Some time after 11pm yesterday, my dad called to tell me that ambulance staff were attending my mum after an apparent stroke. I threw some clothes into a bag and looked at train and flight possibilities while Elly looked into taxis.

About an hour later, my dad texted to give an all-clear: ‘stoke symptoms now abated. Speech & movement now normal. No need for hospitalisation. Cause was a TIA – a transient episode. See GPO tomorrow.’ So the mad dash for Worcester was put on hold.

He emailed today to say ‘Mum has to visit the vampire at the surgery tomorrow for blood samples to be taken & have an ECG. As from tomorrow, she is to take aspirin to thin her blood. This is for a month to check on the effect on blood pressure. This is not madly high but needs to be kept in check.’

I suspect, admittedly on zero knowledge of her medication regime, that the pain-killers taken in connection with having broken her femur neck in March and other medication stemming from diabetes complications may be responsible – but I will look into that when I make a planned visit to Worcester on Thursday. During this trip I get to meet my brother’s new girlfriend – oo-er!

I phoned home this morning – dad sounded OK but mum sounded rather tired – hardly surprising after a scary episode. My mum is nearly 81 and my dad is 83 so I guess I’m lucky to have them both – and that mentally both are fully functional as far as I can tell.

On a slightly better note, my offer of a place at Napier was made unconditional today (they were waiting on a reference to confirm that I really am suitable for the course) so I’m a step closer to trying to get my head around Java and OSI models – and to buying a new mac with a student discount. Yeehah!