Inspiring Kabayan series One - An Angel was sent from Heaven

                                             My angel, Julz

If you have been reading the Hip Op series of blogs you will know that an angel was sent from heaven to look after me when i returned home from my hip operation. He moved into my spare room and attended to me 6 days a week, 24 hours a day. Any time he heard me move in bed ( I had a very creaky 4 Poster bed which I bought from a charity shop) he would shout "Are you OK boss?" and if I was struggling to do something he would come and help.

        I kept the shorts on for this photo- lesson learnt from Thailand

I am a pretty organised person but Julz took it to the next level sending me a schedule for the day and we created a spreadsheet of what tablet I had to take when which we printed and filled in daily. He downloaded some You Tube videos of Hip replacement therapy exercises which he helped me with and useful information videos like one on how to get in and out of a car without dislocating your new hip.

 

He was in constant contact with his cousin and passed on her advice when my leg swelled and created an ice pack and a towel roll to raise my leg on. He also ensure I rested more until the swelling went down.

 

As I chatted to my friends on line in Tagalog he helped with the translation and he took photos that I could put on Facebook and send in emails weekly to update all those asking about my progress. 

 

He kept the house clean, bathed me ( a slow process sitting on the end of the bath as I could not stand and we had to keep my hip covered at all times to avoid the dressing getting wet) and , the worst job of all, cleaned out my commode and got it ready for the next use.  There was lots of washing to do ( towels, pajamas, tee shirts and shorts) , visitors to greet and he created typed address labels to send to Mark Johns with all my UK Christmas cards.

 

Making Eggplant Torta together

One area he was not sure of was cooking so I did little coaching sessions standing in the kitchen with my Zimmer frame asking questions like :

"How long will this take to prepare and serve?"

"What time will we need to start so its ready for 6 pm?"

"Which ingredients will take the longest to cook?"

 

I also passed on tips to Julz that I had learned over the years . One was to prepare everything first to ensure you have all the ingredients. Another was to checking the recipe for times to marinade and cook the items. I explained why you should  cook onions before you cook garlic so the garlic does not burn. We also did a session on kitchen management when some of the items we had Corleen buy the Friday before I got home expired before we used them and had to be thrown out.

So then he started to look ahead at what could be cooked in advance and refrigerated, and we cooked some chicken, diced it and froze it for use in a curry or jacket potato filling later, rather than throw it out as it was out of date. Coco also came and spent a morning showing Julz how to make a cake, which he had always wanted to learn. 

 

In his free time Julz would read, watch movies, and go cycling once I was asleep ( usually 7 pm) around Awali

So I just want to say a big thank you to Julz for looking after me so well for 2 and a half weeks- you did a great job Boss! Sadly for me Julz got a new job and had to leave after 2 and a half weeks and we never met again as his boyfriend would not let him come for dinner with me!

Until the next time- Kita Kits , Ingat palagi....