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27958. wabbit - 5/10/2014 12:01:55 AM Oh geez, please give him my very best - I remember loving their house and wondering how they managed the terrain. It's a beautiful house, but I agree with JaH, maybe it's time for something less challenging. 27959. arkymalarky - 5/10/2014 12:53:39 AM Thanks wabbit, I will! We're on our way back to the hospital right now. He's had a really good day today. 27960. wabbit - 5/11/2014 2:16:15 PM Happy Mother's Day to all the Mote Moms! 27961. alistairconnor - 5/11/2014 4:40:48 PM I'm thinking about my mother. She is dying; slowly and quietly fading away, as she has been for the past few years as Alzheimers takes its toll. For the past few months she hasn't been talking, and spends most of her time sleeping. Then in the last couple of days she hasn't woken up at all, and so is no longer being fed. She has a drip to keep her hydrated.
So I'm on standby; according to the doctors, she has a life expectancy of two to five days. I'll hop on a plane when I have some more definite news. 27962. Ms. No - 5/11/2014 5:32:10 PM Oh, alistair, I'm so sorry. 27963. arkymalarky - 5/11/2014 5:34:49 PM Oh Alistair, I'm so sorry! That's hard. Stan's mother is at an earlier stage of that journey. All you can hope for is peace through it for all involved.
My dad is doing well. He will likely go home in a day or two. 27964. wabbit - 5/11/2014 6:51:02 PM I'm so sorry Alistair, it's so hard to watch someone fade away. I'll be thinking of you. 27965. wabbit - 5/11/2014 6:51:50 PM Arky, that is great news, I hope he makes a full recovery quickly! 27966. arkymalarky - 5/11/2014 8:47:10 PM Thanks! 27967. judithathome - 5/11/2014 10:56:12 PM Alistair, I have had no experience of saying goodbye to my parents because they each went quickly but I have had to say goodbye to my son. I wish for you a gentle goodbye... 27968. alistairconnor - 5/12/2014 9:45:19 AM I last saw her at Christmas, two and a half years ago. She was happy to see me, and we communicated in a disjointed way. My younger sister has been doing all the hard work, both in administration and accompanying her. Her latest message :
"I don't think she has long to go now. Very still tonight, cold hands".
I am hesitating between Dubai (more convenient) and Hong Kong (cheaper) for my flight. 27969. alistairconnor - 5/12/2014 4:00:28 PM She's gone. I'm off home tonight, I'll be there for lunch on Wednesday. Via Dubai and Melbourne. 27970. arkymalarky - 5/12/2014 5:02:33 PM Oh my. I'm sorry Alistair. I hope you have a safe trip. 27971. iiibbb - 5/12/2014 6:22:00 PM Alzheimer's has my FiL. It is very hard to witness and very hard on my wife. You could write a book about the things he's done; it's such a crazy mishmash of luck and moxie. A flunk out, buck private, college graduate, PhD, NASA researcher (why scientists and astronauts had a hard time getting along), and professor.
Now he just wants out of his house all the time because he doesn't think he lives there. 27972. iiibbb - 5/12/2014 6:22:35 PM Sorry for your loss. 27973. arkymalarky - 5/17/2014 5:01:16 PM Hey No, how is the fire situation? 27974. Ms. No - 5/17/2014 8:09:20 PM It's nearly 500 miles away from me so we're not even getting weather from it, I don't think. I know that at least one person has died, but I really haven't been following the story.
My brother's kids are all within 100 miles of the fires, but I haven't heard anything from him to make me worry, and he's currently entertaining my folks in the Big Apple. I spoke with mom this morning and they were on a pub crawl to McSorley's, so I'm assuming everything is fine. 27975. arkymalarky - 5/20/2014 12:06:32 PM Just got through a bout of what I think was food poisoning. Brutal. 27976. judithathome - 5/20/2014 4:34:50 PM I have a Master's degree in that subject! 27977. alistairconnor - 5/21/2014 4:44:48 PM An unexpected journey; or There and Back Again. Call me Bilbo.
Got off the plane last night, back at work today. Feeling fine. 44 hours of flying in eight days. The food on Emirates is quite good, as economy-class meals go; halal, but with alcohol (thank god).
Also ten hours' time difference each way, which I seem to suck up with no apparent side effects. I may be world champion for that.
Also : I may hold the record for lowest tourist spend in Dubai. Item : one-day metro pass, about $3. Item : ticket for the monorail that goes to the palmtree-island thing, $5 (a total bust, but I had eight hours to fill between flights). And a bottle of water, fifty cents. I also visited the world's biggest mall -- guess what, it's just like [fill in the name of your local mall here], only bigger. Absent-mindedly, I visited it at 7am, when there were only cleaners and maintenance crew there, but that was fine with me, being the World's Cheapest Tourist and all. I sort of wanted to visit the Burj Kalifa, the world's greatest manmade erection, but it was too early in the day (and it turns out I would have had to buy my ticket a couple of days beforehand). I circumnavigated it on foot, and it didn't look all that big -- this was perhaps because the setting, mostly comprised of rather Disneylandish hotels, made it look like a fairground attraction.
Apart from travel trivia... It was great to see so many family (all six of us siblings, 13 of my mother's 18 grandchildren, two of the seven great-grands) and everyone was well-behaved (within a fairly broad family definition of well-behaved, i.e. it wasn't Osage County). We sort of brought her back to life in order to mourn her; to discount the years of decline and concentrate on her essence.
Three of us spoke at the funeral, and I got the most laughs. I sweated for 48 hours over that short speech, and I ended up channelling her : it came out pithy, pragmatic and loving. Everyone present thanked me for it.
I had lunch on Sunday with an old political friend; the director of media for the Green Party happened to be there. We came up with the idea that my elder daughter (who couldn't come to the funeral because she's finishing her Communication degree) should come out and do an internship with the Greens during the run-up to the elections in September. If we win, the Greens will be in government, in coalition with Labour, and presumably there will be jobs going. If not, the clan can find her something in radio. Either way, the anguishing problem of What to Do Next Year seems to be solved, since she turns out to be very keen.
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