Just Humans Being...

We seem to be getting into a routine with Bebe & have seen quite a transformation over the last week... Amazing what a hair cut & some new clothes can do! She is settling well & although there are periods when reassurance is needed, she has been able to move away from focusing on things which cause her distress. We have spent many hours talking & helping her to understand why she thinks the way she does. Some of the more mundane topics, Sime has now written about in a laminated letter - which we hand to Bebe when she starts to repeat herself & gradually the answers to these questions are seeping through!  She is loving her time at daycare, which is a great bonus & she is amazingly sleeping well - if we can persuade her to keep off the coffee at night! Bebe's had a go on her old typewriter, though found it a struggle to concentrate...  We'll get it out again at the weekend & keep encouraging her. We've also tried

Bebe is here with us at last... We found out recently that Bebe also suffers from Sundowners Syndrome & witnessed during our journey home yesterday just how quickly her personality changes. We were in the car & as soon as it began getting dark, she no longer knew who we were... She had been happy & relaxed, chatting away - when suddenly, she was filled with fear & agitation! She was angry on her arrival; the house was too cold, her room was too big, but eventually we calmed her down by distracting her with some of her favourite music & very quickly, she was dancing! She was on top form over dinner & had us all in hysterics...  She is having a problem recognising Hugo - it's been a couple of years since she last saw him & of course, he's a young man now. Last night he was Rodney, we have no idea why... She enjoyed the laughter as much as we did! By midnight, we were flagging & had to call time on the fun, again she bec

We've almost prepared the house ready for Bebe's arrival - most importantly, her room is ready... She will be going into our guest room, so we haven't had much to do in there. We've put her photographs up on the walls, put her CD player in place, clothes in the wardrobe & drawers, but kept it simple & clutter free. When Nan was with us, we made her room into a comfortable bedsit, but she tended to stay in there & almost cut herself off from us at times...  We want to encourage Bebe to spend time downstairs, she'll have the sitting room more or less to herself if she wants some peace & we've brought her TV down, so she'll be able to watch all her musicals again... She lost the ability to use her DVD & CD players a while ago, which was really sad - she loves music & we'll make sure she gets plenty of opportunities to enjoy them all again!  Lupe's already made himself at home & seems to be loving Bebe's

Life is set to change again for us. We have had a great time entertaining many B&B guests, but now have decided to stop & concentrate on the things that are far more important. Firstly, ourselves... Sharing our home with many strangers is quite exhausting & Sime in particular has worn himself out giving his all, something neither of us had really noticed until we stopped. Secondly, Bebe (Sime's mum) is going to be moving in with us... Her dementia is progressing, though the conditions she was continuing to live in were obviously not helping. We feel she has been let down by the social care support team, her carers seemed to be excellent on the surface, but in reality - she has been badly neglected. On our last visit, we found her flat in a terrible state. The cleaner had disappeared, her hairdresser had stopped going in & some of the carers didn't even bother to feed her! On top of all this, she has been phoning the police about her hot water &am

We've had gloomy fog here today... And warm sunshine in Falmouth this afternoon. Sal & Ryan were visiting from Bristol for the day, so we enjoyed a catch up! Night, night. Kay & Sime xx

I can't tell you how many times we've started writing about various things, but have had to stop due to lots of things going on... We have lots of draft posts, some with a few photos & no words, some with just a title & a line or two... It's quite a few, but neither of us seems to find time to get them finished & after several weeks the desire to share those photos or ideas just fades & we move on to the next thing. Some days are just so crazy... Getting up at 6.30am to prepare breakfast for guests, then doing a full day's clean, returning at about 5.30pm, cooking dinner, eating with our guests & more often than not - chatting away until late, washing up & finally falling into bed at around 1am... I don't know how we do it, but we do.  The one thing we are doing right this year is making sure that we have 2 days off from going out to work, which is great - though frustrating for some of our customers who desperately want us to work

              We managed to get another day out today... No cleaning on a Saturday is just wonderful, so we fed our guests this morning & set off for Porthleven near Helston - where Hugo was helping to run a circus workshop. Hope you're all having this beautiful weather! Kay & Sime xx

We're still here & just had 2 days off in the lovely sunshine... Linking up with  Jane ... Late again! The lilies are looking amazing... We're very happy to see them! Will post more soon, but are just enjoying being outside when not working... Have a wonderful weekend everyone! Kay & Sime xx

Hello everyone & sorry for our absence... We've had lots of guests in over the last 2 weeks & done 14 house cleans in 8 days... Just crazy! Then there's been meetings, home education group, college open evening, as well as squeezing in a nice night out...  It's all been very exhausting, so we're treating ourselves to an overnight staycation tomorrow - leaving Hugo to man the fort.  Lots of our guests keep telling us to try out  Airbnb  for ourselves & that's what we're doing. At some point soon, we'll hopefully find time to book our winter holiday with the kidlets - our sealed pot is filling up & mainly from generous guests & customers.  See  Saving For Travel's blog  for more info. We've had mixed weather this week, quite stormy & cold at the beginning, but on Wednesday night the sky cleared & the sun came out again... Amazingly, it's been out ever since! Better late than never... Linking up wi

We've had the most busiest 2 days of the year so far... We have hemp protein in our porridge every day, which really helps to keep us going! Yesterday, we had a crazy day, the house we cleaned was it's usual hovel & took a lot longer than we'd thought... Second home owners with more money than sense & children who have absolutely everything, but don't look after any of it!  Completely different world to ours... Thank goodness! Today's been equally difficult, as some owners contacted us at the last minute to say their son & friends would be coming down today (just as guests were leaving)...  We already had a full clean to do, so said we could get there after 3pm, which we did & amazingly, everything ran smoothly. We managed to clean the 3 storey house in 5 hours between us, came home & prepared our guest room for folks arriving tomorrow. Any minute now we'll be eating our very late dinner & then it's all systems go

It's actually been warm enough to eat breakfast outside... Yippee!  We just want to make the most of the sunshine - though do have a huge house clean to do today. A clean that I really am not keen on, but Sime thinks we should continue with...   And just because we're totally insane, we're going to meet a potentially new customer in a few minutes. Linking up with  Jane's View From My Window . The perfect time to be here... Blue skies, warm sunshine & just the sound of birds singing! A gorgeous view (in my opinion) through our rather grubby dining room window! Sime's finally hacking back the poor lilies. Gloopy porridge for brekkie... And a cuddly kitty loving the sunshine... They both love us being outside with them... We've got dandelions everywhere, which I'm hoping our lovely landlord won't mow down before we get a chance to pick them - he thinks he's helping us out by keeping the gras

We can't remember the last time we woke naturally... It must have been weeks ago, so Sunday morning (well actually we didn't get up until 1pm) was extra special! We had such a lazy day...  And no Ryan, it wasn't beer for breakfast... It was nettle tea! Sime got the wood burner in as it was a bit chilly & of course, kitties got priority in the seating. A very excited Sime found his favourite drink on special offer last week. And I have to put up with a camera appearing in my face... This is all before the bottle was opened! Today (Tuesday) was the hottest day of the year so far... And we had lunch out in the garden for the first time! A lovely treat in between jobs... Another sneaky photo...  Sime was making me cry with laughter, he's so naughty & does it all the time... He just carries on until you feel like you can no longer breathe & often ends (as it did for Hugo yesterday) in having to spit out