Purpletigron

I met with Mater's rehab guy this morning, and his assessment was pretty upbeat. He reckons that Mater's existing carers are taking on board the training he's given them, so he won't need to send in his specialist staff for now, which saves us money. We're going to review again in two months, but we agreed there's definitely signs already that she's responding to the therapy.

A lot of it is very similar to things I've been trying to get her to take on board all along. But I can see that the relationship dynamic is both critical, and very different between rehab guy and Mater than it is between Mater and I!

So ... striking rail* workers willing ... I should be able to relax a little more on holiday on Skye next week ...


* Train is just about our only option: we don't drive, I don't fly, D barfs on coaches, that would be complex bit of hitching for novices ...

I had fabulous dim sum with fjm and all, and next day travelled down to Maidstone. I prefer camping with fewer than 4500 people, especially when the majority are teenagers - but much fun and relaxation and thought-provokation was had: I've made lots of new friends, some of whom I might even meet again IRL. I spoke bad French to three Senegalese, and mostly understood their fluent French replies; and learned to say "one hundred and thirty pancakes" in Finnish (I promptly forgot it, of course); and spent 2 hours lifting up and down a huge, fiendishly complex marble run made of plastic water pipes (a metaphor for international aid for water and sanitation); and watched lots of amazing solar-powered movies; and had a 'hot date' watching Latin American bands and dancing, and swore at a drunk parent who turned on 'Parklife' at 03:30; and walked miles to the nearest payphone (1 hour round trip, partly through woods, most days); and. and ... :-)