Blackpool...the reunion!

This is my dad with my daughter and mother in Blackpool, September 21st 2009.  I was teaching sugar modelling class in Preston and this lot tagged along for the fun.  I haven't shown dad the photos I have yet, but I will.  We leave tomorrow morning for our wee break which he is so excited about...when I mention it.

I mentioned it to him this morning as I was sorting out the ironing.  I was getting his shirts ready to pack and said, "I'll put these in the suitcase dad."

"Where am I going?" he said, which is his usual reply if I don't use a sentence with Blackpool in it.  If I say, "I hope the weather is good for our trip to Blackpool tomorrow",  he'll say, "I know.  I can't wait."  He'll tell me it's his most favourite place in the world to be, apart from home.  I took him and my mother to New York, twice.  I could have saved myself a fortune if I'd known!

He said to me today, "I'll no be able to sleep the night for excitement!"  But he will sleep.

We've had this break booked for 7 weeks now.  I keep making a big thing about the countdown.  "Six weeks to go dad", "Five weeks to go dad", which he would respond with "that's too long to wait!"

The sad thing is, if we didn't go tomorrow, he'd never know.

After he stripped off in the hallway (again!!) this morning, I got him showered and half dressed then asked him to brush his teeth.  I always put the toothpaste onto his toothbrush and I balance the brush over the cold tap until it's ready to use.  Normally I just need to tell him to brush his teeth and he'll get on with it.  I then leave the bathroom and start sorting his clothes in his bedroom and getting his shaver ready.  But this morning he hovered around the sink then turned on the hot water tap and rinsed his hands.  I turned off the water then handed him a towel before handing him the toothbrush and asked him again to brush his teeth.  I turned the cold tap on a little and then left him to it.  Maybe I said more to him than I can recall now and he just got muddled with the instruction.  Did I talk too much and put him off?   I will wonder about this until I do the same thing tomorrow, being careful just to ask him to brush his teeth and nothing more, just in case his confusion was caused by me.

I can't always jump to the conclusion that he's getting more forgetful.

We took 'dug' to the kennels this afternoon.  We'll see her again on Monday night.  When we got back to the house my dad said, "It's a quiet hoose withoot the dug."  After repeating this more than half a dozen times within half an hour I said, "The next time you get up to go for a pee I'll chase your leg and bite your ankle if it makes you feel better!"

His response, "Away ya daft buggar!"

I'm almost finished packing.  I've hidden the suitcase under dad's bed out of sight.  If I left it out he'd be in and out of it like a Jack in the Box.  The suitcase will be in the car before he knows it and we'll be on our way before I remind him where we are going.  All that's left to pack is the medication.  Diabetes and Iron pills for him.

Valium for me!

I can't wait to get on the road.  Another one of life's little adventures.  Dad won't be on the chair-o-planes this time around.

I reckon he'll be flying high just the same.

"BLACKPOOL...HERE WE COME!"