Nana is Ill

2005-04-23 at 12:05 a.m.

My grandmother isn't well. She got taken into hospital a couple of days ago, apparently her kidneys have temporarily packed up. Her arthritis has been bad, too, and they've taken her in so they can take her off all her drugs and see what happens. You see she didn't have any kidney problems so they're probably a side effect. It also appears she's been diagnosed with diabetes and didn't mention it (that makes both grandparents now). So she's in the hospital for the next few days, apparently they're going to assess her on Monday, but its not life-threatening or anything. Just a bit surprising because nana is very rarely ill.

Because of this, mum and dad have decided to go up to Newcastle tomorrow to see her. I wanted to go but I've got this damn physics assignment and I'll never finish it if I do go. Dad wants to talk to my grandfather, because he doesn't really listen to the girls (i.e. my aunties). The thing is grandad thinks that the best thing when you're ill is to lie in bed until you're better again, which might be fine for most things but when what is making you ill is arthritis its really not a good idea. Plus he's getting worried and frail and elderly himself, and he makes nana older and less confident herself. Really what she should do is join some sort of pensioners club or something, and get out of the house and meeting people, because nana is very sociable and now she only really sees family since she moved half way across town.

Anyway, she'll be fine, but its not very nice, having her be ill, because if she gets a couple of colds in a year thats all she ever gets.

In other news, dad is going to Houston on Friday so I have to decide what I want him to get me. So I'm thinking music, mostly music, if I can think of CDs I want. The trouble is that I normally find CDs by browsing!

Also, mum has just been told of a pension she didn't know she had. You see she used to work for a scientific laboratory just before the equal rights legislation came out in the 70s. Now before that voluntary pension schemes were just that, voluntary and the company could discriminate as much as they liked, which meant that though mum and dad worked for the same company for the same length of time dad got a pension from day one whereas the company didn't pay contributions for female workers. But in 1975 they were forced to, and the year later mum left the company. Which means that she does still have a pension with this company, but its an absolutely titchy one, amounting to £150 a year. So they wrote to her and said would she like to keep that or would she prefer to be given £4,000 now instead. Naturally she took the cash, and says she'll buy me something. This can either be an iPod, or a contribution to a holiday for me. So I need to decide what I want!

I'd like a holiday but the trouble is that I'm going to have to go on my own, which limits where I'll feel comfortable going. This is where I hate myself for being a coward, because I know I'll wind up paranoid about being in a strange city where I know no one even though its probably fine. I'd like to go to Paris, or maybe Dublin, either by myself and hope, or as some sort of tour/organised trip where I'll get to know some people. Now if I had unlimited money I'd really like to go to New Orleans, but I don't think the budget would stretch. But I know Paris well enough to find my way around and Dublin would be nice, so I think one of those two, or else somewhere in the UK. I need to have a look for these group holidays though, especially if I fancy going to Paris because I suspect mum won't give me money to go a foreign-language speaking country by myself (though I do know a bit of French, I did do a GCSE in it!)

So thats nice news. And I get the weekend to myself and am contemplating drinking. If I get this assignment finished that is.

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