24 July 2012
What a day of comings and goings!. After the two morning carers had left and I had got stuck into my blog then a friend of Alice’s, from early childhood in Wales, Mark York, dropped in (invited!) for lunch. Then, shortly after, the midday carer arrive. At three o’clock, Richard Walker, the area manager for the company, who provide the Roho cushions called to inspect my cushion. He agreed that it had deflated somewhat, which it should not do, and guessed that there was either a slow puncture or a faulty valve.
These cushions might seem extortionately expensive (£695), apart from the blessing of a comfortable seat all day, the service provided by the company, certainly in my experience, is excellent. Richard arrived, as I say only one day after calling the head office and decided that the cushion needed to go back to the works to be tested. So I should not have two or three uncomfortable weeks, on a basic sponge cushion, Richard, very kindly set up a brand-new Roho cushion, he had in his car, which was almost identical to mine, and left it until my was returned. When I say set up, he inflated it roughly 2 the pressure he felt was right, then having arranged it with the Ross Nursing office, Christine, one of my regular carers, dropped everything and came to assist in hoisting me up and down on the temporary cushion, which was adjusted by Richard, to account for the precise areas on which my seat was exerting pressure. That’s service for you.
Whilst all this was going on. Jane ‘the sheep’ came with her partner John, to remove all but three of her rare breed to take them back home and have them sheared. Then, to cap it all, there were various telephone calls chasing people who had promised to provide various things- a new alarm system for the reclining chair that I could just flail at rather than pressing a small; button a new reclining chair which was more versatile than my present one; to let Neil know that one of the alarms on the bed wasn’t working and the perennial problem of a new functioning commode that we could get through the wet room door. All petty matters in themselves but with one thing and another, it turned into a fairly exhausting day. One thing I was particularly pleased to discover was that the Roho people make special cushions for commodes. I imagine that they are quite expensive but if the commode that is eventually produced, in satisfactory in every other way, it will be worth investing in one of these cushions,
That’s all about my small world. In the larger real-world two things are now occupying the media. The first, is the Olympic Games. The opening ceremony is in a couple of days time, the culmination of seven years work, so we, together with millions of other people around the world, will be glued to our television sets for the next couple of weeks, watching the various events. The other problem, about which I have written on a number of occasions, concerns the parlous financial state of the Eurozone, Spain, which is the fourth largest member financially has slipped down the ratings, so much so that were other countries, who are in trouble can borrow money at 7%-which is just sustainable- while Spain. apparently is forced to pay 7.6%, which means that it would be permanently in debt. As a result the business of Greece, leaving the Eurozone has cropped up again, as has Germany’s objection to having to bail out the weaker countries. Sooner or later the German people will force the government to call a halt on this which may well be the beginning of the end of the Eurozone.