Sat 28th Feb:

Andrew has been at home for a couple of days now, and many things are familiar to him, which is good.
He does get a bit emotional when first meeting visitors or when people are kind, so if visiting please be prepared for a few tears. Also do not expect him to say too much.
We have been out for some walking exercise each day and he says that he feels better for this - it seems to help him a great deal. Today we walked up the steep incline by the Globe pub without any difficulty, and he is walking further than I expect, so regular outdoor exercise will become part of the daily routine. This can, of course include gardening/allotment.
Other elements of the daily routine include:
- playing one of his instruments ( best done with other musicians, so if anyone feels like dropping in for a "jam", you would be very welcome - some singing is especially beneficial at the moment to trying and encourage him to use his voice more, he is still whispering)
- listening to music/cd's
- cooking and normal household tasks, which we do together
-looking at the "memory book" and/or photographs
-sleep- plenty of it, whenever he gets tired, usually mid afternoon onwards

Rory came to look after Andrew for a couple of hours yesterday which enabled me to stock up with fish from the supermarket ( brain -food), make the first GP appointment and take back overdue library books ( the library were very understanding and let us off the fine!).

Next week I shall have to get to grips with finances, which I have not yet had time to investigate.

As Andrew is having particular trouble with dates I want to get a watch which shows the date and lots of calendars to put around the house, so if anyone has any unused 2009 calendars ( our current one is now useless as most of what is written in it will not now happen!). Failing that I will just have to make myself a sandwich board that I can wear all the time with the date on it. But that wouldn't be very "normal" would it....

I also need to do many thanks you's

Love Gill

xxx