FEELING DOWN

 I don't have anything specific I want to write about today, I'm certainly not feeling creative enough or sexy enough to post anything particularly erotic. Maybe I'll dig something out of my e-mail outbox. I don't know. I don't like going more than a couple of days without posting anything because I know what I'm like; a couple of days without posting will turn into a week, and then a week into a couple of months, and before you know it I'll be a guy who used to write a blog.

My main news this week has been my Grandad, my mother's father and my only surviving grandparent, fell over one evening this week and had to go to hospital. He lives by himself in Wales, he called Mum's older sister in Bristol to tell her what had happened and she called my mum. He has three daughters and Mum lives the furthest from him, she's also the most sensible. She rang 999 and explained that he was alone, had heart problems and may have banged his head. This was 8pm. The paramedics came and took him off the floor at 2am! Grandad called a friend from church who sat with him all that time. He's okay, but rattled, and ready to accept that at 85 he may need a little more help than he used to!

Grandad's a real character; he'll take an interest in everything and everyone and find a story to tell out of any interaction. I think he had around 40 or 50 different jobs in his life time! Over the past couple of months he's taken to calling me on a Tuesday with two or three different stories from his life, asking me to guess which ones are true. They're always all obviously true, and I always guess that he's lying, saying things like "No, that can't have happened to you, you must have seen that in a sitcom" or "Maybe something like that happened to you, but that sounds too extraordinary, I think you're pulling my leg a little." He's always dead pleased to have fooled me!

Sometimes my Mum has heard these stories, sometimes she hasn't. It makes me wonder what anecdotes my parents have that I don't know about. I don't think he was an easy father to have, he has a very short temper and can be very stubborn. My dad refuses to speak to him after some row or other. Mum did a great job calling the hospital and the Red Cross and social services, and although he's gone home they're going to be checking up on him and offering him help. He needs it.

I haven't mentioned it before, but I've been dealing with British Gas on and off for months now. They were my electricity provider in my temporary flat. I asked them to put in a smart meter rather than one you need a key for, so that I could monitor it and top it up from my bed. Being bedbound I couldn't take the key to a store to get it topped up, and my care team wouldn't use my debit card. The British Gas engineer couldn't do it, so I switched suppliers.

A month later I got a bill from British Gas saying I owed them £240! I couldn't understand it; how could I owe money when I pay in advance? If you run out of credit you have to top up; there's no way you can run up a debt like that. Well, I called them up and they said it looked like I only owed £160, but they were going to look into it. They called me back a couple of weeks later saying that they'd been overcharging me and owed me £80! I don't understand how they operate at all. This was back in December. I've phoned a few times since then to see when they're going to give me this £80. Earlier in the week I had a letter saying they didn't owe me anything as they'd already sent the money! I got back on the phone, and was told I'd been sent a cheque for £30 in December! I said I hadn't received a cheque, definitely hadn't cashed one, and had been told I was owed £80. Obviously gaining £30 is better than losing £240, but I just want to know what's happening!

Talking of being kept out the loop, yesterday the head carer told me they had someone in to take away the hoist in my room and replace it with a more suitable one they can actually use. All day I waited, but nothing happened. She asked me in the afternoon if I knew why they hadn't done it, and I told her that her telling me that morning was the first and last I'd heard about it! I've learnt at this point not to get my hopes up.

As if my week wasn't going badly enough, this morning some builders started putting scaffolding up outside my window. Now as well as the laundry, the near constant call bell alarm ringing and the occasional pensioner screaming for help, I have to contend with the usual drilling and clanking you expect from building sites. I asked the head carer if she knew how long they'd be working on the property, she just said it was nothing to do with her. I didn't expect her to be climbing any ladders, but I thought she might have some idea as to whether they were going to be there for days or for months.

I've been re-watching One Foot In The Grave; I watch it every couple of years and am sure I relate to it more as I get older. Margaret Meldrew really is the perfect wife.

Sorry this has been a bit of a downer, hopefully soon I'll have something good to report! Until then, peace!

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