Peter’s Birthday

I reckon our age care system here in Australia in a lot of cases seems to be quite good. So when we desperately need more constant care subsidised, we can probably get it. At the moment I am just happy that Peter and I can both stay at home, even though we are not entitled yet to ’emergency’ home help.

Staying at home there are so many things that we can still enjoy: Music, reading, writing, playing games, watching TV! Also, we try to stay active as much as possible. Looking after personal hygiene, walking in the open air, shopping for essentials, doing the most necessary housework and gardening. But it usually does not take long and we are so exhausted that we need a rest. This means each day we can do only a very limited amount of work. That means, every day we have to cut back on something that we would have liked to have done. If we decide to do something, something else that might be just as important, cannot be done that day. Every day we seem to have a bit less time. How is that possible? The question is, what is really most important to us to be able to do?

Last weekend we had quite a few visitors because it was Peter’s birthday. The visitors came in stages: First two visitors for lunch. Later on when the first visitors had left, five adults and two children arrived for evening celebrations when it was already dark, and we had to stay inside. (Otherwise we could have spent time in our backyard where there is a bit more room and fresh air!)

Off and on Peter experienced some bad pain and had to lie down for a while until he could join the visitors again. Peter feels his pain is manageable when he can have a rest as soon as there is some pain coming. Most visitors came on Saturday, the 16th. The following day, on Sunday, we had two more visitors in the afternoon just for coffee/tea and cake. All our visitors were family members. Some of them we had not seen for quite a while. Because of the Coronavirus restrictions we took care not to hug anyone, and we also tried to keep some distance at all times. This is definitely rather difficult. I am sure, everyone in this kind of situation would have the same feelings how difficult it is.

I cannot believe one week has gone already after this rather hectic weekend of Peter’s birthday. In the meantime we found out our very old car is leaking some oil. We have to decide now whether it is worth it to get a major repair done to this 16 year old car! We can only hope that the car does not need a major repair. Last Thursday Peter booked the car in for its regular service. The booking is for Monday. So probably tomorrow we’ll find out what can be done to the oil leak.

Today is Saturday, the 9th of May 2020. Next Saturday, the 16th of May, is Peter’s birthday. For Peter’s birthday we expect to be allowed to have a few visitors. This is why for tomorrow, on Mothers Day, we stay on our own, that is, just Peter with me having a nice special day. We do not mind this at all, since there is the pleasure of looking forward to having some visitors in one weeks time.

We had a very warm day yesterday, like a very pleasant summer day really, even though it is supposed to be autumn already in Australia. We expect to have another very warm day today. But from tomorrow on we are probably going to have much cooler temperatures again.

When we have a few visitors next week, we aim at spreading out in our backyard so we can still observe social distancing. We have a large and a very little table and plenty of garden chairs. So it should be possible to place everybody at a certain distance for as long as the weather is suitable for spending time outside. Especially for our great-grandchilden I think it would be good to be able to run around outside instead of being cooped up inside.

Thinking of the space at the back of our house, I am getting somewhat anxious that quite a bit more gardening is required. I actually tried to do some gardening here and there. But I feel it is never enough what I can do, and what Peter can do is very limited too. We have this extra problem now with our frontyard, that is actually common property. However there are certain issues again as to the maintenance of the common area. This is quite upsetting for me, but I try, not to worry too much.

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