Another 90th birthday!

[Gemini]

My mum and Plant's sister have both recently celebrated their 90th birthdays.
My mum's oldest friend will be 90 this month, so it is her turn.

Mum and I are invited to a birthday Sunday lunch at a hotel half an hour or so drive away. We are joining forces to buy her a luxury box of goodies from Bettys. Mum has been given these by my daughters in the past and they go down well.
I just need to get 2 birthday cards, and we are set

My auntie will be 90 in December. She wants no special celebration, which doesn't surprise me as like my dad was, she doesn't like a lot of fuss. Her birthday falls between Christmas and New Year, so hopefully her son and DIL will be spoiling her.
We will send her some flowers I think.

[Plantaholic]

Sounds like a nice present Gemini, great age.

[Oma]

Lots of 90th ' s isn't there . Must have been a year for hardy people to be born 😊
sounds a idea gift Gem I'm sure she will love it xx

[Nanto2girls]

I'm sure the box of Betty goodies will go down well.
If Auntie doesn't want a lot of fuss, i would think flowers will be much appreciated.

[Daisy]

Gem - how lovely to be having another 90th celebration so soon after your mum's. I'm sure the Betty's goodies will be much appreciated.

I'm sure Auntie will enjoy her flowers. Have you thought about a framed photo - perhaps the lovely group from your Mum's birthday? She would still have that when the flowers have faded. xx

[Gemini]

The celebration for my mum's friend A yesterday went well. It was a lovely meal, lovely people, and the present a good choice as it turns out that A's wedding reception was held at Bettys!
My mum coped well with what can't have been easy, it's years since she ate out especially in company.
The birthday lady had a nice time, ate 3 courses, and then opened her presents. Her 2 little GGDs were delightful.

As we were leaving the hotel to walk to the car mum felt nauseous, was sick in the car park and again just outside my car. I drove back to right outside the door and we went to the loos. There she was sick a couple more times and had a couple of bouts of diarrhoea. She felt very poorly. A's DD was a brilliant support to us. A was unaware of any of this, so it didn't spoil her day by worrying her about mum.
We eventually left with lots of tissues and paper towels, a bucket from A's DD's house and a bottle of water. Luckily mum was ok all the way home and felt fine at home, seems it was all over whatever it was.
Probably stress, being hungry ( we had no starter so had to wait for others before getting our meals)
This was all stressful for me , and poor Mum of course. I felt so sorry for her.

To make things worse, the A64 was closed, which we knew, so I had to go via all the unlit windy roads and villages. As we would be back before dark I could cope, but of course because of all this it was almost dark when we left Malton. My night driving vision is not good out of town. I missed one of the turn offs in the dark, so had to backtrack a lot. Satnav was useless as it wanted to send me to A64.
Petrol was getting low and I really thought we would run out. It stopped telling me how many miles we had and just kept flashing.
We made it to Asda petrol station though, and I drove mum home. I had thought I may have to stay the night with her and possibly phone the Dr, but she was back to normal by the time she was home.

I will phone mum later and check she is OK, but I think she will be, and can have a good rest now, as nothing else going on for her this week, apart from my visits.

[Qwerty]

Oh dear Gem that was a bit harrowing after a lovely day, wonder if mum had got herself worked up about going and eating my mum in law always had diarrhoea if she was stressed , hope you find her ok when you ring

[Daisy]

Gem, I'm glad the birthday girl had a lovely time, but your poor mum. I bet she felt awful! And also poor you - everything conspired to make your drive to your mum's even more worrying. I bet it was a combination about apprehension about eating out, plus getting too hungry, and then possibly eating more than she would at a normal meal, or something richer than she has day to day. I do hope she's ok when you phone, although I imagine she'll still be very tired.

I bet you were exhausted when you got home what with worrying about your mum, the journey in the dark and then being so low on petrol. But a big 'well done' you coped and got home safely.

It's hard to know how much fuel you've got when the light starts flashing. My present car gives a read out for 'Range' in miles, and I find that very useful. Last week it got down to 60 miles, but the actual gauge looked a lot fuller, and petrol stations are few and far between around here. I don't usually let it get that low.

[Gemini]

Thanks Qwerty and Daisy.
Mum was fine when I phoned, back to normal though a bit tired and glad to have a nothing-to-do day. A's DD had phoned mum too, which was nice of her.

Daisy, I don't normally let my car get low on petrol either. I really should have filled the tank before going for mum.
It says 40 miles when the light comes on, which was about halfway there. It shouldn't have been 40 miles from there and back again, but suddenly it was down to 8, then just flashing

[Daisy]

We learned not to let our cars get too low on fuel years ago when DS2 was a teenager and had to be admitted to hospital as an emergency. The agony of having to queue up at the garage to fill up first was something we didn't forget!

I feel comfortable if I've got about 150 miles in the tank, which is a trip to DS1's and back.