Visiting the old Craws

I managed to get to my parents late afternoon on Friday coming up from Reading. My mother had gotten a stomach bug a few before my arrival and had been quite ill due to the adverse side effects of the antibiotic. I thought she looked noticeably worse than when I had seen her in the summer. However all in all she was in good spirits and we made it out the pub for lunch on Saturday.

I gave my father the digital camera I had been using on this trip after taking some snaps of them. He was delighted and I am hoping that he will be successful in operating it and getting prints from Boots. The Boots staff seemed quite helpful towards him (the amiable old Scotsman) so he should be Ok.

It wasn't until I left my folks that I realized what had been bothering me during my visit... My mother requires oxygen to help maintain her oxygen levels in her blood stream. She uses it at night and is supposed to use it whenever she feels weak during that day. However I found that during the day the oxygen had taken on the same status as the telephone- something to be revered and placed outside of the normal living environment: When you need to make a call in older middle class British homes you go out into the hall and do so and then return to the living room to report on the experience to other members of the household. This is of course a ludicrously out-of-date perspective on phone calls but one which my parents and my relatives have maintained throughout their lives. Now the oxygen had reached a similar status and of course consequently (the hall not being heated) wasn't being used by my mother at all. I did tell her off for this crazy situation but I doubt it will make much difference.


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