The Break In Transmission#1 Family Commitments

When Ferretfingers broke his ankle (7^th February 2020) I found blogging about it then emailing and sharing a link was a really good way of keeping friends and family informed.

As lockdown commenced I realised some people were actually looking forward to the daily updates, and other tales from Chateaux Midden, so resolved to keep blogging daily until there was no longer any need.  

Having got into the habit I continued into the ‘new normal’, although I’m sure some people thought I’d amused them for long enough long before that.

If, dear reader, you were wondering what was meant by “Family commitments, being poorly, holidays and generally looking after myself” in the blog 'It never rains' then this and the next posts will elucidate and explain.

Preparing the blog, finding something in the Facebook archives, rewriting it to change the names of the guilty, sourcing and uploading a photo, writing the email, doing the Facebook and Twitter links and getting distracted into looking at other posts etc., can take anything up to two hours.  This expense of time and effort didn’t really matter when there was nothing else to do and nowhere to go and be by a certain time.  In fact it was good for my mental health to have a useful purpose.  Now we’re in the ‘new normal’ things are different.

On weekday mornings the alarm goes off at 07.30 (BBC Radio 3)

On Mondays I have to be up to get Ferretfingers ready to go out by 09.30.

On Tuesday (in term time) I have to have Ferretfingers and myself ready to go down to Ouseburn Farm, ideally by 10.00.  We spend the day at the Farm and I come home shattered after being out of doors and on my feet for over four hours (“tired but happy”).  We detour to Sainsbury’s on the way home so he can buy his four tv magazines, crisps, cereal and spread, and I can raid the ‘reduced to clear’ shelves.

On Wednesday I aim to deliver Ferretfingers to his day centre in North Shields, a fifteen minute drive, by 10.00.  Although sometimes he has a dental nurse appointment at 09.10 so we’re out at a quarter to.  I also pick him up at 14.45 and we detour to the Rising Sun on the way home to collect beautiful bread from the Earth&Fire bakery.

On Thursday mornings he goes out with his outreach worker Emil, usually around 09.30, for swimming and shopping.

On Friday we both need to be at LDNE’s offices in Wallsend by 09.30.  He has another half day with Emil.  I have knit’n’natter at 11.00.  Before that I’m available for board or finance meetings, for anyone who need someone to talk to or am in the cupboard or up in the loft sorting out wool and knitted things.

On Saturday I get a lie in as Ferretfingers usually goes out with Fester.

Sundays vary:  sometimes Ferretfingers goes out with Fester; others we take a trip down to the Quayside market.

Then there are all the domestic chores. 

Thunderthighs takes out the bins, does some food shopping, changes his bed, irons his own clothes and will do the dishes two or even three times a week.  He has also been known to hoover his room. 

Fester does some food shopping, almost all the cooking and ‘the pots’ when the spirit moves and he can’t find what he wants:  once a decade he will hoover the stairs. 

Ferretfingers can be persuaded to do the dishes, put away clean dishes and other things but has to be continuously supervised and nagged.

Everything else falls to me; the big shop (albeit with Thunderthighs), cleaning, laundry, organising the boys, organising holidays, all the driving, changing lightbulbs, gardening, paying the milkman, paying Ferretfingers’ fees:  you name it, it’s somehow my responsibility.  Sometimes I feel like Spike Milligan's mother in part one of 'Adolf Hitler; My Part In His Downfall'.

Then there are the things I do for myself and to make sure my ‘professional’ skills are put to use; volunteering and generally being one of those women in hats that used to run things in the village - and the WI. Taking these into consideration there’s an average of a meeting and a handful of phonecalls a week, and half a dozen events a year that I’m hands on with.

To be continued tomorrow…