At last!!

There has been no blog for weeks as I couldn't open the damn thing. The page just said 'loading'.....
you know the kind of thing.
Finally, I spoke to the magic young men who fix these things remotely and whoopee, they told me not to use Safari but Firefox instead, and LO.  I could have worked that out, but didn't.
I am writing this off the cuff, so please take it in the right spirit.
It has been a hell of a few weeks.

To keep it short:
We were in Poland, mother was taken into hospital the day we arrived at our house... I was told all ok, no worries. Dehydrated. After 3.5 weeks she comes home, and from what I could gather my father was not coping at all well. So we came back early, by a week.
Then I heard all about how horrendous it had all been, and so on.  2 days after we returned the children arrived, son and crew, 4 of them, for a week.  It was planned, school holidays, so no changing. On the last night my ex, sons' father, comes up from the country, so we are 9 sleeping in the house.
I have to say we had a great visit. The highlight was a jaunt to see Winters' Tale at the Globe. None of them had been there. Alice, granddaughter, 14, crazy about Shakespeare, and Grisha, nearly 7. Stefan, son Laurie and wife, Nina. They were all absolutley thrilled with it. I couldnt go as it was kicking off with the parents, and my cold was getting under way. Happily I found a student who took the ticket and it made her day.  Despite the crowd and everything it was very good.
During that week we had a constant stream of social workers, co-ordinators, nurses, community workers...... you name it. We had to put in a care plan for mother.  Up till that point dad had been looking after her quite well, but complaining more of back ache and tiredness (hardly surprising). On the Saturday we had a row over who will look after her as he deeply resented me in the room even... though would never admit it, so I trotted off and left him to it for the weekend.  To save some expense we said we could cope with no help at the weekend.  He had a couple of very disturbed nights, then suddenly succumbed to the cold that the children had brought. We all got it!  He took to his bed, said he was done, can't do this anymore, and I took over.  Fine.   But there were some panicky moments, as I had never done the personal stuff and was not at all keen. And the nurse is not always there when you want them!  But amazing what you can do when you have to.
So he went to bed, but 8 days later, though he is cheerful, he is still there!  And, to boot, Stefan did not get the cold, which with me lasted maybe 3 days..... he got FLU. Only now he is up, after languishing hot and sweaty for 5 days. So I had 3 who needed clean bedding, food and drink and the rest.  PLUS the following weekend I had forgetten I cancelled the weekend care and Saturday morning wondered where the nurse was. There I was with 3 sick in bed, and mother wants the loo! HELP.  Then I twigged.  A few phone calls and I got it sorted, but a bit hairy there.
On top: my knee (complete replacement) after the op was not where it should be. I had not been doing the exercises, or not doing them right or whatever, and its range was still very poor. I saw a physioterapist at the hospital who scared me to death telling me I had to do certain exercises 5 times per day, or else. If it is no better in 2 weeks I would have to see the surgeon about some sort of manipulation or whatever, under anesthetic..... geez.  So since then I have been doing them like MAD. 
In Poland I got flu and was in bed, then we had to come back quite quickly,  which meant 2 days hard driving (Stef, not me). But the knee after all that was CRAP, not surprisingly.
However, after only a few days of HARD exercise it is much better and it will continue to improve. I can go up the stairs with a cup of tea in one hand and a pile of washing in the other, now.  No holding on, yeah! And its a beastly staircase that curves.

Poland was lovely but leaving was hard. Leaving, with no notion of when we would be back. And going to look after the parents who are terribly old and who from now on cannot be left. Quite sad, really.

Stef did get quite a lot done, including installing the 2nd panel from Sasha, a great delight.