Chipolatas, crispy potato slices, salad

Mum has been in a pretty decent mood today, and it has been more the fault of my own burnout that I have found her deeply irritating. Part of this might be a hangover from last night, when I went into the bathroom after mum was asleep (or at least I thought she was) only for her to start calling through the door that she needed to go and could I please hurry up.

Theatrically loud yawns every few moments ensured I wasn’t tempted to linger a single second longer than was absolutely necessary.

Today, as I said, mum was mostly OK, until my phone rang and mum instantly went into a panic spiral that ended with her retreating to bed. A few minutes later, point made – not deliberately in this case, I think, but still probably true – she got up again.

[The phone call was to arrange for an advert for a PA to go on the local Council job noticeboard. I will have to interview any / all applicants and offer the job to my chosen candidate, a process that fills me with dismay but is entirely necessary.]

Suki, having been acting the part of the most delightful fur rug, retreated in the face of mum’s insistence on following her around the house. At one point, Suki used her litter tray and mum headed straight into the kitchen to watch, then called out asking me if I wanted to come and see what Suki had ‘done’. Err… not, particularly, no!

This afternoon mum had problems with the tv listings magazine, and kept popping in every few minutes asking me to show her what was on tv. The third or fourth time, I suggested she just flick through the channels until she found something of interest. Mum accused me of refusing to help her.

When she finally did find something of interest, mum asked if I wanted to watch it with her. My polite “no, thanks, not at the moment” prompted mum to exclaim that she just wanted to spend time with me.

Except when I’m asleep, I don’t think I’ve been apart from mum for more than an hour in several weeks. I haven’t spent more than four hours apart from her in over three years. How much more time can I possibly spend with her?!

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Dinner was of the low effort, bung it all on a baking tray in the oven variety. Mum, naturally, thoroughly enjoyed it.

I tried some Hellman’s brand Spicy Ranch dressing on my salad, and it will be appearing on pretty much every lettuce leaf I eat for the rest of the summer. It’s really good.

I’m now facing an evening of mum looping on “my teeth hurt / I don’t like the dentist / I don’t understand his accent / will someone come with me? / you will help me, won’t you?” until I want to scream.

And this is a good day. 🫤