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It has now become necessary to keep the diary so I don’t forget even the most mundane of things.

I thought I would do my diary entry on the same day every week. This hopefully will show over time if there is any significant changes in the way both I report things, but also if I find it more difficult to do so. The point of a diary is to report anything and nothing, however trivial or insignificant. So if nothing has happened, instead of not submitting something of importance or something one does, I’ll submit a diary entry saying nothing has happened. This will give a continuous flow of information. So here we go: 

My diary day will be every Sunday. I stick, like a lot of people, to a fairly simple regular routine with only minor changes to suit particular circumstances. I hate change. So my diary starts last Monday and finishes today, Sunday. I have a small diary notebook in my jacket pocket and Margaret has a similar small diary in her handbag. We also have a large house diary always open at the week in hand. I was quite used to keeping a diary because I used to work three shifts, so that it was necessary to know when I was supposed to be at work. But that was years ago and it has now become necessary to keep the diary so I don’t forget even the most mundane of things.  

So last Monday, went to the monthly dementia meeting at the Educate group at the Meadows NHS hospital. It was packed; there were a few people I have not seen before. So that was good. Everyone introduced themselves and it was interesting to see how this disease affects different people. I was asked to help to do a quick dementia audit of the building with two other members of the group. This was to identify if the signage from the entrance to the where the meeting was  o take place was easily seen and correctly placed. I found this very very interesting. There were a few visitors that evening from other areas who had come to get ideas for setting up similar schemes. I was given my dementia diary phone and shown how to use it by Joe, one of the other diarists. All in all, a very good meeting. From there we went to do our weekly shop at Aldi and Asda then went home.  

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday went by with nothing to say. Friday was a very busy day. We have a small terraced house with a cellar, which recently had become a little bit of a dumping area. So we decided to clear it out. It was mainly wood from a dismantled wardrobe and an old six foot snooker table. I found this a real struggle but knew having started we must finish it. Dragging all the wood upstairs and into the car really took its toll but we did it, Margaret doing the lion’s share. We drove immediately to the tip, which luckily for us, is only a mile away and dumping it into the car from the skips was relatively easy. We got home and both collapsed exhausted and Margaret made us both a cuppa.

An audio version of this blog can be located at: https://soundcloud.com/dementia-diaries/steve-3-nottingham-uni