Still at home

My wife is still away, and will be so for another day or two at least, so I'm still holding the fort in sunny (and yes it is, but very chilly) Cornwall. My mother-in-law is going to be admitted to a hospice in the near future, which it tells its own story, sadly. Even if that happens imminently, my wife will remain at her parents until her aunt, who was due to take up temporary residence to help out next week, but who was on holiday and has had to arrange an earlier flight back from Tenerife, gets back to the UK, because her dad isn't well enough to look after himself - he's in his late seventies and had been in poor health himself for two or three years. My manager, when I finally managed to get hold of him this morning, has been reasonable about my circumstances, even if he didn't sound wildly thrilled on the phone, but the downside is that I'm going to end up working through the coming weekend as well as all next week to make up my hours, which means I'll end up being away from home for 8 or 9 consecutive days, in all probability. I guess after the best part of two weeks off, I shouldn't complain, but it's not ideal, by any means.
The sombre mood has been leavened by the odd brighter moment here and there - my daughter and I had a genuine laugh out loud experience yesterday evening. She needed a new calculator for school, having lost her previous one a few days ago (doing her science homework on the school bus, seemingly), and we needed to go to our local 'big city' to get the right type. This meant negotiating the rush hour, and we ended up in a pretty substantial traffic queue at one point. If someone had made a transcript of our conversation at that point, anyone who read it might have guessed at an exchange between my daughter and one of her friends rather than between her and her father, as we discussed the finer points of boy cuteness. It took a good couple of minutes before the surreality of the situation struck me, and I burst out laughing, joined by my daughter when I asked her how many other father and daughter pairings of our respective ages in the area, or indeed anywhere, she thought might have been having a similar chat at that moment! Even if I do seem, on the evidence of my blog, to take myself a little bit too seriously at times, it proved I can still laugh at myself occasionally.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B