FRIDAY's FAVE FIVE

Monday the air quality was bad, and so was I, I mean I felt bad. Fortunately I have the app on my phone who shows me the weather which is always bad and therefore the air too. For me that means not to move too much otherwise I get breathless and have to sit down. 

Outside the trees get slowly yellow and somebody has brought this beautiful branch inside. 

One of the  occupational therapist who normally works with people with mental health problems, Alzheimer's, or Parkinson's disease, represented Elinor and wanted to do yoga and sophrology with us. I immediately declined and played Scrabble on my phone while they were busy. The others all complained in my ear but participated anyway. Yoga was finally OK and they did their best. 

I do yoga exercises every morning, and I don't feel to do it again in the afternoon. Besides, I found her yoga a bit strange,  and then she wanted to show everyone sophrology. Besides me, nobody knew what it was. She explained. Solange sitting besides me, told me that she doesn't understand anything, and why she should imagine to be in a wood, she sits here and if she wants to go into the wood, just outside in our park there is a little one. I couldn't explain because everybody had to close their eyes and imagine to be in a wood.  In a monotone voice, the girl read a text about what they should smell or see in the forest. 

Solange told me she'd run into a tree, which of course made me laugh. Others fell asleep, two got up and declared they wouldn't take part in such silly things, and the rest made fun of the poor girl. "I fell," said Solange, "I tripped over a tree trunk." "You should relax and not think about anything," I whispered to her, but she thought the whole thing was so stupid that she stopped, too. 

 

I honestly poured like a cat, because I had told this girl that Sophrology was not for us. Now she knows and we had fun describing what everybody did or felt. It hadn't worked at all. 

It's understandable that when you are 80/90 and have a full life and two world wars behind you, you don't believe in such "new things". In a monotone voice, she reads a text about a forest. Solange told me she'd run into a tree, which of course made me laugh. Others fell asleep, two got up and declared they wouldn't take part in such silly things, and the rest made fun of her. "I fell," said Solange, "I tripped over a tree trunk." "You should relax and not think about anything," I whispered to her, but she thought the whole thing was so stupid that she stopped, too. They were all relieved when it was over and we got our coffee and cake. Of course the "sophrology" was the theme of the discussion and we all laughed a lot. I once tried it when I wasn't feeling well, but instead of being relaxed it had the opposite effect on me and I did a "to do" list in my head, which probably I will never do ! 

The rest of the week was similar; the weather remained gray and damp, and I didn't feel like going for my daily walk. 

We still have two of us here, a man and a woman with the lovely name Mimmi. The man isn't causing any problems; he sits in his wheelchair and sleeps. I don't understand why they put him with us. He can't join in anymore. 

Mimmi can't play either and entertains us with nonstop singing! Nothing helps: shouting, covering her mouth, pushing her, but she happily carries on singing.

Suddenly, she seemed to understand the word "itch" and pulled down her blouse to show us all her bare upper body, which was also itching. Everyone shouted, "Mimmi, pull your blouse up," and finally, her neighbor helped her button up her blouse. The few men who participated in the spectacle regretted that she wasn't younger !

You can imagine that the atmosphere in the room was extremely cheerful. The week ended with the card game UNO, which we also had a lot of fun with !

One of the staff had made my bed and I found it so cute that with the lack of time she didn't make just the bed but also put my decoration on it. 

 

 

more participants at Susanne at Living to tell the Story.