Am I losing the plot? in The View from the Terrace

When I checked my email this morning there was one of those notifications from Facebook - Today is Jill’s birthday. Oh my goodness, how could I have forgotten!? Jill was my best friend at school and we have been exchanging birthday cards ever since. I have never forgotten before. I was even watching on the news yesterday how it was the 30th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy. I always felt so sad for Jill that the one of the worst events in football history should have occurred on her birthday as she is football mad, but even that hadn’t jogged my memory. Worse still I have 3 friend’s birthdays in the same week in April and I had forgotten all of them. Is this just getting older? It’s scary as I have always had a fantastic memory, now I always seem to be forgetting things, I also forget the words for things, is that normal aging too?

We still haven’t sorted out the problem with the toilet outlet pipe. After the plumber who called told us it was asbestos and we needed a specialist firm to remove it, we found a firm and then rang the plumber back to organise a date. He didn’t return our call so Hubby rang again. By now it had been a few days so I sent him a message via the website where I had found him and he messaged back apologising and promising to sent us a quote the next day. He had already given us a quote, what we needed was a date, perhaps he is developing my problem. He never did get back to us so we took the hint that he didn’t want the job but why couldn’t he have said so and saved us a few days worry?

I found a new plumber on Friday morning and emailed them. I had a duty at the helpine on Friday afternoon and yes, you’ve guessed, I got home to an email saying he had been trying to get in touch then. Hubby rang and left a message but no reply since. We are hoping that’s because it was the weekend. I have sent another email and am waiting hopefully, but with my luck he will ring when I pop down to the shop to buy Jill a belated birthday card!

On TV yesterday there was a really upsetting report about a dog attack. A little boy aged 9 was killed by a dog while on holiday in Cornwall. It really affected me because it happened at a caravan park where we stayed when Tony was the same age. The boy’s family had left him alone in the caravan with the dog which belonged to a friend. We keep hearing about these dog attacks, I don’t understand it. My dad had a bullmastiff when I was a child and there were a few incidents where he snapped at people, all perfectly understandable, people treading on him and in one case a friend picking up his dinner dish because he was making a mess. In all cases yes, he did snap, but it was one warning snap, not nice, but he didn’t savage people, why do dogs do that? Perhaps the child was tormenting him. He shouldn’t have been left alone with a dog that wasn’t his family pet, he may not have been taught respect for dogs. I remember my dad drumming into me, You don’t touch him when he’s in his corner (he had an alcove with a blanket as they don’t make baskets big enough for bullmastiffs, at least they didn’t then) if he growls you go away and leave him alone, don’t go near him when he’s eating. People need to train their children as well as the dog. I keep thinking about that little boy and imagining how it would have felt on our holiday in that holiday park if we had gone with Tony and not brought him home. My heart goes out to the family.

Last week we took Suki to the vet for a checkup on her eye. She injured it a few years ago and it has now clouded over. The vet says she definitely has no sight in it. I thought she might have a little as she seems to respond when she has the other eye closed but apparently not. She gave us some drops to put in the eye as sometimes it doesn’t close properly and so it needs lubricating to avoid further problems. She is a highly sensitive cat with well developed feral instincts so you can imagine it is fun trying to get drops into her eye. It involves Hubby holding her while wearing his gardening gloves while I put them in. The vet checked her over and we were shocked when she found she has a heart murmur. She said it could be totally harmless or it could mean she has a heart problem. The only way to find out is a scan. I asked how much that would be and she said £40 and an extra £20 if she needs sedating to keep still. She will definitely need sedating! So we will be arranging that as soon as possible.

Afternoon Update

The plumber emailed back and he’s coming to see the job tomorrow. I found some lovely cards at the local shop for my friends, Jill’s will be a day late but I sent her a message on facebook. This getting older can be difficult sometimes.