Old age is puzzling

There was a kind of a " fight " slowing growing between my parents and I that eventually exploded last night and you would never imagine what it was all about. My parents are both nearly 90. It's so wonderful they still can fly and visit us, but obviously their energy lowered with the years. So when they come here, I want them to sit back and relax and be like Queen and King.

The fight was about doing the dishes. Since they arrived a week ago, they have tried anything to do the dishes, one taking me away with the other one trying to wash up, closing the kitchen door, telling me they go upstairs when in fact they go to the kitchen. Honestly they drove me nuts because I was on guard every 5 minutes. Normally after lunch we relax and have a coffee, then I do the dishes. With them around, I hardly can drink my coffee because I need to rush to the kitchen and block the entry to them, lol.

So last night I told them firmly that the day I would sit down and relax whilst my 90 years old parents do my dishes hadn't come yet. Mum took it very badly and said that they were doing the dishes at home and they were no invalids. So now what ! ? !

I got an idea this morning and negotiated that they could do the breakfast wash if they promised they only would do that. Everybody said " Deal " (a word they recently came across in their crosswords) and it brought peace back in this house.

Because we didn't do anything special yet, we thought about bringing them today to a Science Museum close to Winchester. It is called Intech, Hampshire Technologyy Center Trust and if you pass by, by all means, go and visit, we had the time of our life.

We started with a short movie in the Planetarium on a 360 degres screen about the life of astronauts. Beautiful !

Then we went to see AND touch as they say. Fabulous.

That's the periscope ( so you can see the surroundings from the top of the roof of the building )

That below is the organ pipe. By moving the tube inside the tube, you create different sounds and you can even play music. My dad didn't want to leave that one.

This one is a very complicated way to calculate your weight ( by multiplying the 35 kgs by the distance to the wall and dividing by the distance from the weight to the sit . . . or something like that, I forgot ) but it worked really well plus/minus 1 kg and it baffled us all.

This one we were stuck there for ages because of DH. His engineer background didn't want to let go. There are 4 blowing fans and you are supposed to orientate the sail of your boat in order he crosses the sea.

That one is so much fun. You have a kind of pen and you are supposed to follow the design ( below the small table ) but you must look in the mirror. Very difficult, it's like your brain doesn't work anymore.

The floating balloon, suspended in the air

The invisible man : That illustrates the special effects used in movies. You stand in front of a green background and they give you a piece of material of exactly the same color. Anything you mask with it will disappear. My dad was stuck there for ages and created an incredible queue of kids wanting to have a go too, lol ! You can see his head like popping out of the roof with his hands.

The thermo cameras. That was fun too. On the top is DH. And below there is my dad, me taking the picture ( you can see my glasses being darker ) and my mum.

We came back home at 2:30 happy but hungry. After lunch, I found my dad in the kitchen who said he wanted to do the dishes. I told him we had a deal in the morning and he said deals are made to be broken.

Do you think that late eighties are the equivalent of the terrible 2's ? ? ?


Project 365+1 - Day 156 : Colorful

Just before we left to go to Winchester, I let the girls use the garden because we would be away a couple of hours. I found this beautiful butterfly on the slabs and after taking my picture, we eventually managed to put on a flower.

I think England ( or at least where we live ) is extremely poor in butterflies so I was really pleased to see this one with these beautiful colors !

Take care everybody, xxx