Oh mother, where art thou? V: I don't like Mondays, I don't like Mondays !

If that title sounds strangely familiar, you're old enough to have listened to THIS SONG in 1981 ;-)

I'm sitting on those cold tiles at 6:15 today ....

which is quite late in comparison, but then I've finally slept quite well.

What's in the news?

A mosque was set on fire in Edson, Alberta?    Now if someone tried blaming Muslims for that, it would be Reichskristallnacht 2.0.   Doesn't anyone revoke right-to-live certificates anymore?  Some people's kids really don't deserve one !

Burning Synagogue in 1938

Touch of Pink
LOVE that movie
I can't wait to dig the DVD out of storage !

A string of cyclist deaths in Toronto ....   
How far behind the rest of the world can a city be ?  

As the ghost of Cary Grant points out in Touch of Pink "I don't consider Toronto a holiday destination".









7:00 Breakfast
I'm eating another soft-boiled egg.  Ever since people around the world are afraid of the Avian Flu, it is pretty much impossible to get soft-boiled eggs in hotels.   NO, they must be hard-boiled to eliminate even the tiniest of minuscule risks of getting the flu.   Fortunately for me, the breakfast lady in my hotel believes that this kind of thinking is just a big blob of baloney.  But then she probably also would start laughing at anyone demanding gluten-free bread.

8:00 
I wait in mother's doctor's office for 45 minutes before I get to see her.  Oh! Mother gets TWO insulin injections per day.  And FIVE different pills at various times of the day.  Nice that someone finally tells me all that.  I have the prescriptions, the certificate for the airline, as well as the medication schedule. 


When I take Mother for a coffee at the Cafe.   Pills?  NO, I NEVER take ANY pills !, she exclaims.  Oh lovely.  Apparently mother hasn't taken her pills in months.  WHAT am I supposed to do now? Force-feed her?   Add to that the fact that she has that whiny and unjustly suffering look on her face that I know so well.  Poor Mother is forced to visit her mother.  Aside from the fact that she WANTED to, it also would NEVER occur to her that there is much more effort involved for me than for her.
It gets worse.....
Now we need a cooler for the insulin pens.  After running to TWO stores we have a small insulated bag and ice packs. 


Mother needs a suitcase.  NO, NOT a regular size suitcase.  She WANTS a HUGE one.  She is unwilling to do laundry at her mother's and consequently thinks she NEEDS a LARGE suitcase to travel over there for one week.   She gets her wish and instantly starts pouting because SHE has to pull her new suitcase back to the old-age home. 

  I'm a facilitator, not a servant.











Back in her room.  She wants instructions what to pack.  WTF?  I manage to convince her NOT to take her winter coats to Vancouver.  She pouts more.

BULLSHIT !

Then her room mate pipes up:  Mother needs to buy pants and T-shirts !  
Oh, go fuck yourself!  (Oh Horrible Vision. After One has SEEN Mother's Room Mate, One NEVER can use this vulgarism the same way)
No-ONE bothered to mention clothes in the 4 days I've been here.  And I left a lot of Euros with mother just 2 months ago for this very purpose. If she didn't use the money.... that is her problem.  I am NOT going clothes-shopping with my mother.  No matter what ugly and unforgivable sins I may have committed in my lifetime, THIS would be CRUEL & UNJUST punishment !

By now I've HAD IT.  I need to leave NOW or I will start saying unpleasant things.

Are two bottles of white Rioja too much for the next 24 hours?  Naaah, definitely NOT excessive under the present circumstances !  

Back at my hotel, I get more confirmation that the Cassandra of my gut feeling spoke the truth again.


STILL NO WIFI !

After a glass of mind calmer I realize that every horribly painful step I take NOW is just another step bringing me a little bit closer to My Beach ;-)  

There is another life out there ;-)

18 sleeps until Saigon.  And THAT is ALL that matters !

I'm still restless after waking up after 45 minutes.  Living my life for others does that to me.  No WiFi doesn't help.  I feel trapped in misery & boredom. I turn into a whiner, LOL. NO NO NO, oh PLEASE NO!


I pedal to my Chinese restaurant, BUT:  Closed on Mondays !  Now I'm getting cranky. 

 I've pedaled to the other hotel owned by the same owners, WAYYYY UUUP that hill.  Finally Fabulous WiFi.....  even though the serving staff is cranky as hell up here. 

I made it back to the hotel, but I'll still have to see mother again.  I have to learn how to use insulin pens !

Mother is packing towels and wash clothes, as well as 7 or 8 pots of Nivea products.  She'll look like an Eskimo in Canada.  Her skin glistening from too much applied grease!

The home provided me with insulin measuring thingies but not with a meter. So I have to buy one.  Of course, the drug mart doesn't have the meter that matches the free blood-collecting thingies, so I have to buy a whole new system ....
NO, that is NOT the end of the story.  Since I'm administering insulin according to a table of glucose values, we actually have to make sure that the new system provides the same results in the same units as the system they use in the old-age home.  A nice male nurse volunteers to let blood and the values 136 and 158 are close enough to each other .... Thank you, Nice Nurse !

Back in my hotel. Time to drink wine and numb the anticipation of the week to come.  During the time at the ice-cream parlour, I downloaded that movie again.   Look who's back (Er ist wieder da). I'm watching it for the 4th time and I'm loving it more every time I watch it ...  No wonder, it deals with TOO MANY STOOPID peole on this planet !