Yesterday I went solo. My friend is on holiday so I took the exercise class at Mum’s care home. I devised a lesson plan, worked out the amount of time needed for the warm up and cooling down sessions and practiced a routine. I was prepared!
However, my docking station chose yesterday morning to dig his heels in and go on strike! The remote control, fitted with a new battery and working perfectly at home, remained unresponsive! My smooth transition from one piece of music to the next just didn’t happen. Cooling down to ‘Jeremiah was a bullfrog’ was not ideal! We had just finished the ‘hand jive’ so a few of the residents continued with this routine whilst I struggled to find Vera Lyn’s ‘White cliffs of Dover’.
But everyone seemed to have had some fun and most of the residents had joined in, some singing more than ‘doing’ but still involved, which is the aim of this project. Today I am getting a new docking station! Out with the old, in with the new!
When out walking with my friend yesterday afternoon I shared the annoyance of the docking station scenario with her but also the positive outcome of my first foray into ‘teaching’. It was more satisfying than I had imagined, to which my friend, a retired teacher, readily agreed. So we chatted along the quiet country lanes, taking a new route that I had discovered last week. The sun was shining and it was lovely and warm, sheltered by trees on either side. The homes, mostly small holdings, were pretty and well maintained. As we turned into a larger, busier road my friend suddenly announced that we were being followed by a goat!
‘Yeah right’ was my immediate response! But, trotting proudly behind us, was a lovely sable coloured goat! He had confidently joined our gang and was not going to budge. We tried to shoo him away, thinking he might pop back through the hedge, but he refused to move. A car was fast approaching so I stood in the middle of the road with my hand up, forcing it to stop. The driver suggested we take Goat back to a field three telegraph poles behind us where he had seen a few goats grazing earlier. So we turned around as instructed. Goat followed, happy to oblige, stopping occasionally to nibble on the lush green grass by the roadside.
In the distance we saw a tractor, followed by a few cars. I once more went into the middle of the road warming to my new traffic officer role! The tractor stopped and my friend went over to explain. The farmer didn’t know anything about a herd of goats in any field nearby so couldn’t help. He slowly drove around Goat, leaving my friend to speak to the driver of the first car waiting patiently in the queue. The woman was more helpful. She told us that, living three houses down our newly discovered lane, was a man called Dave. He had previously owned goats so might be able to help.
Once more we called Goat to heel and turned down the lane, finding the whole episode highly amusing! Goat occasionally wandered off to forage and seemed to forget about us so needed regular encouragement. I decided to name him Billy, a good ‘goat’ name!
We got to the second house with a car in the drive and decided to knock on their door for advice. The third house seemed a long way away. A man and his young daughter approached from the side of the house, took one look at Goat and raised their eyebrows in disdain! ‘Oh Dave’ the man shook his head, ‘you’ve got out again’!
So the goat’s name was Dave! Chuckling we retraced our footsteps, commenting that Fitbit would be rubbing his hands in glee as we had significantly increased our steps!
To complete the diary of a day in the life of a ‘Lady of Leisure’ my cousin and I exchanged a number of WhatsApp messages and a phone call to arrange some of the amazing trips she has planned for us next month in South Africa. Excitement is mounting!
The sun has broken through the clouds. I’m going out for a quick walk before lunch. I have booked a carer today so Mum can have her tea and cake in her favourite tearoom. Life is good. 👠
Jenny Burrell 