Hello Mal-Pals! I'm glad to report I'm doing a lot better than I have been recently. I'm still not feeling 100%, but I'm a damn sight better than I was when I was hospitalised. My hearing is back to normal in my right ear, which is excellent! My main bugbear is the Wi-Fi here, there are three networks and I only have access to one of them. My laptop simply isn't connecting to it, whilst my tablet finds it for a while and then loses it. It's very frustrating, the internet is basically the one place I'm truly free. I have no real privacy and can't set my own agenda. I have to ask for help with everything. There's a family Zoom call later, it'd be nice to be on it!
I spoke to the owner/manager of the home - I had my parents e-mail and ask for help, because I've consistently tried to see her about more pressing matters and have been ignored before. It turns out that of the three networks, she has no information about one of them, has a password that doesn't work for the second, and uses the one I can get on with my tablet herself. There's just no attempt at problem solving or improving things for the guests here, the staff seem so jaded and have way too much responsibility. The care home is divided into two floors and there are over sixty beds; I don't know how many are on each floor. I do know that on Monday overnight there was only one carer and one nurse looking out for the entire floor, from 8.30pm to 7.30am. This has happened a few times before, and seems to me to be pretty irresponsible. Granted, most of the residents will be sleeping, but it still seems dangerous; a nasty stomach bug or a fire would prove disastrous!
I have been playing on Reddit again with the usual suspects. I've genuinely missed carrying on my imaginary adventures and flirtations, but it seemed more polite to not play at all whilst I was feeling down than to knock out a couple of responses in between naps! My playmates know not to expect a swift response anyway, and I like trading a couple of dozen messages over the course of a day rather than fitting it all into a dedicated hour of chat.
I also set a prompt based on my new obsession, The Leprechaun's Game. I said I wanted to be the leprechaun, and that I was looking for someone to play Misha, trying to convince me to spare her husband after he stole my gold, and not to hurt her or her unborn baby. I had a response in less than an hour, because r/DirtyPenPals is mental and there are a ton of very specific and implausible situations posted every day. We chatted back and forth for a couple of hours in character; it was not particularly sexy! I did toy with the idea of staying true to the character and just demanding my gold and then killing her off, but decided against it. I might revisit the chat and decide on whether or not to post it. Maybe I'll ask the girl I played with first. Watch this space!
I was surprised by a visit from the physiotherapist, and she brought an occupational therapist along with her! I saw the physio for the first time back in February, and she told me she'd be back with the OT in the next couple of weeks. This is the first time seeing her since. For some reason the home manager had e-mailed my parents after they saw her in the corridors and asked her what progress was being made on my last visit, and my mum had told me. Nobody from the home had told me, and I'm still in isolation after my hospital visit, so I wasn't sure they'd be here. It's great that they were! Finally some progress!
