PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS, PROBLEMS.

Well, we got back from Croatia okay, despite a last minute panic at Trieste airport because my case was a whole kilo overweight, resulting in a mad panic to transfer stuff to hubby's cabin bag. We ended up with me being half a kilo under the allowed 15 - which meant I actually had no need to ditch the complimentary toiletries from the lovely hotel we spent our last night in! :-(

So, home again..... and back to problems with a bang! I haven't been feeling wonderfully well myself; just seem to feel awful every morning when I first wake up. No idea why, but really need to get the old fitness programme going again. It wasn't going too well before July, but the double whammy of an injured knee and Sandy's death killed it dead! Now, I do not seem to be able to get it going again. My clothes are tight, so I have actually put on weight instead of losing it!!! I admit that I have been very much eating for comfort....... but I have to STOP!!!!!

Daughter has been ill since choking (and - she reckons - almost dying!) while eating her lunch in her car around a month ago. She was only eating rice and tinned tuna (not even any bones!) but from that moment on she has had a terrible cough. Antibiotics failed to fix her, so the doctor sent her for a chest x-ray which showed infection in the tubes going down to the lungs. Now she is on an even stronger dose of antibiotics. It has all really dragged her down, poor girl! She may be a tiny bit better now, not sure......... but I am wondering what will happen if the food remains lodged in those tubes? She said the doctor seemed surprised by the whole thing and really didn't provide much information!

Hubby is at the football at the moment; he has a season ticket now, because of the super new stadium they have (I think it looks awful from the outside, a bit like a roller-coaster ride!). He had a row with his brother yesterday, becuse he had promised him a game of golf and then let him down. I have my own reasons for having been upset with b-i-l at the moment. He doesn't listen properly to what other people say and does what he wants 99% of the time!

Another big problem at the moment is that their one remaining sister - the one with a schizophrenic-related illness - is in a psychiatric hospital again. Just before we went away, she went into hospspital to have her second breast removed; the first one was removed several years ago because of a pre-cancerous condition, but recently they found a very small, early cancer in the other one (that means all three sisters had breast cancer). Anyway, she had the op before we went and all seemed fine..... but when we came back, we were surprised to hear she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital not long after we went. Anyway, hubby and his brother have been cleaning out her flat. OMG, the state of it! Hubby got the job of cleaning the bathroom (b-i-l and his wife did it three years ago, so I guess it was hubby's turn!). Well...... it seems she never cleans anything at all...... and I do mean anythin!. Apart from dust and dirt everywhere, a million bottles of cleaning stuff etc in the bath (why does she have thenm if she doesn't clean?) and an old bath-mat corroded to it, there was also..... and there is no easy way to say this...... lots of  poo! It was all over the toilet and quite a lot was on the floor too.

It is a difficult problem..... I personally do not believe she should be living on her own, but the only alternative is an old people's home. Sadly, she can be a very difficult person so none of us have ever wanted to have her (had anyone done so, I think there would have been some broken marriages in the family and probably a few nervous breakdowns too!), so an old people's home would most likely either chuck her out, or drug her and turn her into a cabbage. She does have a lively mind and can be very sociable. By coincidence, the organisation which owns the flat were just about to do an inspection of it: now, they will find it clean..... but who knows what would have happened if she had not gone into hospital.  It is hard for hubby and his brother to clean the flat while she is actualy in there, but I guess they will have to try to arrange something now. She had a cleaner for a time, but presumably that arrangement ended. One of their late sisters spent a lot of time and effort in getting her into the flat eight years ago, but I do wonder if she would be better out (though you cannot mention that to the close family of the sister who got her in there!). Unfortunately, before this she was in a shared home and seemed happy there (especially when they were cooking for her!) but she had to leave (possibly because it was only meant as a temporary home and there were only a certain number of years that someone could stay there). She pays a friend (at least she was a friend, before she started paying her!) to spend time with her; she does some shopping and very occasionally spends the night there too, so I do wonder what she thought about the state of the bathroom!

Anyway..... you can see that we got thrown right bang straight into life's problems when we got back and hardly knew what hit us! We have had a couple of great nights out though, the past two Fridays. Yesterday, we went to see a Greek band at a music bar in Brighton. The band was really good and our Greek teacher was there with some of the students from her other classes. The previous week, we went up to a place near Gulidford in Surrey to see one of our favourite singers, Martyn Joseph. That was another great evening, except for the fact that I disgraced myself at the end by swooning at Martyn's feet. Okay, that isn't quite true!...... I have a long-standing problem with feeling faint after eating out in restaurants; my doctore says it is to do with my digestion and is apparently surprisingly common. Anyway, last Friday just fitted in a meal in a local pub before rushing off to the concert. I really enjoyed the concert; I did feel a bit unwell in the interval, but recovered and was fine until the very last song of the encore, when I felt increasingly faint. Fortunately, I made it through to the end but afterwards putting my head down failed to help and knew I had to lie down. Now, the concert was, somewhat unusually,  actually in a church and the stone floors didn't look an attractinve proposition to lie down on! However, hubby spotted a patch of carpet at the top of the left-hand aisle, so I made a bee-line for it - hoping I wouldn't pass out on the way! I made it to the carpet okay and soon felt better once I was lying down, but I was very aware that a small group of men chatting very close to me (and whom I had had to pass during my flight to the carpet) included Martyn Joseph himself. He is usually an extremely nice guy to chat to, but on this occasion he just ignored me! As somebody else said to me, I guess he must bbe used to women swooning at his feet! Lol! Hubby though very kindly pointed out that he probably ignored me because he thought I was drunk. That really made me feel a whole load better!

So, that's an update on recent events! You can, I think, see that life chez the Seeker household is full of problems, but still quite interesting. You just never know what will happen next here!

By the way, will those of you who believe please pray for Eileen, who has become a really good email-friend via this blog. Eileen's beloved dog Amber has recently been diagnosed with an incurable tumour. I know what she is going through so well.....

You can read Eileen's blog here: ANOTHER COFFEE TO GO