2nd October: Busy day

Ran Shirley to the dentists first thing, then back to see an estate agent, made an offer on a house now we wait.... the owners are in India on holiday so may not be reading email regularly (not that they are short of IT there). A spot of reading, then off to see Simon. Fish and chips for his lunch. One of Simon's speech therapists was leaving today (a student at the end of her placement). She is a very lovely person and Simon wanted to thank her with a present. We found a box of chocolates and he gave them to her this afternoon. She was really touched.

Left Simon in a happy state while I returned to work for a meeting with my Phd student. He is at the reading-in stage, and it was fascinating to observe a student discovering concepts from the literature that I had almost forgotten the origins of: Marx, Durkheim, Weber. It is good to touch base with these great works again. His work will be on some aspect of work-life balance. At the end of the tutorial I asked him to spend some time reflecting on his own work-life balance - like most part-time students he is juggling way too many eggs. I am co-supervising this thesis with a superb colleague from NILS, a sociologist who did her Phd about activists (trade unionists, peace campaigners, and womens' rights campaigners), their passion, and the way in which they fit their lives, family and work around this. Real good stimulation.

Dashed back to Rehab for Simon's tea, to find him wheeling himself out of the building declaring that he had to get away from there. I quickly went to investigate what might have been happening in his room (we did have a wandering patient yesterday claiming to have been kidnapped and offering Simon money to help her escape). When I got there, only George in a brand new electric wheelchair, nothing wrong at all. Shirley intercepted Simon at the front door, and I took him for a walk to calm down, could only determine that something had happened at 4.30pm, and he had been pushed. George managed to tell me that a casual member of staff had wheeled Simon off at 4.30pm then recently brought him back smashing him into the door frame, and Simon was demanding to be left alone. It took me ages to persuade him to go into dinner, then the dinner was revolting so had to rush to the cafe and get a baked potato for him. I was run ragged. Eventually I got to the bottom of it. A casual member of staff came to collect Simon at 4.30pm and wheeled him into the dreaded dining room despite his protests, which I can imagine were blue. When he tried to wheel himself out again he was pushed back and told to stay there. At this point he put up such a fight that a regular member of staff discovered the situation and said that he was to be taken back to his room to wait for his family, and at this point they smashed into the door. A long story, but illustrative of some of the difficulties that Simon has to deal with on this steep road to recovery. It is good that he is prepared to put up a fight, also that Shirley and I arrived just in time to stop him hurtling down the Goodwood Road!
Simon was still upset this evening, and it took a long time to pacify him. I tried to lift him by describing all of our planned events for this weekend. We have a public holiday on Monday, so I will be allowed to spring him from Rehab three days in a row. I am hoping that he will be able to get into his new armchair (complete with gentle ejector seat) - although this time I will make sure to have plenty of help at hand.
Too tired to cook so Shirl and I had take-away fish and chips this evening. Terrific.
Love Marian x