Pretty autumn pics

Just back from Bristol, sorting out mum's affairs. What you'd expect really, funeral directors, registering her death, pick up the will from the solicitors, close her bank accounts, check up on some church details, etc. So I thought I'd post a few pictures I took today, it having been a most gorgeous day.

First up is a picture I saw in the funeral director's. That's what I want, I think!

The other two are just country views I spotted and was fortunate enough to have the time to stop and photograph them.

Coming up the A1 I'd realised that if I hung a right at Stevenage I could drop by Walkern Gallery where I have some work on display, and could chat to Steve Lowe, the proprietor. He's a good lad, so that was an easy decision.

After that, I took the scenic route home, along narrow country lanes and through small villages. It was just lovely, and left me relaxed and comfy by the time I got home. I'm ready for a cup of tea just thinking about it!

Quite a good day

Well it's all worked out rather well. The drive down was a breeze with no hold-ups on the M25 so I got to my mum's house at 12. The guys removing the stairlift had been and gone, presumably knowing the keysafe code. (Keysafe is a little metal box screwed to the outside of the house with a numeric keypad into which you punch a code to open it. Inside, we keep a key.) So that was good.

I dismantled the hospital bed and lugged it downstairs, then reassembled it on its little cradle affair. It's designed so that you can join the head and foot with a pair of clever brackets, then slot the base, which comes apart into two parts, vertically onto the brackets. It's neat because the whole thing ends up narrow enough to go through a door, but using the bed's own wheels so it's easy to move about. The PSW from 1970 was very pleased and did not suck his teeth at me even once!

And I've managed to drag the double mattress back upstairs, so all I have to do now is retrieve the rest of the bed from the garage and reassemble that in mum's bedroom. That's really easy as all the pieces are very light, if a bit cumbersome.

Finally, I've laid myself in a decent sirloin steak and a promising-looking bottle of Côte de Beane Villages for the evening. I discovered some frozen oven chips in the freezer, so they'll do. I'll enhance them with a generous helping of melted garlic butter. Yum! The steak will be in a creamy mushroom sauce, using up an ancient pot of double cream I found cowering at the back of the fridge.

So now it's time to tackle the bed, I fancy.

Entertaining phone conversation

In her last weeks, mum was very kindly provided with a proper motorised hospital bed, I think by Social Services. The platform could be moved up and down so mum could get in and out easily but also the carer could work at a reasonable height when manoevring mum in the bed. And the head could be tilted up and down, etc.

So on Monday I knew I'd be going down to Bristol on Thursday, and set things in motion to get the bed collected. Today I had an entertaining conversation with a woman from the firm collecting the bed.

She just could not get her head around the fact that as I live near Cambridge, I could not be at my mum's house before midday, and I was busy with other stuff on Friday, so if they wanted their bed back, they'd just have to damn well come in the afternoon. Apparently normally the finest granularity they can manage is a working day. Can you believe that? "Yerss. We'll pick it up some time on Fursday" Well you can try picking it up in the morning if you like, but you'll not find me there to let you in!

If the operative collecting it is the same guy that delivered it, (I think I referred to him in a previous post as your quintessential public sector worker, like someone stuck in the 1970's - nothing was not too much trouble for him!) I bet he sucks his teeth at me!

This is funny!

This is clearly rather old, but I still think it's funny. Just move the mouse cursor around on the screen. Hat tip: Greg Laden.

No, I've not vanished into thin air

Well, the long silence is because my mum died in the early hours of Friday morning. She was 86 and had been going downhill increasingly fast, so although it was sad, it was not unexpected. I expect there'll be more silence for a bit, but then life will start to return to normal.

I was very pleased to have had the opportunity to go down to visit her on Thursday. I sat with her all afternoon, just holding her hand and talking to her in the brief moments when she woke up.

Her carer asked me what she should do if mum died in the night and I said to do nothing until the morning. Dragging out the medics and me would not bring her back.

So when my phone rang at 6 am, I knew that she'd gone. Apparently she slept well and died peacefully in her sleep around 2 am.

In the morning quite a lot of things happened, one of which was very gratifying. She'd said she wanted her body used for medical science, and carried an organ donor card, but she wasn't eligible for organ donation. Fortunately I found a research group at Bristol University working on dementia, and they wanted her brain. After a few strategic phone calls, the funeral directors collected her body and delivered it to the University. I assume it's now in their chapel of rest, sans brain.

Carl Sagan and the Googolplex

I love this short (3 mins) video not just because it's interesting and I have always admired Carl Sagan, but also because it was filmed in Cambridge, and I can recognise bits of the town as he walks around - Johns College, Free School Lane, one of the entrances to the Zoology Department yard, and so on.

Hat tip: Greg Laden

A brilliant evening of contemporary dance

Months ago, our neighbours Lorna and Richard booked tickets for an evening of contemporary dance at Sadler's Wells in London, and Friday was the night! We skived off work early to catch the train to London and met Richard outside the theatre. He'd booked a table at a nearby Thai restaurant, and we had a very pleasant meal before going in.

As we walked into the auditorium, I glanced at my ticket, which said AA10 or something, so I assumed we were in the 27th row from the front, which is rather further back than I like to be, but I just imagined Richard had bought the best seats he could get.

I was a bit surprised when I noticed that we were passing rows in the F-G-H area, but completely amazed to discover that row AA was the VERY FRONT ROW of the stalls. There was just a fence and then the orchestra pit.

Next great surprise was that the orchestra pit was full of an orchestra! We're much more used to dance in Cambridge where the music is mostly provided electronically, so to have an orchestra of about 25 or 30 players was a big bonus.

The dance company was Rambert Dance Company (formerly Ballet Rambert), who we've not seen before. There were three rather long sets with intervals between, the first two by visiting choreographers. The first set was to Schubert's Death and the Maiden, choreographed by Henri Oguike, who's dance company we've seen in Cambridge, and was probably my favourite. Second was to parts of Saint Saëns' Carnival of the Animals, choreographed by Siobhan Davies, which Jenny liked best, and the third was to some not very nice horrible, especially commissioned music, choreographed by Mark Baldwin, Artistic Director of the Rambert, who we've not seen before.

The absolute pinnacle for me was actually the fragment of the Carnival of the Animals called The Swan, in which a single man was accompanied by a solo cello. I'm afraid I didn't see the dance at all, being completely mesmerised by the cello; the playing was simply exquisite. All helped by the fact I was sitting no more than 15 feet from him!

Overall a spectacular night. We missed the 10.15 from Kings Cross, which was a shame as we then had to wait half an hour for the next train, and of course, with the alterations going on, there's no bar there either.