan has Alzheimer’s and it’s now in a very advanced stage.

Nan had been living in a residential home until a few months ago, when she started to complain about headaches and being in a lot of pain was admitted to hospital. The doctor looking after her invited me and Mum to review the scan of her brain that had been taken. He was concerned that she may have suffered from a slight stroke as she had deteriorated rapidly in a matter of days and was then at the point where she would spend the full day in bed sleeping and was no longer capable of feeding herself.

The brain is split into 2 sides with the left governing powers of communication. Nan’s brain showed a lot of shrinkage away from the skull and both sides had ‘puddles’ where the brain should have been. The doctor said he’d never seen a brain this badly damaged and would indicate that Nan shouldn’t be able to speak. There’s a possibility the pain she was feeling was literally her brain shrinking.

Nan was then transferred to a nursing home nearer to me, which means I’ve been able to visit her most days I’ve not been in work. In the time she’s been there, she’s become a lot more mobile and will happily walk from her room to the day room and back each day, as well as walking around the room with help from the carers. She still needs help eating and drinking, but is starting to try to do more for herself. As for communication, her favourite word seems to be no and if she doesn’t like the food she’s being given, will happily spit it back at you! All of the carers have said what a lovely, cheeky smile she has and this outweighs the grief she gives them when she lashes out when they try to feed her!

Only someone who has been around people with dementia will understand how it feels to be punched in the nose, as I was today, and watch their assailant laugh hysterically at this before smiling sweetly and announcing ‘I love you’!

The bed she currently has is classed as short term for assessment needs. This means tomorrow we’re going for a meeting to discuss Nan’s needs and look to find a new permanent home for her. I just hope the move, whether it is to another part of the home or a different home entirely isn’t too stressful for her.