Brunch: smashed avo and smoked salmon on toast at The Freshwater Coffee House

A lunchtime post?!

Yep: I’m at that stage of exhaustion where my thoughts are springing around my brain like kangaroos on pogo sticks, so I thought I would try putting some of them down on paper (well, on mobile phone screen, anyway).

Last night I did as I usually do and went to bed at the same as mum, and then laid on the bed and played games on my phone / kindle until I was ready to sleep. I then decided to pop to the loo, which turned out to be a bad idea as I woke mum up, and a mum awakened in the night is a confused and frightened person. It had somehow got into her head that I was going out overnight, and she knocked on my door to tell me to be careful. I assured her I wasn’t going anywhere until the morning, sent her back to bed, and laid down myself. Just as I was dozing off she came back, telling me again to be careful going out in the dark.

This repeated a further three times, with her anxieties getting further from reality – what if I lost her key? (I have my own key: yours is staying here), what if someone tried to come in while I was out? (the door will be locked – no-one can get in); what if, what if…? She ended up snuggled against my side like a frightened child, crying with fear over things that I don’t think made sense even to her, and it must have been nearly 1am before she finally calmed down enough to sleep. I took even longer to settle, waiting for the next knock on the door, and when I did sleep my dreams were weird even by my standards¹.

This morning came too soon, with mum complaining that her back was hurting and “this has never happened before”, which she knew even as she said it wasn’t true. I had to go down to the pharmacy to collect an emergency prescription as, in my focus on getting mum better, I had neglected to reorder my own meds, so as I was awake anyway I decided to get an earlier bus and, theoretically at least, get back earlier.

It didn’t turn out that way, but the delay gave me the opportunity to say hello to a friendly Rottweiler (one of my childhood friends had three Rotties, to which I attribute my love of the breed in particular and of dogs in general), and to click-clack my way up to TFCH for a pricy but delicious brunch.

Now I’m waiting for this week’s groceries to be delivered, followed by mum’s inevitable complaints that I ordered too much and where are we going to put it all? Then I get to try to get her to eat a proper meal when she’s currently having two types of cake in a bowl, as I don’t have the energy to fight to get something more nutritious into her. Fortunately tonight’s dinner is veggie burgers and salad, so even if she only eats half of it she’ll get some nutrients.

I might see you later, or I might not: if I don’t, I can tell you now that dinner will be boring but fine. Right now I’ve got to go as there’s an choc nut ice cream cone (an Iceland own-brand Cornetto, but better) that won’t fit in the freezer with all the new groceries, so I’m going to have to eat it. Darn, eh?

1. At one point I collect a contestant on a reality show with a task relating to convincing American people to get a covid vaccination in the face of the president telling his citizens not to have it. My line was “don’t let a big prick stop you from getting a little one”, which I must have heard somewhere as that’s much too clever for my sleeping brain to come up with alone! ↩︎