Sunday 29 April 2012

Trip to the National Coal Mining Museum


I had an unusual morning – I went to the National Coal Mining museum with Spice where I spent over an hour 140 metres below ground, finding out what life was like for miners, both recently and in Victorian times. Going down in that cage was scary and I almost thought, I don’t want to do this, let me out, but once we were down, my anxiety went.
As we took the tour, I kept thinking how dreadful it must have been, years ago, when even children worked, in the pitch darkness, for twelve hours, six days a week. They went to work while it was dark, came home again when it was dark, and only saw daylight, never mind sunshine, on Sundays. I honestly don’t know how they survived. I was really thought provoking. I can’t imagine any British person putting up with anything a tenth as bad as that nowadays.
I’ve been doing a lot of research over the past few days about care homes, financial assessments and other exciting things like that so that I have an idea what I’m talking about when the man from Devon County Council gets back to me tomorrow. The problem is there don’t seem to be any definite answers to questions. I suppose f the law and rules and regulations were easy to understand and black and white, we wouldn’t need the legal system. I tried some of the ‘free legal advice’ sites but when it came down to actually getting anywhere, they all wanted money. Result, I have no real idea where I stand only that I need to explore the various options and possibilities before handing over so much money for the fees.
I now have a lot of notes that I need to type up. Does that count as writing??? No, not really, but it will have to do. 
Tomorrow, fingers crossed, a man is coming to fix my bath, then the gardening lady is bringing her dogs round so I can decide whether to look after them for her when she goes away, plus I'm expecting to speak to that man from the Council. If anyone has any spare good vibes, please send a few my  way.

2 comments:

  1. Good vibes sent your way, Linda!

    You probably found all this - and it's certainly not simple - but there is a good AgeUK fact sheet on care home fees at I went through all this when my dad went into a home before he died. We had a battle but in the end the local authority gave him what he needed and was entitled to - once we'd worked out what that was! Although it must be even harder after the event and given your circumstances, it can be done, so good luck.

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  2. Link didn't come out in the above post - hope it does this time!

    http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS10%20Paying%20for%20permanent%20residential%20care%20April%202010%20-%20AM064_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

    Or you can go to the AgeUk site and follow the links.

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