Middle, mature, elderly aged person...lonely & living alone...Needing someone to talk to?..Let’s be here for each other.

[Ggrand]

Hello Everyone....🤗.

have noticed that a lot of mature aged and elderly people are living alone and overwhelmed by loneliness...I though I would make this thread to give and receive support to each other as well as a place where we could also chat about any thing you want to chat about...so we can all get to know each other...Life’s not as lonely with others to talk to....forum friends can be a big help for us in not feeling so alone...

Share some tips, exercise, gardening, favourite meals, recipes, books your reading, hobbies, what you like doing.....pets and their impact they have in your life....anything at all you feel that would help other people struggle with living alone.💐...and loneliness..

I have a volunteer day..one day a week, which gets me outside of my home and into a different atmosphere where I can talk to the other volunteers and sometimes even customers, when I venture into the shop...Do you volunteer yourself somewhere...

I have 2 little Maltese x Yorkshire..that are my companions, they help me to get out of bed each morning to care for them....when really all I want to do is stay in bed.....

Please feel free to talk about what your interests are or how your traveling right now..

Looking forward to getting to know you...

Grandy..

[Ggrand]

Hello mmMeKitty, Quirky and everyone….

I have 2 support workers over the past 5 years…both younger then me, both completely different different in the way they supported me….

The first supporter was a very caring lady, it took me a while to trust her because my trust of people was non existent back then…She had patience with me and after her shift was finished, and even on some weekends she would ring me to check on me, when she knew I was struggling….She would take me out to different places to just sit and talk, instead of staying home….

The second support worker, wasn’t very nice…she seemed cold and uncaring…it was just a pay check to her….She would visit me once a fortnight at my home, I would make us a coffee….many times she would be on her phone to personal friends while she was suppose to be supporting me….Many times she promised to take me places on her day allotted to me…that never happened…it was always just coffee at mine, .filling out goal sheets…and that was her visit…

I think it doesn’t matter the age mmMeKitty of our careers, but what matters is how they care for you, how they treat you and they should respect you and your wishes…

As we get older, so do many careers and support workers, new younger ones are coming onto the scene…as the older careers and support workers retire…Same with Doctors…Its a hard transition to adjust to…

Hugs everyone, with my kind thoughts and care…🤗🦋🌈.

Grandy..

[quirkywords]

everyone
grandy 

what an informative post. as I thought age has nothing to do with it,.

Hopefully there are more support orders like your first support worker and not your second. 

[Fiatlux]

Hi everyone,

It has been a while since I visited this post. More than a year in fact.

I have posted quite a bit elsewhere since logging back just after a very bad Christmas.

I look forward to reading your posts once again.

Have a lovely day. Fiatlux 

[quirkywords]

Fiatlux

Nearly Six  months since last comment.

Sorry you had a bad Christmas 2023  especially the last 4 months 

Inlike the support on these forums so I don’t feel alone and a bit different. 

[Fiatlux]

Hi quirkywords and Grandy and mmMekitty and friends…

I just had to double check that this post is in the BB Social Zone… 

I actually ventured out to Bunnings this evening to pick up a new fan. It is completely plastic as everything appears to be these days but this will do. We have ducted evaporative cooling but during humid weather our floors get quite damp. I need a fan closer to the floor to circulate the air and dry up the floor. It gets slippery as well when it too clean.

I haven’t been to Bunnings in over a year and totally felt disoriented. I get dizzy and lightheaded with all the colours and lights. (My husband drove me and this time I didn’t mind).

Earlier today I made a delicious pea and ham soup and as I hadn’t eaten all day, had an early dinner at 5pm. My eldest son works long 12 hour shifts on rotation and dropped by before going to a night shift to have dinner. When I know he’s coming, I enjoy cooking. I always make extra for him to take to work. I made a large pork and potato filo pie yesterday and put aside a large slice for him as he was just too tired to drop by yesterday. 

It’s really lovely to get a message from him when he’s on a meal break to compliment me and thank me for the meals. He especially loves my meatballs. His workmates are envious that he has a mum who still loves cooking for him. I sure beat a frozen Lean Cuisine meal or a sandwich.

Must admit though feel quite sore and tired today so I am grateful to be relaxing on the couch.

I am such a sook, I am nursing a blister from all the vegetable chopping and dicing I did today. I used a larger heavier knife to get through the carrots. I am just getting older and the hands and wrists are not as good as they used to be. I think what I really need is to lift some light weights.

Have a lovely evening dear friends. Fiatlux 🙏🏼

[Ggrand]

Hello Fiatlux, Quirky, mmMeKitty and everyone,

I love pea and ham soup I remember when my grandma made it for me on my visits to her and my pop…I have never tried to make it myself, but do remember how yummy it was…

I don’t really cook meals for myself…When my son and daughter-in-law came down for a few days over after Christmas..I did enjoy cooking for them a slow cooked pork, which I took the skin half way through cooking and and did a good job crackling it..along with roasted vegetables and apple sauce and gravy….eating a meal with company is something I haven’t done for over 12 months…It felt so surreal…

I’m sorry Fiatlux that your nursing blisters, they can get very painful and infect so easily, please be careful…. Then New Years Eve my son took me out to one of the pubs in the next town for dinner….I felt so spoiled and it felt kind of strange him paying for me…He also bought me a bottle of Tia Maria, my favourite alcoholic drink….It’s really the only alcohol I drink except for a shandy every now and then….

Its so humid tonight and after the little bit of rain we had here…the mozzies are on the war path…my feet are so itchy….going to be hard to sleep tonight with the heat…aero guard is coming out soon…hate the smell of it, but hate the itch even worse..

Hoping everyone gets a good restful sleep tonight..

Love and hugs everyone .💜🤗..

Grandy..

[mmMekitty]

Hello Grandy, Quirky, Fiatlux & everyone

Sure is a very warm & very humid night for me, too.

Home made pea & ham soup would be so wonderful, in the colder months... I don't know how to make it either.

& the port with crackling & apple saue also is making my tummy sit up & take notice!

You sure can put a lot of love into cooking. I try to do it for myself, but it is so hard on my own, even using the small amounts of ingredients to make for one, without simply putting more in so I don't have to save the remainder.

I'd like to do more meals to freeze, but would need a bigger freezer.

In this weather, though,it's all I can do to make sandwiches & salads.

*

I'm having 1 or 2 showers per day. This morning I had one & tonight I want another, which will cool me off enough to sleep (I hope). I did that yesterday, too. If tomorrow is the same, I will feel the need to take a couple showers again. I'm so glad I now have ceiling fans in this place.

I don't know, but wonder, if getting older is making me less tolerant to the hot/humid conditions?

Being out tomorrow, in airconditioned buildings sometimes, will give me some relief.

Getting the foot checked again, but by a different GP. After we'll have lunch, then I need to get this new hearing aid back for a little reshaping & also ask about the noises I'm hearing when using my phone, when the phone is talking to me, & in calls, & how it sounds crackly to the person on the other end, too. I tried again without my hearing aids, & there was no problem, so, yeah, must ask.  & then back in time to take a call from a service provider.

I don't want to be on my feet so much especially my right foot, but how else to get these things done?

Living alone, & needing support, including driving - so inconvenient!

Hugzies

mmMekitty

[Fiatlux]

Good morning dear friends,

mmMekitty, I hope your day goes well with all your medical stuff. I don’t believe you are becoming more intolerant to the humidity, I think the humidity is just getting worse each year. Back when I used to have to go into the Bank and post office almost daily, I would see a lot of retirees inside the shopping centre, sometimes sitting in the food court especially on hot days. The centre is well air conditioned. It generally would be the same people every day and every week. When father in law was still alive, the in laws would go out to the centre almost daily. Not to really shop but to socialise. Mother in law would would buy a bucket of chips and share it amongst their friends so they could still in the cool cafe. Then they would get an ice cream each from Maccas when they were 50c each. Sadly only the mother in law is still here. The rest have all gone. Personally I hated go to the large shopping centre and still avoid going there now.

Grandy, your dinner that you prepared for you son and daughter in law was basically what I had also prepared for Christmas Eve dinner. I did roast pork belly. 2 days earlier I scored the skin, patted it dry and then rubbed it the salt. I learn the technique from a chef on tv and then left it in the fridge uncovered to allow it the dry out. The skin crackles as the fat renders out. My boys love it. Your technique of removing the skin is also great. I have seen this done before too. To get a nice juicy pork and crackle it can be quite a job, but worth it. I did roast vegetables and apple sauce as well. For starters I did oysters kilpatrick which my boys also love. My dessert was Black Forrest tiramisu. It was yummy. Basically two days of preparing and cooking. That’s the way my parents would do it for the family. I was tempted to do a second dessert but I thought it would be too much and I didn’t want it to go to waste. 

Grandy, your New Year’s Eve sounds wonderful. I haven’t been out for New Year’s Eve in a while.

Every Christmas without fail, one of my employees gives me a Ham. One year he gave me an entire Ham about 10kgs that would not fit in my fridge. So now I have reduced him to a half ham. Hence why I made pea and ham soup. I still have a lot of ham to work into meals.

Have a lovely day everyone and thanks for the chat. Fiatlux 🙏🏼