Playing in the Rain

Last year Lisa and I went back to the UK separately at different times and to different locations.  This time we went together to spend some time with, and look after, the folks while Seeta, my sister who is there primary carer, took a well-deserved holiday with her family.  Both my Mam and Dad will tell me often that getting old is no fun.  They are however lucky in many regards, as while their physical faculties are reducing they have not been hit by certain ailments that bring a debilitating loss of cognitive functioning:

Not only did Lisa join me, but Elseya and her boyfriend Griffin also came along.  It’s been five years since Elseya has been back to the UK so she was keen to see her Oma and Opa, which put an extra wide smile of the folks face.  Griffin has travelled with his family, but never to the UK.  I personally feel he was pretty brave, seeing it was yet again a short and sharp week long trip with a sole purpose of looking after the folks.  That did not however stop the two of them from taking advantage of being in the UK and doing some exploring by themselves:

We arrived in time to catch up with Seeta and her family for a few hours before they departed for sunny Spain.  Wend were then left with their house and car keys, allowing us to settle in after the long trip.  For the first night we also had a surprise visitor for dinner.  Angus, my brother, happened to be working not too far away and was staying up for one night so joined us for a scrumptious Chinese.  Unfortunately, we brought bugs with us resulting in some of us not feeling all that great and impacting how much we did:

This understandably reduced Elseya and Griffin’s motivation to get out and about as much as they could have.  They made plans to travel bit further afield to check out a few sights that they respectively had interests in, making use of the far improved rail network that the UK offers in comparison to Western Australia.  Sadly, as it was only one trip became reality being a short day into Manchester.  That said they enjoyed themselves and it may have given them a taste enough to want to join us again one day in the UK to get a bit further afield:

As can be seen we did still got out and about with the folks, sticking mostly to local places.  Staring with the must do visit to Pear Mill.  If you are keen to read a bit more about this unusually place check out the post of my last visit https://sandbagged.blog/2022/08/01/time-to-head-back/.  I thought this place with all of its antiquity and quirky items would be of interest to both Lisa and Elseya and was not disappointed.  For Lisa it brought back a bounty of memories and Elseya got drawn in by the abundance of interesting items to check out:

So much so that we ended up with a second visit there, this time with Lisa’s Mum and sister, Becky, who came up from Torquay for a day visit adding to more family for Griffin to meet.  This required a four plus hour journey each way, so we were very appreciative of them making the trip.  Rewarding them with a visit to see my folks followed by a brew and trip down memory lane at Pear Mill.  A place that Lisa’s Mum never got to when she used to live not that far away from here.  Then it was onto the Romiley Arms for a lovely late pub lunch, before they had to start to the long trip home:

Pubs were of course part of the itinerary, and we managed to get to a few.  This included a couple of lunchtimes out with the folks, with one that I was particularly keen to try.  The Hare and Hounds is located at the top of Werneth Low, a hill that is part of the Pennine range and offers great views across to Manchester.  I have passed this pub numerous times on my early morning walks in previous visits, and it looked good and certainly was.   This time I didn’t get any early morning walks in, having the family with me it was a different kinda trip:

That said some things didn’t change, including playing games and getting through a few puzzles.   And while we managed a few trips out, my folks mobility has certainly declined since my last visit in March this year.  This meant the times we headed out only included a short walk.  That is not to say they are house bound and we did the odd walk into Romiley with them to have a feast in a café.  I had to include the next not so clear image, my Mam likes to watch the birds and also gets a visit from a local squirrel twice a day:

This has resulted in needing to reinforce the feeders, which the squirrel can gnaw through and destroy in one visit.  There are squirrel proof bird feeders these days, which means the birds have a chance at having a feed too.  But on this occasion a Jackdaw was more interested in having a go at the squirrel than getting a feed.  This show went one for a while before the squirrel decided it wasn’t worth hanging about.  Unfortunately, the weather came in for the second half of the trip, and this prevented us doing as much as we would have liked:

It was in this period that Elseya and Griffin finally managed a trip into Manchester, and got drenched.  Meanwhile Lisa and I took the folks out for another pub lunch at the local pub called the Spreadeagle.  A pub I have memoires of having a magnificent feed many, many years back.  And again was not disappointed, enjoying another feast while we watched the driving rain outside.  On the plus side the rain made us realise how slippery the paving at the house got when it rained, due to the build-up of algae:

Lisa spotted a pressure cleaner at Seeta’s place so we were happy to provide assistance with many the less than enjoyable chores she has to manage, by cleaning the paving.  Just like on previous visits, we did not spend time on the chore of cooking.  Making life easy by taking advantage of the many varied takeaway and eating out options right on the doorstep.  There was however one meal that was cooked, being onion bhajis.  A dish my Dad used to cook on a fairly regular basis as we were growing up:

It was certainly a little different not staying at my folks house, but with four of us that would have been too much for them.  It was also handy for us to ensure that my sister’s house remained occupied.  That didn’t stop us spending a lot of time round the folks place and had fun times.  My Dad was invigorated by our visit to risk his morning walk to pick up the paper even when it was wet and a bit windy.  Enlisting the use of Lisa’s arm to hold onto, as they braved getting wet while I stayed dry and warm puzzling away with my Mam:

Elseya and Griffin also got sucked in by the puzzles.  All up we managed to finish the one that was on the table when we arrived, complete three more, and get a fifth started leaving that one for my Mam to complete.  As has happened on each visit, the week came to an end all too soon and it was time for us to head home.  Being the same day Seeta’s family returned from Spain, to ensure the continuity of support was there.  All things considered the folks aren’t doing too bad, and while getting old may not be fun we all had fun during our visit: