care in the community and an eastern block visit

Here in the commune of Antigny it was a quiet weekend of work which meant an early start both yesterday and today. My weekend shift occurs only once every three weeks and so the people I see over the weekend are not as familiar to me as my weekly people. I am learning the art of tolerance and not jumping to conclusions. Some of my people on the weekend I find truly difficult. One lady who is very ill-tempered (she once famously gave one of the other workers a clout over the ears) always make me nervous. I count myself fortunate that she reserves only sneers and disgruntled 'tchs' to my service. It's strange how people can give a real sense of their personalities even through illness and dementia which of course, with medication, alters character. There was a thread of niceness today when I timidly asked her how old she was as she told me she had 6 great-grandchildren. She is 90 years old and really doesn't look it. This I told her quite sincerely and she giggled like a girl and all the sourness went from her face. Even Madame Millet who is one of the most unbearable people to work for as she follows you around and continually bosses you and can even be quite aggressive has her redeeming qualities. She has a complete obsession with my chickens and their state of egg laying asking me each time I go there if they are producing. If I say 'no' she looks deeply satisfied as if she in fact knew all along they were a lousy bunch of fowl and totally good-for-nothing and if she had her way she would have wrung each and every single ones neck. Her attention today, however, was fixated on a wasp that had the temerity to enter the house and sting her ailing husband on his hand while he was reaching for the jam pot at breakfast. This event caused much consternation and the conviction that this wasp had somehow sneaked into the house with the expess intention of upsetting the harmony of the Millet home.

It was a sad weekend though too because one of my favourite people is no longer at his house but died just over a week ago from heart failure. He was Monsieur Abel Demay - once the Mairie of Saint Germain - and a truly lovely kind and very sweet gentleman. He loved asking me questions about my native Australia - admittedly some of them a bit insulting such as: 'Do you have electricity there?' and 'Have you hospitals and doctors?' I was a bit put out at first by this obvious assumption that Australia was some kind of third world savage outpost but as it was not intentioned in any way to offend I soon got used to it and we both had some good laughs and chats with his lovely wife Renee who is also now in hospital. One of the laughs we had was when he pointed out an article in the local paper regarding a wild boar that had escaped into a clothes shop in a large shopping complex in Poitiers and ran amock in the shop. The poor thing had in fact been hit by a car and was terrified out of its wits and had to be put down. But just the image of the animal charging about 'Auchan' was enough to make us laugh. He was also a keen member of the chasse so his interest in wild boar was heartfelt.



In the meantime Stephen leads the life of the glamorous musician with a tour to Italy, Poland, Lithuania and Moscow. It sounds wonderful but I know he'd rather be home and checking how the chickens are laying.